Product Description

Tighe lives on the wall. It towers above his village and falls away below it. It is vast and unforgiving and it is everything he knows. Life is hard on the wall, little more than a clinging on for dear life. And then one day Tighe falls off the wall. And falls, and falls, and falls . . . Lavishly praised everywhere from Asimov's magazine to Interzone, ON is proof positive that Adam Roberts is a new author whose potential for greatness is rapidly being realised. ON is at once a vertiginous concept novel, a coming of age saga, a picaresque journey across a changed world and an epic adventure in the very best traditions of SF.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #216509 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

About the Author
SALES POINTS

Customer Reviews

A great idea turned into a great story
ON demonstrates that Adam Robert's will be a talent to take seriously. This book keeps you turning the pages to find out want happens to the hero Tighe and also how the world became the Wall. Roberts teases the reader with a primitive village environment where plastic and old electrical goods also exist. The tempo of the book keeps you moving through Tighe's adventures and leads to a dramatic conclusion where the secret of the Wall and indeed Tighe's existence is brilliantly brought to a conclusion.

I really enjoyed this book and if you like believable Science Fiction as per Banks and Hamilton, you will love this.

An unusual story and a great second book.
Adam Roberts has delivered a book that has a lot to like. A novel of science fiction needs ideas or environments we have never seen before, believable and intriguing details, a STORY with many surprises and pleasures along the way, interesting characters that the reader can relate to, and a conclusion to set the whole work back into a broader context. This book delivers on all these accounts.

Tighe lives on the wall. It towers above his village and falls away below it. It is vast and unforgiving and it is everything they know. Life is hard on the wall, little more than a clinging on for dear life.

And then one day Tighe falls off the world. And falls, and falls and falls....and survives. He finds a new part of the wall; a vast expanse of cluttered ledges packed with more people than he ever imagined existed.

And a war. A war fought by the Popes and their armies. A war Tighe must join, a war that will take him on a journey into the heart of the mystery behind the wall.

I have no scientific background. I've never studied physics, so my lack of a scientific background helped me to enjoy this book. There may be concepts of scientific impossibilities or implausibility, but my scientific ignorance allowed me to sit back and truly enjoy this story. All being said, I really enjoyed this book!

Lots of ideas, but unsatisfying
I have to go with the reader from Sandown. There's a lot of invention packed into this book, and the main character is effectively drawn, but then it all tails off into a series of disjointed scenes and, ultimately, the arrival of a deus ex machina (in more senses than one) who explains nearly everything but then sets up a couple of brand new mysteries, and then... the book stops. Roberts fits comfortably into the millenium wave of British SF writers - the belief that novels don't need a proper ending, the obsession with gore, blood, guts and severed limbs, all the trademarks are there. So long as you can get past that it's not a bad book, but it's lacking something.