Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #709962 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Synopsis
Hector travels across America to visit his father on a ranch. He discovers that he has constructed a cult who await the impact of an asteroid. However, Hector is amazed when the section of Earth that the ranch is on suddenly breaks free from the rest of the planet during the collision. He struggles with his skepticism and acceptance of the fact that he is part of the remnants of the human race, on a splinter from the Earth.

Customer Reviews

Not one for the harder Sci-fi fans
"A voyage extraordinaire from the king of high concept sci-fi" - not quite. The theme is a homage to a little known Jules Verne classic "Off on a comet". In Splinter, the protagonist's father believes the Verne book to have been a portent of a real and imminent disaster that will shatter the Earth into pieces, and has gathered a group of followers in a remote ranch in hope of surviving the cataclysm. The story follows the estranged son coping with his father's beliefs and challenging his own once the impossible happens.

From such a great and implausible concept there is a lot of interesting sci-fi to explore, but the author never really gets stuck into the challenge and there is no great revelations about the supposed intelligent mass that shatters our planet past some overheard discussion between minor characters.

This is 90% a story about the emotional angst the protagonist has about living with his father and his followers, and plenty of pages about his sexual frustrations. Through the course of the book I found I disliked Hector, the main character, increasingly and grew to hate his ambivalence towards the incredible events that have unfolded around him. Some of the minor characters are much more interested in the science and as a sci-fi fan I longed to hear more about them, rather than reading another flashback about lost loves or falling off bicycles as a child.

You would expect from the cover and synopsis to be in for a good modern science based ride around an old Verne concept, but in this respect sci-fi fans will be disappointed by the perhaps poorly described "king of high-concept sci-fi", since this book fails to scratch that itch.

The final 30-ish pages feature an essay by the author about his writing methods and seems a self indulgent and pretentious addition that would have been better replaced by a solid ending.

On the plus side, the book cover is extremely beautiful and the pictures don't do it justice - it is embossed in gold featuring a wonderful victorian style illustration of the post-cataclysm solar system.

Unfortunately I'd only recommend the book to very light sci-fi fans who are interested in the emotional and "human" aspect of the genre. Harder sci-fi fans, and even curious fans of Verne, should be more cautious.

Disappointing
Adam Roberts ideas are always bizarre but they have - up til now - had a plausible and very entertaining internal logic. 'Splinter' is totally implausible and the basic idea is so little explored or explained that it finishes up as plain silly. Usually, his characters are engaging and believable but in this book they are unpleasant so you don't care what happens to them - I don't know why I finished reading it!