I'm slowing growing into being an avid fan of Adam Roberts writing. He's an author I've seen being published over the years but not read until quite recently. Fortunately this ignorance of his work was halted when I received a copy of Park Polar and then Jupiter Magnified.

These first books I read interested me a great deal. I found his writing style a little more demanding than many other writers but also very rewarding. His ideas are original, his situations ones that you will not find derivative in any way. Okay he does use some traditional sf devices to begin his tales but his takes on them are anything but traditional.

Take this book for instance. The book starts with a colonisation ship heading off into deep space with a series of units each containing a different culture destined to form their own nation when they reach their destination. So far so familiar, okay so let's move away from expectations.

Firstly the world they arrive at is not the Earth-like paradise they expect but a salt covered barren world with just small seas to provide any water. Add to this a high degree of Chlorine in the atmosphere, a high level of radiation, and a twice-daily salt storm that damages anything or anyone left out in it.

So we now encounter the story itself. This tale is told from the perspectives of two people. Barlei is the leader of Senaar, a very right-wing militaristic nation. Petja is a member of the Als, a very loose knit anarchic society which believes in total personal freedom.

During the initial stages of the voyage and the inter-nation trading some of the men of Senaar impregnate several of the women of Als. When the requests from Senaar for parental access for the fathers meet with a complete blank from the Als, who cannot even understand the request, tensions begin to mount.

Once established on Salt these tensions increase and this new world heads towards an inevitable conflict.

I can honestly say I thought this to be a wonderful novel. Roberts' style takes in many of the ideas of sf in his novels, but he always adds his own particular slant on things.

This books main strength is the level of belief guiding both sides of the conflict. The extremely structured and righteous Senaar and the completely open Als are so dramatically divergent and so completely non-plussed by the actions and desires of the other, that this book has an incredible dynamism.

As stated earlier this is a book that requires reader effort, but that effort is well worth spending, and this is an author who you should read.