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Great Science-Fiction & Fantasy Works
Science-fiction & fantasy literature: a critical list with discussions.
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This is a brief discussion of Keith Roberts and, of course, of some speculative-fiction books by Roberts.
This discussion and list does not necessarily include every book by Roberts: it includes only those books that I both know and like. Just as with the author list itself, omission of a particular item may mean I didn’t think highly enough of the omitted item, or it may simply mean that I have not yet sufficient familiarity with it. (In a very few cases, I have listed some books merely on the strength of my opinion of the author: all such books are clearly marked below, as throughout these lists, with a hash mark (#) before the title so you know what’s what.)
I don’t pretend that this discussion is a deep analysis. My intent is no more than to give you a rough idea of what kinds of tales Roberts tells, how those tales are usually told, and what makes them and Roberts worthy; in sum, to help you rank Keith Roberts (and the works by Roberts listed here) on your personal literary “to do” list.
A Few Words About Keith Roberts
Regrettably, I have not yet had an opportunity to write an essay on this author, but the “Other Resources” section below will lead you to some information about the “Notable Books” listed farther down this page.
It would be stretching, if only by a bit, to say that Roberts is forgotten today, but he surely does not loom large in web-based resources. The foremost is Roberts, Keith at the ever-helpful Encyclopedia of Science Fiction; but also utile is the Solaris Books’ page, The Worlds of Keith Roberts, which is marked as “under construction”, and shows it (but is valuable anyway). Then there are some interesting personal remembrances of Keith Roberts by several friends and associates, at The Ansible, some of which are also critically helpful. There is an insightful Keith Roberts obituary by Steve Holland in The Guardian, another useful Roberts obituary by Jack Adrian in the Independent [archived copy], and yet another obituary by Christopher Priest at his blog.
Judging by the distribution of one-off book reviews on the web, you’d think Roberts never wrote anything but Pavane; of that book, there are reviews of it (this is not an exhaustive list, but I think hits the high spots) by Rich Horton at The SF Site; Iain Rowan at InfinityPlus; by Pavane by Ray Girvan at his JS Blog; by Steve Wu [archived copy]; and by SF Reviews. For more, Google Is Your Friend.
Reviews of other Roberts books are scarce. Here are some indicative ones:
Notable Science-Fiction and Fantasy Books by Keith Roberts **
(For more possible titles by this author, see the “Unrated Books by Rated Authors” page.)
(Many of Roberts’ books comprise a series of linked short stories, and are so tagged below; but they are generally classed “novels”.)
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