Teaser

Nothing can escape a black hole. So why is it that those who approach QV Tel claim to hear a voice? An impossible voice. An alien voice. A voice urging them to kill . . .

Review

There are good books, and there are bad books. There are books I understand, and books that leave me scratching my head. There are books that I like, and books that I hate. All of these binaries represent points on spectrums, and each of those spectrums exists in isolation, though there are some similarities. If a bad book leaves me confused, there’s a good chance I’ll hate it. However, it is entirely possible for a book to be good, but leave me absolutely cold. That is the case with Lake of Darkness.

Adam Roberts is a rather unique figure in British science fiction. As well as being a novelist, he is a lecturer on science fiction literature. I haven’t read his fiction before, but I have read his books. His academic works on science fiction appear in the citations of my MA dissertation, and I’ve got the copies beside me as I write this review. I don’t always agree with his conclusions, but I find his theories on science fiction interesting. There can be no denying that Adam Roberts is a very intelligent man. In the case of Lake of Darkness, I fear he may have been too clever for his own good.

Lake of Darkness is not so much a science fiction novel as it is a philosophical exercise wearing science fiction’s clothes. I love it when SF gets thoughtful, but I’d like to know what those thoughts are. The level of philosophical discussion here is so deep that I’d need a different degree to fully appreciate it. A story about a black hole turning people into murderers could have been a thrilling work of cosmic horror, but here I spent my time not being thrilled, but being perplexed. Somewhere near the halfway mark, I was no longer sure if there was a plot, or if we were just exploring ideas. Again, there’s nothing wrong with exploring ideas – it’s one of the cornerstones of the genre – but I’m still not entirely sure what this book’s ideas are.

My problems with Lake of Darkness can largely be reduced to a single complaint. Throughout my read, I was perpetually aware of the writer on the other side of the page. clearly, books do not exist outside of human intervention, but this is a book that feels created. There are translator’s notes, but no other reference to the book being written in a foreign tongue. there are first person interjections, but I have no idea who that narrator is supposed to be. There are intertextual references, but no explanation for their relevance. The chanting of an old Beatles song in a new context raised a smile, but how did this come about? Worldbuilding is not the be-all and end-all of fiction – indeed, dome authors rely on it far too much – but there’s no coherence here. It feels like a thousand chunks of setting wedged together in the approximation of a world.

This is all the more frustrating because there are glimmers of brilliance. Roberts’ work is one of the first I’ve read that takes into account the current generation of ‘AI’ chatbots. His view of knowledge decaying as it passes through these machines is chillingly plausible, as are the historians who no longer read primary texts, but simply have an AI read a summary on their behalf. I would have loved more of this, but instead we have . . . whatever it is that we have.

I have great respect for Roberts’ nonfiction (even if I dispute his ideas regarding Paradise Lost), but I think his academic ideas have fed into his fiction too much. A few more degrees of separation would serve the fiction well. As it stands, what good fiction exists in Lake of Darkness is lost at sea.

Book Stats

• A Standalone Novel
• First Published in 2024 by Gollancz
• 304 Pages