Jack Glass

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Jack Glass by Adam Roberts

I was quite blown away with this book. I came to it not expecting much, but it had a wealth of ideas, some attractive characters and tight plotting that made the book stand out.

The book is actually a short story and a two-part novella. In the short story, a handful of criminals are dumped onto an asteroid with rudimentary technology. They have been sentenced to remain on the asteroid for eleven years, during which time they must transform the asteroid into a hollowed out sphere, which will then be sold as housing. If they don't hollow out the sphere, they won't find ice and create room for themselves. It is a harrowing existence.

The two weakest members of the group are prey for the others. It turns out that one of the two has a secret that the government who put him on the asteroid want, and it will be back shortly to take him and get the secret.

The short story turns into how someone escapes from an inescapable prison.

The novella shifts to a story about two young sisters who are visiting Earth. We learn a bit about the strange culture that has evolved with great families ruling different sectors of human space. Humanity is limited to the Solar Systems and numbers in the trillions. Trillions of people live around the sun in flimsy bubbles. There are so many of these bubbles that it affects the spectrum of light received on Earth. The great mass of humanity is impoverished, while the ruling families live in technological luxury.

The older sister, Eva, is immersed in discovering the mystery of “Champagne Supernovas,” which are a real thing that occurs when a small star explodes in a supernova that generates far more energy than its size should allow. The younger sister, Dian, is fascinated by solving murders. A murder lands in her lap before her 16th birthday. The solution seems obvious, but there are warnings that the notorious murderer Jack Glass is involved. And there is something about some scientific discovery.

The second part of the novella takes Dia off planet with her mentor Iago. As they flee various enemies, they are involved with a strange death that has to involve an impossible gun or an impossible bullet.

More than that I will not say.

I loved the world-creation of the gritty reality that Adam Roberts sketches. I loved the way he worked science into his story. Finally, I particularly enjoyed the writing which was smart and occasionally very funny.

A complaint is that the book ends midpoint. The book was clearly intended to set up a second book, but this one was written in 2012 and as near as I can tell, it hasn't come out.