I really enjoyed this book, which was a remarkably successful execution of quite a tricky structural conceit. As the prologue promised, each of the three parts was simultaneously a locked room mystery, a prison story (depending on how you interpret the meaning of ‘prison’), and a whodunnit, with the identity of the whodunnit known from the start (it’s always the titular Jack Glass), without diminishing the surprise of learning how everything happened. This was most successful in the first part, where I literally yelled out in horrified delight as I realized the shape of things. By the third part, I had enough of a sense of what was going on to understand the broad outlines of how the thing was done, but it was still very satisfying to see the details filled in. 

And, best of all, this narrative cleverness did not seem smug or pleased with itself. This is why I’ve never really gotten on with China Mieville. He’s also very clever, but he knows it, and it gets on my nerves. Adam Roberts seems more like he’s having fun, rather than trying to show off, and it suited my preferences better.

There were a couple of things that didn’t quite land. The character of Sappho was not sufficiently interesting in the broader narrative to justify the quite tropey reveals about her role; and there was an extremely limp and unnecessary attempt at . . . romance-but-not-really-romance-but-also-wtf? Anyway, I could see all the scaffolding that Roberts had put in place to support its inclusion, but even the scaffolding felt forced, and the inclusion was an unsatisfying way to justify a decision that seemed a bit out of character. And, I mean, it was out of character. But trying to justify it in this way didn’t work. 

Anyway. Small matters, but overall the book was loads of fun. I already quite enjoy Roberts’ review blog (and poetry!), and I’ll take pleasure in reading some more of his fiction.