Book Review: The Snow by Adam Roberts

The Snow by Adam Roberts
Genre: Post Apocalyptic
Bob’s Thoughts: “A Unique Post Apocalyptic Tale with characters you just want to punch in the face.”
Grade: B-
Limited Availability
100 Books 100 Posts: #5









One day it started snowing. People were happy. Then it didn’t stop. People were no longer happy.

Sort of like JG Ballard’s work, the author starts with a simple premise, what if it didn’t stop snowing. What if it snowed so much that is covered the tops of buildings. How would people survive. What type of life would the survivor’s have. Using this premise, the first part of the book is excellent.

The tale starts out as a first person narrative of a Survivor, an Indian women named Tira. Yet, as the book expands it takes on a new life. Some of it works, some of it doesn’t. Roberts uses a lot of tricks in this book, that I enjoyed. Much of the story is told in edited documents released by the government. I actually liked it, and once you could get past the [Name Deleted], I thought is was a nice little change in the way stories were told.

I also like how Robert’s used the first person narrative. Most first person accounts come off as fake to me. Robert’s does well to make you understand that this story being told, is being told from a skewed perception. Just because our narrator says something is so, doesn’t make it gospel. She let’s you know that this is her account, with her misunderstandings and prejudices.

My main criticism of the tale is it gets hijacked about half way through for a while by one of the most unlikable, annoying characters I have ever read. Most of this is the ramblings of a self important, coke head writer that, I guess, is important to the story, but much of what he has to say isn’t. Despite her deficiencies (and she had many) Tira came off as an angelica princess, compared to this loser. His diatribes were hard to read, and his character had no redeeming qualities.

Eventually, the author pulls it all together well. The book is quite uneven at times, for my tastes, but all in all, Roberts has many interesting ideas that are explored here.

This is the first book I have read by this author, but, it was interesting enough that I will probably try another.