Firstly, Roberts has just ported the entire contempt for science fiction writers from the West right into Russia, with nothing changed, not even considering that there is a different culture of literature there and writers, even of SF, had a pretty high position that the protagonist would have no reason to hide with shame purely because of the genre he wrote. Yes, there is Soviet pulp, but the constant asides about how despised SF is and passive-aggressive defenses of how awesome it is, really, were meant for a Western audience, not authentic to Russia where fantastika has a long and rich tradition of not being spat on. Of course, one of the more egregious problems was that it seems not to have occurred to anyone in the editorial process that "science fiction" does not begin with SF in Russian, much less сф, as the protagonist makes much of while analyzing Josef Stalin's name to somehow contain the initials for science fiction. (In the Latin alphabet, Jehovah begins with an I...)

Icannot even being to explain how much this book did it wrong. I'll give you the most glaring examples, not even getting into the little things that niggled once Igave up being immersed in the book and started actually thinking about why anyone would assume no one in 1940s Russia would speak French or how living in gaga-grad as a euphemism for crazy is not really a Russian-ism but an English-Russian-ism and not that funny anyway and ooh, I want to listen to Lady Gaga anything to get away from this thing. The fact is that the book would have been a lot more believable with all the names changed and set in England or America. Combine the remaining powder with another player who marked himself with a different colour to join one of the three wizards. Player B cannot use his powder on player A either, he must find another player to use his remaining powder on. This can be either a blue coloured player (player B will join the green wizard) or red (player B will join the orange wizard). It cannot, however, be someone coloured orange, purple or green.Fascists hate subtitles because it is harder to control the audience with them. Some countries nearly always subtitle foreign-language films and others nearly always dub them. This is partly a cost issue, as dubs are more expensive than subs. Germany, Spain, France and Italy nearly always dub, and this is better for fascists because you can control what is being said. I really cannot describe how much “the former” this book is. As far as could determine, the author’s research began and ended with the stories of a friend who may have been in Moscow once, and the reading of the Wikipedia articles on Stalin, Chernobyl, and maybe Communism. The truly mind-bogglingly sad part about this entire debacle is that this genuinely interesting premise could actually work had the author done his research right, and placed the story in real USSR/Russia as opposed to a Hollywood film of it.

Tangent: The word "allantoid" means "sausage-shaped". "Chipolata" means "contains onions", despite the fact they no longer do. As these facts are being read out, Jimmy gets a phone call about his delivery, which is on its way. Chris says he can't believe that Jimmy brings his phone onto the set, and Jimmy says that he will sometimes Google answers during the show. Chris says he cannot do that as his phone talks to him, so everyone would know he was cheating. The yellow player B who was painted orange by the red player A cannot be used/painted by other players anymore to help them join a wizard. In some ways, the farcical surface here seems lifted from better Russian books, like The Master and Margarita. And the cynical undercurrent here seems aimed at nothing in particular. It's like if I wrote a book today satirizing the Cathar Heresy when there are no serious religious Cathars in the world.

Series S, Episode 10 - Smörgåsbord

It's the End of the World: But What Are We Really Afraid Of (2020) (Won the BSFA Award for Best Non-Fiction.) When you ride with Roberts you can expect smooth prose-suspension, hair-raising action-sequence cornering and perfectly plotted cup holders for every sea... OK, OK I've pushed the car analogy too far. Suffice to say that Roberts is one of the most interesting writers working in 21st century Science Fiction, a big, prolific talent with a an imagination to match.