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Salt - Adam Roberts Book Review

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Review Summary
A very interesting debut novel. The rotating first person is nearly all between two characters representing two different societal groups which land together to colonise a planet ('Salt').
The huge divide in views and opinions eventually lead to a war, for which neither side is totally at fault.
A good book about a war with an interesting political/society based edge.

Andrew Banks, Resident Scholar


Detailed literary breakdown of Salt
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Plot
Tone of book - depressing/sad
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Explore/1st contact/ enviro story Yes
Plotlets: - colonizing/homesteading another planet
Political power play Yes
Political plotlets - preventing/managing clash/war between govts/kingdoms
War or Invasion Yes
Major kinds of combat: - guns - air battles
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - engineer
Age: - 20's-30's
Eccentric: Yes - wild
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters
Physique - very athletic

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 20's-30's
Profession/status: - politician/elected ruler
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - throughout most of the book.
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Setting
Terrain - Desert - Mountains
Spaceship setting: - futuristic human freighter/transport
A substantial portion of this book takes place on a non-Earth planetary body: - empty, or nearly empty world
Planet outside solar system? Yes
Takes place in spaceship? Yes

Style
Person? - rotating 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
scientific jargon? (SF only) - some scientific explanation
How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Most similar books to Salt
Earthrise by William C. Dietz
The Bug Wars by Robert Asprin
The Parafaith War by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
Final Blackout by L. Ron Hubbard
The Spoils of War by Alan Dean Foster




Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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