Buying Options

Kindle Price:	$11.99
	includes tax, if applicable
Sold by:	Hachette Book Group (AU) This price was set by the publisher.

promotions apply when you purchase

Add Audible Narration to your purchase for just $4.49

Deliver to your Kindle or other device

Redeem a promotion code or gift card

Share <Embed>

Loading recommendations for you

Recommendations for you

Adding to Cart...

Added to Cart

Not Added

Item is in your Cart

View Cart

Not Added

There was a problem adding this item to Cart. Please try again later.

Sorry, we're having trouble showing recommendations right now. Please try again later.

Continue shopping

Audible Narration

Playing...

Paused

Follow the Author

Adam Roberts

The Thing Itself Kindle Edition

by Adam Roberts (Author)

1 rating

See all 5 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Amazon Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$11.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Paperback

"Please retry"

$15.97

$15.63

—

Digital

"Please retry"

—

Adam Roberts turns his attention to answering the Fermi Paradox with a taut and claustrophobic tale that echoes John Carpenters' The Thing.

Two men while away the days in an Antarctic research station. Tensions between them build as they argue over a love-letter one of them has received. One is practical and open. The other surly, superior and obsessed with reading one book - by the philosopher Kant.

As a storm brews and they lose contact with the outside world they debate Kant, reality and the emptiness of the universe. The come to hate each other, and they learn that they are not alone.

Length: 369 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled	Audible Narration: Audible Narration Switch back and forth between reading the Kindle book and listening to the Audible narration. Add narration for a reduced price of $4.49 after you buy the Kindle book. Ready	Language: English

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items when the Enter key is pressed. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Martha Wells

32

Kindle Edition
$3.43

Product description

Review

A time-travelling nerd applies Kant with lethal results in this dazzling philosophical adventure...this is really walking the literary high wire, and Roberts not only keeps his balance, he makes the spectacle compelling - The Guardian

using lit-fic techniques and by not playing by the genre rules, [Roberts] rises to the challenge that Mitchell sets down - SFX

The Thing Itself is evidence of Adam Roberts' inimitable brilliance. - Tor.com

I do appreciate a novel that makes me think while also entertaining me. The Thing Itself marries the two to perfection. There is so much packed within these pages and, without doubt, it's one of those memorable novels that will stand to repeated readings over the passing of time. A book of the year for me, for sure. - For Winter's Nights

Book Description

It seems we are alone in the Universe. How can that be? Adam Roberts brings his own unique literary take to Science Fiction's greatest question.

See all Product description

Product details

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 1122 KB
Print Length: 369 pages
Publisher: Gollancz (17 December 2015)
Sold by: Hachette Book Group (AU)
Language: English
ASIN: B010Q1FSFO
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

X-Ray:

Not Enabled

Word Wise: Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported

Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Average Customer Review: 1 customer review
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #295,655 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #1488 in Magical Realism
- #6511 in Literary Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #11554 in Literary Fiction (Books)

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Kindle Edition

Adam Roberts

3

$11.99

Customer reviews

5 star		100%
4 star 0% (0%)		0%
3 star 0% (0%)		0%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

Review this product

Write a customer review

1 customer review

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Robert G. Cook

Mind-expanding, heart-embiggening

30 September 2018

Format: Kindle Edition

If anyone ever tries to tell you that Science Fiction isn’t Literature (and yes I am capitalising deliberately), this book is the perfect riposte.

Helpful

Comment

Most helpful customer reviews on Amazon.com

Amazon.com: 28 reviews

Dmitry Portnoy

Pulp Mash-Up Brainy Dynamite

21 March 2016 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

The ultimate pulp sci-fi novel, this book weaves all the big tropes--aliens, artificial intelligence, time travel, mad scientists, cheesy special effects--into a unified whole that's entertaining, mind-expanding and makes sense. I can imagine its author, Adam Roberts, sitting in a pub, perhaps having been stood up by a date, and setting himself this as a challenge: "Can I tie all these disparate, long-abused elements together into a good story, and throw in some German Philosophy plus a wicked satire of contemporary memoirs and references to everyone from Joyce to Pynchon?" The answer turns out to be "Hell yes!" But the only way to believe it is to read it.

12 people found this helpful

Plamen Nenchev

An Outrageous Hotchpotch of Philosophy, Spoof and Horror

8 April 2017 - Published on Amazon.com

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

In the 18th century, Immanuel Kant postulates that the human mind can never really get to know the real world, the ‘Ding an sich’ (the thing-in-itself), as the way we experience it is, necessarily, structured by our own perceptions. For example, space, time or causality are not necessarily immanent properties of the ‘Ding an sich’, but only how we perceive it with our own limited human senses. In the 21st century, an experimental AI, which is not limited by the shackles of the human mind, indeed discovers the existence of an entirely different reality beyond the veil of human perception. Direct access to the ‘Ding an sich’ would make it possible for humanity to manipulate space, time and causality and would mean a quantum leap for the human kind.

Meanwhile, in the 1980s, two men stationed in an Antarctic outpost have already had an encounter with the ‘Ding an sich’, which has left one of them scarred in body and mind and the other one a homicidal maniac with a limited ability to manipulate space and time. The main storyline in the present day follows the former, as he is tasked by the Institute, which developed the AI, to reach out to his colleague, now locked in a maximum security prison, and get his help with unlocking access to the ‘Ding an sich’. The story is interspersed with vignettes of different people's encounters with the ‘Ding an sich’ through time.

As is typical for Adam Roberts, the main character, Charles Gardner, is a complete antihero. A 50+ desperate-for-sex alcoholic refuse collector placed at the epicentre of humanity’s biggest breakthrough makes for an infinite source of hilarious situations and heartfelt giggle. Charles’ exploits also provide a much-needed comic relief, in particular, against the dark and claustrophobic initial sections of the novel. There is a well-executed nod to Jonn Carpenter’s The Thing. There is a solid delve into Kant’s philosophy, which is quite accessibly explained. There is also a fairly good explanation to the Fermi Paradox.

It remains a mystery to me how you can ‘slap’ Kant, Fermi, John Carpenter and loads of Monty Pythonesque humour into the same book and still make the hotchpotch work. But that’s Adam Roberts for you—I think he gets his kick out of devising unthinkable and outright outrageous combinations. The novel remains one step away from greatness the entire time, with the somewhat weak and anticlimatic ending being the only reason why I haven't awarded it five stars.

4 people found this helpful

Guido Eekhaut

The thing beyond the thing.

1 March 2017 - Published on Amazon.com

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Kantian philosophy and speculative fiction match very well, thank you, although it's only Adam Roberts who can pull this off. He investigates the otherworldly idea of the essence of things beyond our observation, discovering a world that is more absurdly strange than almost anything any other writer of SF could come up with. Still this is almost a thriller, and can be read for its suspense alone.

Guido Eekhaut, award winning author of 'Absinthe'.

2 people found this helpful

Edward J. Keller

I highly recommend this novel

2 October 2016 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

Exceptional, philosophically engaged science fiction/speculative fiction. Extrapolates out from a kind of re-think of 'The Thing' into a range of
completely unexpected trajectories. Fascinating, disturbing work. I highly recommend this novel.

4 people found this helpful

Ess Bee

I can't say enough good things about this book

3 March 2017 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

I can't say enough good things about this book. Roberts ability to communicate dense philosophical ideas in an accessible and even fun way, woven into a terrifyingly unique story is a thing of beauty. I've been recommending this story to anyone who will listen! It's been weeks since I've read it but the characters and ideas continue to stay with me, pulling my mind down through dark corners and shifting perspectives.

One person found this helpful

Buying Options

Adding to Cart...

Added to Cart

Not Added

Item is in your Cart

Not Added

Follow the Author

Similar authors to follow

The Thing Itself Kindle Edition

Customers who bought this item also bought

Product description

Review

Book Description

Product details

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Customer reviews

Review this product

1 customer review

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Most helpful customer reviews on Amazon.com