cover image On

On

Adam Roberts, A. R. R. R. Roberts. Gollancz, $14.95 (400pp) ISBN 978-0-575-07177-3

Tighe lives in a hardscrabble village on the side of a great wall that stretches as far up and down as the eye can see -until one day, he falls off (gravity operates parallel to the ground) and down into a world he never could have imagined existed. Adam Roberts's (Salt) On tells the tale of how the young stranger comes to terms with life in a foreign land during wartime, when soldiers, travelers, monsters and oracles engage in bloody battles and the secret of the ""worldwall"" is waiting to be discovered.