My experience with Adam Roberts’ last book, Swiftly, was something of a disappointment, so it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I approached the bizarrely titled Yellow Blue Tibia. I was not to be disappointed again. Subtitled ‘Konstantin Skvorecky’s memoir of the alien invasion of 1986′, Yellow Blue Tibia demonstrates that when Roberts sticks to his high-concept guns, he is capable of producing compelling and intriguing science fiction.

The concept this time is to reconcile two very widely separated positions: there are thousands of UFO sightings every year, and millions of people who believe in little green men and alien abductions; but there is no acceptable scientific proof for their activity or existence. How could both be right at the same time?

Konstantin Skvorecky is a Soviet science fiction writer, a hero of the Great Patriotic War, and along with a number of his peers he is summoned in to the presence of Stalin himself. They are briefed to create a story of alien invasion that Stalin can use to maintain the focus of the Soviet people on a shared foe after their inevitable defeat of the USA.

The radiation aliens invented by the writers seem to strike a chord with the atomic mania of the 50s – but the project is shelved with no explanation. Many years later, in 1986, Skvorecky is a broken-down wreck, scraping a living as a translator, when one of his fellow writers finds him again – he claims the story they concocted is actually coming true. What follows involves some American Scientologists, a taxi driver with Asperger’s Syndrome, several murderous KGB operatives, and a desperate bid to prevent forces unknown from blowing up the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl.

It’s an enjoyable and well-crafted story, told with pace and panache. Skvorecky, something of an ironist, is an engaging and amusing narrator and his interactions with other characters are often brilliant. The supporting cast is great, especially Saltykov the taxi driver, a wonderful creation (a taxi driver who can’t touch people, who has to lock and unlock the car three times and who can’t talk and drive at the same time). It all builds up to a really rather clever ending, where Roberts achieves his goal in spades (more than that I won’t say). While Swiftly was admirable and clever in many ways, Yellow Blue Tibia is by far the better book: engaging, funny and compulsive as well as clever. I only hope the radiation aliens leave us all alone long enough for me to read whatever Adam Roberts does next.

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