Colony - Rob Grant

Robert Grant is a British comedy writer and television producer. He was born in Salford and studied Psychology at Liverpool University for two years. The 'Grant Naylor' collaboration as it's become known, was best renowned for the creation of the cult science-fiction comedy series Red Dwarf. Since Red Dwarf Grant has written two television series, The Strangerers and Dark Ages. He has also written four solo novels, his most recent being Fat, a satirical look at how obesity is looked upon by society and the media.

Colony was the first novel written by Rob Grant outside the Red Dwarf series however it stays within the same comedy science fiction genre. “Lifetimes ago, the generation ship Willflower set out, manned by the cream of humanity, on a mission to colonize the stars. But by the 10th generation, things are starting to go badly wrong. The only man who can save the ship is astrophysical Dr Piers Morton. Only he's not an astrophysical engineer, he's not a doctor, he's not even Piers Morton, and all that remains of his body is his head, his spinal column and absolutely nothing else. Better yet, somebody on board is trying to kill what's left of him..”.


I read this book on a recent holiday to Ibiza with my girlfriend. She had read the Colony a few years before and had really loved it and thought I would like it equally as much. My initial response was to accept her offer but secretly planned to just leave it in the bottom of my suitcase as I've never been big on reading and always found it rather boring. You could say my expectations of the book weren't very high. That was until an hour into the flight, my girlfriend by now was fast asleep and I was bored out of my mind, so when I found the book in my hand luggage I decided to have a quick flick through. Within minutes I was laughing to the point where I was a distraction to my fellow passengers who were trying to nap during the early morning flight, and from that point onwards I hardly put the book down.

Colony is a sci-fi thriller, mixed with psychological twists at every corner that constantly kept me in suspense and wanting to read more. The author wrote this book with the aim to make its reader laugh at loud, and it did exactly that. I have never laughed so much when reading a book let alone enjoyed one as much as I did when reading Colony. As a child I found reading difficult and saw it as more of a chore, but since reading this, especially in such a relaxed and calm environment, it has shown me that reading can be thoroughly pleasurable and even entertaining. I'll definitely be taking a look at other Rob Grant novels in the future.