The Ministry For The Future, Kim Stanley Robinson

 

The Ministry For The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson is a book I saw on a Science Fiction list and I enjoy the author.

Started: 2/15/2021
Completed: 2/22/2021
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Recommended By: A Science Fiction List

Words for which I Sought Help:

farangi -- foreigner

trenchant -- vigorously effective and articulate (I was curious to see if this word was derived from Richard Chenevix Trench, who proposed the creation of the Oxford English dictionary--it is not)

Review:

Robinson does not like capitalism.  This is blatant in this book and I'm not saying that he is wrong, but I wonder if fiction is the way to make an argument.  This is clearly an effort to help normal people understand the stakes of not acting on climate change.  There is an effort to identify how capitalism makes climate change worse (an argument that has a strong basis in fact) and this is coupled with an oddly capitalistic approach to solving that problem.  I guess it boils down to money = power.

He also pretty much hates the banking system.  This book repeatedly addresses banking the same way Seinfeld addresses Newman.  

The perspective of how things might go under serious climate change and the horrors that may be required in order for people to act are fairly well envisaged.  The characters are forgettable in my opinion and deaths of some of the major characters came as a relief in several cases, rather than the disaster experienced by the other characters in the book.

There is a very long section on how each country (it seemed as though it was every UN country) could take steps to mitigate climate change provided as a list of attendees (country and cause) that was remarkably boring and wholly unnecessary.  I happened to be listening to this section when my wife was in the same room and she asked how I could possibly listen to this...I had to skip forward repeatedly to get out of the list.  Perhaps, as a reader, I would have scanned the pages or something.  I find it hard to believe that anyone would read the list with interest.

New York 2140, Kim Stanley Robinson

New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson is not a book I would normally select.  New York under water.  Ho-hum.  If New York is under water things would be much worse then the plight of New York.  Oh, and that is what Kim Stanley Robinson addresses.  Hmmmm...  I really enjoyed the Mars series, so I think I will find this a light, but interesting read.  Perfect for audio book on commutes.

Started: 7/24/2019

Completed: 8/5/2019

Recommendation: Mild Recommendation

Recommended By: Nobody in particular, but I read about it in several places

Words for which I sought help:

tumescent -- swollen or becoming swollen, especially as a response to sexual arousal

Review:

This is light reading.  There really isn't very much there.  It does feel like Robinson is on his bully pulpit to explain climate crisis boldly to those who many not really get it and to forward a pet theory about how it could be much worse than expected much more quickly then expected.  I have a feeling that those who read a book about New York being inundated are already solidly sold on climate change; are willing to believe the theory that sort of runs through the book; and, don't need the repetition to "get it."

The characters are pretty flat without any real development as far as I can tell.  Mutt and Jeff run through a horror and emerge about the same as they went in (with the exception of preferring the out doors--no real character change).  It sort of feels like the scientific ideas predated the story (typical of many a sci-fi novel), but instead of the book examining what happens when the scientific ideas appear, it feels like the novel is a form of presentation for the scientific (and political) ideas.

New York is the setting for the familiarity of the landmarks that are transformed by water and, thus, different.  Despite the author's protestations, this city could be any coastal city and the book would read the same.