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schnapsidee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
It's a tough read, but it needs to be to make clear what what's at stake. This is fiction but it is not unrealistic and the author is doing important work by making the consequences of inaction both clear and personal.
The next part are spoilers for the ending without being too detailed. I don't think they will lessen your enjoyment of the story, but skip them, if you want to go on blind.
Ultimately the author builds a beautiful utopia where we don't just save humanity and the biosphere, but also a world where community and individuals are more important than profit. A post capitalist world without a phobia of technology and economic growth.
I removed a couple of stars because a lot of the character interactions feels somewhat forced and just not that deep. I think it might have been a better book as an anthology of short stories instead of trying to shoe horn in a continuous character development subplot.
Graphic: Death and Grief
j315's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
1. Ministry for the future paints a pathway from the world we live in today to an ecologically sound socialist utopia. It does a beautiful job of breaking down capitalist realism.
2. There are many individuals&groups present in this story that do a good job of illustrating the critical nature of extralegal approaches to sustainability, and how important dual power is to building a sustainable world for all of humanity.
All that being said, I found several pieces of this book incredibly frustrating.
Robinson repeatedly insists that there are approaches to geoengineering, blockchain currency, and utilizing oppressive institutions for climate justice that are legitimate, and that present failings on these fronts is a failure of execution rather than a conceptual flaw in these ideas. The glacier thing was interesting, but the rest of the pieces were dubious at best and dismissive of reality at worst.
I believe that extractive, industrial, and capitalist tools will not be able to help us resolve problems created by extractive industrial capitalist practices.
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Mental illness
Graphic depictions of mass death from climate catastrophekathleendayle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Murder, and Grief
Moderate: Terminal illness and Violence
Minor: Cancer
laurenipsum's review against another edition
Graphic: Death, Excrement, Xenophobia, Child death, Classism, Body horror, Abandonment, Blood, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Violence, Colonisation, Confinement, Gore, and Medical trauma
brewdy_reader's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
๐๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐๐ฃ๐ข๐ฎ๐ข'๐ด ๐๐ข๐ท๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ [2020]
Here's the good stuff. This book:
- is obviously extremely well researched, hard sci-fi, referencing actual science
- started off with a bang of an opening: a gripping vignette that had me riveted to my seat
- deals with a rather grim topic without wallowing in the depths of despair
- combs the solution space for an answer that is not the mass extinction of the human race
- poses a compelling near-future prediction scenario that confronts morality and whether the ends justify the means
- shines light on an important topic: the very future of humanity when our planet becomes unlivable
Real talk.Clocking in at 577 pages, this was way too long and the writing style did not work for me. I almost quit many times. Some chapters were written as literal board meeting minutes and others were more text-book lecture style: hard sciences ranging from carbon sequestration to glacier science to biosphere to global economics and fiscal policy to international treaty law to psychology to colonialism and nationalism. There were a few recurring characters but by the end I did not care what happened to them.
I would have enjoyed this a lot better if it had been edited down to make key points rather than going for comprehensivity on every topic, in an encyclopedia-like format.
Give this a try if you love climate science non-fiction or speculative fiction leveraging hard science where you cannot tell where facts end and fiction begins. Environmentalists and sustainability aficionados will also find this book fascinating.
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Classism, Deportation, Cancer, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders
redbee9's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, War, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Grief, and Murder
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Cancer, Medical content, Murder, Alcohol, Confinement, and Panic attacks/disorders
random19379's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, War, Classism, Genocide, Grief, Violence, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Terminal illness, Mental illness, and Murder
Minor: Racial slurs
brittni_in_ink's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
3.0
The first chapter is so devastating, and really sets the tone for the rest of the book. Robinson did a wonderful job of introducing a few key characters to follow throughout the story. And even later in the book, there were these beautiful personal moments, like Frank encountering a mountain goat in the wild.
But ultimately, the book was about the big picture. The amount of research that went into it was clearly impressive. For that reason, I'm a little ashamed to say I skimmed some chapters. Not because they were bad, but because there was only so much discussion about currency and banks I could handle.
The book wasn't entirely my cup of tea, but there were parts that I really liked. So three stars: good, but not something I would read again.
Graphic: Mental illness, Kidnapping, and Death
Minor: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Animal death, and Child death
droggelbecher42's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
It's weird how such a long and dense book describing lots of horrifying things happening left me a sense of hope. I cried at the end, sad to leave it behind.
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Deportation, Animal death, Xenophobia, Racism, Mental illness, Cancer, Grief, Confinement, and Colonisation
Minor: Sexism
Since this book is mainly about climate change, nature catastrophes play a big role, there is one detailed description of askudiklier's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
At first, I was worried it would be too dark--not that it was unrealistic, but it was bringing back all my climate anxiety/despair, and I thought it might all be very hard to read. But by the end (or even by halfway through, really), I flipped to wondering if the book is too optimistic. Even given all the challenges, all the "too little too late"--
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Kidnapping, and Slavery
Moderate: Murder, Police brutality, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Xenophobia, Classism, and Colonisation
Minor: Sexism, Death of parent, Drug use, Alcohol, War, Child death, Animal death, Fatphobia, and Racism