Scan barcode
zanderw's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
kfmarback's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- 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
4.0
libbyhav's review against another edition
Didn’t like the writing. I really don’t like SKR’s writing style apparently. Interesting concept though.
saxifrage_seldon's review against another edition
5.0
Kim Stanley Robinson is my favorite contemporary science fiction author, and I dare say his latest novel, Ministry for the Future, is my favorite of his novels. On the one hand, the book is a narrative following the lives of two people. The first is Frank May, who at the start of the book is a young aid worker who survives a heat wave in India that kills 20 million people, and the second is Mary Murphy, who is the head of the Ministry for the Future, which is an offshoot of the Paris Climate agreement. However, the narrative is only a small part of the book, as it moves into the lives of climate refugees, billionaires taken hostage at Davos, a geoengineering team, and many more. Furthermore, Robinson provides firsthand perspectives of a wide variety of non-human entities, including a photon, a carbon atom, and even the market. Still, this is only a small sampling of the complex viewpoints Robinson provides. On the surface, the book is about climate change, but it isn’t simply about technology, nor is it one centered around destruction. Instead, the book is a political-economic account of the future we make and continue to make. It is humans, structures, and societies working through nature, much like Jason Moore’s notion of the world-ecology. This includes state governments, international organizations, and fiscal policies. In fact, one of the book’s major plot points is about the creation of a carbon coin whose value is based on the carbon left in the ground. However, moving beyond simple political ecology, Robinson also incorporates Raymond Williams’s concept of “structure of feeling,” which notes the importance of thoughts and ideas in the creation of new worlds and the coming together of people. In all, this book can be mostly summed up as a utopia, in Robinson’s definition of the word. In a previous novel, Pacific Edge, Robinson notes, “utopia is the process of making a better world, the name for one path history can take, a dynamic, tumultuous, agonizing process, with no end. Struggle forever.”
xjabroni05x's review against another edition
challenging
informative
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.75
heloise_lifeinbooks's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Less of a novel and more of a roadmap, an existential question, a history of the future.
There are only a few recurring characters, there is very little plot, there is nothing that would really lend it interest as a “story” exactly.
And yet the topic and question at hand is so fully developed through the eyes of so many, and through the almost historical exposition of cause and effect, that this was very close to being a 5 star read for me anyway.
It was bumped down a quarter star honestly for the last 50-75pgs, which did focus more on the characters and which I found harder to get through (I devoured the first 400 pages in a few days).
I’m glad Robinson managed to find a happy ending for this, he’s much more optimistic than I am.
There are only a few recurring characters, there is very little plot, there is nothing that would really lend it interest as a “story” exactly.
And yet the topic and question at hand is so fully developed through the eyes of so many, and through the almost historical exposition of cause and effect, that this was very close to being a 5 star read for me anyway.
It was bumped down a quarter star honestly for the last 50-75pgs, which did focus more on the characters and which I found harder to get through (I devoured the first 400 pages in a few days).
I’m glad Robinson managed to find a happy ending for this, he’s much more optimistic than I am.
djryan's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- 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
thlwright's review against another edition
4.0
The future history novel is a very specific type of science fiction: relying on a narrative rather than a plot. It’s desperately unfashionable and since Wells and Stapledon novelists have made their histories implicit and revealed through action and plot rather than attempting to write a ‘history of the future’. Kim Stanley Robinson’s work, especially his Mars series, might be seen as tiptoing into this arena. Now with The Ministry of the Future he’s dived straight in. The ecological and political themes that have always driven his work are now front and centre as he tracks the history of the earth over the next thirty years.
The novel starts with an apocalyptic event: an extreme heat event in India that kills millions. Virtually the only survivor is Frank, an American aid worker. He is one of only two characters who have what could be called a storyline. The other is Mary, an Irish politician who is chosen to head the titular Ministry, brought into being in Switzerland to advocate for the generations not yet born in decision-making that affects the planet’s sustainability. Their paths cross when Frank, radicalised by his experience, kidnaps Mary to impress upon her that respectful lobbying and polite advocacy is not enough.
And this is KSR’s central theme: that what politicians, business leaders and international organisations are currently proposing is not enough. So what might be enough? The Ministry of the Future is a future history that looks back to track how a vast cast of characters across the globe could plausibly arrive at a course of action that was enough. He puts this ending upfront, shifting the narrative from focusing on whether to how.
The future history format frees Robinson from even pretending to use his research for anything more creative than informing.This novel will leave most readers knowing much more about carbon sequestration, glacial movement and methane production than they did at the start.
A vast cast: refugees, Presidents, scientists and even non-humans voice a collective oral history of how the world moved, at great cost, from heading towards catastrophe and extinction to sustainability. This may be the only novel where the photon and the market are chapter narrators. And it’s the operation of that market that Robinson sees as lying at the heart of the climate emergency: from offshore tax havens and globalisation to the actions of central banks he sees the economic game is firmly rigged against the implementation of any meaningful change through the current channels.
Mary - with Frank as her prompter and conscience - has a central role in finding new channels, from trying to persuade world central banks to adopt the carboni, a new global currency that would reward carbon capture; to sanctioning a ‘don’t tell, don’t know’ campaign of terrorism by others within her Ministry. Might the death of a few thousand business leaders and populist politicians be the ‘enough’ that will lead to the necessary change? Here they are seen as committing crimes against humanity: their actions not just robbing, but killing, future generations before they are born.
Read this as a novel and I suspect the lack of action and characters could be frustrating. Read it as a roadmap of our future and it challenges us to think about how much we would be prepared to do: and whether that might be enough.
The novel starts with an apocalyptic event: an extreme heat event in India that kills millions. Virtually the only survivor is Frank, an American aid worker. He is one of only two characters who have what could be called a storyline. The other is Mary, an Irish politician who is chosen to head the titular Ministry, brought into being in Switzerland to advocate for the generations not yet born in decision-making that affects the planet’s sustainability. Their paths cross when Frank, radicalised by his experience, kidnaps Mary to impress upon her that respectful lobbying and polite advocacy is not enough.
And this is KSR’s central theme: that what politicians, business leaders and international organisations are currently proposing is not enough. So what might be enough? The Ministry of the Future is a future history that looks back to track how a vast cast of characters across the globe could plausibly arrive at a course of action that was enough. He puts this ending upfront, shifting the narrative from focusing on whether to how.
The future history format frees Robinson from even pretending to use his research for anything more creative than informing.This novel will leave most readers knowing much more about carbon sequestration, glacial movement and methane production than they did at the start.
A vast cast: refugees, Presidents, scientists and even non-humans voice a collective oral history of how the world moved, at great cost, from heading towards catastrophe and extinction to sustainability. This may be the only novel where the photon and the market are chapter narrators. And it’s the operation of that market that Robinson sees as lying at the heart of the climate emergency: from offshore tax havens and globalisation to the actions of central banks he sees the economic game is firmly rigged against the implementation of any meaningful change through the current channels.
Mary - with Frank as her prompter and conscience - has a central role in finding new channels, from trying to persuade world central banks to adopt the carboni, a new global currency that would reward carbon capture; to sanctioning a ‘don’t tell, don’t know’ campaign of terrorism by others within her Ministry. Might the death of a few thousand business leaders and populist politicians be the ‘enough’ that will lead to the necessary change? Here they are seen as committing crimes against humanity: their actions not just robbing, but killing, future generations before they are born.
Read this as a novel and I suspect the lack of action and characters could be frustrating. Read it as a roadmap of our future and it challenges us to think about how much we would be prepared to do: and whether that might be enough.
wellbranch's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
3.75
Unpacked some interesting ideas and quite science based, but it was quite weak on the character development and story side. Felt much longer than necessary
harlando's review against another edition
2.0
Dissapointing.
The premise is ok. The titular ministry of the future is tasked with fighting climate change and its consequences. As an underfunded, underpowered, not quite appendage to the UN it has to get creative. KSR gets to spin some far out climate solutions and interesting disaster scenarios.
While that is exactly what happens, it doesn't quite work.
It is sci-fi and I was quite ready to suspend disbelief. The thing that caught me was the speed a which change occurs in this world. The earth goes from a devastating heat wave that kills millions at the opening to a happy, hippy air ship and solar power future with most of California as a nature preserve at the end. He isn't specific about time, but it is definitely less than half a lifetime and really only covers the tenure of one characters time as the head of the Ministry of the future.
There are lots of clever and very violent climate activists who knock down hundreds airplanes over a period of several years to protest emissions. There are also some targeted assassinations of oil executives and the like. There isn't much pushback. The rich and powerful seem to role over for some terrorists with drones. In fact, anyone who might oppose the climate agenda is a vague, snidely whiplash sort who probably eats babies and sets fire to bags of puppies.
KSR pours a big glass of hater-ade for the west, white men, and industrialization.
The premise is ok. The titular ministry of the future is tasked with fighting climate change and its consequences. As an underfunded, underpowered, not quite appendage to the UN it has to get creative. KSR gets to spin some far out climate solutions and interesting disaster scenarios.
While that is exactly what happens, it doesn't quite work.
It is sci-fi and I was quite ready to suspend disbelief. The thing that caught me was the speed a which change occurs in this world. The earth goes from a devastating heat wave that kills millions at the opening to a happy, hippy air ship and solar power future with most of California as a nature preserve at the end. He isn't specific about time, but it is definitely less than half a lifetime and really only covers the tenure of one characters time as the head of the Ministry of the future.
There are lots of clever and very violent climate activists who knock down hundreds airplanes over a period of several years to protest emissions. There are also some targeted assassinations of oil executives and the like. There isn't much pushback. The rich and powerful seem to role over for some terrorists with drones. In fact, anyone who might oppose the climate agenda is a vague, snidely whiplash sort who probably eats babies and sets fire to bags of puppies.
KSR pours a big glass of hater-ade for the west, white men, and industrialization.