Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - Das Ministerium für die Zukunft

Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Das Ministerium für die Zukunft by Kim Stanley Robinson

11 reviews

gunnarvon's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book is a great, albeit challenging, read. Getting through the first chapter can be challenging given your anxiety around climate disaster, but it is ultimately hopeful regarding our species ability to solve this problem. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in cli-fi, climate science, or our future on this planet. I especially recommend the audiobook, which has a variety of voice actors lending themselves to the multitude of voices present in this books unconventional structure.

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kathleendayle's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

I debated how to rate this book. It opens with a truly horrifying scene — and this part was gripping, but large portions of the book are also dense, dry, droning, almost too realistic in the political and economic sense, outlining the cascading sociopolitical effects of climate disaster. But for that, it does give a very good picture of what we’re up against with the climate crisis, and how much collaboration is needed across the globe to preserve our planet for the next generations. I found it pretty depressing, an all-too-realistic dystopian nightmare for the first three quarters of the book. And then, a redeeming turn. The last quarter of the book is actually really hopeful. In the end, we win. It makes the suffering bearable. Highly recommend if you’re curious about how climate change might impact us all if we don’t get out sh** together and act to stop it now.

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unfoundation's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Incredibly interesting but also terrifying take on the future and realities of climate change. A mix between entertaining and informative. The characters are complex, especially Frank. You come away scared but also a bit hopeful. One of the most unique books I’ve ever read and it was a really nice change of pace.

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invisibleninjacat's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book was very intense, and a strange mixture of hopeful and depressing. It ends on a hopeful note, which is nice. It was also a mix of a variety of different media - little chapters about or from one character's perspective, interviews, meeting notes, and intercalary chapters that were something between riddles and a stream-of-consciousnes from the perspective of an object (a photon or a carbon atom, for instance). It's meticulously researched and functions as a near-future thought experiment about how the earth might limit and recover from climate change. It also felt exceptionally prescient as I was reading it - the book begins with a deadly heart wave in 2023, and I started it in 2023 in the immediate aftermath of a dangerous heat wave hitting most of the United States, and Hurricane Hilary hitting Southern California and breaking both previous tropical storm records for August as well as daily records (the previous daily record was 0.01 inches in one area that was hit, so THAT wasn't exactly difficult). As I've read, more climate news has been being released, with wild weather worldwide and more forecasted to come.

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random19379's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

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kirchnerkd's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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skudiklier's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful inspiring reflective tense slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

First off, I want to say that I really liked this book. I would definitely recommend it. I think it gets across a lot of the challenges and high stakes of climate change in a nuanced way. I like the mix of personal stories and bigger-picture processes.

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"--

even given that a decent amount of the change was caused by terrorism!

I still feel like some things worked out too well and too easily. But maybe I should just be more hopeful, I don't know. I'll definitely be thinking about this book a lot, and recommending it to anyone who brings up anything even remotely related.

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arjen98's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful informative medium-paced

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? N/A

4.0

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beereads27's review against another edition

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challenging informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

Ok. I get that this book is important and I appreciate how Kim Stanley Robinson presents real potential solutions to climate change. I just did not like the characters and the writing style really wasn't for me. I felt obligated to like this book so I really tried but it was just overall meh.

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kzatka's review against another edition

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dark hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I needed to read this. Every day I read articles and essay and takes on how humanity has doomed the planet, and Robinson says we (the global we) have the power to fix it. He even gives a basic outline on how it could be done. And along the way, every victory felt so sweet that I dreamed of it being real, that we in the real world had actually achieved this, and it left me hopeful. It left me thinking that we have a chance. I needed this, and I'm grateful that it was written.

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