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primmiiee's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
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
2.5
zmorris1923's review against another edition
3.0
I want to start out by saying that Kim Stanley Robinson is a genius. The scientific research done even just to write this book and every other I've read by him is immense and fascinating. It's honestly the best part of this book. The science he talks about in this and the Mars trilogy is fascinating and kept me reading. Generally, if you enjoy hard science fiction, you'll enjoy everything by KSR.
I did enjoy this one, but I must say it was nowhere near as great as the Mars Trilogy. But I think that's okay.
Here we saw glimpses into a world beyond Mars, where humanity has colonized Mercury, Venus, Saturn's and Jupiter's Moons, and the Asteroid Belt. There's a vastness to the human empire here that seemed real and made sense. Similar to his other work, in the context of things, the timing of scientific discovery generally is fast, but not so fast that it's unbelievable. One critique here, is that while the Mars trilogy is thoughtful and caring about colonization and using these spaces for humanity, when there are problems still on Earth that need to be solved, here we only see full support for continued colonization of the solar system and terraforming efforts. There's no ethical side-story like those of his previous work. Humanity is using climate and worlds for their own purposes, which seems antithetical to what KSR stands for. Even if space exploration is a hope for humanity, it didn't seem like there was much talk about the ethics of it. (And I recognize the plot of this book is to make Earth better again with climate action and movements for revolution, but it comes from "spacers" and the actions seem out-of-touch with the people of the world. There is only one character I can remember who is from Earth, and she has such a small part to play in the book that it's almost unnecessary.)
But while the book moves away from some of this ethics from his original trilogy, the influence from his Mars trilogy is still there and obvious--with references to Peter (Clayborne?) and the longevity treatments, this read like a sequel. A lesser sequel, incomparable to the first (tone, style, everything has changed). But a sequel nonetheless. I wonder if he missed his original series.
Beyond the critiques on ethics, I also found that the main characters are not loveable whatsoever, and Swan, the person who we follow for most of the book, is insufferable. She's mean to her robot companion, she beats up a random person/ai that she suspects is lying to her (in a playful, and not meaningful way), and generally just dislikes people. The other characters are seemingly blind to this, or are willfully ignorant. Wahram, who I liked at times, says he needs to get away from her at one point, else he would learn to dislike her. And then he goes about and falls in love??? The characters were so weak here and their influence on the whole solar system was unbelievable and unrealistic. They could make a decision and the next day governments are kneeling and their own cohort all agrees and goes about doing things. There was so much that happened in this book that of course it couldn't all happen within a year. So why did KSR try to make it happen in one?
I also found that the use of gender in this book was unnecessary and took away from my read. I love a book that highlights queer and gender-variant lifestyles, but the way KSR went about it here could have been better. There was no recognition of the history of intersex and trans people, nor queer people. Everything seemed to be so spontaneous, that people were all the same before 2100 or whatever, and suddenly with emerging technology, we saw people evolving to suddenly become this way, as if it's not a natural state. He created new rules for lives that already exist now and have our own ideas and theories on gender and sexuality that go far beyond what he may have thought of himself as what I presume to be a cis-het man. It felt as though he were erasing history and rewriting it. I understood he may have been trying to be vocal in support of queerness and what not, but truly... ugh. I mean, the scene that we realize as readers that Swan is intersex is through seeing her genitals. In real life, intersex people's privacy has historically always been stolen, having their genitals shown and reviewed by people to discuss how they should be treated by the law, etc. And KSR uses a moment of sickness and vulnerability to show the reader this character's genitalia, to give the reader a sense of who she is, when truly we don't need anything of the like. "Before We Were Trans" by Kit Heyam does better at going through the history of intersex and trans people, so you should read that, and perhaps one day there will be a great science-fiction book that shows queer and transness as inherently natural and good.
I did enjoy this one, but I must say it was nowhere near as great as the Mars Trilogy. But I think that's okay.
Here we saw glimpses into a world beyond Mars, where humanity has colonized Mercury, Venus, Saturn's and Jupiter's Moons, and the Asteroid Belt. There's a vastness to the human empire here that seemed real and made sense. Similar to his other work, in the context of things, the timing of scientific discovery generally is fast, but not so fast that it's unbelievable. One critique here, is that while the Mars trilogy is thoughtful and caring about colonization and using these spaces for humanity, when there are problems still on Earth that need to be solved, here we only see full support for continued colonization of the solar system and terraforming efforts. There's no ethical side-story like those of his previous work. Humanity is using climate and worlds for their own purposes, which seems antithetical to what KSR stands for. Even if space exploration is a hope for humanity, it didn't seem like there was much talk about the ethics of it. (And I recognize the plot of this book is to make Earth better again with climate action and movements for revolution, but it comes from "spacers" and the actions seem out-of-touch with the people of the world. There is only one character I can remember who is from Earth, and she has such a small part to play in the book that it's almost unnecessary.)
But while the book moves away from some of this ethics from his original trilogy, the influence from his Mars trilogy is still there and obvious--with references to Peter (Clayborne?) and the longevity treatments, this read like a sequel. A lesser sequel, incomparable to the first (tone, style, everything has changed). But a sequel nonetheless. I wonder if he missed his original series.
Beyond the critiques on ethics, I also found that the main characters are not loveable whatsoever, and Swan, the person who we follow for most of the book, is insufferable. She's mean to her robot companion, she beats up a random person/ai that she suspects is lying to her (in a playful, and not meaningful way), and generally just dislikes people. The other characters are seemingly blind to this, or are willfully ignorant. Wahram, who I liked at times, says he needs to get away from her at one point, else he would learn to dislike her. And then he goes about and falls in love??? The characters were so weak here and their influence on the whole solar system was unbelievable and unrealistic. They could make a decision and the next day governments are kneeling and their own cohort all agrees and goes about doing things. There was so much that happened in this book that of course it couldn't all happen within a year. So why did KSR try to make it happen in one?
I also found that the use of gender in this book was unnecessary and took away from my read. I love a book that highlights queer and gender-variant lifestyles, but the way KSR went about it here could have been better. There was no recognition of the history of intersex and trans people, nor queer people. Everything seemed to be so spontaneous, that people were all the same before 2100 or whatever, and suddenly with emerging technology, we saw people evolving to suddenly become this way, as if it's not a natural state. He created new rules for lives that already exist now and have our own ideas and theories on gender and sexuality that go far beyond what he may have thought of himself as what I presume to be a cis-het man. It felt as though he were erasing history and rewriting it. I understood he may have been trying to be vocal in support of queerness and what not, but truly... ugh. I mean, the scene that we realize as readers that Swan is intersex is through seeing her genitals. In real life, intersex people's privacy has historically always been stolen, having their genitals shown and reviewed by people to discuss how they should be treated by the law, etc. And KSR uses a moment of sickness and vulnerability to show the reader this character's genitalia, to give the reader a sense of who she is, when truly we don't need anything of the like. "Before We Were Trans" by Kit Heyam does better at going through the history of intersex and trans people, so you should read that, and perhaps one day there will be a great science-fiction book that shows queer and transness as inherently natural and good.
erebus53's review against another edition
As a fan of authors like Neal Stephenson who are heavy on the info-dumps and science, this book let me down in so many ways. The infodumps were BAD. The science was sub-par. The explorations of humanity were philosophical but heartless. The deliberately edgy transhumanism came across as garbage. Genetical, genital and other body modifications seemed tacked on rather than being incorporated into a rich world-building experience.
There were SO many cultural references to things that would have been in Earth's deep past for these people, and the references would go over most people's heads entirely. Some were from Classics, some from fiction, and others from the musical works of Beethoven...
This is the second book I have have read in a year that involved terraforming in space, and this one is also dull. With so much interesting material there should be no excuse for the delivery being so dull that it literally put me to sleep more than once.
There were SO many cultural references to things that would have been in Earth's deep past for these people, and the references would go over most people's heads entirely. Some were from Classics, some from fiction, and others from the musical works of Beethoven...
This is the second book I have have read in a year that involved terraforming in space, and this one is also dull. With so much interesting material there should be no excuse for the delivery being so dull that it literally put me to sleep more than once.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Xenophobia, Excrement, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, and Genocide
Minor: Dysphoria
neculara's review against another edition
2.0
It is a bit sad to give this book only two stars, because in many ways, it's a good book. The world building is great, and I liked the characters (although I needed some time to warm up to Swan). The plot itself could have been exiting enough, if the book had a different writing style.
The problem was the way it was all executed.
The way this book is written makes everything feel too distant. Telling is the authors preferred writing style, and it isn't in any way underdeveloped or badly done. But it has the effect that telling often has: to create a sort of distance that prevents you from really getting immersed. I never really cared what happened next.
There was a lot of background info in this book. In the beginning, I liked that, because I was really enjoying the world building. But soon enough I got bored, and that feeling persisted throughout the rest of the book. Action scenes were recounted briefly as if told to us at a debriefing after the event. Chapters consisting solely of (well written) info dumps, thought experiments, philosophy, or lists of related words (!) stretched out the pages and made up far too much of the page count relative to the actual plot.
In spite of the fascinating world it describes, this was a boring read, and I powered through it mainly because I have DNF-ed quite a lot of books already, in 2019.
The problem was the way it was all executed.
The way this book is written makes everything feel too distant. Telling is the authors preferred writing style, and it isn't in any way underdeveloped or badly done. But it has the effect that telling often has: to create a sort of distance that prevents you from really getting immersed. I never really cared what happened next.
There was a lot of background info in this book. In the beginning, I liked that, because I was really enjoying the world building. But soon enough I got bored, and that feeling persisted throughout the rest of the book. Action scenes were recounted briefly as if told to us at a debriefing after the event. Chapters consisting solely of (well written) info dumps, thought experiments, philosophy, or lists of related words (!) stretched out the pages and made up far too much of the page count relative to the actual plot.
In spite of the fascinating world it describes, this was a boring read, and I powered through it mainly because I have DNF-ed quite a lot of books already, in 2019.
abookofwildflowers's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
sevenlefts's review against another edition
3.0
I've read one other Robinson book, The Years of Rice and Salt, some years ago. I don't remember whole lot about it, but I remember liking it. I liked this book, too, but it felt a little disjointed at times.
It brings together a lot of cool concepts about what life in our solar system could be like 300 years from now -- longevity science, gender choice, terraforming, living inside asteroids, new political systems -- but there was so much going on that I found myself absorbed by these themes and not caring as much about the overall mystery that the book was trying to solve. I wasn't satisfied by the solution -- maybe I wasn't supposed to be?
This books is ripe for a sequel. If there is one, I'm sure I'll read it.
It brings together a lot of cool concepts about what life in our solar system could be like 300 years from now -- longevity science, gender choice, terraforming, living inside asteroids, new political systems -- but there was so much going on that I found myself absorbed by these themes and not caring as much about the overall mystery that the book was trying to solve. I wasn't satisfied by the solution -- maybe I wasn't supposed to be?
This books is ripe for a sequel. If there is one, I'm sure I'll read it.
ryanwhitley's review against another edition
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This one started out fairly exciting with a good mystery. The whole middle section of the book, while good, had little to do with the mystery. Instead, it was a lot about the ramifications of climate change, revolutions, human greed and hubris, and the development of space exploration. Again, very interesting but not very gripping as it related to the plot. The ending was oddly hopeful, yet because of the hope it was a bit anti-climatic.
blairmahoney's review against another edition
4.0
This is the first novel I've read by Robinson and I was impressed. I like the focus on our solar system 300 years in the future. The novel is obviously based on a huge amount of research and plausibly extrapolates to future technology that could be used to settle other planets, but Robinson also writes with some artistry and the research doesn't overwhelm the work. He also doesn't restrict himself to technological developments but gives a lot of attention to social and political developments.
slizha's review
adventurous
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.25