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A review by crimsoncor
The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
3.0
Three stars I guess? Ugh. There is a lot of good in here and I'm a huge KSR fan, but this feels like his attempt to write the Moby Dick of climate change, complete with all the non-standard novel ticks, but without much of a plot? Not a great look. A lot of the interlude chapters were, quite frankly, boring and non-additive (the one listing all 500 or so climate change endeavors. Why? The listing of every glacier on Antarctica? This is a novel not a Wikipedia index page). And the less said about the excretable junior science writing mini-chapters the better ("I am a photon!").
But as with every one of his novels, it is ripe with incredible ideas and rich with optimism (tempted with reality) about the future. The problem is that it all drowns in the other stuff he heaps on top of the very shallow plot. Way too much telling, not showing. You think about other books he's written (the Mars trilogy, though now scientifically disowned, but still an incredible description of terraforming + society building with a captivating plot) or [a:Malka Ann Older|14220734|Malka Ann Older|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1446698915p2/14220734.jpg]'s Cenental Cycle or even, if you want something in the same didactic discursive style [a:Ada Palmer|8132662|Ada Palmer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1442973045p2/8132662.jpg]'s Terra Ignota series, and you realize it doesn't have to be an either/or. But here, sadly, it is not both, but neither.
But as with every one of his novels, it is ripe with incredible ideas and rich with optimism (tempted with reality) about the future. The problem is that it all drowns in the other stuff he heaps on top of the very shallow plot. Way too much telling, not showing. You think about other books he's written (the Mars trilogy, though now scientifically disowned, but still an incredible description of terraforming + society building with a captivating plot) or [a:Malka Ann Older|14220734|Malka Ann Older|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1446698915p2/14220734.jpg]'s Cenental Cycle or even, if you want something in the same didactic discursive style [a:Ada Palmer|8132662|Ada Palmer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1442973045p2/8132662.jpg]'s Terra Ignota series, and you realize it doesn't have to be an either/or. But here, sadly, it is not both, but neither.