The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

[Becky Lindroos]

I’m re reading this book because it is soooooo good.   (It is so dense and delicious I’m taking notes.)   Has anyone else here read it?  I’m posting about it because a big idea here (or one of them) is that “Everything is connected.”  And the everything includes it all, from finance to photons.   

Robinson has written a LOT of science fiction and he's known for his authenticity and detail as well as for steering away from major dystopian fiction. This is more utopian according to some reviewers.   I don’t know about that but this is real science fiction about the near future - not fantasy about anything. 

The year is 2025 or so and a heat wave has hit the earth so intense that millions are killed in southeastern India.  The United Nations is trying to put a new program into effect which will protect the future, but getting the world’s countries to go along with it is a mess. And stopping the damage is quite another thing so this includes the science of many aspects.  

It’s a bit long, but Robinson’s books usually are, if they’re not trilogies.  The book has already won an “Earphones” award from Audiofile but it’s pretty early on for it to have gotten many awards yet. (It was only first published in October 2020!!) 

Highly recommended!
From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ministry_for_the_Future

Reviewers predominately commented on the novel's relevance with respect to the year's events, such as the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season (the most active season to date), megafires in Australia and the Western United States and the global pandemic,[1][15][16] with reviewer Mark Yon summarizing that in that context, this book is "the novel we need".[17] Reviewers also commented on the book's meticulous and well-communicated research.[7][9] The first chapter, which describes a heat wave that reaches a lethal wet-bulb temperature, Robinson's counter-point to those advocating adaptation,[18] was described by reviewers as gut-wrenching and some of Robinson's most stunning and grimmest writing.[11][19] However, the reviewers for Kirkus Reviews and The Nerd Daily found the book's "information dumping" took away from the character development and narrative drive.[15][20] The review in the New Zealand online newspaper The Spinoff stated, "The book is many things, but it is never boring... indulges wild tonal shifts... relentless, pacy, utterly absorbing story of our near future"[19]

Becky