Kim Stanley Robinson

Imagining Abrupt Climate Change - Terraforming Earth

5 stars (Writing Beyond Genre) - Most of what Kim Stanley `Stan' Robinson writes is classified as science fiction. His works also often wear the label `literary,' but I read a little bit of everything, including unliterary science fiction, so I think dispensing with labels would be appropriate at this point. Stan's novels are the works of a writer with broad interests and a penchant for accuracy, so getting into his head through the Amazon Shorts titled "Imagining Abrupt Climate Change: Terraforming Earth" was lots of fun. In this 20 page electronic download, Stan lets us in on the genesis of his current project, a near future trilogy [including Forty Signs Of Rain and the soon to be released Fifty Degrees Below] that has the Earth descending into a sudden cold period. He relates connections to his personal interests and two previous novels [Green Mars from the Mars trilogy and the stand alone Antarctica, which he wrote after being part of the Antarctic Artists and Writers' program]. There are several methods for reading the piece, and other than a few typos, I really enjoyed "Imagining Abrupt Climate Change" and look forward to pieces by other authors in the Amazon Shorts series - a series I hope is long term and will not abruptly end. 5 stars (Nobody makes 'boring science' as interesting as KSR does) - I'm of the belief one should never pass up the chance to read anything Mr. Robinson publishes. His prose is like the crispest poetry, but without poetry's pretentiousness. This essay, like his fiction, presents theories without shying away from the difficult task of giving the reasons why they're worth considering -- even when it means explaining concepts from paleontology, climatoly, and other similarly unglamorous sciences. It is an engaging read that will help those eagerly awaiting "Fifty Degrees Below" bide their time until that novel's release while also helping to understand the author's motivation and thought process. Even if you've avoided Mr. Ro...
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