- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Spectra (Jun 1 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0553803115
- ISBN-13: 978-0553803112
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.4 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 644 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #457,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
In this cerebral near-future novel, the first in a trilogy, Robinson (The Years of Rice and Salt) explores the events leading up to a worldwide catastrophe brought on by global warming. Each of his various viewpoint characters holds a small piece of the puzzle and can see calamity coming, but is helpless before the indifference of the politicians and capitalists who run America. Anna Quibler, a National Science Foundation official in Washington, D.C., sifts through dozens of funding proposals each day, while her husband, Charlie, handles life as a stay-at-home dad and telecommutes to his job as an environmental adviser to a liberal senator. Another scientist, Frank Vanderwal, finds his sterile worldview turned upside down after attending a lecture on Buddhist attitudes toward science given by the ambassador from Khembalung, a nation virtually inundated by the rising Indian Ocean. Robinson's tale lacks the drama and excitement of such other novels dealing with global climate change as Bruce Sterling's Heavy Weather and John Barnes's Mother of Storms, but his portrayal of how actual scientists would deal with this disaster-in-the-making is utterly convincing. Robinson clearly cares deeply about our planet's future, and he makes the reader care as well. FYI:Robinson's Mars trilogy (Red Mars, etc.) received one Nebula and two Hugo awards.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–An elegantly crafted and beguiling novel set in the very near future. Anna Quibler is a technocrat at the National Science Foundation while her husband, Charlie, takes care of their toddler and telecommutes as a legislative consultant to a senator. Their family life is a delight to observe, as are the interactions of the scientists at the NSF and related organizations. When a Buddhist delegation, whose country is being flooded because of climate change, opens an embassy near the NSF, the Quiblers befriend them and teach them to work the system of politics and grants. The Buddhists, in turn, affect the scientists in delightful and unexpectedly significant ways. The characters all share information and theories, appreciating the threat that global warming poses, but they just can't seem to awaken a sense of urgency in the politicians who could do something about it. (Robinson's characterizations of politicians are barbed, and often hilarious.) As the scientists focus on the minutiae of their lives, the specter of global warming looms over all, inexorably causing a change here, a change there, until all the imbalances combine to bring about a brilliantly visualized catastrophe that readers will not soon forget. Even as he outlines frighteningly plausible scenarios backed up by undeniable facts, the author charms with domesticity and humor. This beautifully paced novel stands on its own, but it is the first of a trilogy. As readers wait impatiently for the next volume, they will probably find themselves paying closer attention to science, to politics, and to the weather.–Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Forty Kinds of Good,
By
This review is from: Forty Signs of Rain (Hardcover)
Kim Stanley Robinson's Forty Signs of Rain has all the makings of a masterpiece. Characters are so well drawn that one sentence into a new chapter is all that's needed for identification. The story is well-crafted and seemingly simple, starting with a basic education in Arctic ice levels, moving through U.S. politics with scathing brilliance, following the plight of Tibetan Buddhist refugees whose emerging nation is on a submerging island in the Indian Ocean, and dissecting the lives of scientists caught between searching for a viable medical truth and making millions off patents...and this is just book one in a trilogy. I couldn't put this book down and I can't wait for the next two books!
4.0 out of 5 stars
First Book in Sci Fi Climate Change Trilogy - CHILLING,
By
This review is from: Forty Signs of Rain (Mass Market Paperback)
I have always found with Kim Stanley Robinson that the strength of his books is not the hard technical science fiction development but rather the development of the characters in his books. As a hard core military and High Tech Sci-Fi fan it's a departure for me but having read at least 9 of his books I still consider him a great Sci-Fi writer.This is the first book in a trilogy on catastrophic climate disaster series. A good read all around
1.0 out of 5 stars
Incredibly bad,
This review is from: Forty Signs of Rain (Mass Market Paperback)
This book consists of nothing but filler, any content could easily fit into a 50 page short story.I reread the reviews a number of times and had to seriously ask myself "did these folks even read the book?". During the read I finally starting browsing the "Leave it to Beaver" content in search of substance. I come away with the view Robinson is trying to write a trilogy using content which might barely satisfy one book.
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