Icehenge: Amazon.ca: Kim Stanley Robinson: Books

Descriptions du produit

From Amazon.com

Voted one of the best science fiction novels of the year in the 1985 Locus Poll, Icehenge is an early novel by Kim Stanley Robinson (author of the trilogy comprising Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars) and takes place in the same universe. The story is part mystery and part psychological drama, divided into three distinct sections.

In the year 2248, Mars is ruled by a Politburo-like committee that actively discourages dissent as well as travel and exploration of other planets. Scientist Emma Weil becomes involved in a covert plot to convert a stolen ship into a self-supporting spaceship. She turns down a chance to accompany the starfarers, and returns to her beloved Mars where she joins the revolution already in progress.

Three centuries later, archaeologist Hjalmar Nederland unearths a governmental cover-up of the true facts behind the old revolution. At the same time, a Stonehenge-like monument is discovered on the north pole of Pluto, and Nederland sets out to prove his theory that the monument is connected to revolutionaries and their contemporaries who left for the stars. Seventy years later, his great-grandson Edmond Doya becomes convinced that Icehenge is a hoax, and attempts to disprove Nederland's theory.

In addition to futuristic issues such as interstellar travel and the terraforming of Mars, Robinson's characters grapple with politics, careers, families, and aging. Icehenge is a worthy introduction to the author's winning combination of hard science and believable characterization. --Bonnie Bouman --Ce texte provient de la Paperback �dition.

From the Back Cover

On the North Pole of Pluto there stands an enigma: a huge circle of standing blocks of ice, built on the pattern of Earth's Stonehenge--but ten times the size, standing alone at the farthest reach of the Solar System. What is it? Who came there to build it?

The secret lies, perhaps, in the chaotic decades of the Martian Revolution, in the lost memories of those who have lived for centuries. --Ce texte provient de la Paperback �dition.

Dans ce livre (les détails)

First Sentence
The first indication I had of the mutiny came as we approached the inner limit of the first asteroid belt. Lire la premi�re page

En d�couvrir plus
Concordance

Parcourir les pages �chantillon
Plat recto | Droit d'auteur | Extrait | Plat verso

Associer des mots-cl�s � ce produit

(De quoi s'agit-il ?)

Consid�rez votre mot-cl� comme une sorte d'�tiquette d�finissant parfaitement ce produit.
Les mots-cl�s aident les clients � organiser et trouver leurs articles favoris.

L'avis des consommateurs

20 �valuations

5 �toiles:		(7)
4 �toiles:		(7)
3 �toiles:		(3)
2 �toiles:		(3)
1 �toiles:		(0)

�valuation du client type

3.9�toiles sur 5 (20 �valuations de client)

Partagez votre opinion avec les autres clients:

Cr�er votre propre commentaire

Commentaires client les plus utiles

5.0�toiles sur 5 Who build Icehenge?, Janv. 9 2003

Par	Andrew J. Porwitzky (Havre de Grace, MD) - Voir tous mes commentaires (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Icehenge (Paperback)

This is a fantastic book by an excellent author. Icehenge gives you the journals of three individuals all somehow connected with a mysterious monolith on Pluto. This is a suspenceful story that keeps you asking "Who built Icehenge?" to the very last page.

Ce commentaire vous a-t-il été utile ? Oui Non (Signaler ce commentaire)

4.0�toiles sur 5 A commentary on the science of historical perceptivity, D�c 12 2002

Par	ilmk "ilmk" (UK) - Voir tous mes commentaires

This review is from: Icehenge (Paperback)

Having saturated myself in Robinson's excellent Mars Trilogy several years ago, Icehenge ended up being one of those purchases that sat on my shelf for some time. Picking Icehenge up several years after its publication has not detracted at all, as the author's easy creation of a realistic solar society still remains on course and, given the advances in genetics over recent years, all the more plausible.
Icehenge is a story set in three parts told by three connected people over several hundred years. Robinson seeks to take archaeology into the future to demonstrate that the provision of primary written evidence is inevitably biased and that written evidence of what we will do will become too distorted and too historically complex for our future generations to be in any better position to understand than our archaeological techniques can today.
The opener, narrated by Emma Weil tells of her unwitting participation in a somewhat idealistic attempt by the underground Mars Starship Association to set off for pastures new beyond our solar system. Her love affair is woven in as both a motivator and an explanation for the links between Weil and Davydov, giving us a story of a group of people determined to leave the solar system to colonize pastures new. Heavily influenced by the political situation on Mars at the time it culminates in Emma's return to Mars to be part of the uprising and final destruction of New Houston. A voyage in both the physical and mental sense, part I is intensely reflective and demonstrates the struggle between idealism and reality, between fact and perception.
A 'footnote' to the opening text is Davydov's desire to leave a megalithic message and this is picked up in second story, narratted by (at the time) maverick archaeologist Hjalmar Nederland who was present at the fall of New Houston. His expedition to uncover this lost city of the rebellion and question the official version as denoted in the Aimes Report is a personal odyssey that culminates in his discovery of a truth that contradicts the official version, yet doesn't upset the political apple cart. He then moves on to be a leading part of the IceHenge discovery and the links between both it and Emma Weil.
Whereas Weil's journey is from 'good citzen' to rebel, Nederland's is the opposite - though mainly in the intellectual community. What is ironic is that it is the understanding of Weil's last days and transition that sends Nederland unwittingly back to the path of officialdom, rather than truth.
This is further continued in the third story, that of Edmond Doya, the great-grandon of Nederland whose passion for all things archeological and his upbringing off-planet forces him to question the reality of Emma Weil's testament, Nederland's explanation for Icehenge and, in doing so, the perception of history. His search leads him to Pluto where a final dating methodology is established seeming to give a final proof to his findings and concluding several historical records and theories. Robinson throws in a final thought with Doya's colleague advancing a further theory to close the cycle begun by Emma Weil some many years ago.
As well as being a well written, plausible exposition of a humar solar society in the distant future, what Robinson's Icehenge achieves is to question our perception of history, of how history is written and how the need to understand our origins can cause those explorers or seekers of historical truth to make assumptions and give explanations which, though plausible, are created through suggestion.

Ce commentaire vous a-t-il été utile ? Oui Non (Signaler ce commentaire)

4.0�toiles sur 5 Phil Dick ideas, Thomas Pynchon style, Sep 18 2002

Par	Glen Engel Cox "www.engel-cox.org" (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) - Voir tous mes commentaires (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Icehenge (Paperback)

I've long had to admit that while I liked Stan Robinson's writing, I had never read any of his novels, just his short stories in magazines and collections. No more, although the case could be made that Icehenge is a collection of three novellas. In fact, parts of Icehenge were published as "To Leave a Mark" (in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction) and "On the North Pole of Pluto" (in Orbit 21). This is the reason why I picked Icehenge to read first, before Robinson's first published novel, The Wild Shore; that is, to satisfy my anal retentive (does that have a hyphen?) desire for reading things chronologically. Icehenge is three stories inter-connected, each from a different time period and point of view. The first tells of Emma Weil and the Martian Unrest. The second of Nederland and his archaelogical investigation into the Unrest. And last is Doya, who questions whether Nederland's "proof" is actually an ingenuous hoax. Complicated? Yes, but also done in such a way that the convolutions are easy to follow. Robinson admires Philip K. Dick--his graduate thesis was on Dick's novels--and it shows in the theme of this book: what is real? What can we trust? Several people have recommended his latest novel, Red Mars, to me, and I do intend to read it...after I finally read all these others of his that have been sitting on my to-be-read shelf for far too long.

Ce commentaire vous a-t-il été utile ? Oui Non (Signaler ce commentaire)

Partagez votre opinion avec les autres clients: Cr�er votre propre commentaire

› Lire les 20 commentaires des internautes

Commentaires client les plus r�cents

5.0�toiles sur 5 History of the Future (an oft-used, but appropriate phrase)
The central premise of this book is that even though a vastly extended lifespan may be possible in the future, a person's ability to remember past events may be limited to those... Read more

Publi� le Ao� 3 2002 par CasmA

5.0�toiles sur 5 Robinson doing what Robinson does well
Both the cover and the start of the Amazon.com review above suggest that Icehenge is a part of KSR's "Mars Trilogy" world. Read more

Publi� le Mai 28 2002 par Paul E. Harrison

3.0�toiles sur 5 A good appetizer for the Mars Trilogy
If I hadn't already read KSR's Mars Trilogy, I'm not sure I would have liked this book much. This book was written 10 years before Red Mars/Green Mars/Blue Mars were published,... Read more

Publi� le Mars 26 2002 par Robin Currier

5.0�toiles sur 5 Great out of the starting gate
Kim Stanley Robinson debuted with this book and The Wild Shore practically in the same year, something that doesn't happen too often. Read more

Publi� le Janv. 21 2002 par Michael Battaglia