In the ten+ years that I have writing the blog, this may be the first posting ever featuring the work of a science fiction writer, so I am confessing to a lot of ignorance about a genre that is also referred to as speculative fiction. However, Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future (2020) has crossover appeal, because its plot directly addresses the problem of “Can somebody give us hope for averting the oncoming climate catastrophe?” Talk about moving out of your comfort zone.
Set in the near future after a brutal heat wave has killed ten million people in a matter of weeks, an international organization affiliated with the Paris accord known as the Ministry for the Future, is partially empowered to advocate for future generations. A team of international experts, led by the novel’s protagonist Mary Murphy begins to untie the Gordian knot. This includes addressing income inequality, eliminating fossil fuels, (which includes sequestration of carbon), developing technologies to slow the melting of the polar ice caps and getting the global financial powers-that-be on board.
Robinson intersperses small chapters in the main story explaining how these different technologies and strategies would need to work.
There is even a secret militant arm of this movement, that—let’s put it this way—make the Monkey Wrench gang from the Edward Abbey’s 1975 novel look like lightweights. There is a moral dilemma of whether EVERYTHING should be done to speed the process along. Toward the end of the novel Robinson offers a glimpse of what that changed world would be like.
What makes the book “worthy” of breaking through blog’s speculative fiction myopia is not only has Robinson encapsulated what it will take to save civilization and the planet, but he has folded it into a solid work of fiction. Decent characters, interesting settings (Zurich, India, Antarctica) and an old-fashioned plot driven by the ever-present sword of Damocles question of “will the planet survive?”
Links of Interest
A review entitled "Catastrophe and Utopia" by Eric Morales-Franceschini was what put this book on my radar. Thank you, Eric and Tropics of Meta who published it.
Rolling Stone magazine also reviewed the book and includes an interview with Kim Stanley Robinson.
Ezra Klein's 90-minute interview, "A Weird, Wonderful Conversation with Kim Stanley Robinson" July 15 NY Times podcast. Not so much about the book specifically, but Robinson does speak optimistically that the time does seem right for the planet to make real progress.
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