Now that the summer heat is dying down, it’s time for the big download on what the prolific ksr has been up to lately. this is going to be big!
You are reading: Kim stanley robinson books
first, some interviews with ksr, promoting his latest book la sierra alta, but also the ever timely ministry for the future.
bryan alexander: academia, climate change and the future
If a real revolution leading to a real post-capitalism comes about through the public’s insistence on it, through demonstrations and votes, then how bad would that be? would not be bad. so expecting it is neither naive nor stupid.
the new york times: a science fiction writer returns to earth: ‘the true story is the one that confronts us’
“i decided it was time to directly address the issue of climate change,” robinson said. “The real story is what awaits us in the next 30 years. It’s the most interesting story, but there’s also a lot at stake.”
the club of the mountains (of course!): minister of the mountains
“When I was younger, I didn’t realize that interactions with wild animals were transformative and important,” he admitted. “Now when I see wild animals up there, it’s like sticking my finger in a wall socket.”
the orange county record: the book pages: kim stanley robinson shares the books she loves, and a story that got better with age
I really like the cover of my novel “new york 2140”. Otherwise, to tell the truth, I don’t pay much attention to the covers.
paternal (cory doctorow): growing up fast on planet earth
I came home and realized that it is better to spend more time outdoors than us. there are a lot of people who know that it’s fun to be outside because they’re woodworkers and they’re outside all the time, and they like it. farmers too. but the writers, not so much. so a garden, working outdoors and then being an activist for environmental causes, greening everything in my life and my political aspirations to seek what would be best for the biosphere.
book forum: song of the mountain
I start with a situation, usually. Let’s say I want to write about the terraforming of Mars, then I need a terraformer, a person who opposes terraforming, a political radical, a Machiavellian, a builder, a psychologist, etc. that make the plot happen. a single character could cover a couple of actants at once, or an actant could be split between a few characters. this has been helpful for clearing things up for myself when starting out. therefore, the characters are, at first, a kind of positions, or the necessary operators of the plot. but this is just the beginning.
another useful conceptual tool is protagonicity. Does a novel have a high prominence or a low prominence? which means that the story is distributed among many different characters, who could be considered secondary characters, except that there are no main characters. the story I intend to tell determines or suggests how I might decide this.
high county news: seeing mars on earth
I was surprised how many of my texts have some analogy with the high sierra. From the beginning, I can see when Hjalmar Nederland is wandering around Mars in Icehenge, it was a walk in the mountains. and that kept happening. It was true in my Mars trilogy. terraforming mars is really cheating. Mars is basalt instead of granite. it is poisonous instead of healthy. So turning Mars into the High Sierras required something like a 2,000-page novel to make it even slightly plausible. i like it when my novels find their way into a big ride
Sactown Magazine: Q&A with Science Fiction Author Kim Stanley Robinson
once you climbed above the tree line in the sierra, you were in a different space that was cognitive, emotional and spiritual as well as physical. and I think that has to do with the sense that humans are just visitors there, no one lives there year-round. there is something different about it. It really took the whole book to try to capture what we were talking about with this one sentence, you know, “up to the gods’ zone.” what the hell did that mean? we were young hippies, all very Buddhist, so it was kind of simplistic hippie, almost a joke, but a joke about a real feeling.
indian times: climate change is now the big news in world history
I felt compelled to stay with india, after deciding to put that first horrible scene there, because it’s in a very dangerous place. I couldn’t just show the mess and then walk away. much of the novel is based on zürich, switzerland, my fictional ministry’s base of operations for the future, but the minister’s chief executive is indian (with a nepali mother), and he and the minister and the story itself keep coming back to india, to see what’s going on there. this allowed me to show that the positive developments in india, in farming practices and governance, are world class and could lead the rest of the world in a positive way.
Entertainment Weekly: Why Prolific Sci-Fi Writer Kim Stanley Robinson’s Latest Book Is About Real-Life Mountains
I’d wanted to write about the saws for decades, and ministry to the future felt like the end of a sequence of novels, so it was kind of a case of “now is the time.” he was really ready for it.
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literary center: words of hope and defense from john muir: kim stanley robinson on his love for the sierra nevadas
I think this book is an anomaly in my career, an exception. I prefer to go back to the novels and stay behind my characters and my stories, to get out of the way. but also, it is as you have pointed out; i am a californian writer and have written a lot about the state and of course the high sierra is an important contribution to that part of my work.
extinction rebellion: questions and answers with ksr
So, on the one hand, I wanted to warn readers that bad things are going to happen; on the other hand, I wanted to depict humanity reacting to the climate crisis in an uncoordinated way that nonetheless sidesteps the mass extinction event we have initiated and reaches a better time in future history, where further progress could still be made. so, ultimately, it was a kind of low-level utopian novel, presenting a good future despite the lack of a strong plan imposed from above, below or from the sides. instead, it is the result of many people trying many different things.
los angeles times: sci-fi teacher kim stanley robinson on the saw and why humans might just ‘screech past’
There are many places on this planet that are intensely beautiful and lovable. you don’t need to burn a lot of carbon to have a good time. the fundamentals of paleo satisfaction remain the same in us and are available at any time.
the new institute: capitalism is the main problem
I think my ministry for the future says what I have to say on this topic, as a writer and novelist. I’ll let what I have to say stand for a few years and see how it goes. is having an impact, I don’t want to get in the way of it by adding bits, sequels or distractions of any kind. as a writer, i’ll look into some other projects and see what happens.
farsight: “mars is irrelevant to us right now. of course we should focus on keeping the earth habitable”
my mars trilogy is a good novel but it is not a plan for this moment. If we were to create a sustainable civilization here on earth, with all creatures on earth thriving, then, and only then, would Mars become even slightly interesting to us. it would be a kind of reward for our success
political: climate catastrophe is approaching. but it is not the end of the story.
i chose india because it is the largest democracy. it is one in eight people on earth or even more. it’s a mess like any other democracy, but it has the potential to be a leader. once i put the mess there in chapter 1, i promised myself, my mental india, that i would stay with india. it wouldn’t just be the place where the disaster happened and then everyone else solved the problem.
interview in neue zuercher zeitung (in German): ist science-fiction der realismus unserer zeit
die leute waren unheimlich hungrig auf diese geschichte. eine geschichte darüber, wie die nächsten dreissig jahre gut ausgehen könnten: ohne superhelden, ohne technologisches wunder. «ministerium für die zukunft» füllte eine nische. das buch scheint mir gelungen zu sein.
also, a couple of videos:
ksr keynote address at future review 2022 (with david brin)
“from science fiction to climate action” discussion at hertford college, oxford
now some podcast interviews:
Animals That Tell Stories: Kim Stanley Robinson on Wildlife, the Martian Constitution, and Loving the High Sierra (podcast)
azeem azhar exponential vision: imagining climate futures with kim stanley robinson
tin house between the covers podcast: crafting with ursula: kim stanley robinson on ambiguous utopias
everyday anarchism: ksr in the highlands
the ezra klein show (the new york times): a weird and wonderful conversation with kim stanley robinson
nature of prices: kim stanley robinson, kate raworth and delton chen discuss the “carbon currency”
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rick kleffel column of agony podcast on high sierra
planet a – climate change talks: kim stanley robinson – on climate fiction and “the ministry for the future”
blue dot: kim stanley robinson and the high sierra
Also, you can find more ksr writing in two recent posts:
Tomorrow’s Parties: Life in the Anthropocene, edited by Jonathan Strahan, includes an interview with KSR by James Bradley: “It’s Science on Capitalism: Kim Stanley Robinson and the Imperative of hope” (mit press , random house of penguins).
in issue iii of noema magazine: rupture, autumn 2022.
kim stanley robinson argues that, in line with eco-realpolitik, the rest of the world needs to compensate oil states for lost revenue as they transition to a green economy , or never will.
then kim stanley robinson’s multimode multimedia book the high sierra is available for nature lovers to enjoy.
you can listen to ksr reading from the audiobook version, specifically the chapter moments of being (6): a day in the saw: under the canvas. and read an excerpt at the literary center.
the high sierra was on several lists of recommendations and articles read during the summer: redlands daily data, yale climate connections, christian science monitor, adventure journal, san francisco chronicle, curved source, men’s journal. also on best-seller lists (in california): online registration, daily news week 31, week 32.
book reviews:
- jon christensen for boom california
- david l ulin for online registration
- jeff vandermeer for the washington post
- weigh a pig, not fatten it
- michael berry for the christian science monitor
- marc weingarten for the wall street journal
- joe mathews for the san francisco chronicle
- public library of lima (ohio)
- verlyn klinkenborg for the atlantic
- carlo wolff for the pittsburgh post-gazette
- joe mathews for the public square of the zócalo
- cory doctorow
in the meantime! ministry for the future continues to make waves, which, given the abnormal summer the northern hemisphere has had, isn’t all that surprising.
book reviews:
- bill gates himself (+ on his summer book list + a whole little video on him!)
- lincoln michel for esquire
- michael glitz for book & movie balloon
- walter g. moss for the progressive
- fred phillips for science 2.0
- alexander wallace for the warped factor
- space the nation podcast
As is customary at the moment, many articles reference it or use an aspect of it to create an opinion piece on current events. here are the ones i have found: the economist on wet bulb temperatures, jayati ghosh (projects union) on heat waves and indian workers; pete golis (the press democrat) on heat and water stress in california; david wallace-wells (the new york times) on extreme heat waves, new zealand climate policy stuff, the atomic scientists newsletter on cities and extreme heat, reuters on climate finance, fareed zakaria (the washington post) on climate policy choices, new jersey on heat waves and climate change reporting, yale climate connections on imagining positive climate outcomes, the guardian on climate and diet, daily kos on goetterdaemmerung capitalism, the advance on the carbon currency idea, the story on climate fiction, the new statesman on the importance of utopian thinking
more ministry recommendations specifically and mini-reviews: outlook india, siouxland public media kwit, patheos, conservation.org, electronic design, rare books, institut montainge (french).
more ministerial citations at storyteller animal book club, rizolve, the berkeley daily planet, allison stephenson haus, korean quarterly, slate podcast, robert reich, lawfare, european council on foreign relations, illinois book club , the carbon almanac, calgary climate central book club.
ministry is still on the American Booksellers Association bestseller list.
More ministry translations are out: in Italian, by fanucci, and in Romanian, by nemira/armada.
it seems that in 2023 there will be a Slovenian theater production, bodočnost, inspired by the ministry!
After this exhaustive list, it’s time for a break. more soon.
(top image: sierra nevada from nasa worldview)
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