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165 ratings, 3.75 average rating, 32 reviews
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published
October 1st 2007
by Harper
binding
Paperback, 400 pages
isbn
0007148941
(isbn13: 9780007148943)
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 246)
Read in August, 2008
All loose ends wrapped up...In my review of Fifty Below IO worried that Robinson was going to pull some magic "it'll all work out" bit. The thing is, he did...and I didn't even see it until it was done. He uses a sort of narrative time-warp to go from pie-in-the-sky brainstorming to 'maybe we can do this' to 'up and running'. What I'd expect to be a ten-year plan suddenly is going in about a year of narrative time. Hell he wraps up with a trple wedding (close-enough).
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Read in November, 2008
...or closer to 3 and three quarters.
This is the last of a trilogy. The first was a bit lame, sort of wandering around and going nowhere. The second was much tighter. This third and final book is maybe the best of the three.
For me Robinson hit his (so far) peak with Red Mars. Since then this may in my opinion be his best, lacking the deus ex machina ending of Antarctica, the head scratching "what's the point?" of Years of Rice and Salt (in fact, in this book...more
This is the last of a trilogy. The first was a bit lame, sort of wandering around and going nowhere. The second was much tighter. This third and final book is maybe the best of the three.
For me Robinson hit his (so far) peak with Red Mars. Since then this may in my opinion be his best, lacking the deus ex machina ending of Antarctica, the head scratching "what's the point?" of Years of Rice and Salt (in fact, in this book...more
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Read in December, 2008
I think, all three of the books in this series, should have been published as one. None of the three novels stand on their own. Except for never really buying the love story and not particularly liking Frank as a person, I really enjoyed these books. It made me want to look into Buddhism a little more carefully. I did however get a bit depressed about our current environmental situation. A lot of the solutions although perhaps technically achievable I'm afraid I just don't see the political will...more
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Read in April, 2007
This is the final book in Robinson's "Abrupt Climate Change Trilogy" (I don't know what the official trilogy name is. Maybe it's the "Counting By Tens Trilogy."). Anyhow, this one is more a return to the form of the first book, in that I liked it more than I liked the second, but still less than I liked then first. Got that? I was thinking about this novel the other day, and I realized it had no actual plot. It had a couple of subplots, but no plot. The subplot with the Quibl...more
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Read in January, 2008
The problem with Kim Stanley Robinson's 'trilogies' is that they don't seem to end. We, the readers seem to leave them at a point and the characters in the books go their own ways. That said, KSR has attempted to remedy that somewhat in his latest trilogy-ender 'Sixty Days and Counting'
The first two books in the 'Science in the Capital' Trilogy had the easy parts, introduce the characters and the situation and crank up the heat for the conflict. The final book always has the heavy lif...more
The first two books in the 'Science in the Capital' Trilogy had the easy parts, introduce the characters and the situation and crank up the heat for the conflict. The final book always has the heavy lif...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
everyone
Kim Stanley Robinson is a great author. I have loved all his books, especially this trilogy. It all started with Forty Signs of Rain, I was hooked. His characters seem to come to life, and they are all very different. There is Frank (one of my favorite characters) who is an adventurer, rock-climber, kayaker, hiker, scientist, friends, almost Buddhist, and just a regular guy. The Quiblers (a family including a mom, dad, and two boys) are hilarious together. They all have very different personal...more
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Read in December, 2008
Pretty good read.
The big social question of the books was how we get people to act in the 'always generous' mode of our Prisoner's Dilemma. That is, with the world going to hell in a handbasket, how do we keep people from grabbing what they can for themselves while making things far worse for others?
One thing this trilogy made me realize is that it's very possible people will flip nearly instantly from being global warming deniers to throwing their hands up and saying, "...more
The big social question of the books was how we get people to act in the 'always generous' mode of our Prisoner's Dilemma. That is, with the world going to hell in a handbasket, how do we keep people from grabbing what they can for themselves while making things far worse for others?
One thing this trilogy made me realize is that it's very possible people will flip nearly instantly from being global warming deniers to throwing their hands up and saying, "...more
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Read in March, 2007
SIXTY DAYS AND COUNTING BY KIM STANLEY ROBINSON: Kim Stanley Robinson has released the conclusion to his trilogy, Sixty Days and Counting, just in time! The hardcover is out and the paperback will be out at Christmas, if not, early next year: just in time for everyone to buy it, read the trilogy, and decide who to vote for in the Presidential elections of November 2008. Again, Robinson is not look to wow and amaze readers with shocking sci-fi events, but keeping true to the close reality of hi...more
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Read in June, 2007
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
KSR fans, sci fi futurists, climate change junkies
Aaah, finally the last of the trilogy. It comforts me to know that there are some people in the world with fantastic ideas about what we can do to fix all the damage we humans have been inflicting on the planet. Although this book lacks any of the spectacular climatic apocalypses of the previous two, it sets about tieing things up. Phil Chase the amazing, but unfortunately mythical politician, has been elected President of the USA and is going hammer and tongs on righting wrongs, both climate, e...more
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Read in November, 2008
Excellent, gripping tale of scientists, politicians, secret agents and buddhist monks leading the world to adapt to hardcore climate change. The writing is impeccable and often very funny. This is the third of a Kim Stanley Robinson trio that is the most current, most innovative and most inspiring engagement in global warming I have encountered, and I highly recommend them.
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WOW. I wasn't super impressed with the first two, although I think KSR is a real visionary. This one makes up for them, a incredible, thoughtful, hopeful glimpse of a future we could have if we as a world community can just pull our heads out of our collective asses. The setting is a very possible future, just a few years from now. A new administation is in place, with a more promising global vision than the one we've been left holding the bag by. Global crises and extreme climate change are occ...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
everyone
This book is the culmination of the incredible trilogy. I wish I could make everyone read it, especially civic-minded adults in the USA, and all of our politicians. I have given out the first of the series several times as gifts.
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Read in January, 2008
This is the last of a trilogy from KSR. I'm not fond of the trilogy as I think the steam is out of the story a lot of times. That was the case here and if not for one really interesting storyline (of 3 or 4 followed in the book), this would have been rated lower. Robinson, who has dabbled in hard sci-fi (the great Mars series), alternative history (his 3 Californias or Days of Salt and Rice) is one of the best sci-fi, futurist writers out there. This is an eco-thriller/warning/harbinger of the c...more
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Read in August, 2008
A geopoliticalecothriller... I read the first book and was interested enough to read the rest of the trilogy. This would definitely not be my favorite Robinson series (I prefer the Mars trilogy), although it had some good subplots. This last book just went completely off the tracks in terms of political neutrality to the point where it seemed more like an author's diatribe against capitalism than character or storyline development. This opinion is primarily due to the multipage monologue blo...more
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Read in May, 2008
A fascinating conclusion to this well-told near-future ecoscifi trilogy. The climatology science is very well done and meshes quite well with the personal stories, although the political part of this story stretches belief a bit (the President has a blog? and has the Dalai Lama officiate his wedding?) -- but maybe I'm just cynical that such progressive causes would be supported by the populace, even after the traumatic climate change described here.
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Read in December, 2007
Disappointing end to the trilogy. Seems to have wandered from the environmental ideas (the strengths of book 1 & 2) as the main thrust of the stories. Wrapped up the character storylines in an imcomplete and perfunctory way. No environmental resolution, no satisfying human resolution, left me hanging. I see enough of that in real life. This is a novel and would be improved by having a beginning, a middle, and an end. (Thank you Aristotle.)
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Read in May, 2008
Glad to be done with this trilogy. While well-written, I would have preferred more actual science and, well, plot, over the long-winded tale of Frank's personal struggles. Still, the whole Chase presidency was a nice dreamland of what a good administration could only accomplish in a novel. Never in reality. Especially liked the Cut to the Chase blog excerpts.
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Read in January, 2007
The final book of a trilogy about climate change and public policy. Maybe because the author is wrapping things up, and making a point throughout all three novels about climate change, I didn't get quite the same kick out of this one as I did the previous two novels. Still, one of the better reads on my list.
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