Release Date: 16/03/17
Publisher: Orbit
SYNOPSIS:
The waters rose, submerging New York City.
But the residents adapted and it remained the bustling, vibrant metropolis it had always been. Though changed forever.
Every street became a canal. Every skyscraper an island.
REVIEW:
Kim is an author that always manages to come up with a book that not only grabs my attention but keeps it glued as he weaves his storytelling magic. Here we get to see a city under siege from not only nature but mans own foibles as each block is a self sustained living unit amongst others.
Its a book that looks at practicalities of mans ability to survive and how we can come together despite the circumstances. Its definitely an unusual title, one that makes you think and for me, at the end of the day, that makes for a truly unique experience.
Release Date: 03/09/13
Publisher: Orbit
SYNOPSIS:
An award-winning and bestselling SF writer, Kim Stanley Robinson is widely acknowledged as one of the most exciting and visionary writers in the field. His latest novel, 2312, imagined how we would be living 300 years from now. Now, with his new novel, he turns from our future to our past - to the Palaeolithic era, and an extraordinary moment in humanity's development. An emotionally powerful and richly detailed portrayal of life 30,000 years ago, it is a novel that will appeal both to his existing fans and a whole new mainstream readership.
REVIEW:
Kim is an author that’s always given me a great book before so when I heard that he was writing a tale set in the far past I really wanted to see what would be generated , after all I loved the Northland trilogy by Stephen Baxter so I was hoping for something similar.
What unfurled within was a tale that really worked well for me as the tales lead character took steps towards finding his way within the ancient world as Shaman of the Raven tribe. Its full of conflict, both emotional as well as physical and with a story that seeks to demonstrate the spirit of man throughout as is so often the theme within science fiction titles, really worked well for Kim as an author.
All round, when you add in some great prose, a lovely touch of pace with the Palaeolithic era brought wonderfully to life generates a story that will stay with you for quite some time. A wonderful adventure for me and definitely one I’ll be recommending to others.
BOOK BLURB:
In a novel of stunning dimensions, the acclaimed author of the MARS trilogy brings us the story of the incredible life -- and death -- of Galileo, the First Scientist. Late Renaissance Italy still abounds in alchemy and Aristotle, yet it trembles on the brink of the modern world. Galileo's new telescope encapsulates all the contradictions of this emerging reality. Then one night a stranger presents a different kind of telescope for Galileo to peer through. Galileo is not sure if he is in a dream, an enchantment, a vision, or something else as yet undefined. The blasted wasteland he sees when he points the telescope at Jupiter, of harsh yellows and reds and blacks, looks just like hell as described by the Catholic church, and Galileo is a devout Catholic. But he's also a scientist, perhaps the very first in history. What he's looking at is the future, the world of Jovian humans three thousand years hence. He is looking at Jupiter from the vantage point of one of its moons whose inhabitants maintain that Galileo has to succeed in his own world for their history to come to pass. Their ability to reach back into the past and call Galileo "into resonance" with the later time is an action that will have implications for both periods, and those in between, like our own. By day Galileo's life unfurls in early seventeenth century Italy, leading inexorably to his trial for heresy. By night Galileo struggles to be a kind of sage, or an arbiter in a conflict ...but understanding what that conflict might be is no easy matter, and resolving his double life is even harder. This sumptuous, gloriously thought-provoking and suspenseful novel recalls Robinson's magnificent Mars books as well as bringing to us Galileo as we have always wanted to know him, in full.
REVIEW:
This book is a bit of a weird book to review. Firstly I loved the historical fiction aspect to it, however, I found the Sci-fi part to be too over the top. This, if I’m honest with you alienated me (if you’ll pardon the expression) and I’d rather have lost the futuristic aspect, just keeping the historical interpretation which not only kept me glued but also made me want to discover more about his time period.
As you’ve come to expect from Kim’s writing, it has got great characterisation and also his indomitable ability to bring iconic world building to the fore which does pick this novel up but sadly not his best work to start with.
