Kim Stanley Robinson's 'Ministry For The Future' is a brilliant, moving vision of where we can go. [View all]
The one thing about this author -- every book of his that I read, I learn a great deal from.
This NYT bestselling author lives in my town. I've managed to have dinner with him a few times, courtesy of a friend of mine that hangs with the Mars Society. KSR is a down-to-earth human, but he's also overly intelligent and too well-informed to just 'hang out' with. I consider myself intelligent, but I found the dinners sort of like sitting down across a table from a high-powered searchlight. Engaging and exhausting. Just wow.
He's -- a serious mind. He spends his time around working scientists from all over the world, and he's married to a famous UC Davis geneticist. His speculative fiction rings with research and hard fact. I love his style. 'Galileo's Dream' is always with me. It's just beautiful writing. True art. An important part of my life.
'Ministry For The Future' is the newest and best of his climate-change thrillers, full of international political/financial intrigue and desperate science bound up in the incredible drama of climate change that's going to push humanity to the edge of extinction. It's dark, deep, and hopeful. Visionary. No one else could pull something like this off. Hard to explain this novel properly without spoiling it. Uplifting. I so want us to find ourselves on the path he creates. I loved it.
I feel uplifted. Educated. Entertained. Read it. Steal it if you have to. So good. This artist is peaking.