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250th out of 290 books
—
435 voters
Sixty Days and Counting (Science in the Capitol #3)
By the time Phil Chase is elected president, the world’s climate is far on its way to irreversible change. Food scarcity, housing shortages, diminishing medical care, and vanishing species are just some of the consequences. The erratic winter the Washington, D.C., area is experiencing is another grim reminder of a global weather pattern gone haywire: bone-chilling cold one...more
Hardcover, 400 pages
Published
February 27th 2007
by Bantam
(first published 2007)
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All loose ends wrapped up...In my review of Fifty Below I 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).
That said, I enjoyed the book...more
That said, I enjoyed the book...more
...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 he captures in a sentence or two the...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 he captures in a sentence or two the...more
This is the third book Robinson’s environmental disaster trilogy (Forty Days of Rain and Fifty Degrees Below). I liked the first enough to buy the second and was anxious to read the conclusion. While it is an interesting conclusion to the series, I found myself wanting more on the environmental aspects and what I got was more on the characters.
I wanted to see what happened to Frank and President Crane and Charlie and Joe but Robinson kind of lost the heart of the story by focusing so much on the...more
I wanted to see what happened to Frank and President Crane and Charlie and Joe but Robinson kind of lost the heart of the story by focusing so much on the...more
Unfortunately disappointing. This was the third book in a trilogy that started out as an interesting speculative fiction about the social, political, and environmental effects of global warming. Robinson's strength is that he can explain the science behind much of what he writes about. This book had less of the science in it than the other two. Instead, it tried to wrap up various storylines involving a number of uncompelling characters. Robinson also tried to shoehorn a political conspiracy / l...more
The last book in a generally workmanlike trilogy is also no more than passable. I am sure Robinson is trying to offer us hope with this work, but hope makes for a pretty lousy story. It is not that Robinson cannot write - he certainly can, and at his best in works like The Years of Rice and Salt, he managed to be both experimental and readable. No mean feat. Yet here, the pace chugs along, the colourless fit, rational middle class characters do colourful things but their own lack of differentiat...more
A homeless man named Frank somehow gets a post at the National Science Foundation studying alternative energy and fighting global warming. After a year in the position, during which he is distracted by chasing escaped zoo animals, foiling a plot to rig the presidential vote, and an untreated brain injury, he decides to look up some stuff about solar power on Google right before his report is due. He finds, to his surprise, that someone has actually implemented solar power somewhere and calls the...more
Nov 27, 2012
Bradley
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
ebook,
science-fiction
Kim Stanley Robinson's
Science in the Capitol
trilogy concludes with
Sixty Days and Counting
. For years, Robinson has been pushing the boundaries of science fiction broader and broader into the world of mainstream fiction. This latest series by him is less typical science fiction,but more of a political and sociological study. In fact, there more science in his fiction that most other books of the genre.
Robinson's books are rarely the gripping, thrill-inducing page-turners that some people enj...more
Robinson's books are rarely the gripping, thrill-inducing page-turners that some people enj...more
Man, that was a reading marathon! I'm not sure what it is I liked about this series. Not much happened, really...but it was incredibly realistic. I wouldn't even call this science fiction. There is a lot to think about, especially when it comes to political philosophy and Buddhism. The science--speculative and otherwise--was great. I got very attached to the characters, especially the main character. I learned a lot about Tibetan Buddhism. The books explored a question I've had for some time abo...more
Must have overlooked that I was reading this book and have been for a couple of months when I have time. The third in the series and all to typical of KS Robinsons works. In this part of the series, instead of staying focused on his main novel premise he wanders down cubyholes that let him espouse his personal political and social philosophy on various topics. He closes out a few of the sub-plot issues and leaves some others hanging. But, that is how life is in reality so no problem with that. :...more
I loved Kim Stanley Robinson's climate change trilogy. I highly recommend it and caution all to read all three books one after the other. It really is one cohesive body of work in 3 volumes. You will love President Phil Chase, the Quibler family, Frank, Diane all the Khembali people and even Caroline. The story is centered around the impacts of climate change, the scientists studying it and looking for solutions, a President who genuinely cares and a scientist that voluntarily lives and hangs ou...more
For my tastes, the story was stretched out over too many pages (3 books). To me, it also felt like a fix-up - the story jumped around between the experiences of a number of characters in ways that too often seemed tangential or peripheral. Robinson fit in a lot of interesting discussions on a wide range of topics, but that doesn't necessarily make a good novel. The pace of events is slow...
Sadly, I found the start of serious efforts on climate change to be unrealistic. Although the trilogy descr...more
Sadly, I found the start of serious efforts on climate change to be unrealistic. Although the trilogy descr...more
This is the conclusion of the climate change trilogy, Forty Signs of Rain/Fifty Degrees Below/Sixty Days and Counting, which really should be read as one complete work for maximum enjoyment. Like most Kim Stanley Robinson works, this one is as much about the ideas as it is about the story, but it is also interesting to follow the main characters through the changes in their lives. The main theme of this series is the way that social injustice has lead us directly to the environmental precipice w...more
The meeting of American Socialism and Tibetan Buddhism.
Yesterday I finished listening to this last part of the Kim Stanley Robinson trilogy ‘Science in the Capital’. After ‘living’ these three books (Robinson has such great descriptive power in his writing it is hard not to get drawn in completely to the universe he creates.) I was sad to let it go. I was also hoping for a good ending, with not too much in the way of surprise and tragedy, and I was pleased that my hopes were fulfilled. When you...more
Yesterday I finished listening to this last part of the Kim Stanley Robinson trilogy ‘Science in the Capital’. After ‘living’ these three books (Robinson has such great descriptive power in his writing it is hard not to get drawn in completely to the universe he creates.) I was sad to let it go. I was also hoping for a good ending, with not too much in the way of surprise and tragedy, and I was pleased that my hopes were fulfilled. When you...more
This third volume of Robinson's *Science in the Capital* trilogy ties up the threads from *Forty Signs of Rain* and *Fifty Degrees Below*. Robinson's critical-utopian writing, composed in the last days of Bush the Infant's reign, reveals a respect for science and cooperative Zen-like respect for a sustainable planet--the the face of global warming and its discontents: vast climatic change, rising sea levels, and venal human beings. Set in the same future as *Antarctica*, the trilogy imagines tha...more
While Frank is again a problematic character for this series, this book falls flat more because of the author's resort to unfounded environmentalist techno-babble. While in the second book, the strength of the story was in its realistic depiction of the thermohaline stall, here his energy voodoo plans come up far short (although I do love the notion of the traveling nuclear power plant). Moreover, the rhetoric of the blog posts from a supposedly sitting President is just silly and unrealistic. I...more
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
I just finished the Science in the Capital series, which begins with Forty Below. I thought that it would be a "disaster" series, but it is definitely not. I almost hated the first book, but it must be gotten through. I learned an incredible amount about global warming, and it changed my attitude completely. I was always a bury-my-head-in-the-sand reactionary kind of activist, but this series is about TERRAFORMING THE FRICKING EARTH! Science is an amazing thing--scary as hell, but amazing. I wou...more
I said I wouldn't but eventually I did. This is the last of Kim Stanley Robinson's climate series, which I've already reviewed. It is an attempt to make exciting fiction out of both climate change and NSF administrators, which is a tall order. The amazing part is that Robinson succeeds as well as he does, which is a testament to his abilities.
Robinson's writing skills shine through and there are passages that bite right through to your soul. But far too often he's trying to make a point and it r...more
Robinson's writing skills shine through and there are passages that bite right through to your soul. But far too often he's trying to make a point and it r...more
*SPOILER ALERT* Bad guys caught, climate crisis averted through amazing feats of monster engineering and stalwart political action, China and the U.S. partnered & allied, capitalism shaped to support environmental rescues, three couples married on the same day (one of which buys a major ocean-view house in Leucadia on a professor's salary) and the Dalai Lama returned to Tibet!! What's not to love about such a great outcome? It is kind of nice that he gets it both ways here - the dire not-too...more
I ripped through it and the whole series as the books came out, but I don't think I'll ever re-read them, unlike a number of Robinson's other books. This is also the review which got me my (thus far) single taste of the big time, with a subsequent review of
A Lion Among Men
being published in The Globe and Mail. But for my review of Sixty Days and Counting, click here.
Sep 05, 2010
David C. Mueller
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
sf-kim-stanley-robinson
As with most novels by this author, this book included lots of scenes involving detailed descriptions of landscapes. The story is typical for this author; a main character with lots of angst over the woman he loves, technology that realistic yet forward-looking for the era the story is set in, and a good dose of well-thought insights on capitalism, politics, and those who wield power over the rest of us. I did not read the others two books in the series, "Forty Signs of Rain" and "Fifty Degrees...more
Kim Stanley Robinson writes what I like to call humanistic science fiction. All this characters are highly developed within his books and the storys just revolve around these fully developed characters.
The three books in the series follow our protaganist through an Earth transformed by severe climate changes and what that does to him personally and how it reshapes society in response to those changes. All three books stand on their own but you get a better picture by reading all three in order.
I...more
The three books in the series follow our protaganist through an Earth transformed by severe climate changes and what that does to him personally and how it reshapes society in response to those changes. All three books stand on their own but you get a better picture by reading all three in order.
I...more
By the time Phil Chase is elected president, the world’s climate is far on its way to irreversible change. Food scarcity, housing shortages, diminishing medical care, and vanishing species are just some of the consequences. The erratic winter the Washington, D.C., area is experiencing is another grim reminder of a global weather pattern gone haywire: bone-chilling cold one day, balmy weather the next.
But the president-elect remains optimistic and doesn’t intend to give up without a fight. A mave...more
But the president-elect remains optimistic and doesn’t intend to give up without a fight. A mave...more
This is the third in Robinson’s “Science in the Capital” series, and the review I am posting is really for the trilogy rather than this book specifically. I like Kim Stanley Robinson’s work, but part of me feels like I should like him better than I do. I always seem to love the beginnings, get carried pretty far in, and then feel like I have to slog through the end. It often feels as if he get towards the end of the work and just starts spewing all the ideas that he wanted to express, but couldn...more
Curiously enough, Robinson defied my expectation and wrapped this series up stronger than he began it.
To recap, the trilogy follows the lives of some Washington, D.C., folks (and a few others) as they struggle with the sudden onset of dramatic changes in weather patterns as climate change accelerates.
Robinson is science-heavy, as usual. This is by far his biggest strength as an author, and often — but not always — more than compensates for his weaknesses as a storyteller.
In the first two thirds...more
To recap, the trilogy follows the lives of some Washington, D.C., folks (and a few others) as they struggle with the sudden onset of dramatic changes in weather patterns as climate change accelerates.
Robinson is science-heavy, as usual. This is by far his biggest strength as an author, and often — but not always — more than compensates for his weaknesses as a storyteller.
In the first two thirds...more
A somewhat satisfying conclusion to KSR's global-warming trilogy, but not to the problem itself. Always the hopeless optimist, the author clearly believes that working together on the issue, in ways such as pumping excess sea water into the world's dry basins and onto the antarctic ice shelf, is as much as we can hope for, even under the overly generous political and social conditions he constructs to set the stage. I didn't really expect his characters to "solve" climate change by the end of th...more
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 Quibler family and the Bu...more
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 lifting of ty...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 lifting of ty...more
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
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, "It's too late. What can w...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, "It's too late. What can w...more
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Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer, probably best known for his award-winning Mars trilogy.
His work delves into ecological and sociological themes regularly, and many of his novels appear to be the direct result of his own scientific fascinations, such as the 15 years of research and lifelong fascination with Mars which culminated in his most famous work. He has, due to his...more
More about Kim Stanley Robinson...
His work delves into ecological and sociological themes regularly, and many of his novels appear to be the direct result of his own scientific fascinations, such as the 15 years of research and lifelong fascination with Mars which culminated in his most famous work. He has, due to his...more
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“All the repetitions in the pattern were superficial; the moment was always new. It had to be lived, and then the next moment embraced as it arrived.”
—
11 people liked it
“We have to start doing this in ignorance of the details of how to do it. We have to learn how to do it in the attempt itself. It is something we are going to have to imagine.”
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2 people liked it
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