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Icehenge
An early novel from Science Fiction legend Kim Stanley Robinson, now available for the first time in Icehenge .
On the North Pole of Pluto there stands an a huge circle of standing blocks of ice, built on the pattern of Earth's Stonehenge--but ten times the size, standing alone at the farthest reaches of the Solar System. What is it? Who came there to build it?
The secret lies, perhaps, in the chaotic decades of the Martian Revolution, in the lost memories of those who have lived for centuries.
On the North Pole of Pluto there stands an a huge circle of standing blocks of ice, built on the pattern of Earth's Stonehenge--but ten times the size, standing alone at the farthest reaches of the Solar System. What is it? Who came there to build it?
The secret lies, perhaps, in the chaotic decades of the Martian Revolution, in the lost memories of those who have lived for centuries.
288 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1984
81 people are currently reading
2080 people want to read
About the author
Kim Stanley Robinson
250 books7,486 followersKim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer. He has published 22 novels and numerous short stories and is best known for his Mars trilogy. His work has been translated into 24 languages. Many of his novels and stories have ecological, cultural, and political themes and feature scientists as heroes. Robinson has won numerous awards, including the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the World Fantasy Award. The Atlantic has called Robinson's work "the gold standard of realistic, and highly literary, science-fiction writing." According to an article in The New Yorker, Robinson is "generally acknowledged as one of the greatest living science-fiction writers."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 240 reviews
December 22, 2020
This was a very pleasant surprise. Not only had I not known that Kim Stanley Robinson had written three rather good novellas that pretty much outline the immense worldbuilding of Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars, it also spans four hundred years, most of the major issues including the revolution on Mars, the memory issues, and the greater terraforming of the Solar System, but it did it 6 years before Red Mars even came out.
Totally fascinating.
Granted it's not an action novel. Indeed, it reads more like science mystery and archeology, a true Future History that deals with some really fascinating structures found on Pluto, other "lost history" issues on Mars, itself. And then there is the humanist angle that pretty much dominates the entire text from all three time periods.
I DO recommend this for anyone who is a fan of the big trilogy and who would love to get a side-take on the vast worldbuilding. I wouldn't particularly recommend starting here, but as a freakishly good, idea-packed philosophical, scientific, and archeological take on our future that neatly dovetails into most, if not all of his other future histories, it should definitely not be ignored.
You hear that, fanboys and fangirls?
Totally fascinating.
Granted it's not an action novel. Indeed, it reads more like science mystery and archeology, a true Future History that deals with some really fascinating structures found on Pluto, other "lost history" issues on Mars, itself. And then there is the humanist angle that pretty much dominates the entire text from all three time periods.
I DO recommend this for anyone who is a fan of the big trilogy and who would love to get a side-take on the vast worldbuilding. I wouldn't particularly recommend starting here, but as a freakishly good, idea-packed philosophical, scientific, and archeological take on our future that neatly dovetails into most, if not all of his other future histories, it should definitely not be ignored.
You hear that, fanboys and fangirls?
February 6, 2019
Once we were taut bowstrings, vibrant on the bow of mortality — now the bow has been unstrung, and we lie limp, and the arrow has clattered to the ground.
Now that’s KSR that I love! Written in the spirit of Mars trilogy, it takes place in the same universe; could be regarded as a branch, if you disregard the minor discrepancies between the two.
Icehenge consists of 3 intertwined stories, each one with its own PoV, written at first person. I won’t make a summary – the blurb is highly accurate -, however I’ll say this: in such a short novel, KSR managed to touch a multitude of topics: history, archeology, politics, personal identity, mystery, corruption, conspiracy, environment, all in one perfect worldbuilding. That’s one thing that amazes me when reading KSR: his great skill in making a perfect believable world, with so many topics in it.
And so history is made, because facts are not things. But things make facts or break them, or so the archaeologist believes. For every great lie of history — if we assume they were all caught, which would be wrong — for the Tudors’ Richard III, for the first Soviet century, the Americans’ Truman, the South African war, the Mercury disaster — for each of these lies there had been a revision based on things.
The story is not centered on action; the three PoVs are basically records/memoirs of those living it: their struggles, emotions, fears, desires and most of all, pursue of their goals, each of them with their unique personality.
“We dream, we wake on a cold hillside, we pursue the dream again. In the beginning was the dream, and the work of disenchantment never ends.”
They are more psychological journeys inside the minds of the three characters than anything else, which I didn’t mind at all. You get to see the action through their very eyes.
And most of all, I loved the way KSR chose to end the story.
The parallel with unsolved mystery of ancient monuments on Earth is pretty clear. There are presented a lot of theories on who built Icehenge and its scope, even those concerning ‘ancient aliens’.
Who built Icehenge and why? Your turn to make a guess.
Our lives are plants, creating leaves and flowers that fall away and are lost forever. I suppose that writing this account on these leaves will make little difference; words are gossamer in a basalt world.
LE: Thanks to Peter Tillman's review, I came across this lovely & funny tribute vignette by Michael Swanwick:
http://www.abyssapexzine.com/archives...
Now that’s KSR that I love! Written in the spirit of Mars trilogy, it takes place in the same universe; could be regarded as a branch, if you disregard the minor discrepancies between the two.
Icehenge consists of 3 intertwined stories, each one with its own PoV, written at first person. I won’t make a summary – the blurb is highly accurate -, however I’ll say this: in such a short novel, KSR managed to touch a multitude of topics: history, archeology, politics, personal identity, mystery, corruption, conspiracy, environment, all in one perfect worldbuilding. That’s one thing that amazes me when reading KSR: his great skill in making a perfect believable world, with so many topics in it.
And so history is made, because facts are not things. But things make facts or break them, or so the archaeologist believes. For every great lie of history — if we assume they were all caught, which would be wrong — for the Tudors’ Richard III, for the first Soviet century, the Americans’ Truman, the South African war, the Mercury disaster — for each of these lies there had been a revision based on things.
The story is not centered on action; the three PoVs are basically records/memoirs of those living it: their struggles, emotions, fears, desires and most of all, pursue of their goals, each of them with their unique personality.
“We dream, we wake on a cold hillside, we pursue the dream again. In the beginning was the dream, and the work of disenchantment never ends.”
They are more psychological journeys inside the minds of the three characters than anything else, which I didn’t mind at all. You get to see the action through their very eyes.
And most of all, I loved the way KSR chose to end the story.
The parallel with unsolved mystery of ancient monuments on Earth is pretty clear. There are presented a lot of theories on who built Icehenge and its scope, even those concerning ‘ancient aliens’.
Who built Icehenge and why? Your turn to make a guess.
Our lives are plants, creating leaves and flowers that fall away and are lost forever. I suppose that writing this account on these leaves will make little difference; words are gossamer in a basalt world.
LE: Thanks to Peter Tillman's review, I came across this lovely & funny tribute vignette by Michael Swanwick:
http://www.abyssapexzine.com/archives...
June 23, 2025
Три свързани новели, в които Ким Стенли Робинсън е избрал различно бъдеще за Червената планета и за човешката експанзия в Космоса. Харесаха ми!
Героите са умело създадени и е интересно да проследиш историите им.
Според мен е добре да се прочете тази книга след трилогията му за Марс, чудесно я допълва и дава нови насоки и перспективи.
Допада ми как пише автора, ще потърся другите му книги на английски. И се надявам да ги видим и тях един ден преведени на български!
Цитат:
"Не е ли любовта сред способностите ни, които се изчерпват, изтичат подобно на вода от подземно езеро?"
Героите са умело създадени и е интересно да проследиш историите им.
Според мен е добре да се прочете тази книга след трилогията му за Марс, чудесно я допълва и дава нови насоки и перспективи.
Допада ми как пише автора, ще потърся другите му книги на английски. И се надявам да ги видим и тях един ден преведени на български!
Цитат:
"Не е ли любовта сред способностите ни, които се изчерпват, изтичат подобно на вода от подземно езеро?"
July 17, 2019
Icehenge, Kim Stanley Robinson's second-published novel, is an interesting artifact (that tells the story of an interesting artifact). It's comprised of three loosely-connected novellas spanning some 400 years of our solar system's future, and in a lot of ways it feels like an early proof-of-concept for KSR's celebrated Mars Trilogy.
My copy, while not a first edition, is a battered mass-market paperback printed in 1990, and it's clear Tor's marketers weren't quite sure what to do with this strange little novel. KSR was not yet particularly well-known, and his detail-obsessed, occasionally pedantic style was still finding its footing. Most of the tension in the book simmers around a failed revolution of Martian colonists that is not directly depicted, the titular ice monument on Pluto does not make an appearance until halfway through, and - while impressive - the sculpture's provenance never feels particularly mysterious to the reader until very late in the book. How do you get people to buy this thing?
Well, here's the blurb they came up with (best to read it in the Honest Trailers guy's voice):
I love how this description does not mention Mars at all, and how the first third of the book takes place on that purportedly nonexistent ship, and how it portrays Icehenge as 8 times taller than it actually is in the book, and how crushingly disappointed any fan of archaeological SF would be upon cracking this thing open and finding a slow-burn political novel of ideas...
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's what the book is actually about:
The first novella, originally published separately under the title "To Leave a Mark," takes place in 2248 and is narrated by Emma Weil, a Martian-born life support systems expert on an asteroid-mining ship. She's faced with a dilemma when mutineers from the dissident Mars Starship Associaton take over and request her help in converting three stolen ships into vessels capable of keeping explorers alive through the centuries-long journey to another star system. After spending some time with the mutineers, Weil's loyalty to the ruling Mars Development Committee starts to waver and she becomes sympathetic to the revolutionary cause.
Set in 2547, the second novella is narrated by Hjalmar Nederland, a Martian archaeologist who begins to question the official narrative of the failed revolution three hundred years earlier when he discovers Weil's diary in the ruins of a demolished dome city. When he gets news that a strange ice monument has been discovered on Pluto, he links the artifact to Weil's starship builders, whom she had witnessed drawing circular diagrams with the note: "Something to leave a mark on the world, something to show we were here at all."
A century later, the final novella (originally published separately as "On the North Pole of Pluto") follows Edmond Doya, Nederland's great-grandson, on his mission to Pluto to disprove his ancestor's theory. Doya believes that the Weil diary was a hoax, that the Starship Association never existed, and that the entire Icehenge structure is a deception. But built by whom, and for what purpose?
Throughout these interconnected novellas, those who have read the Mars Trilogy will recognize several common themes: the tensions with Earth, the friction between Soviet- and American-born Martian colonists, the cataclysmic revolutionary wars, the longevity treatments keeping characters alive way past their expiration date, the harsh and lovingly-described Martian landscapes. Before the publication of that trilogy, this book must have been impressive for its meticulous depiction of the red planet, its thoughtfully crafted political history, its exploration of sociological issues in an unfamiliar future. Reading Icehenge now, though, it feels like a first draft, bursting with ideas that would be greatly expanded on in KSR's future novels.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy the book - it has its own charm, and I think it holds up well enough on its own to deserve 3.5 stars rounded up to four. I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone who wasn't already a fan of KSR's work, but it's an interesting piece of his literary history and something of a diamond in the rough.
My copy, while not a first edition, is a battered mass-market paperback printed in 1990, and it's clear Tor's marketers weren't quite sure what to do with this strange little novel. KSR was not yet particularly well-known, and his detail-obsessed, occasionally pedantic style was still finding its footing. Most of the tension in the book simmers around a failed revolution of Martian colonists that is not directly depicted, the titular ice monument on Pluto does not make an appearance until halfway through, and - while impressive - the sculpture's provenance never feels particularly mysterious to the reader until very late in the book. How do you get people to buy this thing?
Well, here's the blurb they came up with (best to read it in the Honest Trailers guy's voice):
It stands at the north pole of the planet Pluto-- a giant's dance of ice frozen harder than stone, harder than steel. Each slab towers two hundred feet above the crater-pocked surface; the one in the center bears an inscription in Sanskrit.
The first mission to Pluto found it there already, waiting for them.
Is it a starlit message from an alien race? Or does it mark a human mystery? For there was one ship that might have passed this way, forgotten decades ago-- if the crew survived. If the ship existed at all...
I love how this description does not mention Mars at all, and how the first third of the book takes place on that purportedly nonexistent ship, and how it portrays Icehenge as 8 times taller than it actually is in the book, and how crushingly disappointed any fan of archaeological SF would be upon cracking this thing open and finding a slow-burn political novel of ideas...
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's what the book is actually about:
The first novella, originally published separately under the title "To Leave a Mark," takes place in 2248 and is narrated by Emma Weil, a Martian-born life support systems expert on an asteroid-mining ship. She's faced with a dilemma when mutineers from the dissident Mars Starship Associaton take over and request her help in converting three stolen ships into vessels capable of keeping explorers alive through the centuries-long journey to another star system. After spending some time with the mutineers, Weil's loyalty to the ruling Mars Development Committee starts to waver and she becomes sympathetic to the revolutionary cause.
Set in 2547, the second novella is narrated by Hjalmar Nederland, a Martian archaeologist who begins to question the official narrative of the failed revolution three hundred years earlier when he discovers Weil's diary in the ruins of a demolished dome city. When he gets news that a strange ice monument has been discovered on Pluto, he links the artifact to Weil's starship builders, whom she had witnessed drawing circular diagrams with the note: "Something to leave a mark on the world, something to show we were here at all."
A century later, the final novella (originally published separately as "On the North Pole of Pluto") follows Edmond Doya, Nederland's great-grandson, on his mission to Pluto to disprove his ancestor's theory. Doya believes that the Weil diary was a hoax, that the Starship Association never existed, and that the entire Icehenge structure is a deception. But built by whom, and for what purpose?
Throughout these interconnected novellas, those who have read the Mars Trilogy will recognize several common themes: the tensions with Earth, the friction between Soviet- and American-born Martian colonists, the cataclysmic revolutionary wars, the longevity treatments keeping characters alive way past their expiration date, the harsh and lovingly-described Martian landscapes. Before the publication of that trilogy, this book must have been impressive for its meticulous depiction of the red planet, its thoughtfully crafted political history, its exploration of sociological issues in an unfamiliar future. Reading Icehenge now, though, it feels like a first draft, bursting with ideas that would be greatly expanded on in KSR's future novels.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy the book - it has its own charm, and I think it holds up well enough on its own to deserve 3.5 stars rounded up to four. I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone who wasn't already a fan of KSR's work, but it's an interesting piece of his literary history and something of a diamond in the rough.
December 23, 2020
Funny how this started as 3 stars for me, moved to 4 stars, and now, upon rating it a day later than I finished reading it I'm giving it 5 stars, but that's because it took some time for me to understand what I was reading and why.
The novel consists of three parts, which are in actuality three separate stories, taking place many, many years apart and connected to events that happen in the first part. Part one is the journal of a woman who is on a spaceship when an uprising occurs. The second part is an elderly man's obsession with the journal, the uprising, and the newfound monoliths on Pluto, and the third part is a young man, the latter's great grandson as it were, who sets out to see the monoliths for himself and ultimately solve the mystery of them.
I deeply admire the amount of work and research that goes into Kim Stanley Robinson's work. Historically and technically this all seems entirely plausible. I admire his structure, which even though it threw me a bit at the start, is genius in retrospect. And lastly he is a masterful and assured writer, sharp as a razor blade and there is never a surperfluous word. It definitely shows that he has been enrolled in Ursula K. Le Guin's writing workshop.
The novel consists of three parts, which are in actuality three separate stories, taking place many, many years apart and connected to events that happen in the first part. Part one is the journal of a woman who is on a spaceship when an uprising occurs. The second part is an elderly man's obsession with the journal, the uprising, and the newfound monoliths on Pluto, and the third part is a young man, the latter's great grandson as it were, who sets out to see the monoliths for himself and ultimately solve the mystery of them.
I deeply admire the amount of work and research that goes into Kim Stanley Robinson's work. Historically and technically this all seems entirely plausible. I admire his structure, which even though it threw me a bit at the start, is genius in retrospect. And lastly he is a masterful and assured writer, sharp as a razor blade and there is never a surperfluous word. It definitely shows that he has been enrolled in Ursula K. Le Guin's writing workshop.
August 3, 2024
2.5 Stars
I appreciate that Tor keeps republishing out-of-print books under the Tor Essentials.
I have read Kim Stanley Robinson before but I wasn't even aware of this title. Some of this author's books have been absolute favourites while others have… not. In this case, I really struggled with this one. I found it to be so dry and not as interesting as it should have been given the premise. It had a setup for a big mystery but I found myself not as invested as I will like.
Regardless, I am always grateful for the opportunity to read a released title that would otherwise be unavailable to me. While it wasn't a favourite for me, I can see from the reviews that it is for others.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
I appreciate that Tor keeps republishing out-of-print books under the Tor Essentials.
I have read Kim Stanley Robinson before but I wasn't even aware of this title. Some of this author's books have been absolute favourites while others have… not. In this case, I really struggled with this one. I found it to be so dry and not as interesting as it should have been given the premise. It had a setup for a big mystery but I found myself not as invested as I will like.
Regardless, I am always grateful for the opportunity to read a released title that would otherwise be unavailable to me. While it wasn't a favourite for me, I can see from the reviews that it is for others.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
July 25, 2012
This is the worst book I have read this year, and is quite possibly a top five choice for the last five years.
This book was either as bad as I thought it was or it was way too smart for me, which is quite possible. I knew that I should have bailed on this book about 1/4 of the way into it, but I decided to stick around because I was hoping that the ending would tie everything together with a clever twist or revelation. The more I hung around, the more I realized that there were fewer and fewer pages for this twist or revelation to take place. I was so optimistic that even with less than a page left, I kept hoping for something to take place just to make the time I spent reading this book worth it.
My first thought that I should cut my losses was when I realized that there was way to much real estate being given to explaining/describing the environment in detail. This is not normally a bad thing, but I felt as though the author was trying to fill up the pages by trying to pass off superfluous detail as creative writing.
The second clue was that the word 'Icehenge' didn't show up until almost the halfway point of the book, and even then it did not become the main focus of the book until the last 1/3. This is, by the way, the reason that I picked up the book; to find some clever connection between Stonehenge and Icehenge, as promised on the jacket.
Three stories/autobiographies from three different characters. Two of them were only mildly interesting, and by mildly, I mean that once you dug through the layers of useless description, there were only a page or two that actually intrigued me enough to make me want to turn the page on their own merit. The third story actually explores Icehenge but with zero payoff, making reading this autobiography a waste of time as well. Count in the fact that one of the stories might be misdirection and the other, which is based off of it, might be as well, then you truly put the book down after the final page to feel very unrewarded. It is like you have been promised to be taken on an exotic vacation only to be put on a slow moving/boring Greyhound bus for hours and when you arrive at your destination, you realize it is the dilapidated park in your own neighborhood.
This is a shame too, because I actually liked some of the ideas put forth in the book such as the longevity of the human life span, the funk one encounters with extra years due to a lack of purpose and the idea that longevity of memory is not included with an extended life span. But these ideas are mentioned and not truly expanded upon in a way that would have made the book more interesting. None of them would have saved the book from the fact that it did not answer its own question or at least leave me thinking in any constructive way after I turned the final page, but at least I would have been somewhat more entertained by this book.
This book was either as bad as I thought it was or it was way too smart for me, which is quite possible. I knew that I should have bailed on this book about 1/4 of the way into it, but I decided to stick around because I was hoping that the ending would tie everything together with a clever twist or revelation. The more I hung around, the more I realized that there were fewer and fewer pages for this twist or revelation to take place. I was so optimistic that even with less than a page left, I kept hoping for something to take place just to make the time I spent reading this book worth it.
My first thought that I should cut my losses was when I realized that there was way to much real estate being given to explaining/describing the environment in detail. This is not normally a bad thing, but I felt as though the author was trying to fill up the pages by trying to pass off superfluous detail as creative writing.
The second clue was that the word 'Icehenge' didn't show up until almost the halfway point of the book, and even then it did not become the main focus of the book until the last 1/3. This is, by the way, the reason that I picked up the book; to find some clever connection between Stonehenge and Icehenge, as promised on the jacket.
Three stories/autobiographies from three different characters. Two of them were only mildly interesting, and by mildly, I mean that once you dug through the layers of useless description, there were only a page or two that actually intrigued me enough to make me want to turn the page on their own merit. The third story actually explores Icehenge but with zero payoff, making reading this autobiography a waste of time as well. Count in the fact that one of the stories might be misdirection and the other, which is based off of it, might be as well, then you truly put the book down after the final page to feel very unrewarded. It is like you have been promised to be taken on an exotic vacation only to be put on a slow moving/boring Greyhound bus for hours and when you arrive at your destination, you realize it is the dilapidated park in your own neighborhood.
This is a shame too, because I actually liked some of the ideas put forth in the book such as the longevity of the human life span, the funk one encounters with extra years due to a lack of purpose and the idea that longevity of memory is not included with an extended life span. But these ideas are mentioned and not truly expanded upon in a way that would have made the book more interesting. None of them would have saved the book from the fact that it did not answer its own question or at least leave me thinking in any constructive way after I turned the final page, but at least I would have been somewhat more entertained by this book.
July 14, 2024
"What we feel most, we remember best."
One of KSR's early works (1984), and it is a fascinating look at historiography in a future society - how do we remember the past? Who tells the story of the past?
The story unfolds in 3 parts:
- Year 2248: the logs and diaries of Emma Weil, a communications tech on a Martian mining spaceship who becomes involved in a mutiny/rebellion against Martian commercial interests
- Year 2547: first-person narrative of Hjalmar Nederland, a Martian historian and archaeologist who uncovers archaeological evidence of the Weil's rebellion 300 years hence, despite the Martian "Committee" efforts to erase and quell this history. It is in this longest middle novella that the story of Icehenge is introduced, a ring of ice megaliths that stand on the North Pole of Pluto at the edge of our solar system. Who planted these liths and why? What does the inscription on the liths mean?
- Year 2610: the first-person narrative of Edmund Doya, the great grandson of Nederland and also a historian who has studied Icehenge and his ancestor's work extensively. His theories about the origins of the megalithic structure trace back hundreds of years and question the story that has become canon.
I went into this one with middling expectations, and was curious to read more of KSR's early work as I'm more familiar with this later works like AURORA and MINISTRY FOR THE FUTURE. This book was SO much more than what the back-of-blurb book promised. I could see his links to his mentor Le Guin with the archaeological nods, but also the political and economic futures threads that he explores in depth in later books.
4.25*/5
One of KSR's early works (1984), and it is a fascinating look at historiography in a future society - how do we remember the past? Who tells the story of the past?
The story unfolds in 3 parts:
- Year 2248: the logs and diaries of Emma Weil, a communications tech on a Martian mining spaceship who becomes involved in a mutiny/rebellion against Martian commercial interests
- Year 2547: first-person narrative of Hjalmar Nederland, a Martian historian and archaeologist who uncovers archaeological evidence of the Weil's rebellion 300 years hence, despite the Martian "Committee" efforts to erase and quell this history. It is in this longest middle novella that the story of Icehenge is introduced, a ring of ice megaliths that stand on the North Pole of Pluto at the edge of our solar system. Who planted these liths and why? What does the inscription on the liths mean?
- Year 2610: the first-person narrative of Edmund Doya, the great grandson of Nederland and also a historian who has studied Icehenge and his ancestor's work extensively. His theories about the origins of the megalithic structure trace back hundreds of years and question the story that has become canon.
I went into this one with middling expectations, and was curious to read more of KSR's early work as I'm more familiar with this later works like AURORA and MINISTRY FOR THE FUTURE. This book was SO much more than what the back-of-blurb book promised. I could see his links to his mentor Le Guin with the archaeological nods, but also the political and economic futures threads that he explores in depth in later books.
4.25*/5
August 12, 2016
Almost a prequel to KSR's amazing Mars Trilogy.
Three novellas about a mutiny, a planned interstellar journey, a strange monument left behind on Pluto and their consequences for historians of Mars.
I liked Emma Weil's tampering with designs for a bacterial life support system, that's the sort of thing I love in science fiction. Doya's listless, tramp-like lifestyle and Nederland's exploration of what it's like to age beyond the natural human lifespan were also great. Kind of typical Robinson subjects, but he always makes them seem so amazing.
I liked the conspiracy theorist's final theory, because it tied everything together, but I hated that character.
I'd have liked to see more about the doomed interstellar journey, but supposedly that's going to be the subject of KSR's next novel, Aurora.
Three novellas about a mutiny, a planned interstellar journey, a strange monument left behind on Pluto and their consequences for historians of Mars.
I liked Emma Weil's tampering with designs for a bacterial life support system, that's the sort of thing I love in science fiction. Doya's listless, tramp-like lifestyle and Nederland's exploration of what it's like to age beyond the natural human lifespan were also great. Kind of typical Robinson subjects, but he always makes them seem so amazing.
I liked the conspiracy theorist's final theory, because it tied everything together, but I hated that character.
I'd have liked to see more about the doomed interstellar journey, but supposedly that's going to be the subject of KSR's next novel, Aurora.
March 12, 2017
Part mystery, part political, this is three novellas that are interconnected. They look at a single event from different perspectives of age, and leave the reader to resolve the answer in the end - possibly with another mystery.
In this version of the future, lifespans have been increased far beyond today (500 years is not uncommon), and humanity has populated many places in the solar system, including many bases on Mars. A terraforming project is underway behind the scenes also, because by the end the Martian atmosphere is breathable with slight oxygen assistance.
Politically, the Soviet Union still exists (as we thought it would in 1984), and Russians make up half the colonists. Soviet-American politics aren't the focus, however - it is the Martian colonist versus the "Development Committee" which leads to the Martian civil war of the first novella.
By the end of the book, we also see colonies on other worlds and moons (Titan!), and body surf in a methane wave-pool on an asteroid converted into a wildly orbiting pleasure craft. I enjoyed this survey of Robinson's future vision, which definitely falls into the hopeful category.
It's been many years since I read anything larger than a short story from Kim Stanley Robinson, and his Mars trilogy is still on my to-read list. This book is the authors second published novel, and the first two of the three novellas were previously published also. That said, this novel is unlike many of the books available at the time, and I really enjoyed reading it. 4 stars.
In this version of the future, lifespans have been increased far beyond today (500 years is not uncommon), and humanity has populated many places in the solar system, including many bases on Mars. A terraforming project is underway behind the scenes also, because by the end the Martian atmosphere is breathable with slight oxygen assistance.
Politically, the Soviet Union still exists (as we thought it would in 1984), and Russians make up half the colonists. Soviet-American politics aren't the focus, however - it is the Martian colonist versus the "Development Committee" which leads to the Martian civil war of the first novella.
By the end of the book, we also see colonies on other worlds and moons (Titan!), and body surf in a methane wave-pool on an asteroid converted into a wildly orbiting pleasure craft. I enjoyed this survey of Robinson's future vision, which definitely falls into the hopeful category.
It's been many years since I read anything larger than a short story from Kim Stanley Robinson, and his Mars trilogy is still on my to-read list. This book is the authors second published novel, and the first two of the three novellas were previously published also. That said, this novel is unlike many of the books available at the time, and I really enjoyed reading it. 4 stars.
August 24, 2011
I loved this! It is great for people who can't get enough of KSR's Mars trilogy. It's a much earlier imagining of some of the ideas that he must have developed over years of research in order to write those later books with his amazing attention to detail. At the same time, it's a completely different kind of thing - a science fiction book that is also a mystery. We see the story told through the experiences of three characters, each story set hundreds of years apart.
In this universe people can expect to live for hundreds of years, but can only recall things from no more than about 80 years previously. This means that each stage of life is more like a reincarnation in which a person might be able to use something they've learned in a previous life, but have no ability to recall how they learned it - unless they kept journals or diaries that they can refer back to.
So we see the mystery from several different angles over time, and we get a variety of different solutions to it, including a good look at conspiracy theories. I figured out the answer long before the explanation at the end, but that in no way lessened my enjoyment of the story. As with all KSR stories, the enjoyment is in the way it's told along with the detailed exploration of human society and the myriad ways it can be constructed.
In this universe people can expect to live for hundreds of years, but can only recall things from no more than about 80 years previously. This means that each stage of life is more like a reincarnation in which a person might be able to use something they've learned in a previous life, but have no ability to recall how they learned it - unless they kept journals or diaries that they can refer back to.
So we see the mystery from several different angles over time, and we get a variety of different solutions to it, including a good look at conspiracy theories. I figured out the answer long before the explanation at the end, but that in no way lessened my enjoyment of the story. As with all KSR stories, the enjoyment is in the way it's told along with the detailed exploration of human society and the myriad ways it can be constructed.
June 14, 2024
This might seem like a short novel, but it's dense. Written as 3 different narratives, it explores the relationship between memory and legacy. In this future, no one dies anymore. They just keep on living... this means a couple of things: first, it means that there's no change by natural attrition. The people in power do everything they can to stay in power, and there's no hope for better successors because no one leaves their posts. Second, also in this world, people don't retain their memories for much longer than we do. Even though their lives have been extended, it doesn't mean they have the capacity to retain their foundational experiences. (There's a throwaway line about how people write and publish their autobiographies, in part so that they can remember their own pasts.)
In this environment, we read three different narratives. Emma Weil is caught up in the Martian revolution. A few hundred years later, Hjalmar Nederland discovers her diary, one of the few firsthand accounts remaining of the events. And a few hundred years after that, Edmond Doya posits that Nederland's discoveries were all a hoax. But if they were a hoax, what does that mean about the political reforms that Nederland was able to push through by revealing the atrocities of the Civil War - especially when many of the men in power are still in power?
Although portions of the book feel dated (the earliest year this takes place is 2248 and the two major powers of Earth are still the US and the USSR; although Emma Weil is the protagonist of the first "book," the powers that be are resolutely masculine), the themes still resonate. This might be short in terms of page count, but it took me a few days to get through, in part because I'd often set it down to think about the issues it raises. Definitely worth checking out!
This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of "Tor Essentials" edition of the book.
In this environment, we read three different narratives. Emma Weil is caught up in the Martian revolution. A few hundred years later, Hjalmar Nederland discovers her diary, one of the few firsthand accounts remaining of the events. And a few hundred years after that, Edmond Doya posits that Nederland's discoveries were all a hoax. But if they were a hoax, what does that mean about the political reforms that Nederland was able to push through by revealing the atrocities of the Civil War - especially when many of the men in power are still in power?
Although portions of the book feel dated (the earliest year this takes place is 2248 and the two major powers of Earth are still the US and the USSR; although Emma Weil is the protagonist of the first "book," the powers that be are resolutely masculine), the themes still resonate. This might be short in terms of page count, but it took me a few days to get through, in part because I'd often set it down to think about the issues it raises. Definitely worth checking out!
This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of "Tor Essentials" edition of the book.
August 5, 2017
In 2248 A.D. Emma Weir, a life support systems experts on a mining expedition from Mars, discovers that there's a mutiny forming.
Three hundred years later, Hjalmar Nederland, an archeologist, uncovers the historical relics of what had happened during that mutiny.
And fifty years after that Edmund Doya is ready to dismantle every conclusion Nederland had come to.
The stories of the three main characters are told consecutively, and all lead to the solution to the central mystery: a structure reminiscent of Stonehenge, made of ice, appeared on Pluto under mysterious circumstances. Who put it there? And why?
While the central themes, mysteries and plot twists are all very interesting, this is a deeply thought-out, hard science fictiony exploration of out of planet colonisation, the political realities of that, the nature of scientific and academic work, and the consequences of long life on humans who weren't meant to live long (in this imagined future people can live hundreds of years). Robinson is interested in memory, identity and political activism. In short, if you're just interested in a thrilling space mystery, you'd probably be disappointed.
It's a love it or hate it sort of book. As an academic, though, I find Robinson's examination and conclusions not only accurate, but heartbreakingly real. There's a quiet tragedy underlying all these characters, that resonates with us today: that it doesn't matter whether you live eighty years or eight hundred. It is never enough. Humans will always reach for something outside of themselves, something bigger.
Three hundred years later, Hjalmar Nederland, an archeologist, uncovers the historical relics of what had happened during that mutiny.
And fifty years after that Edmund Doya is ready to dismantle every conclusion Nederland had come to.
The stories of the three main characters are told consecutively, and all lead to the solution to the central mystery: a structure reminiscent of Stonehenge, made of ice, appeared on Pluto under mysterious circumstances. Who put it there? And why?
While the central themes, mysteries and plot twists are all very interesting, this is a deeply thought-out, hard science fictiony exploration of out of planet colonisation, the political realities of that, the nature of scientific and academic work, and the consequences of long life on humans who weren't meant to live long (in this imagined future people can live hundreds of years). Robinson is interested in memory, identity and political activism. In short, if you're just interested in a thrilling space mystery, you'd probably be disappointed.
It's a love it or hate it sort of book. As an academic, though, I find Robinson's examination and conclusions not only accurate, but heartbreakingly real. There's a quiet tragedy underlying all these characters, that resonates with us today: that it doesn't matter whether you live eighty years or eight hundred. It is never enough. Humans will always reach for something outside of themselves, something bigger.
July 30, 2018
Rating: 2.33
A political science-fiction mystery, although disappointing. Kim Stanley Robinson shows himself as a promising to-be-writer for those times though (1984), when the book was first published, with his good writing style. The mystery is good, but opens up into a not-so-great an ending. The book can be very interesting for someone who ventures into science fiction for the first time. This is a story, in which mankind has settled on Mars and the asteroid belt, a couple of centuries in the future, while human political actions for power still take place. Nothing great as I could see it. I would have preferred to give the book a rating of 2. The additional 0.33 rating is for that small bit of good thoughtfully-provocative lines that I came across during the course of my reading.
I would not really recommend the book, if one has several other wonderful books to read. But if one should enjoy reading a political mystery set in a futuristic scenario, then go for it. :)
A political science-fiction mystery, although disappointing. Kim Stanley Robinson shows himself as a promising to-be-writer for those times though (1984), when the book was first published, with his good writing style. The mystery is good, but opens up into a not-so-great an ending. The book can be very interesting for someone who ventures into science fiction for the first time. This is a story, in which mankind has settled on Mars and the asteroid belt, a couple of centuries in the future, while human political actions for power still take place. Nothing great as I could see it. I would have preferred to give the book a rating of 2. The additional 0.33 rating is for that small bit of good thoughtfully-provocative lines that I came across during the course of my reading.
I would not really recommend the book, if one has several other wonderful books to read. But if one should enjoy reading a political mystery set in a futuristic scenario, then go for it. :)
January 27, 2023
The cover shows a structure similar to Stonehenge, on a rocky ground with a moon and space in the background. First published in 1984, which makes it his second published novel, several years before the Mars Trilogy.
The age shows a little, one part of the political landscape is the Soviet Union, people print out and read paper books and Pluto is still the ninth planet.
We start in 2248 A.D., with Emma Weil on a spaceship in the asteroid belt. There is a revolution brewing on Mars and a mutiny on the ship. The revolution made me think of the Mars Trilogy.
Part Two is Hjalmar Nederland in 2547 A.D., an archaeologist excavating and exploring the Unrest of 2248. I liked the beginning, but skimmed through a lot of the second part of Hjalmar‘s story. Too reflective for my current mood. Great stuff for lovers of Mars stories towards the end. The political dynamics were again very reminiscent of the Mars Trilogy. Maybe Robinson expanded on this story and the idea he developed here for those later books. The story reflects on the loss of memories and self and how history is perceived.
Part Three: Edmond Doya, 2610 A.D., starting with him reminiscing about that expedition to Pluto in 2547, discovering Icehenge. He goes back to Pluto and tries to determine who built Icehenge and what it all means for the history that has been written. Again I liked the start and the ending and skimmed through the rest. The ending was pretty, but unsatisfactory. I don‘t think Robinson and I will become friends anymore, his style is too dry for me, at least in this.
Playlist:
Samuel Barber, Adagio for Strings
Tomaso Albinoni, Adagio in G minor
“Icehenge is Kim Stanley Robinson's second novel, published in the same year as The Wild Shore, 1984. The novel consists of three stories connected through time, two of which were published before and significantly revised for the novel, and one written for the novel.
Icehenge deals with many themes, with each part complementing or shedding light to the other. In a background setting of the colonization of the solar system and social unrest in Mars, Icehenge explores the effects of longevity on human memory, historical memory, historical revisionism and the imperfect knowledge of past events.“
https://www.kimstanleyrobinson.info/n...
PS: I wonder if I would still like the Mars Trilogy, if I re-read it now. I don‘t wonder enough to actually try though.
The age shows a little, one part of the political landscape is the Soviet Union, people print out and read paper books and Pluto is still the ninth planet.
We start in 2248 A.D., with Emma Weil on a spaceship in the asteroid belt. There is a revolution brewing on Mars and a mutiny on the ship. The revolution made me think of the Mars Trilogy.
Part Two is Hjalmar Nederland in 2547 A.D., an archaeologist excavating and exploring the Unrest of 2248. I liked the beginning, but skimmed through a lot of the second part of Hjalmar‘s story. Too reflective for my current mood. Great stuff for lovers of Mars stories towards the end. The political dynamics were again very reminiscent of the Mars Trilogy. Maybe Robinson expanded on this story and the idea he developed here for those later books. The story reflects on the loss of memories and self and how history is perceived.
Part Three: Edmond Doya, 2610 A.D., starting with him reminiscing about that expedition to Pluto in 2547, discovering Icehenge. He goes back to Pluto and tries to determine who built Icehenge and what it all means for the history that has been written. Again I liked the start and the ending and skimmed through the rest. The ending was pretty, but unsatisfactory. I don‘t think Robinson and I will become friends anymore, his style is too dry for me, at least in this.
Playlist:
Samuel Barber, Adagio for Strings
Tomaso Albinoni, Adagio in G minor
“Icehenge is Kim Stanley Robinson's second novel, published in the same year as The Wild Shore, 1984. The novel consists of three stories connected through time, two of which were published before and significantly revised for the novel, and one written for the novel.
Icehenge deals with many themes, with each part complementing or shedding light to the other. In a background setting of the colonization of the solar system and social unrest in Mars, Icehenge explores the effects of longevity on human memory, historical memory, historical revisionism and the imperfect knowledge of past events.“
https://www.kimstanleyrobinson.info/n...
PS: I wonder if I would still like the Mars Trilogy, if I re-read it now. I don‘t wonder enough to actually try though.
August 13, 2023
Icehenge is about longevity and memory; archeology, history, mystery and conspiracy; the urge for exploration and scientific explanation as well as starships; power and corruption; politburo, rebellion and oligarchy.
It actually consists of three novellas, all autobiographical accounts, many years apart and inherently connected. Reading the second and especially third part of the story (/novella) is a great meta-reading experience by providing a so far unexpected view of the previous part(s).
While many themes from the later Mars Trilogy can be found in Icehenge, the focus lies somewhere else: The difficulty of finding the truth.
In the end, the question is not answered. Which bothered me a bit. But one can say, Robinson didn’t want to deliver an answer but a poetic experience.
It actually consists of three novellas, all autobiographical accounts, many years apart and inherently connected. Reading the second and especially third part of the story (/novella) is a great meta-reading experience by providing a so far unexpected view of the previous part(s).
While many themes from the later Mars Trilogy can be found in Icehenge, the focus lies somewhere else: The difficulty of finding the truth.
In the end, the question is not answered. Which bothered me a bit. But one can say, Robinson didn’t want to deliver an answer but a poetic experience.
February 6, 2019
I don't have much memory of the book, but in looking for my notes, if any ("Nice", I wrote, in 1993), I came across this little-known tribute:
Spirits in the Night
by Michael Swanwick
http://www.abyssapexzine.com/archives...
Ginhenge, a landmark on Pluto "was discovered in 2301 by Tristram Lee Robinson, a wealthy sportsman..." KSR is a pal of Swanwick's, and this is an amusing vignette. Be careful what you wish for! And of tasting, at -208 deg C....
Spirits in the Night
by Michael Swanwick
http://www.abyssapexzine.com/archives...
Ginhenge, a landmark on Pluto "was discovered in 2301 by Tristram Lee Robinson, a wealthy sportsman..." KSR is a pal of Swanwick's, and this is an amusing vignette. Be careful what you wish for! And of tasting, at -208 deg C....
Read
October 23, 2024The fascinating ideas of his later work in the Mars Trilogy are here, but the amateurish inner monologues and dialogues make it extremely clear that he wrote this in college. That's still more than I've ever accomplished but it doesn't change the fact some passages are a chore to get through
December 30, 2020
This is a fix-up novel in three parts and it suffers from it, though not by much. As was typical of the time, the Soviet Union plays a role. Much like imagining the end of capitalism*, it was conventional wisdom that the Soviet Union wouldn't collapse, until it did. Although the text wears its influences proudly through its references, one would need to know what its referencing, either through personal experience or research.
I found it to be interesting that the book is ambiguous on whether it's metafictional or a fictional historical account of the future and leaves up that entirely up to the reader's preference. If it seems reminiscent of Ursula K. LeGuin, it is to me, that's because KSR presented this to her as a rough draft for a writing workshop she taught. The relationships between authors is something I find fascinating, but not enough to make even a casual study of it.
In this society, the story of which begins in 2248, people expect to be able to live a millennium, though by the end the oldest alive are in their 500s, and they begin to doubt that sort of life expectancy. Many pages are spent musing about the nature of memory and the self and how the limitations of both are revealed as the centuries pass. This is an age where most write autobiographies now and again to inform the strangers that are their future selves of the people they used to be.
Part One is an entirely standard and solid science fiction story of a female space engineer thrust into dramatic events of dire consequence involving an asteroid mining vessel and the Martian government. Its primary purpose is for the benefit of the second and third stories.
Part Two is about a Martian archeologist concerned with the events of the Part One. It becomes rather existential and alternates between self-reverence and self-abdication. The nature of the creation of history as an active process is also discussed, mostly about its fallibility. Several pages are spent describing his daily bathhouse orgies, which I have to wonder if they were included due to LeGuin's influence from The Left Hand of Darkness. These are by no means the only relationships of his described.
Part Three features a descendant of protagonist of Part Two whose life goal is discover the secret history that his forefather declined to pursue to its end. This displeases the forefather. This part is concerned entirely with the ultimate unknowability of the past and that what we consider as history is simply a succession of preferred narratives, if not outright lies and fabrications.
Ending Quote:
All too true, unfortunately.
Rating: 3.5/5
*Imagining the End of Capitalism With KSR
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/10/kim-st...
I found it to be interesting that the book is ambiguous on whether it's metafictional or a fictional historical account of the future and leaves up that entirely up to the reader's preference. If it seems reminiscent of Ursula K. LeGuin, it is to me, that's because KSR presented this to her as a rough draft for a writing workshop she taught. The relationships between authors is something I find fascinating, but not enough to make even a casual study of it.
In this society, the story of which begins in 2248, people expect to be able to live a millennium, though by the end the oldest alive are in their 500s, and they begin to doubt that sort of life expectancy. Many pages are spent musing about the nature of memory and the self and how the limitations of both are revealed as the centuries pass. This is an age where most write autobiographies now and again to inform the strangers that are their future selves of the people they used to be.
Part One is an entirely standard and solid science fiction story of a female space engineer thrust into dramatic events of dire consequence involving an asteroid mining vessel and the Martian government. Its primary purpose is for the benefit of the second and third stories.
Part Two is about a Martian archeologist concerned with the events of the Part One. It becomes rather existential and alternates between self-reverence and self-abdication. The nature of the creation of history as an active process is also discussed, mostly about its fallibility. Several pages are spent describing his daily bathhouse orgies, which I have to wonder if they were included due to LeGuin's influence from The Left Hand of Darkness. These are by no means the only relationships of his described.
Part Three features a descendant of protagonist of Part Two whose life goal is discover the secret history that his forefather declined to pursue to its end. This displeases the forefather. This part is concerned entirely with the ultimate unknowability of the past and that what we consider as history is simply a succession of preferred narratives, if not outright lies and fabrications.
Ending Quote:
All too true, unfortunately.
Rating: 3.5/5
*Imagining the End of Capitalism With KSR
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/10/kim-st...
February 5, 2022
Konnte mich nicht fesseln. Die Handlung ist in 3 Kapitel aufgeteilt, die jeweils aus der Sicht einer Person geschildert wird. Eigentlich sollte es um die Icehenge (Anlehnung an Stonehenge nur aus Eis) auf Pluto gehen, die erscheinen aber erst gegen Mitte des Romans zum Ersten mal und spielen erst am Schluß wieder eine Rolle. Hat aber für mich keine schlüssige Auflösung. Das ganze zweite Kapitel trägt wenig zum Fortlaufe der Handlung bei. Auch der Schluß ist sehr träge.
June 22, 2020
second read - 1 April 2011 - ***. I needed a fix-up novel for a category in a science fiction reading challenge, so re-read this one. It contains slightly re-worked versions of Robinson's novellas "To Leave A Mark" (1982), and "On the North Pole of Pluto" (1980). Revolutionaries take over a Martian spaceship, and an engineer on board helps them prepare for a trip out of the Solar System. Three hundred years later, an archaeologist finds a mysterious monument at the north pole of Pluto, that was in the diary of the kidnapped engineer. Thirdly, a later archaeologist investigates whether both the diary and the monument were faked artifacts. The story is mostly interesting in the author's comments aside from the plot.
first read - 5 November 1987 - ***. I borrowed a copy from my wife, because I had liked Robinson's The Wild Shore, but this was very different.
first read - 5 November 1987 - ***. I borrowed a copy from my wife, because I had liked Robinson's The Wild Shore, but this was very different.
July 5, 2022
3.5 stars
April 21, 2024
A plot which moves so slowly you might think it was a block of ice on the surface of Pluto
May 5, 2020
Ostin tammikuussa kasan Kim Stanley Robinsonin kirjoja Itäkeskuksen Kierrätyskeskuksesta. Kyseessä on yksi lempi scifikirjailijoistani: Robinson kirjoittaa yhtäältä realistisia kuvauksia toisille planeetoille matkaamisesta, toisaalta lähitulevaisuuden kuvauksia, joissa kapitalismin ja ilmastonmuutoksen loogiset päätepisteet muuttuvat tosiksi. Mukana on aina vahva yhteiskunnallinen ote, henkilöitä katsotaan aina yhteiskunnan kautta.
Olen aikaisemmin lukenunt lähinnä KSR:n uudempia teoksia, mutta löysin tammikuussa Kierrätyskeskuksesta läjän KSR:n vanhempaa tuotantoa pokkareina. Nyt luin niistä vuonna 1986 julkaistun Icehengen. Se on yksi Robinsonin ensimmäisiä romaaneja, kolmesta novellista yhteenparsittu kokonaisuus. Ihminen on matkannut lähiplaneetoille ja pystynyt pidentämään ihmisiän usean sadan vuoden mittaiseksi. Vanhoja ongelmia ei kuitenkaan ole ratkaistu ja tilalle on tullut uusia.
Kirjan keskiössä on kysymys: Minkälaista on elää vanhaksi, kun ihmisen muisti ei kuitenkaan kykene hallitsemaan satojen vuosien kokonaisuuksia? Emme muista enää mistä tulemme, keitä olemme. Totalitäärinen yhteiskunta voi muokata historian haluamansa kaltaiseksi.
Kirjasta tulee mieleen Ursula K. Le Guinin scifit: Robinsoninkin päähenkilöt ovat matkalla etsimässä itseään ja koko ajan jonkin isomman tarinan rajamailla. Kirjan maailmassa tapahtuu paljon, mutta päähenkilöt jäävät siitä sivullisiksi. Icehenge ei kerro niinkään ihmiskunnan isoista tapahtumista vallankumouksista, matkoista tähtiin - vaan siitä, miten niitä muistetaan ja tulkitaan uusiksi.
Olen aikaisemmin lukenunt lähinnä KSR:n uudempia teoksia, mutta löysin tammikuussa Kierrätyskeskuksesta läjän KSR:n vanhempaa tuotantoa pokkareina. Nyt luin niistä vuonna 1986 julkaistun Icehengen. Se on yksi Robinsonin ensimmäisiä romaaneja, kolmesta novellista yhteenparsittu kokonaisuus. Ihminen on matkannut lähiplaneetoille ja pystynyt pidentämään ihmisiän usean sadan vuoden mittaiseksi. Vanhoja ongelmia ei kuitenkaan ole ratkaistu ja tilalle on tullut uusia.
Kirjan keskiössä on kysymys: Minkälaista on elää vanhaksi, kun ihmisen muisti ei kuitenkaan kykene hallitsemaan satojen vuosien kokonaisuuksia? Emme muista enää mistä tulemme, keitä olemme. Totalitäärinen yhteiskunta voi muokata historian haluamansa kaltaiseksi.
Kirjasta tulee mieleen Ursula K. Le Guinin scifit: Robinsoninkin päähenkilöt ovat matkalla etsimässä itseään ja koko ajan jonkin isomman tarinan rajamailla. Kirjan maailmassa tapahtuu paljon, mutta päähenkilöt jäävät siitä sivullisiksi. Icehenge ei kerro niinkään ihmiskunnan isoista tapahtumista vallankumouksista, matkoista tähtiin - vaan siitä, miten niitä muistetaan ja tulkitaan uusiksi.
July 25, 2017
"Once we were taut bowstrings, vibrant on the bow of mortality - now the bow has been unstrung, and we lie limp, and the arrow has clattered to the ground."
Icehenge is a really well-written example of Golden Age science fiction literature, with many of the grand ideas and detailed social analysis so characteristic of Asimov mixed with the grand mind-scapes of Le Guin and Clarke. The prose is beautiful, yet Robinson is one author whose interesting ideas have often been given immortality by other, better known writers. There are issues with the book which are symptomatic of the era, such as a cringe-worthy description of the only non-white character as an exotic sex symbol, and calling people uninterested in politics "autistic", but these gaffes are sparse and by no means exceptionally inappropriate in fiction of this period.
"Perfect closure is not natural, it does not exist anywhere, except perhaps in the universe as a whole. Even then, no doubt each Big Bang was a little bit smaller ..."
The first novella within Icehenge follows Emma Weil, an engineer held hostage by a group of political rebels who are patching together a make-shift intergalactic space ship from parts stolen from the government. "there was something adolescent about it all, something surreal: all the details logically worked out, from an initial proposition that was absurd." Emma was born on Mars in a generation where humans can expect to live 1,000 years and this has stagnated many aspects of social and scientific progress. She helps develop the spaceship's life support system despite the doomed realisation that at best it will barely get them to the next star system. This is a novel of its time, rife with the tensions of Cold War ideology in which capitalism is still threatened by the great humanist ideas of socialism. It is a world of oppression, unease, and endless choices. "I was known by my actions and my words, my internal universe was unavailable for inspection by others." Emma returns to Mars and disappears in the violent revolt which was eventually subverted and supressed by the government.
"Twenty years of indenture to some old man or woman who 'knows', all to get into a position where you too can be treated as an expert by people you barely know."
Three hundred years later and Hjalmar Nederland the grumpy academic cynic is excavating Emma's fallen city. Although he lived through the revolt, the strains on human psychology of living over centuries has made part of his own life span ancient history to him. "I was just beginning to understand that my life was a series of discreet lives. When we leave our natural spans, and venture into the centuries, we are like climbers on Olympus Mons, hiking up out of the atmosphere. We must take our air with us." He finds Emma's diary and reads it with obsessive passion, striking on a passing comment in the diary just as Pluto's answer to Stonehenge is revealed: "Something to leave a mark on the world, something to show we were here at all." Nederland is infected by the dream of this manuscript and its visions of youth and hope in his own age, which aids his depression as well as supporting his political position that the government perpetrated murder during the Martian revolts several centuries ago. "Memory exists in small linked cells, like of diatoms algae in a filament." One of the most unique and invigorating parts of the narrative was the homosexual romance between Nederland and Shrike, a charming and enigmatic government officer locked in a dependence in which he constantly obliged Nederland with professional favours to overcome censure. Clearly, a dysfunctional life led for hundreds of years is no more illuminating but equally difficult to escape.
"'It appears to me things don't change as fast as they used to. Not as fast as in the twentieth, the twenty-first, the twenty-second centuries. Inertia, I guess.'"
Another sixty years and Edmond Doya sets out to disprove Nederland's widely accepted claim that Icehenge was build by this romantic group of utopian, escaping, idealists. He believes there has been planted evidence, elaborate planning, and resources not available to the rebels. (And he had a little help from a chance meeting with a drunk who had helped to build Icehenge.) Doya is a labourer-academic, a bohemian recluse who rejects almost every aspect of the organised academic world. "I write this then, for the stranger myself, so that he might know who he has been." He travels out to Pluto, and finds the evidence by luck or youth to confirm his theory. "'Ceramic! When they fired that glass up to melting point, they started a clock!'" He has the logistics, but not the heart of Icehenge. Why was it built? To lend excitement and weight to the fates of all those who died in the revolution? To mark the bravery of a failed starship that never managed to make the monument itself? We will never know.
Or will we?
I consulted my esteemed colleague cuddly Toothless from the Berk Dragon Training Academy who has put forwards the theory that Icehenge was made by the Screaming Death from How to Train your Dragon. Evidence is stacking up, for example the Screaming Death commonly burrows cylindrical tunnels. And what could heat rock to high enough temperatures to become glass? Dragon fire, that's what. Fact. And also, Screaming Deaths like shiny reflective things, such as the surface of the ice megaliths. Well, I'm convinced. And you should be too.
Icehenge is a really well-written example of Golden Age science fiction literature, with many of the grand ideas and detailed social analysis so characteristic of Asimov mixed with the grand mind-scapes of Le Guin and Clarke. The prose is beautiful, yet Robinson is one author whose interesting ideas have often been given immortality by other, better known writers. There are issues with the book which are symptomatic of the era, such as a cringe-worthy description of the only non-white character as an exotic sex symbol, and calling people uninterested in politics "autistic", but these gaffes are sparse and by no means exceptionally inappropriate in fiction of this period.
"Perfect closure is not natural, it does not exist anywhere, except perhaps in the universe as a whole. Even then, no doubt each Big Bang was a little bit smaller ..."
The first novella within Icehenge follows Emma Weil, an engineer held hostage by a group of political rebels who are patching together a make-shift intergalactic space ship from parts stolen from the government. "there was something adolescent about it all, something surreal: all the details logically worked out, from an initial proposition that was absurd." Emma was born on Mars in a generation where humans can expect to live 1,000 years and this has stagnated many aspects of social and scientific progress. She helps develop the spaceship's life support system despite the doomed realisation that at best it will barely get them to the next star system. This is a novel of its time, rife with the tensions of Cold War ideology in which capitalism is still threatened by the great humanist ideas of socialism. It is a world of oppression, unease, and endless choices. "I was known by my actions and my words, my internal universe was unavailable for inspection by others." Emma returns to Mars and disappears in the violent revolt which was eventually subverted and supressed by the government.
"Twenty years of indenture to some old man or woman who 'knows', all to get into a position where you too can be treated as an expert by people you barely know."
Three hundred years later and Hjalmar Nederland the grumpy academic cynic is excavating Emma's fallen city. Although he lived through the revolt, the strains on human psychology of living over centuries has made part of his own life span ancient history to him. "I was just beginning to understand that my life was a series of discreet lives. When we leave our natural spans, and venture into the centuries, we are like climbers on Olympus Mons, hiking up out of the atmosphere. We must take our air with us." He finds Emma's diary and reads it with obsessive passion, striking on a passing comment in the diary just as Pluto's answer to Stonehenge is revealed: "Something to leave a mark on the world, something to show we were here at all." Nederland is infected by the dream of this manuscript and its visions of youth and hope in his own age, which aids his depression as well as supporting his political position that the government perpetrated murder during the Martian revolts several centuries ago. "Memory exists in small linked cells, like of diatoms algae in a filament." One of the most unique and invigorating parts of the narrative was the homosexual romance between Nederland and Shrike, a charming and enigmatic government officer locked in a dependence in which he constantly obliged Nederland with professional favours to overcome censure. Clearly, a dysfunctional life led for hundreds of years is no more illuminating but equally difficult to escape.
"'It appears to me things don't change as fast as they used to. Not as fast as in the twentieth, the twenty-first, the twenty-second centuries. Inertia, I guess.'"
Another sixty years and Edmond Doya sets out to disprove Nederland's widely accepted claim that Icehenge was build by this romantic group of utopian, escaping, idealists. He believes there has been planted evidence, elaborate planning, and resources not available to the rebels. (And he had a little help from a chance meeting with a drunk who had helped to build Icehenge.) Doya is a labourer-academic, a bohemian recluse who rejects almost every aspect of the organised academic world. "I write this then, for the stranger myself, so that he might know who he has been." He travels out to Pluto, and finds the evidence by luck or youth to confirm his theory. "'Ceramic! When they fired that glass up to melting point, they started a clock!'" He has the logistics, but not the heart of Icehenge. Why was it built? To lend excitement and weight to the fates of all those who died in the revolution? To mark the bravery of a failed starship that never managed to make the monument itself? We will never know.
Or will we?
I consulted my esteemed colleague cuddly Toothless from the Berk Dragon Training Academy who has put forwards the theory that Icehenge was made by the Screaming Death from How to Train your Dragon. Evidence is stacking up, for example the Screaming Death commonly burrows cylindrical tunnels. And what could heat rock to high enough temperatures to become glass? Dragon fire, that's what. Fact. And also, Screaming Deaths like shiny reflective things, such as the surface of the ice megaliths. Well, I'm convinced. And you should be too.
May 24, 2020
I had a hard time getting through this one. The three stories didn't connected enough and
I'm also not sure I TOTALLY bought into the memory/history angle. I do believe that if you live hundreds of years that you might forget a lot, but still, they didn't know so much about LIVING history.
Owned physical book 1/2 for the month
Overall owned book 2/5 for the month
I'm also not sure I TOTALLY bought into the memory/history angle. I do believe that if you live hundreds of years that you might forget a lot, but still, they didn't know so much about LIVING history.
Owned physical book 1/2 for the month
Overall owned book 2/5 for the month
December 2, 2025
As always, love me a bit of sci-fi
Took me way too long to finish - found it hard to get into because when the first story was piquing my interest it ended and a new era of the story began. Enjoyed that the story was fleshed out over different eras and how to worldbuilding felt very fluid , also didnt hate that it was left open ended.
4/5 because it took me so long to finish, unsure if it was the story or my inability to form good habits
Took me way too long to finish - found it hard to get into because when the first story was piquing my interest it ended and a new era of the story began. Enjoyed that the story was fleshed out over different eras and how to worldbuilding felt very fluid , also didnt hate that it was left open ended.
4/5 because it took me so long to finish, unsure if it was the story or my inability to form good habits
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 11, 2012
This was a novel I just couldn't get into, so much so I gave up and never finished it. It's well written from a technical standpoint and a clever idea but the middle portion of the book didn't hold my interest. The book is divided into 3 distinct parts. In the first, a mining vessel is converted into a craft capable of leaving the solar system by Americans and Russians who don't agree with the governing body in charge of Mars. Their way of getting out from under an oppressive regime is to find somewhere else to live. It is written from the point of view of a female scientist who helps them convert their ship but doe not go with them. Emma Weil returns to Mars to fight in the revolution to save her home of Mars.
The second part takes place more than a century later with an archaeologist trying to disprove the government version of what happened when the rebellion was stopped. This part of the book lost me. The archeologist is not a likable character and nothing happens. Talk, talk, talk, talk. People reminisce, they argue, they pontificate, they ruminate, they make plans, they remember, they regret but nothing really happens. I tried to push myself through because I wanted to know what Icehenge was, but eventually I just lost interest.
The second part takes place more than a century later with an archaeologist trying to disprove the government version of what happened when the rebellion was stopped. This part of the book lost me. The archeologist is not a likable character and nothing happens. Talk, talk, talk, talk. People reminisce, they argue, they pontificate, they ruminate, they make plans, they remember, they regret but nothing really happens. I tried to push myself through because I wanted to know what Icehenge was, but eventually I just lost interest.
May 9, 2010
...I liked this book a lot when I first read it and this second read has probably raised my admiration of the author another notch. It's a very well constructed tale, designed to make the reader doubt, puzzle and think. Icehenge is a good read for people who enjoyed the author's Mars trilogy but it's also a good place to start if you are not sure you're ready for three large volumes of detail on the red planet. Personally I loved the descriptive passages in those books but quite a few readers seem to think it could have done with a little more editing. In Icehenge Robinson keeps that aspect of his writing a bit more in the background. Whatever your preferences Icehenge is a fascinating read and I highly recommend it.
Full Random Comments Review
Full Random Comments Review
November 26, 2017
More philosophical than the other Robinson I've read. And given its age its prose is naturally somewhat clunkier than his later work. But all in all, a wonderful meditation on the nature of memory and personal identity. The essential conceit is that, in the novel's future, medicine extends the human lifespan to many, many centuries. But an individual only really remembers what happened over the course of a natural lifetime. So everyone becomes a kind of literal autobiographer. It's hard to say too much about the story without giving away the game. But I quite loved it.
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