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Galileo's Dream

Kim Stanley Robinson

3.55 · Rating details · 2,688 ratings · 376 reviews

At the heart of a provocative narrative that stretches from Renaissance Italy to the moons of Jupiter is the father of modern science: Galileo Galilei.

To the inhabitants of the Jovian moons, Galileo is a revered figure whose actions will influence the subsequent history of the human race. From the summit of their distant future, a charismatic renegade named Ganymede travel ...more

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Hardcover, 578 pages

Published August 6th 2009 by Harper Voyager

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Jun 04, 2013 picoas picoas rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2013

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

"Galileo's Dream" by Kim Stanley Robinson

As a book of historical fiction this book works admirably. Unfortunately the Jovian Story Line almost ruins it. This part is mixed with the historical passages with brief visits to the distant moons of Jupiter - Galileo travelling through both time and space to discover the colonized moons. To begin with, these passages felt as though they were implanted into the novel in a inept fashion and we ...more

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May 20, 2020 Claudia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, disguised-as-sff, alternate-reality, sci-fi, auto-biography-memoir, science, historical-fiction, shreds-of-life, deep-thoughts, z-to-a-ksr

If people would only understand earlier, […] that science is a religion, the most ethical religion, the most devoted and worshipful religion … Clearly I was wrong even to try. It isn’t really possible. The paradoxes and entangled potentialities are the least of the problems. Worse by far is the enormous inertia of human weakness, greed, fear—all the sheer bloody mass of us.

Knowing KSR, I knew I couldn’t read this book until I had more knowledge than the basic facts concerning Galileo. And the op If people would only understand earlier, […] that science is a religion, the most ethical religion, the most devoted and worshipful religion … Clearly I was wrong even to try. It isn’t really possible. The paradoxes and entangled potentialities are the least of the problems. Worse by far is the enormous inertia of human weakness, greed, fear—all the sheer bloody mass of us.

Knowing KSR, I knew I couldn’t read this book until I had more knowledge than the basic facts concerning Galileo. And the opportunity came having just read Mario Livio’s Galileo and the Science Deniers .

Good thing I did that, because I could appreciate the extensive research done to write this book. Taking the fictional part aside, this could have been a comprehensive biography of Galileo, just as Livio's book is. In fact, there are a lot of fragments from the Galileo’s correspondence, as well as from his works - KSR have woven the story mostly around them.

More research on it and I found this review written by Adam Roberts, which is better than anything I have to say about the book:

"The best candidate for the first science fiction novel is a short book by the astronomer Johannes Kepler, known as Kepler's Dream (1634): a weirdly potent mix of up-to-date (for the 17th century) lunar science and imagined monstrous alien life. Kim Stanley Robinson's new novel pays elegant homage to the genre's Ur-text, fleshing out and extrapolating its premises by taking as protagonist Kepler's contemporary Galileo Galilei - the man whose discoveries did more to kick-start modern science than anybody before Newton."
More here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...

He was indeed ahead of his times; I think the whole time-travel and learning process in the future is to emphasize his genius thinking and innovative ideas. Galileo even wrote this in his “Dialogo”:

But surpassing all stupendous inventions, what sublimity of mind was his who dreamed of finding means to communicate his deepest thoughts to any other person, though distant by mighty intervals of place and time! Of talking with those who are in India; of speaking to those who are not yet born, and will not be born for a thousand or even ten thousand years …

With all its initial weirdness, this book is KSR at his highest. The writing is wonderful, the way he juggles with the two apparently incompatible ideas is just amazing. In fact, every part of this book has a counterpart: world - archaic vs futuristic, speech - erudite vs coarse, and his wit, humor and outrageous passages from time to time, spice up the story to a delight.

For KSR fans, this book is a must; you'll love it to pieces. For others, I'm not sure; the combination between alternate reality, historical fiction, biography, science-fiction and philosophy can be hard to handle and digest. It's not an easy reading, however it is definitely a very rewarding one.

And I can’t help not sharing here some samples of his remarkable writing; I simply loved them.

The spheroid curve of Moon I soon revealed itself to be an awful landscape, very different to his vague memories of Moon II, which were of an icy purity; I was a waste of mounded yellow slag, all shot with craters and volcanoes. A world covered by Etnas. As he descended on it, the yellow differentiated into a hell’s carnival of burnt sulphur tones—of umbers and siennas and burnt siennas, of topaz and tan and bronze and sunflower and brick and tar, also the blacks of charcoal and jet, also terra-cotta and bloodred, and a sunset array of oranges, citron yellows, gilt, pewter—all piled on all, one color pouring over the others and being covered itself in a great unholy slag heap. Dante would have approved it as the very image of his burning circles of Hell.

He became light. He was a single minim of light and he flew through two parallel slits in a wall, and the interference pattern of his collision with the wall beyond showed without doubt that he was a wave. Then he bounced through a half-mirrored glass and it was obvious he was an incredibly tiny particle, one of a stream of minims moving one by one. Depending on what flight he was made to fly, he was either particle or wave, so that it seemed he had to be both at once, despite the contradictions involved in that, the impossibilities. Maybe thoughts were minims and emotions were waves, for he was stuffed to exploding with both at once—the emotions in their waves also a myriad of pricking jolts, little affectinos that flew in clouds of probabilities and struck like icy snow. It was true but impossible.

Galileo, as he struggled to follow her, was comforted by the idea that even here her work was a kind of spatial geometry, things laid out in relationships, with proportions, just as always. Maybe that was for his sake, but it all fell into place. Everything could be explained: the bizarre paradoxes of quantum mechanics, the strange billowing of the universe out from a single point that had never been anywhere. All the laws of nature, all the forces and particles, all the constants, and all the various manifestations of time, of being and becoming, their suprachronological travel in time, the bizarre giant reality of universal entanglement, were explained. It was a whole, a quivering organism, and God was indeed a mathematician—a mathematician of such stupendous complexity, subtlety, and elegance, that the experience of contemplating Him was inhuman, beyond what any human feeling could encompass.

We all have seven secret lives. The life of excretion; the world of inappropriate sexual fantasies; our real hopes; our terror of death; our experience of shame; the world of pain; and our dreams. No one else ever knows these lives. Consciousness is solitary. Each person lives in that bubble universe that rests under the skull, alone.

He understood then the solitary nature of transcendence, since wholeness was one. He was entirely alone and by himself, he realized: the manifold of manifolds was another one of the secret lives. It was some kind of moving eternity, encompassing an infinity of universes. Everything was always changing, always: so it was change itself that was eternal. Eternity too had a history, eternity too evolved, strove to change and even to improve, in some sense beyond human comprehension—in growth, complexification, metamorphosis. In any case, eternal change. A ten-dimensional organism, pulsing with granular light like the finest snow, everywhere entangled, all points both discrete like the points in Euclid’s definition and yet also part of a whole plenum, flowing in curves, in glissandi still audible in him, a majestic dense chorus of whales and wolves and heartbroken souls, louder and louder, a kind of red loon’s cry—

We all have our seven secret lives. Transcendence is solitary, daily life is solitary. Consciousness is solitary. And yet sometimes we sit together with a friend, and the secret lives don’t matter, they’re even part of it, and a dual world is created, a shared reality. Then we are entangled and one, transitory but imperishable.

Like God’s light striking stained glass—and indeed Jove’s emblematic stars shed rays of fulgur that were like shards of crystal, and the black of its rendered space was in some places obsidian, in others velvet. And the four moons were like round chips of semiprecious stone, topaz and turquoise, jade and malachite. It was stained glass expanded into three dimensions.

But listen to me, because I saw it myself: science began as a Poor Clare. Science was broke and so it got bought. Science was scared and so did what it was told. It designed the gun and gave the gun to power, and power then held the gun to science’s head and told it to make some more. How smart was that? Now science is in the position of having to invent a secret disabler of guns, and then start the whole process over. It’s not clear it can work. Because all scientists are Galileos, poor, scared, gun to our head. Power lies elsewhere. If we can shift that power … that’s the if. If we can shift history into a new channel, and avoid the nightmare centuries. If we can keep the promise of science, a promise hard to keep. ...more

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Oct 26, 2010 Robert rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

I wonder if this project started off as an attempt at a straight fictional biography, like Doctor Mirabilis which is also about a scientist who falls foul of the Catholic Church? Hard to say, but it stands as a science fiction story in which Galileo is contacted by humans from the distant future who want him to help with a problem they are having on Europa...

So there are two stories, one about Galileo's life from the start of his work on telescopes up to his death and another about dreams of Eur ...more

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Dec 22, 2020 Andreas rated it really liked it

Synopsis: This novel interleaves two narrations: The most prominent one is the historical biography of Galileo Galilei. The second one is a time travel story where Galileo is repeatedly transported a thousand years into the future in order to mediate a controversy of several factions of Jupiter moon inhabitants. The core of the novel is that Galileo - "first scientist, father of physics" - has been the founder of modern science, using experiments to proof hypotheses and mathematical formulas to ...more

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Oct 16, 2011 B Schrodinger rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science, biography-autobiography, science-fiction

Cross-posted on my blog, The Periodic Table of Elephants.

I finally braved getting this large tome out of my to-read-pile. It's not that it scared me, I have pretty much adored all that I have read of Kim's, it's just that I'm busy researching at the moment and I knew that this would eat up my time and imagination. And it did, but it did not interfere with my work at all. I'm glad I pulled it out. It really was the best book at the best time.

'Galileo's Dream', although being fiction, is 70% biogr Cross-posted on my blog, The Periodic Table of Elephants.

I finally braved getting this large tome out of my to-read-pile. It's not that it scared me, I have pretty much adored all that I have read of Kim's, it's just that I'm busy researching at the moment and I knew that this would eat up my time and imagination. And it did, but it did not interfere with my work at all. I'm glad I pulled it out. It really was the best book at the best time.

'Galileo's Dream', although being fiction, is 70% biographical. The story is essentially Galileo's life from his work on telescopes up until his death. We see him rise to fame for his mathematical work and his work with telescopes, his writings on the Copernican universe, and his downfall and judgement by the Catholic Church.

Interspersed in this non-fiction are little snippets of fiction that Kim has placed in Galileo's story. Each section fits into the truth so well and mirrors excerpts from Galileo's writing. As to what they involve, well you'll have to read it yourself; but Kim is a science fiction writer at best.

Just like Galileo the book is intelligent and funny with a great amount of detail being given on politics and his everyday life. Each character is unique and you get to experience many wonderful personalities. The imagery in this book is wonderful, sumptuous and beautiful, full of the observations of an early scientist.

At the heart of the story is the story of science and one of it's founding giants, a man who connected what he could see and observe to mathematics, and looked to see if these results were repeatable and consistent. The fiction of the story is a further exploration of science and philosophy which is powerful and a great enough story in itself.

This really is a wonderful work which gives me a great respect for Galileo and has encouraged me to read further into his story and see how much the details in the book are true. Kim has risen to new greats in my respect also. This one one of those rare treasures of a book that spoke volumes to both my mind and my heart. It would definitely be in a top 20 book list of mine and may even make it to a top 10. It deserves all 5 of those stars. ...more

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Apr 07, 2012 Kate rated it did not like it · review of another edition

All right, I can't stand it anymore. I still have 80 pages to go, but I honestly don't care about any of the characters, and can't bring myself to slog through the rest of the book, book club or no. This has got to be the worst story I've ever read that was written by a purportedly professional author. It's infected with some of the most hideous bloat I've ever seen-- cutting out about 200 pages of nonsense would probably improve it. The "historical" parts are like a biography of Galileo tweaked All right, I can't stand it anymore. I still have 80 pages to go, but I honestly don't care about any of the characters, and can't bring myself to slog through the rest of the book, book club or no. This has got to be the worst story I've ever read that was written by a purportedly professional author. It's infected with some of the most hideous bloat I've ever seen-- cutting out about 200 pages of nonsense would probably improve it. The "historical" parts are like a biography of Galileo tweaked by some amateur writer into an "educational" novel form-- it's like Robinson shoved in every fact he learned about Galileo, his family, and the time period without bothering to trim out all the bits that weren't at all relevant to his story. For every scene there's a sizable chunk of narrated exposition-- pages and pages, detailing months or years, that could have been condensed to a few lines or even cut entirely. The "earthbound" Galileo isn't even a proper character most of the time-- just a caricature of the historical person-- which is unfortunate given that he's supposed to be the main character.

The "space" bits are a little more interesting. There are two main threads-- the time-travel/history-manipulation thread, and the smaller (but more important??) "planetary intelligence" thread. Unfortunately they're not really well developed-- they're buried in a lot of nonsense about endless walks through hallways and endless trips on a spacecraft that takes forever to go anywhere. There's a character called Hera who takes it on herself to therapize Galileo by finding his "trauma nodes" and forcing him to relive certain key traumatic memories, apparently so he can become enlightened and...? She's also supposed to have a sort of semi-romantic relationship with him, which mostly comes across as creepy and grotesque. (If you describe your character's hernia in revolting detail, and then write a scene where he's running around naked in a boar's-head mask and an iron hernia truss, then I will not be seeing him as a romantic prospect for ANYONE-- especially if you follow it quickly with another scene that deals with his intimate bodily functions. Gross, Robinson. Ew.)

Again, I didn't read to the end, so I don't know if the book gets any better in the last eighty pages. I expect someone can tell me what happened tomorrow. This is not a book I would have read of my own volition, and I can't in good conscience recommend it to anyone. ...more

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Apr 10, 2011 Alan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Fans of big ideas and sweeping vistas, historical minutiae... good old-fashioned SF

Recommended to Alan by: Previous work

Eppur si muove, come la Terra mi emoziona.

Time travel fiction is, at its heart, primarily a literature of regret. Oh, there is the occasional pure travelogue, to be sure; the odd parody played for laughs; and the even rarer voyage of self-discovery... but for the most part, why send some hapless schmuck through time at all, but for the opportunity to step twice into Heraclitus' river, to redirect its flow—to change those things that might not have to have been?

And, usually, to find out that alte ...more

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Aug 08, 2011 M.G. Mason rated it it was amazing

This latest novel from Kim Stanley Robinson is at once both identifiable as Robinson's unique brand of philosophical science fiction and a departure from his work. In some ways it feels more like a homage to the early works of the likes of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne.

It starts as a simple biography of the first true scientist as he first observes and then shows others the miracles he can observe through his telescope. But one night a mysterious stranger asks Galileo to take a look at his device. This latest novel from Kim Stanley Robinson is at once both identifiable as Robinson's unique brand of philosophical science fiction and a departure from his work. In some ways it feels more like a homage to the early works of the likes of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne.

It starts as a simple biography of the first true scientist as he first observes and then shows others the miracles he can observe through his telescope. But one night a mysterious stranger asks Galileo to take a look at his device. Galileo obliges and finds himself transported to another world: Europa in the 30th century to be precise. The Galilean moons are home to human factions currently arguing over whether scientific knowledge should be advanced by attempting to communicate with an advanced intellect that lives beneath the surface of the icy moon. The occupants of Europa require the assistance of Galileo to stop it happening and talking the other representatives out of their plan. This particular plot in so many ways reflects what is happening to Galileo in the 16th-17th century by mirroring in theme each phase of his engagement with the Vatican. He doesn't make one trip; instead he flits constantly between the two worlds to allow real-world events to happen before he is whisked back to Jupiter.

This is a "warts and all" look at Galilei Galileo. Far from portraying him as a Saint for the secular thinker, he is shown as a short-tempered bully, an excessive drinker, a womaniser and sometimes a fanatic whose single-mindedness in overturning the Ptolemaic model leads him to push his daughters into a convent without much thought for anything else. Also, we get an intriguing insight into the world of Vatican politics as a succession of popes are confronted with the problems of the age; not just Galileo but the impending 30 years war and other religious conflicts.

There is a moral tale at work too. The Europans are attempting to manipulate Galileo for their own end, pushing him further in order that he is burnt at the stake to become a secular martyr. Their ultimate goal is to end the war between religion and science quickly. Galileo feels uneasy at this; after all he always considered himself a good Catholic. In real life he died a sick man under house arrest having been brow-beaten into recanting.

Not only is this an intriguing and thoughtful novel, it is also quite fun. We delight at the sense of adventure as he explores the four primary moons and confronts the sentient being that lives in the Jupiter system. I really cannot fault this book.

See more book reviews at my blog ...more

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Mar 16, 2010 Bruce rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This is an epitome of the depths that modern science fiction plumbs. In this instance, fiction is actually less entertaining than fact.Anyone interested in the life of Galileo would serve themselves better with a work such as Dan Hofstadterś The Earth Moves, which is not only more accurate than this but considerably better written and a better read by about 10 dB. If one is interested in physics then I would suggest a good textbook, such as any of Halliday and Resnick´s books, all of which are b ...more

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Jan 28, 2010 Kara Babcock rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, 2010-read, religion-fiction, historical-fiction, time-travel, from-library

There is a theory that views all of history as the result of actions by individuals at pivotal moments. These "Great Men" (or, let's be fair, "Great People") are the movers and shakers of historical periods. Leaders like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Elizabeth II, and Napoleon Bonaparte shaped society. Scientists like Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, and yes, Galileo Galilei shaped our perception of the world. These are the people whose mark lasts long on history, or so we think. I do ...more

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Aug 17, 2020 Ryan rated it really liked it

Shelves: eco

Published in 2009, Galileo's Dream is Kim Stanley Robinson's first novel after the Science in the Capitol/ Green Earth trilogy. Is Galileo's Dream, which is about Galileo's astronomical findings and founding of scientific experimentation, also a climate change allegory?

It is.

It's tricky to remember the status of science in the USA during the George W. Bush administration (2000-2008). It was an administration that sought many wars, including a war on science. Not only was climate denial just as p ...more

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Apr 26, 2020 Tomislav rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

There are really two stories in the book - The larger one is a fictionalized biography of Galileo, and the other is a far future human society in the Galilean Moons of Jupiter. The Jovians have developed the ability to pluck Galileo into their own time for short periods and draw him into a conflict of their own - returning him usually after administration of an amnesia drug that leaves him with only vague feelings of presque vu. I found I was far more interested in the biographical account of Ga ...more

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Jun 06, 2020 Bill rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, science-fiction

I consider this an historical fiction about Galileo, the first scientist. It explores his life in some detail, including many friends and supporters, his loves and family, his personality. It include his conflict with the controlling church and its pope. It includes his science and the writing of his books. In contrast is his travel to the future where he learns new math and science, helps to solve problems and whose life is meant to change.

I feel I know Galileo as never before. Recommended.

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Jul 14, 2010 Amanda rated it really liked it

Shelves: bought-copy, science-fiction

Publisher's Blurb (courtesy of Harper Voyager): Late Renaissance Italy abounds in alchemy and Aristotle, yet it trembles on the brink of the modern world. Galileo's new telescope encapsulates all the contradictions of this emerging reality. Then one night a stranger presents a different type of telescope for Galileo to peer through, enabling him to see the world of humans three thousand years hence. Galileo will soon find himself straddling two worlds, the medieval and the modern. By day his lif Publisher's Blurb (courtesy of Harper Voyager): Late Renaissance Italy abounds in alchemy and Aristotle, yet it trembles on the brink of the modern world. Galileo's new telescope encapsulates all the contradictions of this emerging reality. Then one night a stranger presents a different type of telescope for Galileo to peer through, enabling him to see the world of humans three thousand years hence. Galileo will soon find himself straddling two worlds, the medieval and the modern. By day his life unfurls in early seventeenth century Italy; by night he is transported through dimensions of time and space no other man of his time could possibly comprehend. Inexorably, Galileo faces trial for religious crimes in his own time, while in the new world he discovers, where science assures men that they can perform wonders, but does not tell them what wonders to perform, he is revered.

Galileo's Dream is, first and foremost, a masterclass in how to write historical fiction. Much of the novel is based in Renaissance Italy, following Galileo at what most consider to be the height of his fame before he is embroiled in disputes with the Church. Life in Italy, the importance of religion, the baby steps being taken towards scientific understanding - all of these are brought to glorious life, with wonderful descriptive passages and the use of Galileo's letters to enforce the events he was living through. I confess that I would have been hugely satisfied with an historical novel that purely explored the life and times of Galileo.

Kim Stanley Robinson, however, intersperses the historical passages with brief visits to the far-flung moons of Jupiter - Galileo travelling through both time and space to discover the colonised moons in 3020. To begin with, these passages felt as though they were shoehorned into the novel in a clumsy fashion, with the reader suffering the same confusion as the Galileo of this novel must have suffered. The passages set in the future were roughly sketched, the worldbuilding not living up to the meticulously researched historical sections. Eventually, you become used to the rough transitions, but I never enjoyed them, and I grew frustrated at the fact that each time Galileo returned from his future visits, his memory was partially cleared of events experienced in the future.

As well as the excellent historical sections, for me the greatest strength of this novel - the factor that gave it both humour and heart - was the stunning characterisation of Galileo Galilei. This is a man who infuriated many of his contemporaries - arrogant, stubborn, opinionated. A man who was liable to forget the day to day running of his household, who was able to commit his daughters to difficult lives. And yet also a visionary - a towering historical figure who gave so much to the world of science. All of this, and more, Kim Stanley Robinson manages to commit to paper - Galileo lives on through this novel.

Ultimately, then, Galileo's Dream is a richly rewarding read that I thoroughly enjoyed. My main issue with it is the pacing created by the dual storylines - this caused me no end of frustration because, at heart, I felt this should have been a straight historical novel. I would recommend this book to those who have even a passing interest in the progression of science. It is excellently written and the "frustrated genius" of Galileo takes centre stage.

Arthur Clarke thoughts: Hmm, Galileo's Dream is yet another solid entry into the short list of six books - and, once again (I feel I am constantly repeating myself in these short analyses) it is a completely different novel from the other five. It brings the science to science fiction, in this case - exploring actual science as well as taking us on a space opera journey to future worlds. It is massively deserving of its place as a finalist, not least of which because this novel shows the continual fascination with science that gave us science fiction in the first place (I think I have expressed that in a rather clumsy manner - but it is the truth that without men such as Galileo and Newton, we wouldn't have such a desire to look at what might be achieved through the use of science). Kim Stanley Robinson's enormous affection for his subject matter shines through, and gives us a novel which is possibly the most honest of the six. I don't think it will win - but I secretly want it to. ...more

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Jan 14, 2010 Omar rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, introspection, historical-fiction, adventure

I had mixed feelings about this book - largely because of expectations I'd developed reading previous KSR books.

Without revealing anything critical about the plot, KSR has come up with a mechanism by which he exposes his readers to Galileo Galilei's life in the 17th century while periodically pulling us forward to a time in roughly the 31st century.

I found KSR's take on the 17th century Galileo to be engaging and thought provoking in unexpected ways. I've been strongly affected by previous KSR I had mixed feelings about this book - largely because of expectations I'd developed reading previous KSR books.

Without revealing anything critical about the plot, KSR has come up with a mechanism by which he exposes his readers to Galileo Galilei's life in the 17th century while periodically pulling us forward to a time in roughly the 31st century.

I found KSR's take on the 17th century Galileo to be engaging and thought provoking in unexpected ways. I've been strongly affected by previous KSR books largely because of the way he's used epic scale stories unfolding in monumental settings as lens' into his equally vast, sweeping social and economic theories - all without losing the reader's intimate connections to characters that are carefully and intricately personalized. The 17th century thread in this book, however, eschews the panoramic setting in order to concentrate on Galileo's personal journey.

In my mind, he succeeds thoroughly in this approach. He draws the reader into his depiction of Galileo as a man wrestling to gain perspective on past personal traumas (many self-inflicted, through narcissism and blind privilege) while desperately trying to avoid future disaster. Meanwhile, he uses the events of the 17th century story line and some expositional elements of the 31st century story to give the reader a nice overview of the significance of Galileo's historical position, as the first human being known to have applied what we now call the scientific method. In short, humanity's first scientist.

Unfortunately, while the 31st century thread proves integral in advancing the 17th century storyline; it fails to compel, in and of itself. At first, it feels like a distraction. When it loses some of it's off-putting cartoonish-ness, it never succeeds in finding it's own draw. To me, it feels as though KSR came up with it as a way to develop the 17th century story; but was never able to come up with a good story to drive the 31st century thread forward.

In the end, however, I liked the book. I don't think it'll prove to have as much affect on me as the Mars trilogy did; but taken in the context of KSR's overall work, I see it as balancing the Mars Trilogy. While I never read the Three California's trilogy, I noticed the quality of his characterizations improved noticeably during the span of the Mars trilogy. This trend continues in the Science in the Capital cycle and seems (to me) to have reached a pinnacle with this book. ...more

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Mar 06, 2014 Tlaura rated it did not like it

This book is a bloated disaster. As somebody who is fascinated by the development of natural philosophy in the 17th century (albeit as an enthusiastic amateur), I found Robinson's contempt for historical context almost as offensive as his view of ideal science as a mixture of bloodless phenomena-saving and new age spiritual pap. Here he is explaining Galileo's approach to his Two New Sciences:

Whereas on the other hand, with these simple propositions about motion, force, friction and strength, he ...more

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Aug 11, 2021 Russell Castagnaro rated it it was amazing

I am so often surprised at how much I enjoy KSR's books. This is one that I missed when it came out and I picked it up at a garage sale. What a gem.
I loved getting to know Galileo the man a bit and learn more about the political landscape.
He also pointed out how the Plague came through sometimes and they had to all wear masks! I won't list any spoilers, but this book is a must-read if you like KSR or if you are interested in understanding the universe and your place in it.
...more

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May 04, 2018 Michael Pryor rated it it was ok

Careful, researched, prolix.

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Jun 15, 2021 Mark rated it really liked it

Robinson is great at showing how interesting science can be and how exciting it must have been for Galileo as he was making his discoveries. The science fiction element, while intriguing, was a little hard to follow, however.

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Aug 26, 2019 Linda rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction, historical-fiction

This is a hard book to talk about with spoilers but I'll try to avoid any plot points.

The good: the historical fiction parts that deal with Galileo's life
The less good: the far future bits

If nothing else this book makes me want to learn more about the life of Galileo. I realize that this icon of science is someone I know barely anything about other than the obvious things we learn in school.

Overall I enjoyed the book but I probably would have enjoyed it more had it been conventional historical f ...more

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Jan 31, 2015 Adam rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, science-fiction

A lot of righteous hate for Aristotelians.

There's essentially two novels here, one that follows Galileo from his early work with telescopes to his death, and a science fiction story about a time travelling Galileo's visit to the Galilean moons of Jupiter and first contact. A lot of heady philosophy which I'm in no mood to summarize, except to say that I really liked Hera's paradigm for manifold reality, with the three modes of time each being a dimension which we exist in simultaneously. No wond A lot of righteous hate for Aristotelians.

There's essentially two novels here, one that follows Galileo from his early work with telescopes to his death, and a science fiction story about a time travelling Galileo's visit to the Galilean moons of Jupiter and first contact. A lot of heady philosophy which I'm in no mood to summarize, except to say that I really liked Hera's paradigm for manifold reality, with the three modes of time each being a dimension which we exist in simultaneously. No wonder KSR looks down on Christopher Nolan.

Reminded me in PKD's writing in a lot of ways.

Favourite lines:

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Mar 03, 2011 Bettie rated it liked it

Recommended to Bettie by: spotted on Cassiel's profile - looks interesting

Shelves: epic-proportions, published-2009, cover-love, historical-fiction, one-penny-wonder, time-slip, summer-2011

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. one penny hardback brand spanking new first edition!

first line - All of a sudden Galileo felt that this moment had happened before - that he had been standing in the artisans' Friday market outside Venice's Arsenale and felt someone's gaze on him, and looked up to see a man staring at him, a tall stranger with a beaky narrow face.

Solid 3*. At points even a 4*, however some things just didn't sit quite right e.g the verbal anachronisms heaped upon Galileo's internal dialogue (The f word? ORLY!? W ...more

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May 29, 2017 Leanne rated it it was amazing

I know it's only June, but this is without a doubt my top novel of 2017. It was an absolute tour de force. The portrait of Galileo is inspired. As the reviewer below stated so well, "This is a "warts and all" look at Galilei Galileo. Far from portraying him as a Saint for the secular thinker, he is shown as a short-tempered bully, an excessive drinker, a womaniser and sometimes a fanatic whose single-mindedness in overturning the Ptolemaic model leads him to push his daughters into a convent wit I know it's only June, but this is without a doubt my top novel of 2017. It was an absolute tour de force. The portrait of Galileo is inspired. As the reviewer below stated so well, "This is a "warts and all" look at Galilei Galileo. Far from portraying him as a Saint for the secular thinker, he is shown as a short-tempered bully, an excessive drinker, a womaniser and sometimes a fanatic whose single-mindedness in overturning the Ptolemaic model leads him to push his daughters into a convent without much thought for anything else. Also, we get an intriguing insight into the world of Vatican politics as a succession of popes are confronted with the problems of the age; not just Galileo but the impending 30 years war and other religious conflicts."

Galileo was also shown as the devout Catholic, which he supposedly considered himself to be till the end.

Robinson has created a truly compelling portrait of the great scientist. And not only does he turn over the myth of Galileo as a martyr for science but he also actually weaves that myth into the story itself so that the Galileo of the novel walks between these two versions of Galileo. He illuminates some of the reasons that we might need such a flag-bearer for science in the guise of the future Europans. On this note, another reviewer, Gary K Wolf, has suggested, that this might just be the most memorable and compelling Galileo we have imagined yet, precisely because Robinson so expertly weaves in both some truth and some myth about the great scientist. I really agree with that.

The historical fiction part of the book--about Galileo's life and times, was my favorite part of the book for sure, but the other part of the novel--set in 31st century Jupiter and moons--was also really engaging. The images of the moons of Jupiters and the people who dwelled on them was fantastic. The topics of "time" and entanglement were great and thought provoking (astrophysicist husband was well satisfied) and the piece de resistance of this book was the set piece which had Galileo getting a crash course on quantum mechanics. I am now reading his newest novel New York, which is a let down after Galileo's Dream. But maybe anything would be a let down... LOVE LOVE LOVED this novel! ...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Abra rated it really liked it

Shelves: first-time-read, science-fiction, 2013

I am fascinated by Kim Stanley Robinson (or KSR, as many of his fans seem to refer to him). He's a leftist. He writes (for me) more accessible science fiction than China Miéville, who is, however, much more explicitly socialist than Robinson. He's local-ish -- resident in Davis, CA. I just missed hearing him at a Writers With Drinks salon/bar evening, a couple of years ago. I like what he writes about -- future possibilities that extend really existing science much more than most sci fi, and tha ...more

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Jan 17, 2015 Kate rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-with-religious-elements, sci-fi, historical, biography, future-history, library-book, 2015

I really wasn't sure about reading this as I found the only other KSR "alternate history" book (Years of Rice and Salt) that I'd read not to be particularly enthralling. However, I'm glad I took a chance on this and got it out of the library.

I didn't know all that much about Galileo Galilei before reading the book, but KSR uses passages from GG's writings and also from those in church records and correspondence about him. These really give a flavour of GG as a man of his time, but also someone w ...more

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Aug 29, 2010 Janette rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sf-fantasy

Lush, sweeping, meaty. Robinson manages to blend a most intimate story of Galileo the man with a grand exploration of quantum physics, the nature of reality and the human condition. I loved this book!

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Mar 18, 2019 Ginny rated it really liked it

I didn't know what the plot of this was going in, but I've enjoyed other books by KSR so when I saw it available on our local digital library, I decided to try it. And...whoa. Madness, sheer madness! (view spoiler) ...more

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Mar 07, 2021 Aaron Adamson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: faves, sci-fi, science, fiction, history

A beautiful, tragic, and inspiring portrait of Galileo and his role in setting human civilization on a new path guided by empiricism. The importance of being committed to reality and truth in the face of religious and political dogma is still disputed here and now, centuries later, and it’s shocking how much some of the arguments against Galileo resemble elements of our current national discourse.

The choice is still the same as it was in his time - is our primary loyalty to truth and reason? Or ...more

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Jan 11, 2020 Denise rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, science, skepticism, religion-myth-superstition, fiction

Took me a long time to get into this book. The first half is slow, as are the final chapters. Overall, a good read with interesting ideas. I especially enjoyed the overview of budding science in Galileo’s day and how far it has developed since, where it might lead, despite human stubbornness toward ignorance and violence.

“We are all history -we’re the hopes of people in the past, and the past of some future people- known to those people, judged by them, changed by them as they use us.”

Before hum ...more

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Apr 03, 2021 Eric Folley rated it really liked it

I raced through this, hoping that humanity in the end would be saved from its own worst impulses. In the end, everyone dies, evil deeds go unavenged, and things end just about as fucked up as when we started. So, not happy endings, and in the middle we have history as an overdetermined quantum indeterminacy where maybe the butterfly’s wings make no difference at all.

“Eppure, si muove.” And yet it moves. It works. It draws the reader along because it digs deep into the inner life of Galileo in a ...more

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About Kim Stanley Robinson

Kim Stanley Robinson

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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

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Cast naked into the wilds of the Paleolithic Ice Age, a young apprentice braves the elements in Shaman, a prehistorical novel by the science...

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Quotes from Galileo's Dream

“We all have secret lives. The life of excretion; the world of inappropriate sexual fantasies; our real hopes, our terror of death; our experience of shame; the world of pain; and our dreams. No one else knows these lives. Consciousness is solitary. Each person lives in that bubble universe that rests under the skull, alone.” — 42 likes

“And so sometimes when you feel strange, when a pang tugs at your heart or it seems like the moment has already happened- or when you look up in the sky and are surprised at the sight of bright Jupiter between clouds, and everything suddenly seems stuffed with a vast significance-consider that some other person somewhere is entangled with you in time, and is trying to give some push to the situation, some little help to make things better. Then put your shoulder to whatever wheel you have at hand, whatever moment you're in, and push too! Push like Galileo pushed! And together we may crab sideways toward the good.” — 9 likes

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