From the Bookshelf of ECIS Libraries Week 2021…

The Ministry for the Future

Kim Stanley Robinson

Why we're reading this: Recommended by Marjan Slaats International School Eindhoven
[close] Recommended by Marjan Slaats International School Eindhoven

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Jul 15, 2023 Kristi Hovington rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: magical-realism-sf-fantasy

I was mesmerized by the first 1/3 of this novel and couldn’t put it down, but the last 2/3 was an effort to finish. It is impressive on many levels and certainly timely, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if it were either more story driven or fully non-fiction. The hybrid approach didn’t work for me.

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Aug 28, 2022 K rated it it was amazing

Shelves: usa, climate-emergency, ibo-learner-profile-inquirers, speculative-fiction, science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I had never heard of Kim Stanley Robinson before this book was chosen for the Climate Solutions Book Club, a monthly online book club I belong to organized by Paul E. Dawson on Twitter. That club exposes me to one great book after another that I wouldn't have seen or picked up without the club's urging. Now The Ministry For The Future, the club's August book selection, is my 2022 Book of the Year! I loved it! I got up at 12:30 a.m. to discuss the book.

First advice to all readers: be somewhere wh I had never heard of Kim Stanley Robinson before this book was chosen for the Climate Solutions Book Club, a monthly online book club I belong to organized by Paul E. Dawson on Twitter. That club exposes me to one great book after another that I wouldn't have seen or picked up without the club's urging. Now The Ministry For The Future, the club's August book selection, is my 2022 Book of the Year! I loved it! I got up at 12:30 a.m. to discuss the book.

First advice to all readers: be somewhere where no one can interrupt you doing the first chapter (30 minutes on audio) because it is a doozy. Yowsa! I was hooked from the word go! I feel like Kim Stanley Robinson builds on Octavia Butler's legacy of describing the reality of the climate emergency. A generation ago, Octavia projected what it would be like for us in our time (she got it!), Kim Stanley Robinson projects what our future will be like.

This book opened my eyes to climate emergency realities I had not known about before. I won't tell you what they are as then they will lose their impact when you read about them in the book. A superb strength of the whole book and of Kim Stanley Robinson's writing in particular is his ability to synthesize widely different relevant bits of information and create a very imaginative and true-to-life narrative out of it. I found that deeply impressive and compelling to listen to.

The only reason I would give the book less than five stars is the ending. It was a headscratcher. I think the author must have been just tired (the book is 20 hours on audio). After making us wonder if humanity and the planet would survive this climate emergency (a HUGE question to ask in a novel), Robinson brings it down to the individual and seems to ask, 'will Mary get her first kiss from Art?' Who cares! I'm just interested in the survival of my species, other species, and the environmental ecosystems as they exist today! The chaste safer-than-G-rated relationship at the end was a letdown after being on tether hooks all the way through the book! ...more

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Dec 22, 2020 Katie Day marked it as to-read

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