Science Fiction

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Lemmy World Rules

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Favorite Kim Stanley Robinson book? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago by Zombiepirate@lemmy.world to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.world

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Kim Stanley Robinson is probably my favorite living author; I don't think anyone does setting and worldbuilding better than he does, yet his stories are largely character-driven.

Here's my favorites of his that I've read:

Aurora, where a generation ship is on it's way to Tau Ceti
The Years of Rice and Salt, an alt-history where most of Europe perishes in a great plague in the 14th century
Shaman, a fictional narrative about the people who painted Chauvet Cave

I love how his stories are about being optimistic in times where that's a hard thing to be. I like the focus on environmentalism and the sublime (Ministry for the Future is basically a solarpunk novel). He mostly writes hard sci-fi, which is my favorite genre, but also spins off into history and philosophy like in Galileo's Dream.

I think most people know his writing from his Red/Green/Blue Mars series, which I love, but he's done so much more than that.

So what's your favorite of his books?

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[–] TribblesBestFriend@startrek.website 7 points 1 week ago (13 children)

I don’t know why but unable to finish a Kim Stanley’s book.

[–] k48r@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (3 children)

He tends toward extreme optimism about humanity which can be a nice change from constant doom but also rings hollow and feels trite sometimes, depending on my mood.

[–] TribblesBestFriend@startrek.website 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That’s not why I find Stanley hard, kind of like over optimism. My problem tend to be with the flow of his writing

[–] gazter@aussie.zone 3 points 6 days ago

There's a section in the Mars trilogy where several pages are given over to describing how a farm is laid out, with the wind coming over this rise and hitting this rock, which means a little pool of moisture forms in this particular spot, making a little ridge in the soil that shelters a bit of grass. Oh and someone blew up a space station with a missile.

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