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?

  • dkppunk@lemmy.world
    7·
    13 days ago

    Red Mars, but not for the reason you are asking.

    My mom bought the paperback edition for me when I was 9 years old, when I was first started reading sci-fi books (thank you Animorphs for that intro). It was my first real “adult book” and it’s been knocking around in my collection for 32 years, moved with me across the US, and various other moves. It’s probably the one book that has been in my collection the longest. I didn’t read it until I was in my early 30s and I enjoyed it. I read Green Mars too, but I need to finish the trilogy.

    I am interested in his Ministry of the Future book and I’ll read it at some point.

    • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
      4·
      12 days ago

      The first few chapters of Ministry are one of the hardest things you will ever read in your life, but the rest of the book will slowly lift you up out of that dark place and give you a spark of real and genuine hope for the future.

  • celeste@kbin.earth
    7·
    13 days ago

    For whatever reason, I enjoyed Antartica a lot. Parts of it stick with me. I also loved The Years of Rice and Salt. I started with the Mars series and liked it enough to read more of his works, but those other stories are my favorites.

    • k48r@lemmy.world
      4·
      13 days ago

      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.

        • gazter@aussie.zone
          3·
          12 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.

      • JustTesting@lemmy.hogru.ch
        2·
        12 days ago

        Actually, the optimism in ministry for the future depressed me and made me not finish it. Even though at the time I was wanting for some optimistic climate fiction.

        Here we have this huge threat to humanity and way too little is done about it. But then all the ‘solutions’ in the book are so unrealistic, like russians using oil equipment in antarctica to help the world… it just made me more depressed about climate change that the solutions he came up with are more fever dreams.

        the first chapter was very well done though and should be required reading

    • Zombiepirate@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      13 days ago

      I’ve heard that some people just can’t get into them, which is fair enough, but I cannot relate.

      I agree though that he’s not everybody’s cup of tea. I’m the same with Alastair Reynolds, even though it seems to be just what I’d like.

      • _spiffy@lemmy.caEnglish
        3·
        13 days ago

        I finished the first of the Mars trilogy. I just found it for the most part very boring. I started the second but moved on to other books. I’m sure I’ll finish them but they just need to be after things I desire to read more.

    • Zombiepirate@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      3·
      13 days ago

      I can’t believe I put off reading this one as long as I did. It’s an incredible piece of fiction that, like you said, changed the way I think about history and storytelling.

  • Rhaedas@fedia.io
    3·
    13 days ago

    I enjoyed the Mars series, although I’ll admit it’s been a while since I read it and only a few things I really remember unless someone mentions other events. I have not read the book, but the opening chapter of Ministry for the Future (available online) is something that sticks with me as a premonition of what’s to come for many people. The only flaw to me was

    Spoiler

    how the main character seems to be the only survivor of what should have killed everyone. Perhaps if the death toll hadn’t been so absolute it would have been less plot armor.

  • th_in_gs@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    3·
    13 days ago

    Aurora is somehow simultaneously a pessimistic and optimistic book.

    Actually, I guess that’s true for many of his books, but it’s stark in Aurora.

    • Zombiepirate@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      13 days ago

      Oh, for sure.

      That’s what I like most about it: it feels almost crazy by the end to try to be optimistic about the future of humanity.

      But it is anyway.

      It’s easy to be defeatist; being optimistic is a subversive act.

  • jake@lemmy.world
    3·
    13 days ago

    I love everything of his that I’ve read. I think my favourites are Green Mars, Aurora, and 2312. I also really loved The High Sierra as a very different example of his work.

    I’ve still not read The Years of Rice and Salt or Shaman – definitely need to get around to them. I tend to pace myself with my very favourite authors.

    • Zombiepirate@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      13 days ago

      Absolutely. I’ve not read 2312, because it’s another of his books that I won’t be able to look forward to.