Friday, August 17, 2012

PCP on the Page - 2312

Despite how much TV and movies I watch, I also manage to find a lot of time to fit in a lot of books.  I typically read about a book a week.  I have a core set of authors that I read every book they publish, but sometimes I read faster than they can produce new work to keep me interested.  One of those times recently I found myself browsing the new releases section of the library and I came across a book that caught my eye.  Clocking in at 561 pages, I decided to give it a whirl and I hoped it wouldn't be a waste of my time.

I had never read a book from Kim Stanley Robinson before, but apparently he's a big name science fiction author.  I don't read as much sci-fi as I used to, in fact this was my first sci-fi novel (not including fantasy novels as I consider those a separate genre) that I had read in a couple years.

Set obviously in the year 2312, the solar system as we know it is completely different.  Earth is a mess, and terraforming has happened on many planets, moons, and asteroids throughout our system, resulting in an extremely dysfunctional political system.  The novel is a story that explores this strange solar system, finding political intrigue as well as wonder and scientific amazement. 

It is a remarkable book, but extremely heavy on the science portion of sci-fi, with a lot about genetic manipulation and the physics necessary for terraforming and spaceflight.  It drags a bit in places and I got through it much slower than a typical book of this size (it took almost two weeks, way slower than normal for me).  If you like sci-fi I do recommend this book, but for a lot of people they may find this book to be a bit boring.  It really is a remarkable world to explore though, so I encourage you to give this book a chance.

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