TY - ABST T1 - The Ministry for the Future Y1 - 2020 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Set in the near future when climate change is rapidly worsening, the Ministry for the Future is established by the United Nations with little actual power, but it brings together a number of committed people determined to bring about changes, some through diplomacy, others through any means possible. The novel follows the woman who is head of the Ministry and her interactions with the heads of the most powerful national banks, some of the ways scientists throughout the world are trying to limit the effects of climate change and improve peoples’ lives, and some of the attempts to further change or oppose it through violence.

PB - Orbit/Hachette Book Group CY - New York SN - 978-0-316-30013-1 N1 -

Three chapters are reprinted in No More Fairy Tales: Stories to Save Our Planet. Ed. D[enise] A. Baden (Np: Habitat Press, 2022), Chapter 42 as “The Carboni” (94-101), Chapter 22 as “Drambers” (234-239), and Chapter 93 as “Project Slowdown” (263-273).

ER - TY - ABST T1 - Red Moon Y1 - 2018 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

An adventure/thriller that explores East-West relations on Earth and the Moon and critiques both capitalism and communism. Includes a description of the free crater people, an anarchist community based on “blockchain governance.” Some discussion of the classic Chinese utopia Peach Blossom Spring with a translation of Wang Wei’s version  “Source of the Peach Blossom Stream (Wang Wei)” (343-44), which is rpt. in Stan’s Kitchen: A Robinson Reader. Ed. David C. Grubbs (Framingham, MA: NESFA Press, 2020), 191-92.

PB - Orbit CY - New York SN - 978-0-316-26237-8 U5 -

Public

ER - TY - ABST T1 - New York 2140 Y1 - 2017 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Climate-change dystopia. Includes the characters Mutt and Jeff from 2016 Robinson, “Mutt and Jeff Push the Button.”

PB - Orbit CY - New York U5 -

Merril

ER - TY - ABST T1 - "An American Utopia" Y1 - 2016 A1 - Fredric Jameson (b. 1934) ED - Slavoj Žižek (b. 1949) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

The author discusses his utopia based on a universal army, similar in some ways to Bellamy’s Industrial Army, as the best way to deal with the current economic situation. The utopia was originally given as a keynote address at the 2013 meeting of the Society of Utopian Studies in Charleston, SC, and the utopia in the address was much more detailed than in the published version. The comments are Robinson, “Mutt and Jeff Push the Button” (97-104), which is fiction (see 2016 Robinson); Jodi Dean, “Dual Power Redux” (105-32); Saroj Giri, “The Happy Accident of a Utopia” (133-45); Agon Hamza, “From the Other Scene to the Other State: Jameson’s Dialectic of Dual Power” (147-68); Kojin Karatani, “A Japanese Utopia” (169-82); Frank Ruda, “ Jameson and Method: On Comic Utopianism” (183-210); Alberto Toscano, “After October, Before February: Figures of Dual Power” (211-41); Kathi Weeks, “Utopian Therapy: Work, Nonwork, and the Political Imagination (243-65); and Slavoj Žižek, “The Seeds of Imagination” (267-308); followed by “An America Utopia: Epilogue” by Jameson (309-17).

JF - An American Utopia: Dual Power and the Universal Army PB - Verso CY - London U5 -

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - “Mutt and Jeff Push the Button” Y1 - 2016 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) ED - Slavoj Žižek (b. 1949) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Two coders work out how to fairly redistribute income using the model of a universal army. Some satire, and at the end it is unclear what happens. Mutt and Jeff also appear in 2017 Robinson.

JF - An American Utopia: Dual Power and the Universal Army PB - Verso CY - London ER - TY - ABST T1 - 2312 Y1 - 2012 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Complex novel set throughout the fully inhabited solar system with intrigue and conspiracies, but, while Earth is still riddled with problems, the rest of the planets are slowly working their way to a better system and hope to include Earth in it.

PB - Orbit CY - New York N1 -

An excerpt was published in Lightspeed Magazine, no. 24 (May 2012).

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Merril

ER - TY - ABST T1 - Sixty Days and Counting Y1 - 2007 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Dystopia. The third volume of a trilogy concerned with the disaster being brought about by global warming. The first two volumes are Forty Signs of Rain. New York: Bantam Books, 2004; U.K. ed. London: HarperCollins, 2004. Rev. in his Green Earth: The Science in the Capital Series (London: Harper Voyager, 2015), 1-282; and Fifty Degrees Below. New York: Bantam, Books, 2005; U.K. ed. London: HarperCollins, 2005 [An excerpt was published as “Primate in Forest (From Chapter One: Fifty Degrees Below).” Future Washington. Ed. Ernest Lilley (Beltsville, MD: WSFA Press/Washington Science Fiction Association (WSFA), 2005), 41-58, with an “Introduction to Primate in Forest by Ernest Lilley (39-40)]. Rev. in his Green Earth: The Science in the Capital Series (London: Harper Voyager, 2015), 283-686. Both of these are political novels concerned with the growing crisis and the lack of political will to deal with it. Sixty Days and Counting describes both the dystopia that results, and the recovering world produced by the efforts of a small group of dedicated people.

PB - Bantam Books CY - New York N1 -

Rev. in his Green Earth: The Science in the Capital Series (London: Harper Voyager, 2015), 687-1069, with an “Introduction” to the volume by the author (xi-xvi) in which he explains the reasons for the changes in the trilogy. 

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - "Prometheus Unbound, At Last: And not a moment too soon" Y1 - 2005 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Satire on the themes of science fiction and utopian literature.

JF - Nature VL - 434.7052 N1 -

Rpt. without the subtitle or the illus. in Futures from Nature. Ed. Henry Gee (New York: Tor, 2007), 239-41; and in The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson. Ed. Jonathan Strahan (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2010), 361-63.

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Illus. Jacey

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - “How Science Saved the World: Has science driven history for the past 50,000 years?” Y1 - 2000 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

A review of a book that argues that the eutopia of the future depended on a subset of scientists devoted to human betterment after a massive plunge in population that resulted from the sorts of issues we face at present.

JF - Nature VL - 403.6765 N1 -

Rpt. as “Review: Science in the Third Millennium.” Envisioning the Future: Science Fiction and the Next Millennium. Ed. Marleen S. Barr (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2003), 199-201. 

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Rpt. as “Review: Science in the Third Millennium.”

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Illus. Jacey

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - Antarctica Y1 - 1997 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Most of the novel is concerned with conflicts over the protection or development of Antarctica. But the novel ends with the agreement to establish a system that would be environmentally sound and put the future of Antarctica in the hands of those who care for it rather that companies concerned with making a profit. While there are few details and nothing on how it works out, the novel is regularly classified as a utopia.

PB - HarperCollins CY - London N1 -

U.S. ed. New York: Bantam Books, 1998.

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - Blue Mars Y1 - 1996 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Third volume in a trilogy describing the terraforming of Mars and the growth of societies there. Sequel to 1992 Robinson, Red Mars.  and 1994 Robinson, Green Mars. This volume describes the terraformed Mars, the continuing conflicts over what should be done to change Mars, and the eutopian society that develops there contrasted with the dystopia that Earth has become. The eutopian is one in which a variety of societies coexist peacefully with an emphasis on community. A story set further into the future of Mars is his “A Martian Romance.” Asimov’s Science Fiction. 23.10 (285) (October/November 1999): 14-28; rpt. in The Year’s Best Science Fiction. Seventeenth Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), 434-47 with an editor’s note on 433. Materials related to the trilogy were published as The Martians. New York: Bantam Books, 1999. U.K. edition. London: HarperCollins, 1999, which reprints his “Exploring Fossil Canyon.” Universe 12. Ed. Terry Carr (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1982), 26-47; “Sexual Dimorphism.” Asimov’s Science Fiction 23.6 (281) (June 1999): 28-39; and “A Martian Romance.” Asimov’s Science Fiction 23.10[/11] (285) (October-November 1999): 14-28. In addition, The Martians includes poems “Six Poems from If Wang Wei Lived on Mars rpt. in his Stan’s Kitchen: A Robinson Reader. Ed. David C. Grubbs (Framingham, MA: NESFA Press, 2020), 125-143 [“Crossing Mather Pass” (311-11/127-28), “Invisible Owls” (315-16/129-30), “Tenzing” (317-19/131-33), “The Red’s Lament” (322/23/135-136), “A Report on the First Recorded Case of Areophagy” (320-21/137-39)], and “Two Years” (324/27/141-43), and the story “Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars” (179-88/171-79).

PB - HarperCollins CY - London N1 -

U.S. ed. New York: Bantam Books, 1997. Rpt. illus. Ron Miller with an “Introduction” by James Gunn (v-viii). Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1996. 

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - "Chocco" Y1 - 1994 A1 - Ernest [William] Callenbach [Jr.] (1929-2012) ED - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

An ecotopia that presents a future Native American Indian based culture as a simple eutopia.

JF - Future Primitive: The New Ecotopias PB - Tor CY - New York U5 -

Merril

ER - TY - ABST T1 - Green Mars Y1 - 1993 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Complex social science and science fiction about the terraforming of Mars and the growth of societies there. Mars is threatened by a dystopian Earth of corporate power and environmental degradation that hopes to exploit Mars’s resources rather than create healthy societies. Sequel to 1992 Robinson, Red Mars. See also 1996 Robinson, Blue Mars. Materials related to the trilogy were published as The Martians. New York: Bantam Books, 1999. U.K. edition. London: HarperCollins, 1999, which reprints his “Exploring Fossil Canyon.” Universe 12. Ed. Terry Carr (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1982), 26-47; “Sexual Dimorphism.” Asimov’s Science Fiction 23.6 (281) (June 1999): 28-39; and “A Martian Romance.” Asimov’s Science Fiction 23.10[/11] (285) (October-November 1999): 14-28. In addition, The Martians includes poems “Six Poems from If Wang Wei Lived on Mars rpt. in his Stan’s Kitchen: A Robinson Reader. Ed. David C. Grubbs (Framingham, MA: NESFA Press, 2020), 125-143 [“Crossing Mather Pass” (311-11/127-28), “Invisible Owls” (315-16/129-30), “Tenzing” (317-19/131-33), “The Red’s Lament” (322/23/135-136), “A Report on the First Recorded Case of Areophagy” (320-21/137-39)], and “Two Years” (324/27/141-43), and the story “Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars” (179-88/171-79).

PB - HarperCollins CY - London N1 -

U.S. ed. New York: Bantam Books, 1994. Based on a shorter piece of the same title in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 9.9 (September 1985): 112-82; rpt. in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Third Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: Bluejay Books, 1986), 552-619 with an editor’s note on 551. Chapter one was also published as “A Martian Childhood.” Asimov’s Science Fiction 18.2 (212) (February 1994): 128-74. 

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - Red Mars Y1 - 1992 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

The first volume of a trilogy focusing on the colonization of Mars with conflicts over what the future of Mars should be playing out both on Mars and on Earth. See also 1993 Robinson, Green Mars and 1996 Robinson, Blue Mars. Materials related to the trilogy were published as The Martians. New York: Bantam Books, 1999. U.K. edition. London: HarperCollins, 1999, which reprints his “Exploring Fossil Canyon.” Universe 12. Ed. Terry Carr (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1982), 26-47; “Sexual Dimorphism.” Asimov’s Science Fiction 23.6 (281) (June 1999): 28-39; and “A Martian Romance.” Asimov’s Science Fiction 23.10[/11] (285) (October-November 1999): 14-28. In addition, The Martians includes poems “Six Poems from If Wang Wei Lived on Mars rpt. in his Stan’s Kitchen: A Robinson Reader. Ed. David C. Grubbs (Framingham, MA: NESFA Press, 2020), 125-143 [“Crossing Mather Pass” (311-11/127-28), “Invisible Owls” (315-16/129-30), “Tenzing” (317-19/131-33), “The Red’s Lament” (322/23/135-136), “A Report on the First Recorded Case of Areophagy” (320-21/137-39)], and “Two Years” (324/27/141-43), and the story “Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars” (179-88/171-79).

PB - HarperCollins CY - London N1 -

U.S. ed. New York: Bantam Books, 1993. An excerpt was published as “Red Mars.” Interzone, no. 63 (September 1992): 6-15 followed by personal comment “I Go to Mars” by Robinson (15). Another excerpt was published as “Festival Night From Red Mars.” Nebula Awards 29. Ed. Pamela Sargent (San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace, 1995), 47-67.

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - Pacific Edge Y1 - 1990 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Flawed utopia with conflict between those trying to create an environmental eutopia and those hoping to increase development. While the former win in the specific situation, the overall issue is set to continue. Sequel to 1984, The Wild Shore and 1988 Robinson, The Gold Coast, which are reprinted in Three Californias. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2020, with an introduction “Triptych, with Softball” by Francis Spufford (7-12), The Wild Shore (13-292), The Gold Coast (293-653), and Pacific Edge (655-895). The three volumes have the same physical location, but the futures presented are different.

PB - Tor CY - New York N1 -

Rpt. New York: Tor/Tom Doherty Associates, 1991. U.K. ed. London: Unwin Hyman, 1991; and in Three Californias (New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2020), 655-895, with an introduction “Triptych, with Softball” by Francis Spufford (7-12).

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - The Gold Coast Y1 - 1988 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

An affluent future that could be read as a eutopia or as a dystopia depicting the effects of the military-industrial complex, but the discontent of the main characters suggests the latter. See also 1984 Robinson, The Wild Shore, and 1990 Robinson, Pacific Edge, which are reprinted in Three Californias. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2020, with an introduction “Triptych, with Softball” by Francis Spufford (7-12), The Wild Shore (13-292), The Gold Coast (293-653), and Pacific Edge (655-895). The three volumes have the same physical location, but the futures presented are different.

PB - St. Martin's Press CY - New York N1 -

Rpt. New York: Tor/Tom Doherty Associates, 1988; and in Three Californias (New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2020), 293-653, with an introduction “Triptych, with Softball” by Francis Spufford (7-12). U.K. ed. London: Futura, 1989. 

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - "The Lunatics" Y1 - 1988 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) ED - Beth Meacham KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Dystopia of mining on the moon which is the equivalent of slavery.

JF - Terry's Universe PB - Tor CY - New York N1 -

Rpt. in his Remaking History (New York: Tor, 1991), 236-63; and in Infinity Plus one. Ed. Keith Brooke and Nick Gevers (Leeds, Eng.: PS Publishing, 2001), 255-81; in Brave New Worlds. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2011), 293-313; 2nd ed. as Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2012), 293-313; and in Alaya Dawn Johnson and Kim Stanley Robinson. Metamorphosis (Seattle, WA: Aqueduct Press, 2015), 59-91. 

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - "Down and Out in the Year 2000" Y1 - 1986 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Dystopia of being poor in a future failing United States.

JF - Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine VL - 10.4 N1 -

Rpt. in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Fourth Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987), 530-43 with an editor’s note on 529; in Robinson’s Remaking History (New York: Tor, 1991), 198-215; and in Cyberpunk: Stories of Hardware, Software, Wetware, Revolution and Evolution. Ed. Victoria Blake (Portland, OR: Underhand Press, 2013), 089-106.

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Merril

ER - TY - ABST T1 - "Our Town" Y1 - 1986 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Dystopia of class divisions.

JF - Omni 9.2 N1 -

Rpt. in his Remaking History (New York: Tor, 1991), 216-23; and in Lightspeed Magazine, no. 23 (April 2012).

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DLC, Merril

ER - TY - ABST T1 - "A Transect" Y1 - 1986 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

The dystopia of apartheid.

JF - The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction VL - 70.5 (420) N1 -

Rpt. in his Remaking History (New York: Tor, 1991), 224-35; and in Future Earths: Under African Skies. Ed. Mike [Michael Diamond] Resnick and Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: DAW Books, 1993), 160-73. 

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Merril, MoU-St, PSt

ER - TY - ABST T1 - Wild Shore Y1 - 1984 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Post-atomic war dystopia set in 2047 in which people are trying to survive and maintain what knowledge of the past they can. First in a series variously called the Orange County trilogy and the Three Californias trilogy, with the latter being Robinson’s name for it. See also 1988, The Gold Coast, and 1990 Robinson, Pacific Edge, which are reprinted in Three Californias. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2020, with an introduction “Triptych, with Softball” by Francis Spufford (7-12), The Wild Shore (13-292), The Gold Coast (293-653), and Pacific Edge (655-895). The three volumes have the same physical location, but the futures presented are different.

PB - Ace Science Fiction Books/Berkley Publishing Co. CY - New York N1 -

Rpt. New York: Orb/Tom Doherty Associates, 1995; and in Three Californias (New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2020), 13-292 with an introduction “Triptych, with Softball” by Francis Spufford (7-12). U.K. ed. London: Futura, 1985.

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - “Venice Drowned” Y1 - 1981 A1 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Climate change dystopia in which Venice is underwater and its art treasures are being removed by outsiders.

JF - Universe PB - Doubleday & Co CY - Garden City, NY VL - 11 N1 -

Rpt. in The Best Science Fiction of the Year #11. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Timescape/Pocket Books, 1982), 109-30; Nebula Award Stories 17. Ed. Joe W. Haldeman (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1983), 19-43; in his The Planet on the Table (New York: Tor, 1986), 1-25; U.K. ed. (London: Futura, 1987), 1-25; in his Vinland the Dream and Other Stories (London: Harper Collins, 2002), 165-93; and in Drowned Worlds: Tales from the Anthropocene and Beyond. Ed. Jonathan Strahan (Oxford, Eng.: Solaris, 2016), 38-85.

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