2312

This book has one of the weirdest rating distributions I've ever seen on Amazon. Seriously, check it out. It's FLAT. An equal number of people for each star. How did that happen?

As I read this book, I can sort of see how it happened. It is, simultaneously, a 1-star book, a 2-star book... etc. Also a 5-star book.

I can't even put the 1-star and 5-star stuff into bins, because I just felt so gosh darn ambiguous about so much of it.

The plot: The solar system has been colonized by people. Earth is an eco-disaster, full of poverty and despair. “Spacers” are sometimes seen to be speciating because now, thanks to gravity and technology and the gender revolution, we have very very big people and very very small people and people who live to 200 and everyone is basically an indeterminate gender (both/neither/etc). Digital divide, writ large.

The protagonist is Swan, a sprightly 137-year old lady from Mercury whose grandma just died. Note 1: Note that I said “lady”. Despite the book proclaiming, about halfway through, that spacers are all genderless, our three main characters all have pretty clear genders. And, as another reviewer noted, things end in a very disappointing “lady loves rock monster” hetero romance. A WEDDING, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. Seriously?! Let it be said, I loved Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, but found myself similarly disappointed with the whole Maya/Frank/John love triangle nonsense. It just feels so weirdly regressive amidst all this progressive craziness.

Aaaaanyway. So Song's an artist, her grandma died, she's from Mercury. Her grandma, Alex, was this badass planet-hopping political lady, so I guess she was actually Paula Mendoza from Floating Worlds. There is much mysterious Machiavellian machinations behind the scenes, and now Song is pulled into the politics biz. This includes meeting Wahram, an ambassador and “large” from Saturn (rock monster man!), and Jean Genette, an Interpol-type inspector and “small” from Mars.

Note 2: While Wahram and Jean are pretty cool folks, Song is brutally unlikeable. This is semi-intentional on KSR's part (Song knows it, other characters know it), but I just had trouble not getting angry and annoyed at this obnoxious, tantrum-throwing lady. It certainly made the read much harder.

So: stuff happens. There is some stuff about re-wilding (cool) that is basically imposed on Earthpeople by enlightened-feeling spacers (not cool, way to give liberals a bad name, KSR!). There is some stuff reminiscent of Blade Runner (fine). There are some primary document-esque interludes, which I always enjoy.

I have to admire KSR, cuz he basically does what I wish I could do: he writes really dense, technically impressive (science things!) future fic that also touches on politics and international development and anthropology. It is fun. There's lots of capitalism critiquing and alternative economic systems, also fun. There's LOTS of fancy and wonderful-sounding tech stuff.

But I guess I found it - starting strong but losing steam? A bit disappointing? The last 200 pages or so really knocked off a couple stars; as the resolution felt inorganic and quick and don't get me started on the last chapter. Despite the disappointment, though, there were moments of great sci fi: like the “terrariums” (spinning, hollowed out asteroid cylinders peopled with animals and humans and ecosystems and fun!), and, oh wow, that scene where they decide to turn the big ship around super-fast and crush everyone against relentless 3 g? Cool. I also semi-admired the incredibly huge-scale scope of everyone's plans (“Let's just spin Venus faster, why not!”), though - as one reviewer noted - dude, it does feel totalitarian at times. Makes ya miss the good ol' Enterprise, and their whole hands-off Prime Directive.

Also, I am le tired of Beethoven refs, especially as signifiers of Big Thoughts. Wouldn't Charles Mingus do just as well? Or Kanye? (I appreciated the Philip Glass refs - but everyone knows they listen to him up there.) Just sayin'.