An update on SFF projects in development at Startling Inc.

As I reported in February 2021, the production company Startling Inc. has been developing a number of major SFF novels and series as TV shows for a while. Several of these have now been picked up. I thought it might be interesting to track how their projects in development have changed over the last year or so.

The company is run by Vince Gerardis, a former producer on Game of Thrones and a contact of George R.R. Martin. Unsurprisingly, several of his projects are related to George and HBO's deal to further explore the world of Westeros: House of the Dragon's first season is in the can and will air in August, whilst Dunk & Egg, Ten Thousand Ships and The Nine Voyages of the Sea Snake remain in development. The Ice Dragon, based on a non-Westeros GRRM story, is still in development at Warner Brothers Animation. Harrenhal: A Song of Ice and Fire Stage Play also remains in development. Wild Cards, based on GRRM's superhero franchise (along with over thirty other writers), is also still in development at Peacock. Sandkings, based on GRRM's most famous pre-A Game of Thrones story, is also still in development at Netflix with Gore Verbinski slated to direct.

Several projects from the original list have also now been shot: Dark Winds, based on Tony Hillerman's crime novel, launches on AMC on 12 June. RPM (Infinito Films), an original Spanish series set in 2101 where emotions are forbidden, is already in the can and awaiting release.

Some projects also appear to have been discontinued: Eon, based on Greg Bear's 1985 novel, is now MIA, as is Montmarte, possibly a Picasso-related project.

Looking at the other projects (those marked * have been added since February 2021):

• Ringworld (MGM/Amazon): based on Larry Niven's classic 1970 novel about a huge ring-shaped megastructure. Originally optioned in 2017, but moved onto the backburner several years ago and not currently believed to be in active development.
• The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag (Phoenix): a project based on Robert Heinlein's 1942 novella.
• Passengers (Groundswell & Endeavour): likely a project based on Robert Silverberg's 1969 short story.
• Inconstant Moon (21 Laps/Picture Start): a project based on Larry Niven's 1971 short story.
• Dry, an Augusten Burroughs Story (Bruce Cohen/MML): a project based on Augusten Burroughs' memoir, detailing his battle with alcoholism.
• Hawksbill Station (First Generation Films): a project based on Robert Silverberg's 1967 novel about a penal colony established in the distant past.
• Dayworld (Warner Brothers TV): a project based on the 1985 novel by Philip José Farmer where the world is so overcrowded, only 1/7 of the population can be awake at any time.
• Roadmarks (HBO): a TV show based on the Roger Zelazny 1979 novel of the same name. Kalinda Vazquez (Star Trek: Discovery) is tipped to showrun. 
• The Postman (Warner Brothers TV): A fresh take on David Brin's 1985 novel, previously adapted by Kevin Costner in 1997.
• More Than Human (Good Banana/HBO): an adaptation of Theodore Sturgeon's 1953 novel about superheroes who can merge their powers.
• OK (Anonymous Content): still no idea on this one.
• Rose Hill (Leeding Media): possibly an adaptation of Julie Garwood's Claybornes of Rose Hill novel series (previously filmed in 1997) or Pamela Grandstaff's Rose Hill Mysteries.
• The Pearl (Triscope Studios): 
• Weetzie Bat (Universal/Peacock): a project based on the Dangerous Angels novel series by Francesca Lia Block. A film version was in development in 2018 with Ana Taylor-Joy, Nick Robinson, Theodore Pellerin and Keiynan Lonsdale attached to star, but that fell through.
• Clean (Anonymous): an adaptation of John Kessel's 2011 short story.
• Sleepless (Stampede/Jeremy Podeswa): an adaptation of Nancy Kress's Sleepless trilogy, starting with Beggars in Spain, about a new generation of humans genetically engineered to never need to sleep.
• Up the Line (Village Roadshow): an adaptation of Robert Silverberg's 1969 time travel novel.
• Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy (Fox): a huge project based on Kim Stanley Robinson's massive Mars Trilogy of novels (starting with Red Mars). Previously in development at Spike with J. Michael Straczynski attached, but dropped due to being a poor fit for the network.
• The Belgariad (City Hill Arts): an adaptation of the late David and Leigh Eddings' five-novel epic fantasy series. Development seems to have stalled since the revelation that the authors were child abusers who did jail time in the 1970s.
• Billion Dollar Boy (Phoenix): a project based on Charles Sheffield's 1997 novel about a spoiled rich kid from Earth who is dumped on a remote space station.
• The Dying Earth (A24): an adaptation of Jack Vance's hugely influential fantasy series, which directly inspired both Dungeons & Dragons and the entire "Dying Earth" subgenre of stories.
• Ark (Anonymous/Epix): a project based on Stephen Baxter's novels Flood and Ark about a hitherto-unknown body of water in Earth's mantle draining into the oceans, causing catastrophic flooding.
• *Ministry for the Future (Anonymous): an adaptation of Kim Stanley Robinson's 2020 novel about a government ministry which is charged with protecting future generations.
• *Warrior Heir (Management 360): an adaptation of The Heir Chronicles by Cinda Williams Chima.
• *Lady Who Sailed the Soul (Anonymous Content): an adaptation of Cordwainer Smith's 1960 short story.
• Arabian Nights (Anonymous Content): presumably a fresh take on the Arabian Nights story cycle.
• *Another Fine Myth (Skybound): an adaptation of Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures book series.
• Play (Anonymous Content): unknown (although possibly a mistake, referring to Anonymous Content recently optioning Lillian Hellman's play The Children's Hour).

As usual, most of these projects are only "in development" and will likely not see the screen, at least in these formats, but it's good to see a production company dedicated to bringing so many SFF books and stories to the screen.

A slew of well-known SF and fantasy projects are in development through Startling Inc., including THE BELGARIAD, THE DYING EARTH and RED MARS

Thanks to detective work by the team at Westeros.org, it's been revealed that a surprisingly large number of classic SF and fantasy projects are in development via the Startling Inc. production company. The company is run by Vince Gerardis, a producer on Game of Thrones.

Some of the projects have been known about for a while and some seem to be stuck in development hell. Most seem to be speculative options, with the realistic prospect of making it to the screen being unclear. Still, it's worth breaking down the projects on the list:

Ringworld (MGM/Amazon): based on Larry Niven's classic 1970 novel about a huge, ring-shaped megastructure completely enclosing a star. Optioned in 2017, it is believed this project was moved onto the backburner some time ago and is not currently in active development.

Wild Cards (Universal Cable Pictures/Peacock): see more here.

Dark Winds (AMC): A detective series based on Tony Hillerman's novel The Dark Wind. Originally in the works at HBO, but presumably sold on to AMC since then.

The Ice Dragon (Warner Brothers Animation): an animated feature film based on George R.R. Martin's 1980 children's story. In development since 2018.

Eon (MWM, formerly Madison Wells Media): likely a project based on Greg Bear's classic 1985 "big dumb object" SF novel, Eon, the first volume in the Thistledown series.

A Song of Ice and Fire (The Works): speculated by the Westeros team to be a live experience or show based on the novels.

The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag (Phoenix): a project based on Robert Heinlein's 1942 novella.

Sandkings (Netflix): see more here.

Passengers (Groundswell/Endeavour Content): likely a project based on Robert Silverberg's 1969 short story about alien beings who possess human bodies at will. Unrelated to the 2016 Chris Pratt/Jennifer Lawrence film.

Inconstant Moon (21 Laps/Picture Start): a project based on Larry Niven's 1971 short story.

Dry (Bruce Cohen Productions/MML): this is more ambiguous; possibly a project based on Neal and Jarrod Shusterman's 2018 novel about climate catastrophe.

Hawksbill Station (First Generation): a project based on Robert Silverberg's 1967 novel about a penal colony established in the distant past, from where prisoners cannot hope to escape.

Dayworld (Warner Brothers Television): a project based on the 1985 novel by Philip José Farmer where a chronically overcrowded Earth is managed by having only one-seventh of the population active at any time, spending the rest of the time in suspended animation.

Roadmarks (HBO): see more here.

The Postman (Playtone/Warner Brothers Television): a new take on David Brin's 1985 post-apocalyptic novel. The novel was previously adapted - mediocrely - as a film in 1997 with Kevin Costner.

More Than Human (Good Banana/HBO): an adaptation of Theodore Sturgeon's 1953 novel in which humans develop superpowers which they can blend together to create incredible effects.

OK (Anonymous Content): No idea on this one.

Arabian Nights (Tomorrow/ITV): Presumably another take on the classic mythological story cycle originally known as One Thousand and One Nights.

Rose Hill (Leeding Media): There's several possibilities here, including Julie Garwood's Claybornes of Rose Hill novel series (previously filmed in 1997 as Rose Hill) and Pamela Grandstaff's Rose Hill Mysteries series.

PLAY (Dimitri Vegas): No idea on this one.

Weetzie Bat (Stampede/UCP): A film based on the Dangerous Angels novel series by Francesca Lia Block. Ana Taylor-Joy, Nick Robinson, Theodore Pellerin and Keiynan Lonsdale were attached to star and Justin Kelly to direct, but there has been no word on the project since 2018. It might be that this is a new take on the same idea (since Stampede and/or UCP do not appear to have been involved in the 2018 project).

Clean (Anonymous): A surprisingly popular novel title, making it hard to pin down what it's based on.

Sleepless (Stampede): Most likely, a project based on Nancy Kress's Sleepless trilogy (starting with Beggars in Spain) about a new generation of humans genetically-engineered not to need sleep, who rapidly become far more intelligent and capable than "sleepy" humans and threaten to supplant them.

Up the Line (Village Roadshow): a project based on Robert Silverberg's 1969 time travel novel.

The Mars Trilogy (Fox): a project based on Kim Stanley Robinson's multi-award winning Mars Trilogy of novels (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars); previously in development at Spike Television with J. Michael Straczynski, where it was dropped after being a poor fit for the network. 

The Belgariad (City Hill): a project based on David and Leigh Eddings' five-volume epic fantasy saga (credited to David alone, but in later life he confirmed his wife's full involvement in the writing process). As a major epic fantasy work of the 1980s, it's been developed for adaptation several times but never quite made it into active development. Its prospects have probably not been helped by the recent revelation that the authors were child abusers who did jail time in the 1970s for beating and imprisoning their foster children.

Billion Dollar Boy (Phoenix): a project based on the 1997 novel by Charles Sheffield, in which a spoiled rich kid from a future Earth is abandoned on a remote space station and has to work hard to survive.

The Dying Earth (A24): a project based on the four-volume science fantasy series by Jack Vance. Hugely influential and important, The Dying Earth directly inspired Dungeons & Dragons (which uses the same magic system) and the entire "Dying Earth" subgenre of science fantasy.

Flood/Ark (Anonymous/Epix): a project based on the high-concept SF duology of the same name by British SF author Stephen Baxter, about the Earth becoming uninhabitable when a previously-unknown body of water in Earth's mantle is released into the oceans, causing catastrophic global flooding and forcing humanity to adapt or flee the planet altogether.

Montmartre (Stampede): No idea on this one, except possibly a project related to Picasso.

RPM (Infinito): No idea on this one either.

It's likely only a small number of these will ever make it to the screen, and it'll be interesting to see which ones.

New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson

They called it the Second Pulse: an unexpected collapse of glacial valleys in Antarctica that poured billions more tons of ice into the world oceans than was ever expected. Global sea levels rose by fifty feet in a few years, displacing hundreds of millions of people and triggering an economic meltdown. The world recovered, but it had to adapt.

In New York the lower half of Manhattan was inundated, becoming a "Super-Venice". New Yorkers are a hardy breed and they keep trucking along, taking skybridges and boats to work instead of taxis and trains, and still grumbling about the weather. For the inhabitants of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Building on Madison Square, life continues in this changed world. But when two residents are kidnapped and the city is threatened by a tropical storm, the tower becomes the centre of a sequence of events which could change the world.

New York, New York, so great they named it twice. In novels and on screen, it's been blown up, hit by meteors, invaded by aliens, attacked by Godzilla and King Kong and been subjected to every disaster that the human mind can conjure. Kim Stanley Robinson is the latest author to take a crack at subjecting the city to catastrophe, but his one is both much simpler and more plausible: a significant rise in sea levels. Lower Manhattan is transformed into a series of islands, buildings connected together by bridges and boat taxis, the city at considerably greater risk from storm surges and hurricanes but New Yorkers carrying on as normal because that's what they do.

Robinson is one of SF's most interesting voices, mixing realism with a healthy optimism with real scientific vigour with an interest in macroeconomics. His work veers from the large scale to the intimate: his Mars Trilogy remains the final word on the colonisation of the Red Planet, whilst Galileo's Dream, Shaman and the Science in the Capital trilogy have been more down-to-earth works. Generation ship drama Aurora and his state-of-the-Solar-System epic 2312 have shown a general trajectory back to large scale events, as will his next novel (in which China colonises the moon). New York 2140 takes a different tack, depicting a vast, complex and changed world through the prism of the (now very soggy) Big Apple. There's some interest to be found from parsing the ultra-cynical, profit-driven city through the eyes of Robinson, a Californian utopian scientist through and through.

So this is a book which examines the future of human society through the greatest city humanity has ever built (and maybe ever will build), but the book zooms in even further than that, concentrating on the inhabitants of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Building on Madison Square (the one with the impressive giant clock), now, like so many other buildings, an island rising from the waters. The main characters include NYPD office Gwen, a lawyer named Charlotte, a hedge fund manager, two homeless kids, the building's supervisor Vlade (whose tasks involve making sure the building doesn't sink or collapse from waterlogged foundations) and a cloud video star named Amelia who has her own web channel covering her attempts to save endangered species using an airship. The plot initially appears rather diffuse, with the kidnapping of two computer programmers from the building providing a dramatic spine but the book moving away from this for lengthy tangents on matters material, political and financial, but eventually the sprawling plot threads come together for a fascinating conclusion.

Robinson is that rarest of beasts, a hard SF author who can actually write. His prose is vivid, flows well and changes tonally between narrators (hedge fund manager Frank gets his chapters written in first person, unlike everyone else, just because Robinson likes mixing things up a bit). New York 2140 is simply a tremendous pleasure to read from start to finish for this reason. Robinson is also a bit on the light-hearted side of things here. That's not to say there isn't serious drama and incident (there is, especially when a tropical storm hits the city), but Robinson mitigates this with a sense of humour and an genuine outsider's appreciation for the city.

Really, New York 2140 is a love letter to a city that you'd think doesn't need any more, but works anyway. The city is peppered with anecdotes from the city's history, most of them true. It's startling to learn that Met North (the building adjacent to the Met Life Insurance Building) was supposed to be a supermassive skyscraper taller than the Empire State Building but was abandoned after 30 floors for financial reasons, or that in 1903 an elephant made a break for freedom from Coney Island and swam three miles across the Narrows to Staten Island before being recaptured. Robinson's list of sources and stories will have readers hitting the internet to check out the awesome 18th Century British topographical surveys of the mostly-unsettled Manhattan Island, or confirm that Manhattan is actually sloped with the southern part of the island much lower than the northern. Most insane is the story that a British warship carrying gold to pay its troops, HMS Hussar, sank in New York Harbour and was never recovered. The money on board would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars today, but since the Bronx has been extended over the site of the wreck it can't be recovered. Implausibly, but entertainingly, this becomes a major plot point in the novel.

The book is mostly successful but occasionally flounders: the novel is a little too consumed with economic history and a few jokes wear thin ("sunk costs" is a term that takes on a new meaning), but these points remain minor.

New York 2140 (****½) is more than a well-written profile of the city. As the book continues it gains drama and urgency and ends on a note which moves the story far beyond New York's borders to take in the entire world. It's a little bit too neat and maybe too optimistic, but the book's (unnamed) narrator acknowledges this and points out that the great social transformation which results from the book's events may be temporary. But overall New York 2140 is Robinson at his best: brimming with verve and humour and hope, taking all the knocks that politics and economics and cold science can throw at us and showing that humans can always adapt, change and prosper. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

Cover art for NEW YORK 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson

Orbit Books have released the cover art for Kim Stanley Robinson's next novel, New York 2140: A Novel.

The new book will be set in New York in 2140 and will depict how the city is adapting to being partially submerged. The cover art is by Stephan Martiniere. The cover blurb:

The waters rose, submerging New York City.
 

But the residents adapted and it remained the bustling, vibrant metropolis it had always been. Though changed forever.

Every street became a canal. Every skyscraper an island.

Through the eyes of the varied inhabitants of one building Kim Stanley Robinson shows us how one of our great cities will change with the rising tides.

And how we too will change.

 The novel will be published on 21 March 2017 in the UK and USA from Orbit.

RED MARS TV show put on hold

Spike's Red Mars TV series, based on Kim Stanley Robinson's award-winning Mars Trilogy of novels, has been put on indefinite hold following some high-profile departures.

In particular, it's been confirmed that J. Michael Straczynski's involvement will now be restricted to the pilot script and possibly some additional episodes later on. Spike offered Straczynski the showrunner role, but he has bowed out citing other commitments (presumably including Netflix's Sense8, his collaboration with the Wachowskis which was recently renewed for a second season). Peter Noah stepped in as showrunner, but has now left following "creative differences" with the network. The project is now on hold whilst Spike figures out what to do next.

The "creative differences" has raise concern with fans. The Mars Trilogy is a mostly cerebral, political and scientific story about the realities of colonising Mars. It slow-paced and has very few action sequences. The story also unfolds over some 190 years, with the characters surviving thanks to the introduction of an age rejuvenation therapy. Turning this story into a compelling drama would be a tall order for HBO or Netflix, but Spike TV (which tends more towards action fare and reality shows) always felt like an awkward fit. Fans had been hoping that the success of The Martian, with its emphasis (more or less) on real science, would encourage Spike to stick closer to the tone and pacing of the novels.

RED MARS adaptation greenlit with BABYLON 5 showrunner in charge

Spike TV has given a full season order for Red Mars, a TV series based on Kim Stanley Robinson's classic Mars Trilogy of novels. J. Michael Straczynski, the creator/producer/writer of Babylon 5 and recently the co-creator and writer of Sense8 for Netflix, will be the primary writer and showrunner on the series.

Robinson's trilogy consists of the novels Red Mars (1992), Green Mars (1993) and Blue Mars (1996), along with a companion volume of short stories and essays, The Martians (1999). The trilogy opens in the year 2026 when fifty men and fifty women - the First Hundred - travel to Mars on the colonisation ship Ares. The opening part of the first novel covers the months-long journey out to Mars, with the scientists and engineers getting to know one another and dealing with crises like solar storms which threaten to kill them before they even get to the planet. During the voyage an ideological and philosophical debate begins which eventually comes to dominate the colonisation saga: whether Mars should be left in the state it is found or terraformed to support human life.

The rest of the first novel concerns the building of Underhill, the first town on Mars, and the establishment of an outpost on its moon Phobos. As the years pass more colonists are sent and technology rapidly develops, with canyons and craters being roofed and pressurised to create the first towns and, later, cities. A life-extension drug is developed which allows characters at the start of the story to still be alive and in excellent health forty years later. However, as the population of Mars swells, so does the control of the meta-national megacorporations which have displaced the nation-state as the primary power on Earth. This sparks a desire for independence, and the scene is set for a bloody revolution. The later novels, Green Mars and Blue Mars, cover an additional 200 years of future history.

J. Michael Straczynski's Babylon 5 featured a long-running, series-spanning storyline about the Mars colony's desire for independence and freedom.

It is likely that Straczynski will be changing some things about the books. First off, the timeline will likely be changed (since we are more like thirty years from the establishment of the first colony on Mars rather than eleven). We are also likely to see a lot more action and drama, particularly during the events of the latter two books which are more free of plot incident than the first novel. However, as Babylon 5 and Sense8 both show, Straczynski is a thoughtful writer who can write entertaining television even about controversial issues like religion, immigration and the morality of science, so don't expect these elements to be dumbed down too much. Indeed, Straczynski appears to have been a fan of the novels, with the Mars storyline in Babylon 5 feeling at least very partially inspired by Robinson's books (that were released simultaneously with the show's opening seasons).

Vince Gerardis, who helped shepherd Game of Thrones to the screen, will co-produce alongside Straczynski, who will write and be the primary showrunner. Kim Stanley Robinson will serve as a creative consultant on the project, but it's not yet been confirmed if he will write any episodes.

Spike TV, known for its more young adult male demographic than its thoughtful, hard SF one, appears to be appealing to a new audience with this project. They have also made a significant investment in the new show, ordering a full 10-episode first season instead of a pilot. It is possible that the success of the Ridley Scott film The Martian inspired them to move forward with the project.

According to Straczynski, his work on Red Mars will not interfere with his writing for the second season of Sense8, which was recently commissioned by Netflix.

Joe Straczynski to pen adaptation of Kim Stanley Robinson's MARS TRILOGY

J. Michael Straczynski, the acclaimed creator-writer of Babylon 5 amongst many other projects, has been tapped to write Spike TV's adaptation of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy.

This is an interesting match. The Mars novels came out at the same time Babylon 5 was starting, and it feels like Straczynski may have tapped them for some inspiration, particularly with the subplot about terrorists on Mars fighting for independence. B5 showed that JMS 'got' Mars, even in the brief parts of the series set there, so if he can bring that same touch to this project that should be great for the atmosphere and visuals.

How much of Robinson's incredibly slow-burning narrative will remain intact or be sacrificed at the altar of action and more compressed character development remains to be seen, but Straczynski is a reasonably confident pair of hands to put the project in.

Spike picks up Kim Stanley Robinson's MARS TRILOGY for TV

Spike TV are developing a TV series based on Kim Stanley Robinson's epic Mars Trilogy of novels. The proposed TV series will take the its name from the first novel in the series, Red Mars, with Kim Stanley Robinson serving as a creative consultant.

Consisting of Red Mars (1992), Green Mars (1993) and Blue Mars (1996), the trilogy spans almost two hundred years (between 2027 and 2212) and depicts the colonisation of Mars by the initial First Hundred group and subsequent waves of immigration. As the years pass, socio-economic tensions rise between the original settlers and later arrives, and between Mars and an Earth increasingly desperate to offload its bloated population (threatened by viruses and climate change) on the new world. The rising threat of war, independence and the impact of a new medical science that retards the ageing process are all key storylines in a story that involves dozens of major characters.

James Cameron and Gale Ann Hurd worked on a mini-series idea based on The Mars Trilogy for several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This project was not tremendously faithful to the novels - rumours abounded of a 'sexy female android' character when no such entity exists in the books - but it did wind up being developed for several years at AMC. It was not greenlit, but it did introduce Hurd to the team at AMC that eventually ended up making The Walking Dead. Five years ago, AMC resurrected the project with writer-director Jonathan Hensleigh on board (Die Hard with a Vengeance, Welcome to the Jungle, The Punisher, Armageddon), but eventually passed.

Spike TV are best-known for their reality programming, and news that this project was in development with them came as a surprise.If Spike treat the subject seriously (i.e. don't turn it into a revolutionary shoot 'em up) and put some serious money behind it, this could be both a very good TV series and mark a change in direction for the channel. The potential for this going horribly wrong is very high, however.

Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

2127. The Ross ice shelf has shattered due to volcanic activity and much of Antarctica's ice has fallen into the sea, raising global sea levels by seven metres. Three billion people - a fifth of the human race - have been displaced, triggering the greatest economic and humanitarian crisis in history. With Earth's governments and metanational corporations distracted, the colonists on Mars have launched their second revolution.

The surviving remnants of the First Hundred - whose lives have been extended vastly by genetic treatments - are spearheading the revolution. Their hope is to forge a new relationship with Earth based on mutual respect and understanding, but to the teeming billions of Earth Mars is an escape route, a place to begin again. In the aftermath of revolution, a new way of existence has to be found if the human race is to prosper.

Blue Mars is the third and concluding volume in Kim Stanley Robinson's epic Mars Trilogy, his account of the colonisation and terraforming of Mars extending across almost two centuries of human history. It opens with the Second Martian Revolution in full swing, picking up from the cliffhanger ending of Green Mars. The city of Burroughs has been flooded and most of the UN and metanat forces have been forced to pull back to the city of Sheffield atop Pavonis Mons, where a space elevator links Mars to space. The opening sequence of the book depicts the battle for Sheffield, which is followed by politicking as different factions from both Earth and Mars try to create a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

Blue Mars is similar in general style to the first two books in the sequence, with atmospheric passages on the terraforming of Mars and descriptions of the ever-shifting environment coexisting with lengthy political musings and notable scenes of character development. Robinson focuses the somewhat rambling nature of Green Mars by presenting much of the third book through the viewpoints of two of the First Hundred: Sax Russell, the scientist-genius who made most of the terraforming possible and has been the leading advocate of the 'Green' position (the total terraforming of Mars); and Ann Claybourne, the geologist who has never believed that terraforming was moral and is the leading exponent of the 'Red' viewpoint. By the time of Blue Mars, with the planet's atmosphere mostly breathable and liquid oceans appearing in the north and in the vast Hellas Basin, it appears that Sax has won the argument by default, but Robinson challenges this by showing Sax's dissatisfaction with the process and his growing realisation that something special has been lost with the destruction of the 'old' Mars. Simultaneously, Claybourne realises - belatedly - the value of being able to experience Mars first-hand without the need for spacesuits.

The two viewpoints and their newfound convergence stands as a metaphor for the entire novel. The Martian position that immigration from Earth should be banned before it overwhelms their still-fragile biosphere, and the Terran position that their planet is choking to death on people and as many as possible need to be dumped off-world, likewise need to find common ground to the benefit of all, as do the tendencies of corporate-driven right-wing politics and those of the liberal left. If Blue Mars has a theme it is that compromise, if often unsatisfactory to everyone, is the only way that society can function and move forwards.

This may be stating the obvious, but Robinson nevertheless explores the theme in tremendous depth. The political bias which infested Red Mars is much more moderate here, with Robinson showing that the huge corporations do have some positive roles to play in the future affairs of both planets, although some traces of naivete remain, particularly when a right-on member of the First Hundred wins a debate by making some pithy remarks, awing his political opponents. Those who despise politics may find the novel a little dry for their tastes, but may also enjoy the growing cynicism of the First Hundred, whose lengthy lifespans have allowed them to see the cyclical nature of politics and social movements and grow bored with them.

It's arguable from the second volume that Robinson made a mistake in killing off his most dynamic POV characters in the first novel, with the surviving members of the First Hundred being a little too passive to embrace fully as protagonists. These lingering doubts are removed in this book, with Nadia, Maya, Michel and particularly Sax and Ann working well as our principal characters (with second-generation Nirgal and Art, a liaison with an Earth metanat, also putting in good work as viewpoint characters). Their extended lifespans, which could easily be dismissed as a convenient plot device to save Robinson the complexities of writing a multi-generational storyline, have come at a cost, one that Blue Mars dedicates a lot of its closing chapters to exploring. These long lives also give them a unique perspective on events, ranging from tried cynicism to delight at seeing new generations coming into the world, which Robinson enjoys exploring.

Like its predecessors, Blue Mars is as much a social textbook and a scientific treatise and thought-experiment as it is a novel. There are some dynamic action scenes earlier in the novel, but for most of the book events are slow-paced and descriptive. Robinson is describing the social, scientific, economic, philosophical and even military implications of the terraforming of Mars on a broad base. For those interesting in such matters, Blue Mars is as easy to recommend as its two predecessors. For those interested in a more straightforward, plotted novel with a much tighter focus across a smaller passage of time, Blue Mars is as likely to disappoint as Green Mars before it.

For myself, Blue Mars (****) is an effective conclusion to one of the most ambitious SF projects of all time. Robinson's writing is at its strongest in this novel, as he attempts to fuse hard SF with real literary ambition and comes close to succeeding. The concluding chapters in particular deliver a terrific emotional charge as, after two thousand pages, the story of these flawed people and the world they have transformed finally ends. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

Kim Stanley Robinson and Iain M. Banks event in London

Forbidden Planet are hosting an interesting event at the British Library in London on 9 June. SF heavyweights Iain M. Banks and Kim Stanley Robinson will be discussing a large number of topics related to SF and their work.

For more info, including tickets, check out Forbidden Planet's website.

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

Swan Er Hong, a notable performance artist native to Mercury, has her life abruptly changed by the death of her grandmother, Alex. As Swan is asked to investigate the project her grandmother was working on, her home city is subjected to a brutal terrorist attack. This sparks a series of journeys back and forth across the Solar system, from Mercury to terraformed Venus to drowned Earth and out as far as Io and Titan, as Swan and her allies attempt to discover the threat nature of the threat to humanity.

2312 is Kim Stanley Robinson's first widescreen, big-budget, blockbuster SF novel in some considerable time. His recent novels (such as the recent Galileo's Dream or his near-future Science in the Capital trilogy) have been modest in their ambitions, but 2312 trots out the same Robinson who charted the colonisation of Mars in such fascinating, exacting and sometimes-frustrating detail over the course of three books in the 1990s.

The novel works on several levels. On one, it paints a portrait of life in the early 24th Century where the bulk of humanity lives on Earth (and, increasingly, Mars) but the 'spacers' who have settled the rest of the Solar system hold increasing amounts of power, despite their small numbers. This portrait is vivid, rich and compelling. It shows Robinson's imagination at its most fertile, as he depicts Terminator, a city which rolls over Mercury's surface, permanently trying to stay on the nightside of the planet out of the fierce rays of the nearby Sun. Elsewhere he shows the terraforming of Venus as its thick atmosphere is stripped away and politicians debate on slamming giant asteroids into it to increase its rotation. Another section takes us to Greenland, where a huge damming project is underway stop one of the Earth's last few glaciers from melting into the sea. On Io people have to live in settlements which act as gigantic Faraday cages (to hold the immense radiation of Jupiter at bay), whilst in orbit around Saturn people go surfing on plumes of ice pulled out of the rings by the passage of the shepherding moonlets. As a grand tour of the Solar system, 2312 is constantly inventive and fascinating.

On the second level, the book is striving for literary credibility. Robinson has always been one of the finest writers of prose in hard SF (not, it has to be said, a densely-populated field), and that continues here. He may be fascinated by science, by technology and by visions of the future, but he's much more fascinated by people, as individuals and as collective societies, and how they operate. As such the characters are richly-defined and textured, showing surprising depths as the novel develops. The prose is also finely-weaved but Robinson's long-standing tendency to interrupt it with infodumps remains an issue, although much less so than in his Mars Trilogy. Most notably, Robinson's writing keeps two potentially dull sections (one featuring characters having to hike along a thousand mile-long tunnel, the other featuring a character adrift in space) from flatlining and in fact elevates them to two of the strongest sections in the book.

The third level, the actual plot, is where the novel hits the most bumps. In the Mars Trilogy Robinson portrayed a vision of the future where the characters had to deal with scientific hazards and the simple realities of day-to-day life in a hostile environment. Whilst there were antagonists, these were shown to be part of the naturally-arising problems of colonisation and the eventual need for independence. In 2312, however, Robinson has a much more overt and traditional thriller storyline in which mysteries need to be investigated and explored and a resolution reached. To put it mildly, this plot feels half-arsed at best and the novel improves dramatically when Robinson completely drops it for much of its middle third, instead focusing on his grand vision of humanity's possible future.

2312 (****½) is a credible and somewhat optimistic vision of our future, highly detailed and constantly inventive. Coupled with some rich characters and enjoyable prose, this makes for his finest novel in many years. However, some contrived plot twists and a dull thriller element weaken the narrative a little. The novel will be published in the UK and USA on 24 May.

NOTE: The first half or so of the novel strongly indicates that 2312 is set in the same continuity as the Mars Trilogy. However, a detailed timeline given later in the book reveals this is not the case and the two works are separate, although 2312 does borrow a few names and terms from the older work.

Cover art: Chris Wooding, Graham Joyce, Kim Stanley Robinson

More cover art goodness:


2312 is Kim Stanley Robinson's next novel, a big epic set in and throughout the Solar system in the titular year. Sadly, the original plan to release the novel on 2 March (2/3/12 in the UK dating system) seems to have fallen through, with the novel currently scheduled for May instead. Orbit will be publishing in the UK with the suitably epic cover seen above.


Graham Joyce's new novel, Some Kind of Fairy Tale, is apparently a fresh take on the English 'woodland fantasy' subgenre (well-exemplified by Robert Holdstock's definitive Mythago Wood and Paul Kearney's A Different Kingdom) and will be published by Gollancz in the UK on 15 March with some nicely-understated cover art.


Gollancz are also issuing fresh, YA editions of Chris Wooding's Tales of the Ketty Jay sequence through their new Indigo line. The new Retribution Falls will be out on 5 January and will be followed by The Black Lung Captain later in the year. The new cover is striking and brings home the Western influence in the series, but I must admit at disappointment with the lack of airship action on this edition.

Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

2090. Sixty years ago, humanity landed on Mars, and stayed. The First Hundred led the colonisation effort, soon joined by other colonists and settlers. Thirty years after arriving, the people of Mars demanded political independence from the trans-national megacorps that were gradually subsuming national governments on Earth into their influence. The result was the First Martian Revolution, a revolution that was crushed. During the fighting Phobos was destroyed, the space elevator linking Mars to space fell and two-thirds of the First Hundred were killed.


Mars is becoming greener, with algae, lichen and primitive plants growing on the surface. The atmosphere is thickening, the icecaps are melting and the terraforming is proceeding at a pace outstripping the most optimistic projections. Now several new generations of native Martians have been born, all chafing against the rule of a planet millions of miles away that they care little about. Thirty-nine of the First Hundred still live, their lives extended by an experimental - and expensive - treatment that is only available to the rich and powerful on Earth, fuelling civil unrest there, whilst being freely available on Mars. Over the course of almost forty years, the Martians prepare for a new bid for independence, one that will be led by reasoned argument rather than mindless violence.

Green Mars is the second novel in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy, his epic account of the colonisation and terraforming of Mars. The first novel, Red Mars, concerned itself with the initial landing, exploration and colonisation of Mars, and the changes wrought by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of fresh immigrants from different cultures, culminating in the bloody and failed revolution. The second novel is principally about learning from the mistakes of the first attempt and preparing for a second, more ambitious revolution. At the same time, the terraforming of Mars and the science behind it remains a key focus, as Robinson floods the Hellas Basin and Vastitas Borealis, tents over canyons to make viable living spaces, thickens the atmosphere, and increases sunlight through the arrival of a huge mirror in Martian orbit.

Green Mars is not an action-packed novel, although there are more action beats than I remember from my first read of this novel some twenty years ago. One of the First Hundred is imprisoned by one of the corporations and his comrades have to rescue him, whilst later on some of the more radical groups launch a terrorism campaign against the Earth-imposed government on Mars. Towards the end of the book, the second revolution is launched which results in some impressive imagery: the flooding of the city of Burroughs after the nearby dyke is blown and two hundred thousand people have to walk seventy kilometres to safety and trust that the atmosphere is as breathable as the scientists claim is a stirring image, almost as memorable as the fall of the space elevator in the previous novel.

But for the most part, this is a hard SF novel, concerned with the physical sciences involved in terraforming and with the social sciences of how to meld a new society together out of myriad competing interests. A minor weakness of the first novel is that Robinson's own politics were too often on display, but in Green Mars he does a better job of portraying all sides of the debate. The would-be rebels' extremely reluctant alliance with one of the more democratic megacorps seems to be an admission that as much as you may want to escape the woes of Earth and fly off to another planet to found a utopian paradise, you really can't, at least not whilst that society is dependent on science and technology to survive, and is not totally self-sufficient (yet, though by the end of the novel it's close).

For the most part, our characters are survivors of the First Hundred: Maya, Michel, Nadia and Sax, who have seen their dream (not unanimously shared) of a free, green Mars corrupted by corporate interests. They are joined as POV characters by Nirgal, the son of Hiroko, who represents the Martian-born generation, and by Art, representing the metanational corporation Praxis, who tries to form an alliance with the Martian revolutionaries and then finds himself unexpectedly inheriting the mantle of John Boone from the first book as the guy who can talk to everyone, no matter their agenda. Characterisation is pretty strong, helped by the fact that many of these characters are now extremely old and have changed a fair bit from the first novel: the formerly quiet Sax is aggressive and angry after a spell in jail, Maya has realised what an unpleasant person she was in her youth and is determined to change, and Nadia has embraced her status as someone who is respected and listened to (which pays off handsomely in the final novel in the trilogy).


As with the first novel, this book isn't a thriller or an adventure (though it has elements of those in some sequences). It's a hardcore novel about how the colonisation of Mars could really happen. This manifests itself most notably in a lengthy mid-novel sequence in which the competing factions gather together to decide on the future of Mars. Rather than a quick gathering and a bunch of people agreeing on a way forwards, this takes the form of a month-long conference with tons of arguments which ends in a compromise declaration that satisfies no-one and people are unhappy with but nevertheless reluctantly agree on. Robinson draws parallels (some subtle, most not) not only with the Continental Congress and the American Declaration of Independence, but also with the Russian Revolution, even naming the chapter in question What Is To Be Done? Many will find this sequence mind-bogglingly boring, but those with an interest in history and politics will find it fascinating and convincingly realistic (though maybe only up until the slightly hippy-tastic closing ceremony where everyone celebrates the end of the conference by going surfing on an underground lake, which feels a bit random).

On the more negative side, Green Mars is almost 800 pages long, some 150 pages longer than the first book, and there is less decisive forward movement in the plot compared to the first novel. Some sequences feel rather skimmable, mostly those involving the in-depth political discussions on the differences between the Marsfirsters, the Reds, the First Hundred, the Bodanovists, the Arab settlers and what feels like fifty other groups. Yet Robinson is also laying out the groundwork for the explosive Second Revolution (the novel finishes with the revolution unfinished, giving us something of a cliffhanger), in particular having to explain how the mistakes of the 2061 rebellion are not repeated. Necessary, but not always gripping.

Beyond that, there are the rich, evocative and atmospheric descriptions of the changing Martian landscape, the sheer scope as Robinson tries to channel as many scientific disciplines as possible to paint the most realistic picture possible of the colonisation effort (in this regard there are similarities with Aldiss' similarly fantastic worldbuilding for Helliconia), the richly-realised characters and the sometimes poetic and lyrical power of his prose (though he falls back into a dry, academic and textbook-like approach a little bit too often).

Green Mars (****) won both the Hugo and Locus awards for best novel in 1994 and it's easy to see why. This is inspiring and epic hard SF, though it stumbles a little with pacing and tone. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

Wertzone Classics: Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

2027. A hundred of Earth's most skilled engineers and scientists are dispatched to Mars, braving radiation exposure to land on the Red Planet and establish a permanent scientific outpost. Their goal is to establish whether Mars can ever be a viable target for settlement and colonisation, and if terraforming the planet is possible or desirable.


Earth is overcrowded and choking, with national governments and transnational supercorporations (whose annual balance sheets outstrip the GDPs of most of the world's countries) feuding for control. Soon, vast reservoirs of water are discovered in hidden aquifers deep below the Martian surface, making colonies self-sustainable. To the transnats, this means that Mars can become a dumping ground for Earth's excess population. When valuable mineral deposits that Earth is crying out for are also discovered on Mars, then its exploitation for the benefit of the people of Earth becomes inevitable. The resulting clash of wills and desires of the transnational Earth corporations and the beleaguered settlers on Mars forced to accept hundreds of thousands of immigrants they cannot cope with can only have one possible outcome: revolution, and the cry for independence.

Kim Stanley Robinson's epic Mars Trilogy chronicles humanity's colonisation of Mars, beginning in the early 21st Century and extending over a period of some two centuries. The first book, which covers a period of some forty years, sees the initial settling of Mars by the First Hundred, the welcome arrival of additional waves of colonists intent on scientific research and then the more challenging problems of the arrival of hundreds of thousands of economic migrants, refugees and outcasts on a world that is not ready for them, and the resulting tensions between the newcomers and old-timers, and between the authorities on Mars and Earth.

The success of the trilogy as a whole is debatable, but this first volume, at least, is a masterpiece. Robinson's story rotates through a number of POV characters amongst the initial settlers, the First Hundred, and it rapidly becomes clear that most of them are somewhat unreliable narrators. Maya's complaints in her own POV of her 'important problems' being ignored by the base psychiatrist are given another perspective in her friend Nadia's POV, which reveals Maya is more interested in a trivial love triangle between herself and two Americans rather than in the colonisation of Mars, whilst the psychiatrist Michel's POV reveals that he is giving Maya colossal amounts of time and attention (to the detriment of his own mental health) which is unappreciated. Robinson repeats this trick several times, showing that the ultra-laidback and inspirational John Boone (the First Man on Mars) achieves his famous demeanour through the assistance of addictive drugs, whilst self-deprecating Nadia is actually the most universally-respected of the First Hundred. Character is thus built up in layers, from both internal viewpoints and external sources, making these central characters very well-realised (although characters outside the central coterie can be a little on the thin side).

Whilst the characters are important, it is Mars itself which is the central figure of the book. Robinson brings a dead planet to vivid life, emphasising the differences in terrain and character between the frozen northern polar icecap and the water-cut channels in the depths of the Valles Marineris, with the massive mountains of Tharsis towering high into the atmosphere and colonists eagerly staking claims to future beachfront properties in Hellas, the lowest point on Mars and the first place to see the benefits of terraforming. The ideas of Mars as it is now as a pristine, beautiful but harsh landscape and the habitable world it could be are sharply contrasted, and the rights and wrongs of terraforming form a core argument of the novel. I get the impression that Robinson sides with Ann Clayborne's view that the planet should be left untouched, but he is realistic enough to know this will not happen, if Mars can be settled and exploited in a way that is economically feasible. Mars in this work becomes a success of SF worldbuilding to compete with Helliconia and Arrakis, losing only a few points for actually existing.

On the downside, Robinson hits a few bad notes. Some of these are unavoidable consequences of the book being nearly twenty years old. Even in 1992 the notion that the Chinese would not play a major role in the financing and undertaking of a Mars colonisation mission only forty years hence was somewhat fanciful, but today it is almost unthinkable. More notably, the global recession has made the possibility of a manned mission to Mars, let alone a full-scale colonisation effort, by the 2020s somewhat dubious. Of course, these are issues Robinson could not hope to predict in the optimistic, post-Soviet Union years of the early 1990s.


Other problems are more notable. Robinson goes to some lengths to make the pro-terraforming and anti-terraforming sides of the debate both understandable and intelligent, but his political sympathies are much more one-sided. The pro-Martian independence brigade have charismatic leaders and a grass-roots movement of plucky, honest-men-against-the-machine supporters to their name, whilst the pro-Earth-control movement is led by a fundamentalist conservative Christian and resorts to weapons and mass-slaughter extremely easily. Robinson, to his credit, recognises this problem in later books and tries to repair the damage somewhat (Phyllis, presented extremely negatively in Red Mars, is shown in a more sympathetic light in later volumes), but there remains a feeling of political bias in this first volume. In addition, it sometimes feels that Robinson really wants the reader to know about the years of research he put into the book, with tangents and divergences which make the book feel like half a novel and half a factual science volume on how the possible colonisation of Mars might happen. For those fascinated by the real-life plans to terraform Mars (like me) this isn't an issue, but for some it may be. It is also, by far, the biggest problem the sequels face.

Nevertheless, the sheer, massive scope and complexity of Red Mars makes up for this. There is an overwhelming feeling running through this novel unlike almost any other hard SF novel ever published, that this might actually happen. Maybe not as soon as 2027, maybe not with such a determined push towards colonisation and terraforming right from the off, but one day, barring the collapse of our civilisation, we will go to Mars, and many of the challenges and problems faced by the First Hundred in this book are issues that will need to be overcome to make that possibility a reality.

Plus, and this cannot be undervalued, the dry and more sedentary tone of the earlier parts of the book are made up for by the final 100 pages or so, which contains one sequence which ranks amongst the most memorable and stunning moments of SF imagery achieved in the history of the genre to date. Robinson may have the image of being a bit of a laidback Californian optimist, but he sets to blowing stuff up at the end of the book with a relish that makes even Greg Bear look unambitious.

Red Mars (****½) is an awe-inspiring feat of SF worldbuilding and a vital novel on the colonisation of our neighbouring world, let down by a few moments of naivete and simplistic straw-manning of political points of view not to Robinson's liking. Overcoming this, the central characters are fascinating, the sheer scope of the book is stunning and the climatic revolution sequence is dramatic and spectacular. The novel is available (with a nice new British cover) in the UK and USA.

New Douglas Adams and Kim Stanley Robinson covers

To celebrate both the 30th anniversary of the original novel and the release of the new Hitch-Hiker's book, And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer, Pan Macmillan have re-released the original five Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy novels in new covers. Most notable about this release is that The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy itself has a blank cover: you yourself can create the cover using a provided assortment of stickers. So if the cover sucks, it's your own fault!


The new editions also come with fresh new introductions by other writers, such as Russell T. Davies (outgoing producer of the new Doctor Who), Monty Pythoner Terry Jones and Neil Gaiman, and a host of rarely-seen publicity photos and press releases from the time of each book's release.

Tying in with the release of Kim Stanley Robinson's very fine Galileo's Dream, HarperCollins Voyager meanwhile are reissuing his classic Mars Trilogy in very nice new covers. Unfortunately, they are also in the larger 'B-format' paperbacks which I know many readers aren't too keen on. However, the books are so great to look at, it's worth the extra inconvenience of their bulky size.


Both sets of book are available in the UK right now.

Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson

Venice, 1609. Galileo Galilei is a mathematician and teacher, earning money by tutoring the sons of nobles and making various inventions, such as an impressive military compass that can improve the accuracy of artillery. Unfortunately, although ferociously intelligent Galileo lacks practical experience: his compass is too complicated to use effectively in the chaos of battle and he sells only a few. His debts mount and the monetary demands on him of his family continue to grow. In the midst of this chaos Galileo learns of the development in Northern Europe of lenses which allow distant objects to be seen more closely. He quickly becomes fascinated and makes improvements to the idea, eventually creating a device he calls a telescope, which he uses to make studies of the stars and the Moon, which is a big hit. His discovery of four moons circling Jupiter causes shockwaves in contemporary science, but he brings himself to the attention of the Church in Rome when he uses the motion of the Jovian moons to advance the heretical notion of Copernicanism, which states that the Sun is the centre of the universe and the planets orbit it, in opposition to Church doctrine that the Earth is the centre of everything.


As the years pass Galileo finds his support for Copernicanism makes him many enemies, and comes dangerously close to having him burned for heresy. As he struggles to reconcile faith and science and so better understand the works of God, he also suffers sudden collapses which last for several hours. During these periods he has a strange recurring dream, in which he is taken to the Jovian moons in the year 3020 and there asked to help mediate a dispute between different scientific factions arguing over whether to contact a new lifeform discovered deep in the oceans of Europa. Galileo also comes to know his own future and his understanding of the universe is vastly expanded by his exposure to the ideas of Newton, Einstein, Hawking and more, but each time his return to the real world is accompanied by a loss of memory of these experiences. But in his mind one thing remains clear, that in the 1630s he will anger the Pope one time too many and burn on the stake. Can this fate be averted?

Galileo's Dream is an ambitious novel by Kim Stanley Robinson, author of such significant works of SF as The Mars Trilogy and The Years of Rice and Salt. It mixes a biography of Galileo, sticking fairly closely to the events of his life, with an SF story set a thousand years hence amidst the moons of Jupiter. Even this is curiously old-fashioned, told as a planetary romance rather than a rigorous SF tale of the type you would more normally expect from this author who made his name in hard SF. This decision gives an interesting dream-like quality to the future-set sequences (hence the book's name) and helps integrate them better into the historical narrative.

The story is overall fascinating, even to those familiar with Galileo's life story. His love and support for his eldest daughter, whom he has to commit to a convent since she was born out of wedlock, forms an important part of the story, as do his various friendships with key and not-so-key figures of the age. Robinson's portrayal of the maestro is excellent, with Galileo coming across as a wayward genius, not interested in politics or practicalities and sometimes running afoul of political currents a more savvy person could have steered around. The importance of rhetoric and semantics in 17th Century life is also described, Galileo being able to work on the Copernican model of the universe despite the Pope's displeasure simply by saying "It's just a hypothetical thought-experiment,". In short, Robinson's portrayal of Galileo is masterfully done, and makes the reader more interested in looking up the great man's life himself. The depiction of 17th Century Venice, Florence and Rome is also very well-done.

The futuristic story is intriguing, but somewhat cold and remote. It is hard to really get into the mindsets of the characters there, although this does enable the reader to sympathise more with Galileo's bewilderment as these people and their world. However, the future sequences do allow for a more interesting examination of Galileo's beliefs and character than perhaps could otherwise be achieved. The emotional core of the story remains events in the 17th Century, which are engrossing. However, the slower pace and the intrusions of the 31st Century storyline may make the book less interesting to some readers.

Galileo's Dream (****) is a thought-provoking, genuinely interesting SF novel which illuminates the life of one of the most important men in the history of science. It is a slow-paced work, with little in the way of personal jeopardy or danger (until the end), but the relaxed unfolding of the story and the novel's fresh take on a tale that is already known makes it all the more engrossing. The novel will be published on 6 August in the UK and on 29 December in the USA.

Author Profile: Kim Stanley Robinson

Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer, born in 1952 in Illinois but resident for most of his life in California. His books are noted for a strong utopian or optimistic streak running through them and he a fascination with the environment and how society reacts to various crises. He has won the Hugo Award for Best Novel twice, the Nebula Award for Best Novel once, the World Fantasy Award once and the Locus Award six times.


Robinson is best-known for his three core trilogies, Orange County (recently rejacketed with the awkward title 'Three Californias'), Mars and Science in the Capital, and a number of stand-alone works. The Orange County Trilogy, comprising The Wild Shore, The Gold Coast and Pacific Edge, is an interesting work as it is set in three distinct, parallel future timelines, namely a post-apocalyptic landscape (where the USSR has beaten the USA in a nuclear war that didn't totally end civilisation), a dystopia and a utopia. Throughout these three books Robinson engages his interest in sociology and the environment, analysing how the three different Californian cultures and governments react to the situations they find themselves in. Pacific Edge is particularly notable for its portrait of a self-sustaining, non-polluting, high-tech nation where technology has been harnessed for the betterment of mankind, an unusually optimistic view of the future at the time. The book also features a manned mission to Mars and the people's reaction to it watching from home, which may have been a hint as to where he was planning to take his next work.


Robinson followed this up with what is widely considered his masterwork, the Mars Trilogy. Spanning two hundred years, the trilogy consists of Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars, the titles referring to the planet at different stages of colonisation and terraforming. The first novel sees the arrival of the 'First Hundred' colonists in 2027 and their building of a permanent Mars base. As the years pass additional settlers arrive and as Earth's resources dwindle, interest in exploiting Mars' resources increases. Tensions rise between the native Martian settlers and the controlling forces of the United Nations, culminating in a bloody revolution. The subsequent novels see the terraforming of the planet in full swing, the rise of native Martian myths and religions and the development of a new human society isolated from the problems of the homeworld. The Mars Trilogy is vast, breathtakingly ambitious and packed to the gills with interesting scientific speculation and ideas. The first novel contains much of the 'drama' in the series, with the latter two books sometimes being criticised for reading more like extended textbooks on the possible colonisation of Mars and it is hard to argue with that, but they're still a fascinating read. Arthur C. Clarke once said, the idea that Robinson created this trilogy is impossible to believe, as instead it reads like a real history that Robinson experienced and has travelled back in time to share with us.


Robinson's interest in exploring the same story from different angles was revisited with Antarctica (in which many of the ideas from the Mars Trilogy are revisited on a smaller scale) and The Martians (a collection of short stories and essays related to the trilogy, some of them occurring in parallel and different timelines). In 2002 he released a well-received stand-alone novel, The Years of Rice and Salt, which was based around the high concept that, in a parallel timeline, the Black Death actually killed 100% of the European population, so when Tamerlane's armies reached Europe they found the continent open to easy occupation. The novel then spans the next thousand years of history as the focus shifts to Asia and India, with the Industrial Revolution beginning in Samarkand and China leading the settlement of the North American continent. Key characters are reincarnated again and again across multiple decades and lifetimes, allowing us to follow the very development of this different world. The results are, as usual with Robinson, fascinating.


Robinson's most recent work, which I have not picked up yet, is The Science in the Capital Trilogy, which charts the development of global warming and how scientific evidence is politicised for various purposes. Al Gore is a big fan of the trilogy, but it does seem to have divided Robinson's fans.

His new work, which I'm hoping to read in the near future, is Galileo's Dream, a retelling of Galileo's life but with the addition of the scientist being visited by visions of the world three thousand years in the future, and what effect this has on his ideas and his struggles with the Church.


Robinson is a consistently interesting science fiction writer, who has a fascination with the work and world of scientists and and with not just the science and drama inherent in technological development, but also its impact on the environment, politics and human sociology. Robinson is, refreshingly, an optimist who seems to think that the human race can survive and flourish, but not if it continues to be shackled to the attitudes and prejudices of the past. He is a key author in the modern science fiction field.


Bibliography

Stand-alone Books
Icehenge (1984)
The Memory of Whiteness (1985)
The Planet on the Table (1986, collection)
Escape from Kathmandu (1989, collection)
A Short, Sharp Shock (1990)
Remaking History (1991, collection)
Antarctica (1997)
Vinland the Dream (2001, collection)
The Years of Rice and Salt (2002)
Galileo's Dream (2009)

The Orange County Trilogy
The Wild Shore (1984)
The Gold Coast (1988)
Pacific Edge (1990)

The Mars Trilogy
Red Mars (1991)
Green Mars (1992)
Blue Mars (1996)
The Martians (1999, companion volume)

The Science in the Capital Trilogy
Forty Signs of Rain (2004)
Fifty Degrees Below (2005)
Sixty Days and Counting (2007)