Kim Stanley Robinson PDF
Preview Kim Stanley Robinson
MODERN MASTERS OF SCIENCE FICTION The interim government has declared a state of emergency and rationing of water is to become effective EXPEDITION BXG immediately. The tsunami that hit the Xerumquis dolesti has contaminated all water sources. Government sources say exploration of the 2F X3 Callisto 4uX 3049 iteration 43b650 KIM STANLEY ROBINSON Robert Markley Kim Stanley Robinson Modern Masters of Science Fiction Edited by Gary K. Wolfe Science fiction often anticipates the consequences of scientific discoveries. The immense strides made by science since World War II have been matched step by step by writers who gave equal attention to scientific principles, hu- man imagination, and the craft of fiction. The respect for science fiction won by Jules Verne and H. G. Wells was further increased by Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Ursula K. Le Guin, Joanna Russ, and Ray Bradbury. Modern Masters of Science Fiction is devoted to books that survey the work of individual authors who continue to inspire and advance science fiction. A list of books in the series appears at the end of this book. Kim Stanley Robinson Robert Markley © 2019 by Robert Markley All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Markley, Robert, 1952– author. Title: Kim Stanley Robinson / by Robert Markley. Description: [Urbana, Ill.] : UIP, [2019] | Series: Modern masters of science fiction | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2019006666 (print) | LCCN 2019015886 (ebook) | ISBN 9780252051616 (ebook) | ISBN 9780252042751 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780252084584 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Robinson, Kim Stanley—Criticism and interpretation. | Science fiction, American— History and criticism. Classification: LCC PS3568.O2893 (ebook) | LCC PS3568.O2893 Z78 2019 (print) | DDC 813/.54— dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019006666 Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 CHAPTER 1 “I saw through time”: Falling into Other Histories 17 CHAPTER 2 Three Futures for California: The Orange County Trilogy 53 CHAPTER 3 Terraforming and Eco-economics in the Mars Trilogy 78 CHAPTER 4 “ How to go forward”: Catastrophe and Comedy in the Science in the Capital Trilogy 112 CHAPTER 5 “ Our one and only home”: Humankind in the Solar System 135 CHAPTER 6 “ Working in the next present” in Aurora and New York 2140 170 A Kim Stanley Robinson Bibliography 189 Notes 195 Bibliography of Secondary Sources 205 Index 215 Acknowledgments Writing a book about a contemporary author, especially one as prolific and fascinating as Kim Stanley Robinson, poses a fair number of challenges. Just when you think you have a handle on your narrative, a new interview, a new novel, or a new critical article forces you to insert here, expand there, and, in general, reorient your thinking. I am very grateful to Stan Robinson for his willingness to sit down with me for two interviews over the past twenty years and for responding to some emailed questions. As someone who works primarily in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century literature and science, I have to say that neither Daniel Defoe nor Robert Boyle answers emails. Over the course of writing a book, one begins to pile up IOUs that can never fully be repaid, only acknowledged. Bill Regier, then the director of the University of Illinois Press, first encouraged me to write this study, and his patience and professionalism have proved extraordinarily valuable. My current editor, Marika Christofides, stepped in after Bill retired and helped me see this project to its conclusion. My research for this book was helped significantly by money from the Trowbridge endowment at the University of Illinois. Over the years, I have benefitted from conversations with a number of scholars, friends, and students about science fiction, Robinson’s fiction, and the cross-disciplinary field of literature and science. I would like to thank Ra- jani Sudan, Bruce Clarke, Carol Colatrella, Katherine Hayles, Stacy Alaimo, Ron Broglio, Melissa Littlefield, Spencer Schaffner, Ronald Schleifer, Hugh Crawford, Richard Grusin, Reynolds Smith, Lisa Yaszek, Doug Davis, Arielle Saiber, Laurie Finke, Rob Mitchell, Michael Simeone, Anne Brubaker, Jennifer Lieberman, Michael Black, Jeanne Hamming, Helen Burgess, Harrison Higgs, and the late Michelle Kendrick.
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