2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

Posted by: Redhead on: May 14, 2012

• In: Kim Stanley Robinson
• 28 Comments

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

Published by Orbit Books, May 22 2012

Where I got it: received review copy from the Publisher

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So many books I’ve been reading lately have been fast paced adventures, where characters are scrambling from one action scene to another, trying not to get killed, always trying to get towards the goal. 2312 isn’t that kind of book. The plot and the characters meander, people discuss that they aren’t sure what to do next, no one is scrambling anywhere, no one is in a hurry.  And yet, there is plenty of suspense and tension, just not the kind we are used to seeing in a standard science fiction novel. Again, 2312 isn’t your standard plot-based science fiction novel.

Existentially sprawling, and scientifically fascinating yet completely accessible,  I’m reluctant to categorize 2312 as science fiction. Yes, there is plenty of science and it takes place in the future, but of the three plot lines, only one (and it’s the weakest one) of them has anything to do with anything remotely science fictional. This is more a story about a woman trying to find her place in the world than anything else.

We first meet Swan Er Hong at her grandmother Alex’s funeral. There is some concern that due to Alex’s political connections perhaps her death wasn’t natural. Swan meets up with the Saturnian league ambassador Wahram and police investigator Jean Genette to discuss  the projects Alex had been working on, which leads to a discussion on the bitter feelings of Terrans towards the spacers.  Shortly after the investigation into Alex’s death begins, there is a terrorist attack on Terminator, the rolling city of Mercury. One more thing for Swan, Wahram and Genette to investigate, as it may be connected to Alex’s death. This is the obvious, overt plot line, and it’s the least important and least interesting part of the book.

I was continually amazed at my emotional reaction to 2312. After the attack on Terminator, Swan and Wahram escape into the underground utilidor system. Kim Stanley Robinson may be about to take us on a tour of the solar system, but the most beautiful parts of this book are the intimate moments between Swan and Wahram, which begin in the utilidors under the Mercurial surface.   These slower yet intensely focused tunnel scenes were a blessing in disguise, as without the gorgeous distraction of the cosmos, the reader can more easily concentrate on Swan and Wahram. Swan is whiny, defensive and over dramatic, and Wahram is patient and non-judgmentally curious about her life choices.  Swan never struck me as a very likeable character, yet I found myself completely emotionally invested in her life. Maybe I saw a little too much of my own indecisiveness, my own lack of concern for my own future in her.

Enough on plot, let’s talk about the real reason you want to read 2312: the amazing tour of the solar system this book takes you on and its brilliant science fictional elements. Three hundred years in the future, and humanity has evolved quite a bit, but not in the direction you’d expect. We don’t have light speed travel, our AI’s mostly can’t pass a Turing test, we haven’t met aliens, people aren’t uploading left or right. But the scientific advancements in other areas are astounding. We’ve built moving cities on Mercury, colonies on Venus and the moons of Saturn, terraformed most of Mars and learned how to recreate planets and moons in our own image with planned asteroid bombardments and elements from elsewhere in the solar system.  Thanks to genetic and hormonal therapies, people are living longer than ever and genders are options and optional. We’ve hollowed out asteroids, changed their orbits, and turned them into terarriums, some acting as animal preserves, others as luxury cruises. Wherever you need to go in the solar system, there is probably a terrarium headed that way. So long as you’re not stuck on Earth,  Kim Stanley Robinson’s future is one of hope and possibility.

I’ve got to speak a bit on the gender thing. I noticed early on that characters are rarely referred to as he or she or him or her. In many of the spacer cultures, it is the height of rudeness to inquire as to someone’s gender. That’s the kind of information that is shared between close friends and intimates. Not only a superbly interesting cultural change, but a nice trick of prose as well, as more than once I guessed (assumed?) someone’s gender incorrectly.

And because this is a Kim Stanley Robinson, there are the infamous immersive infodumps. Segregated  into little short chapters of their own, many cover the places our characters visit – moons, planets, terrariums, some cover the fascinating history and extra terrestrial development of the solar system. Some of these read like the best ever narration of the outer space PBS documentary we’ve all be been dreaming of, others read like almost poetry. Others were a bit too quantum for my genre fiction focused brain, a little too stream of consciousness for me.

I think the readers most likely to enjoy 2312 are those with an open mind. If you’re reading this review, you already have an open mind towards all things science fictional. But what about everything else? Optimistic but sometimes overly dense, Kim Stanley Robinson has never been for everyone. His novels don’t go where you expect them to, his characters may be too liberal for some readers tastes. 2312 is a remarkable book to be savored, a discourse of humanity and social structures to be discussed and thought about at length.

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Tags: future, outer space, science, science fiction, solar system, technology