I have never read Kim Stanley Robinson before even though I have heard good things about him. Now that I have read Aurora, I know I’ll be reading more.
This is a science fiction story that is often heavy on the science. I don’t mind though because I do enjoy thinking about the consequences of long distance space travel. Even though Aurora takes place several centuries in the future, it is not one of those science fiction stories in which the science is more like magic and solves all our problems. The book is about a generation ship, a ship consisting of ecological biomes and about 2,000 people who were sent out to settle the stars. Humans at the time the ship was sent out had begun having success settling the solar system and believed they were ready to expand further.
After 170 years of traveling to the distant Tau Ceti system, the ship has finally arrived. Of course those arriving were not the ones who volunteered for the trip and a good many on the ship are pissed off that their predecessors chose their lives for them. They have been in what has begun to feel like a prison for a very long time and are ready to leave and settle this supposedly dead moon that has still managed to have water and oxygen.
There is a lot they have to figure out. The days and nights are not equal to Earth days and nights but are much longer. How do they adapt the plants they brought with them to such a day/night cycle? The moon they are to colonize also has a constant wind blowing, not a gentle breeze, but often hard enough to knock people over. They are also beginning to suffer the effects of having such a small genetic pool. Not to mention the systems in the ship itself are showing larger and larger metabolic rifts. But these humans are determined to make a go of it for no other reason than they can’t bear to live on the ship any longer.
But it turns out the planet is not dead after all. One of the landing crew is infected with something after she sinks in some mud and cuts her leg. Soon all of the people who had been on the surface setting up the foundations of the new settlement are sick and dying. The virus is completely alien and no one knows how to stop it. Within a week all 70 of the people who were on the moon are dead. Those on the ship have a decision to make. There are those who want to stay in the Tau Ceti system and try again on another moon. The other half of the population wants to go back to Earth because this colonizing the stars things is a bunch of baloney. In the end half stay and half return to Earth. It is the group that decides to return to Earth that the book follows from here.
It took me a while to warm up to the book but I am glad I stuck with it. The reason it was hard is because the main narrator is the ship’s AI which came into “consciousness” because of one of the crew members. As the ship learns to tell the story of its humans there is much musing over language and how inadequate it is, about metaphors and how imprecise they are, that kind of thing. AIs trying to figure out human language is not all that interesting to me and it felt sometimes like it was just an opportunity for Robinson to do his own musing through the mouthpiece of the ship.
But then something clicked and I can’t say what. And Ship began to grow on me until Ship becomes a full character in its own right. The ship trying to figure things out doesn’t stop. Eventually the ship starts to wonder about what it means to be conscious and of course, by extension, what it means to be human.
There is also a lot in the book about ecosystems and balance, the needs of the many versus the needs of the few, about choices and who gets to make them and what the consequences of choices are and who has to face them. It is also really interesting that a book about settling the stars kind of ends up being against it. Not against exploration per se, but there is the suggestion that because humans evolved on Earth that is the place they are suited to live and no other. Sure, we may eventually create colonies on other planets in our solar system, but in the book even the people living on the colonies have to return to Earth every ten years or so for their mental and physical health. It is a pleasantly subtle and different way to emphasize that Earth is our home and we need to take care of it for all our sakes.
A good and thought-provoking book. Well written and completely plausible. I recommend it to anyone who likes think-y science fiction with actual science in it.
That sounds really interesting. Especially after recently viewing films like Interstellar, which approahces some of the same questions I think.
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Jeane, most definitely. It seems that more and more people are becoming interested in thinking about this kind of stuff which I am glad about!
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I think this is a book I will enjoy. I will have to add it to my TBR list.
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purplemoon, I hope you do enjoy it!
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Yup, I think I would like this one.
I attempted to read his book Shaman a year or so ago and never managed to finish. Though I can’t say I wasn’t enjoying it, and I still remember very vividly what was happening when I put it down, so maybe I’ll pick it up again right from that spot. He is certainly a very interesting writer.
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nikki, I’ve heard some of his books are better than others which you would expect given how prolific he is. I really want to read hi California trilogy, I hear in one of them that the freeways of California no longer have cars on them but are filled with bicycles! While driving on the freeways in Minnesota I often fantasize that the cars are gone and we are all cycling. Hopefully if you pick Shaman back up something will click. It sounds like there is a good chance if even after a year you still recall the book vividly.
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This sounds like it is a book that I would love. It seems to be right up my alley. In some ways it sounds a little like older style science fiction with the themes of interplanetary missions, computers on spacecraft becoming intelligent, alien diseases, themes of ecology, etc.
I will put this on my list of books to read.
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It sounds really interesting. I don’t think i’ll ever read an awful lot of SF but I may give this one a go. The Mars trilogy is also on that ol’ TBR list. I did like Austerlitz and would recommend it strongly if you like Sebald’s method.
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Ian, it’s a good book, a slow build and not really a page turner but very thinky at times. I’d like to read the Mars trilogy sometime too. I’ve heard it’s pretty good! I will get around to reading Austerlitz one of these days! 🙂
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Brian Joseph, yes, in some ways it is “old fashioned” SF which is nice really, a kind of back to basics while at the same time feeling current and fresh. If you read it I hope you enjoy it!
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This sounds good, and I enjoy science fiction. Kind of hard to think of AI without having a little Stephen Hawking slip in.
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Jenclair, I know you like SF, I am surprised you haven’t read this yet! Heh, I wonder what Hawking would think of your comment? He must have a good sense of humor he’s been on Big Bang Theory a couple times after all!
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I do like reading sciencey science fiction, for sure, and also, though — I don’t know. The thing about the Ship sorting out language and stuff sounds like it’d be really hard for me to plow through. Experimentaly writing wears me out (she said crankily).
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Jenny, the ship sorting out language produced some monumental sighs and eye rolls from me but it isn’t a huge part of the book and it comes in small bits so it is easy to skim through. And then by the end when the ship has developed as a real character when it has its thinking moments it is much more interesting.
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Kim Stanley Robinson is one of my brother’s favourite authors but I have never read him (?her?), so it was good to get the low-down. Now I will be able to discuss these books when we next see each other. He will be astounded!
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litlove, Robinson is a “he” but for years I thought he was a she so I don’t blame you for being confused! I hope you receive the perfect look of astonishment from your brother 🙂
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I’ve marked this one down to try when I feel I have the time and attention to devote to it. I really loved his book “The Years of Rice and Salt” which is speculative fiction based on how the world would have developed if the Black Death had virtually wiped out the population of Europe. Without Western Civilization and Christianity as prime movers of history the Chinese and Islamic and Native American peoples would have been the major power centers.
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Mary, Ooh, Years of Rice and Salt sounds really good! Thanks for the tip! I hope you like Aurora should you get a chance to read it!
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