I finished Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson to round out the Three Californias Trilogy. All three novels take place in Orange County, usually along the coast. The first imagined a future California after a nuclear war. The second portrayed an all too imaginable future California that was so overdeveloped the freeways were stacked on top of each other and were still bumper-to-bumper traffic all the time. This third book gives us a vision of what a future eco-utopian California might be like.
It is 2065, climate change has been averted, giant corporations have been taken in hand and torn apart, everyone has meaningful work and no one is left in need because there is a guaranteed basic income. No one owns a car, though cars still exist. If you need one to travel a long distance you have to rent it and the cost is quite high. The roads are given over to bicycles, including the freeways, and a good many roads have actually been torn up to make way for parks.
The story takes place in the town of El Modena. Kevin is around thirty, a friendly, gregarious person who remodels old, inefficient energy wasting cookie cutter houses turning them into beautiful, one of a kind, energy efficient dwellings. A good many people live in communal housing where there is a large community living space and shared kitchen but each person/couple/family has their own private space they can retreat to.
Kevin just got elected to the city council. He didn’t necessarily want the job, but a Green Party spot had opened up and he was asked to run. Being the well-liked guy that he is, he was easily elected. There is also a new mayor, Alfredo. He is good looking, a smooth talker, smart, a popular businessman. At the first meeting Kevin discovers just how dull it is, but wakes up pretty quickly when an odd agenda item regarding water turns up smooshed in between a couple of other innocuous items. This sets off the battle for what will turn out to be a fight over a large corporate development on the last unbuilt upon hill in town.
If I had known this was a book with a plot that centered around land development I would never have picked it up. I mean, boring! But Robinson turns it into a nail biting story that involves dark money, secrets, and illegal business dealings. There is also romance and heartbreak for sweetener.
As much as I enjoyed the story it had its flaws. Robinson uses letters from one person in El Modena to a friend in Chicago as narrative summary. There are also letters from another character, old letters from “before” when the world was in crisis and falling to pieces, that while somewhat interesting, are pretty much pointless. But these in and of themselves weren’t bad or all that bothersome, just unoriginal.
What niggled at me the most was how everyone was so fit, cycling everywhere for long distances and not even thinking about it. I mean, this is totally awesome in my world, but completely unrealistic. No one had physical disabilities or chronic diseases that might hinder mobility. Even the elderly are spry. One character, Tom, is at least 85 and he cycles and walks and behaves as though he is a fit man of forty. There is mention of “geriatric drugs” but seriously? That’s supposed to be believable?
All things considered though, even with the flaws it was good reading. Robinson is one of the few authors I know of who can make five pages about California water rights law interesting. I think he does this mostly by putting it into a context, making it a story in itself about people and power and the rights of a community to control its own destiny. And that is something else I really like about this book and the other two books as well. While the story might cohere around a few characters, it is ultimately all about community and its workings and relationships. Good stuff!
Great review! I haven’t seen many reviews that discuss a whole series.
I also write book reviews, but mainly over nonfiction. I really like nonfiction because it allows me to learn the lessons that successful people learned the hard way, from the comfort of where ever I might be reading.
If you are interested in the nonfiction I have been reading, or if you want to know what the benefits are from reading this genre in specific, please stop by my page. I post book reviews over biographies, classics, and inspiring nonfiction.
https://thewrightread.com/
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I don’t think I would enjoy this novel – simply because of the News From Nowhere syndrome: utopias are inherently tedious or unconvincing. The utopian impulse is important and necessary but I’m not quite sure that fiction can make it convincing.
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Ian, as a utopian novel it is better than most. I shouldn’t have said the letters from “before” were completely pointless as they sometimes address the utopian concept and provide a sort of commentary and criticism. However, in my opinion they do this very poorly because it all gets confused into a bunch of other things. I think one of the problems with utopia is that we assume it is an end point but really it is just as much an ongoing process as anything else, something that always has to be worked at. That seems to be where many utopian fictions fall short.
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Tyler, thanks! I very much enjoy nonfiction as well, mostly science, social science, and history. Good stuff! Thanks for stopping by!
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I have a friend in Berkeley who is so frustrated with the state of the world right now that I think she might like this book.
For myself, though, I think the picture of everyone fit and spry would tick me off. Because I re-injured my left knee while pregnant and couldn’t get it fixed for a while, I can only bend that knee about 100 degrees, which is enough to sit in a chair and get in and out of a car, but not enough to pedal a bike, even some of the stationary ones at physical therapy. That’s a fairly mild disability, as they go.
So as you point out, the over-simplification of types of people would bother me.
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Jeanne, your friend just might like this book. It is hopeful in a way, and nice to see a future where good things are possible instead of complete collapse of everything.
Yeah, it is kind of ridiculous how no one in this book ever got injured or sick. Granted the book was more about environmental, social and economic “utopia,” but in my mind physical abilities and health are an important and aspect of those things so that you can’t have any kind of “utopia” without also addressing them. But he sidestepped it completely, sadly.
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That sounds good to me, although I would’ve been put off just as you described, initially. I think I’ve noted another of his trilogies to read as well (not the Mars one – but maybe that would be good too). As for the age-thing, there’s a book about the cultures with the highest number of folks who make it past a hundred that I read a few years ago, which made the idea of an 85-year-old cycling seem like nothing out of the ordinary. It was pretty inspiring, although it also felt very far removed from our culture.
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buried, in spite of the flaws, I still liked the book. Robinson has a great ability to make the everyday interesting. I would like to read his Mars trilogy sometime, especially with so many plans to send people there one day. Are you thinking about his Science in the Capital trilogy? It looks really good and I’d like to read that too.
As for age, I have no doubt someone who is 85 can still cycle, there was after all a 105 year-old-man who just set a distance record for his age. It’s just hard to imagine that there would be any kind of health revolution that would affect everyone and make both disease and age obsolete like they seem to be in this book. I think i would have been ok with it if there had been more reference than a mention of “geriatric drugs.”
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I like the idea of one place with three stories and three possibilities. I could almost see this last book being an actual CA scenario (to some degree) if left on their own to make their own laws and given money to work it all out. But given the environment we are in these days–good luck and it is a nice fantasy–much like this book. Is it the same character in all the stories–I can’t remember now. I like a writer who can make the boringest-sounding topics very interesting and readable!
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Danielle, it was kind of fun reading all three possibilities and that they are all realistic made it even more interesting since there truly are elements of all three present in California. The first and third book had a few of the same characters but for the most part there was not any overlap. It is fun when and author can make boring things interesting, I stopped a number of times wonder about how he did it.
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Yes, I like the three possibilities too … and it is sometimes good to read a positive take. I don’t think we are very good at guessing the future in terms of negative scenarios. They rarely work out the way we think they might – but I’d be surprised if that positive scenario described eventuated. Still, it would be interesting to ponder.
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It is harder to imagine a positive future than a disastrous one, how sad is that? Which is probably why dystopian fiction is so prevalent but anything like utopian is rare.
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I hear what you say about everyone being fit and athletic, despite age and genetics. But the premises is very interesting….I mean it is rather cool to imagine a green, happy open space based living
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cirtnecce, oh yes, the premise is super interesting and I liked the book in spite of the flaws. The way the houses were remodeled to use passive energy and natural cooling and heating was fascinating and I totally wished I could live in a house like that!
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With you being a cyclist, I can see why that detail would bother you! I’m glad that at least one of his California books has a semi-positive future. I’ve enjoyed reading your reviews of them even if they don’t quite sound like my cup of tea.
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Laila, I plan to be cycling when I am 85 but I’m not sure I will be able to cycle all day and still have the oomph for a hike afterwards! I’m up for trying though! 🙂 It is nice to have a positive future imagined, what with the proliferation of dystopian novels these days, it doesn’t have to be bad! Glad you have enjoyed all the reviews!
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What an interesting trilogy. Despite the fact that everyone seems fit, etc. I have to say that it doesn’t sound like a lot of dystopian novels which almost seem like a whole other world. This could seem possible? Wouldn’t it be great if everyone could be riding their bikes well into their 80s & 90s. I think my husband plans on doing this too! 🙂
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Iliana, all three of the novels imagine something completely plausible with nothing too far outside of technologies that already exist. It would be awesome if everyone could keep riding bikes into their 80s and 90s. Your husband and I have to meet for a bike ride someday! 🙂
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