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This is the inciting incident for the author of the Mars Trilogy's recent book "The Ministry for the Future". I highly recommend it if this stuff scares you, a

This is the inciting incident for the author of the Mars Trilogy's recent book "The Ministry for the Future". I highly recommend it if this stuff scares you, and you need a little climate hope.

TrueGeek 5y ago
Does the book end on a hopeful note?
- eckmLJE 5y ago
  Yes. It felt a little unrealistic IMO but it does describe throughout the story many different solutions that are more and less effective / politically attainable.
sudopluto 5y ago
kim stanely robinson? i remember aurora completely shattering my views on what it might mean to send humans to try and live on other planets. will try to get this one from the library
- AlexCoventry 5y ago
  It's a bit preachy, and he really needed an editor to trim the fat, but the story's pretty good.
mike1o1 5y ago
I just read this opening two days ago, and it's frightening how well he paints the picture and how plausible it is to actually happen.
thestu 5y ago
I'm halfway through the book. That opening bit is so great, and the rest has been a big letdown so far. Really feels like that opening was written as a short story and then the rest of the book was just tacked on. Maybe the second half will be better.
- jelsisi 5y ago
  The book never gets better. It was a painful read for me.
- mark212 5y ago
  It doesn’t. I appreciate that the author wants to tackle big themes, but there was so much hand-waiving and wishful thinking about how people want to live and choose to live that it really undermined the plausibility of the plot. I did appreciate some details, like the idea of airships for long distance leisure travel and large swaths of land being returned to wilderness. But overall it didn’t live up to the hype.
  - alexose 5y ago
    Maybe it was just because I was listening to it at 1.5x speed, but it definitely felt like there were just too many ideas jammed together. Especially the CarbonCoin idea. Possibly a good approach, but it made for some bad storytelling.
    - nickff 5y ago
      Having read a number of KSR books, I admire the creativity, but find some ideas a bit half-baked. The characters and storytelling are generally a bit lacking in depth and development as well.
  - tekstar 5y ago
    Consider reading Walkaway by Cory Doctorow if you haven't. Excellent book - I haven't read the one you're talking about but from what you mention I think it deals in similar themes
- mike1o1 5y ago
  That's disappointing. I had similar issues with The Mars Trilogy. I've yet to finish the last book, and the middle book took a long time to slog through.
munificent 5y ago
I read the opening chapter while sitting in my 95°F bedroom in the middle of Seattle's record heatwave. This certainly made for a viscerally impactful reading experience, but not necessarily one I would recommend.
dheera 5y ago
> An imagined scenario from 2041 Why is this an imagined scenario? It happened in 2019: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_heat_wave_in_India_and_Pakistan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_heat_wave_in_India_and_Pa...
- selimthegrim 5y ago
  And 2015.
- SilasX 5y ago
  Not relevant to the general topic, but, from that article, TIL Pakistan has a city named Jacobabad (cf. Islamabad), which was indeed named after a (British) Jacob.

This is the inciting incident for the author of the Mars Trilogy's recent book "The Ministry for the Future". I highly recommend it if this stuff scares you, and you need a little climate hope.

TrueGeek 5y ago

Does the book end on a hopeful note?

eckmLJE 5y ago
Yes. It felt a little unrealistic IMO but it does describe throughout the story many different solutions that are more and less effective / politically attainable.

sudopluto 5y ago

kim stanely robinson? i remember aurora completely shattering my views on what it might mean to send humans to try and live on other planets. will try to get this one from the library

AlexCoventry 5y ago
It's a bit preachy, and he really needed an editor to trim the fat, but the story's pretty good.

mike1o1 5y ago

I just read this opening two days ago, and it's frightening how well he paints the picture and how plausible it is to actually happen.

thestu 5y ago

I'm halfway through the book. That opening bit is so great, and the rest has been a big letdown so far. Really feels like that opening was written as a short story and then the rest of the book was just tacked on. Maybe the second half will be better.

jelsisi 5y ago
The book never gets better. It was a painful read for me.
mark212 5y ago
It doesn’t. I appreciate that the author wants to tackle big themes, but there was so much hand-waiving and wishful thinking about how people want to live and choose to live that it really undermined the plausibility of the plot. I did appreciate some details, like the idea of airships for long distance leisure travel and large swaths of land being returned to wilderness. But overall it didn’t live up to the hype.
- alexose 5y ago
  Maybe it was just because I was listening to it at 1.5x speed, but it definitely felt like there were just too many ideas jammed together. Especially the CarbonCoin idea. Possibly a good approach, but it made for some bad storytelling.
  - nickff 5y ago
    Having read a number of KSR books, I admire the creativity, but find some ideas a bit half-baked. The characters and storytelling are generally a bit lacking in depth and development as well.
- tekstar 5y ago
  Consider reading Walkaway by Cory Doctorow if you haven't. Excellent book - I haven't read the one you're talking about but from what you mention I think it deals in similar themes
mike1o1 5y ago
That's disappointing. I had similar issues with The Mars Trilogy. I've yet to finish the last book, and the middle book took a long time to slog through.

munificent 5y ago

I read the opening chapter while sitting in my 95°F bedroom in the middle of Seattle's record heatwave. This certainly made for a viscerally impactful reading experience, but not necessarily one I would recommend.

dheera 5y ago

> An imagined scenario from 2041 Why is this an imagined scenario? It happened in 2019: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_heat_wave_in_India_and_Pakistan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_heat_wave_in_India_and_Pa...

selimthegrim 5y ago
And 2015.
SilasX 5y ago
Not relevant to the general topic, but, from that article, TIL Pakistan has a city named Jacobabad (cf. Islamabad), which was indeed named after a (British) Jacob.