Reviews

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

tinydumptruck's review against another edition

1.0

I couldn’t get through it, I think the foundation was really cool, but the narrative just dragged on and on and I couldn’t find a good reason why.

varmint3's review against another edition

3.0

I read this as a whispersync book and I must say that I probably would have enjoyed the listening portion of the experience more with a different narrator - the parts I read myself as opposed to listening were much more pleasant. KSR strikes me as a difficult author to read aloud convincingly - massive lists of seemingly random things bound! - but I have heard similar material done much better than this was! Trust the Audible.com reviewers - when they pretty universally say the narration is horrible, it's probably true. Sadly, the narrator has a nice voice and diction, and probably shines with material better suited to her rather singsong delivery style. But this book and narrator did not go well together. I recommend reading the book in paper or ebook format if you like KSR - and suggest avoiding the audiobook unless they redo it with someone other than Sarah Zimmerman narrating.

jherrington048's review against another edition

I felt the author was trying to impress me with their impressive vocabulary at the expense of the story. 

antoine_tarrou's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful informative mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

jameshaus's review against another edition

4.0

Incredible. Well worth your time.

jacobinreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging inspiring relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Kim Stanley Robinson is playing with lots of interesting concepts in 2312. in this interplanetary adventure novel, he considers the mechanics of terraforming, the politics of social and technological change, biological and gender self-engineering, the re-inventention of new ecologies, love, marriage, the integration of the self with a long life-span, and even more. What is better is that he mostly manages to do this well.

Though at times unwieldy, 2312 is nevertheless very enjoyable, and a fascinating potential future to explore. If you're interested by the prospect of tiny humans inside hollowed out asteroids, the collapse of the gender (and sex) binary, socialism in space and decrepit capitalism on Earth, and the tensions all this causes. Clearly, there's a lot going on here, and while Robinson doesn't seem lost in it, his readers might. At times, the thread of the plot seemed hard to follow, mostly because the setting is stronger than that plot. The characters could have been better considered and developed; they didn't feel fully realised, but I enjoyed my time with placid Wahram and flighty Swan-though Wahram was definitely better developed. Perhaps that was the intention, as Swan is potentially less "human", but I digress. 

All in all, I recommend this book, if only for the heady mix of ideas and setting. 

heliopteryx's review against another edition

3.0

There were a lot of interesting concepts, such as how the city Terminator avoids the sun. Unfortunately, I wanted to see more of the overall society's change and less of a love story between two characters I did not find that compelling.

Also, there are two instances near the beginning of the word "autistic" being used to describe something besides autism, I think? I am not really sure what it was supposed to mean, but I feel it could be taken badly.

babudarabu's review against another edition

adventurous informative mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

coletters's review against another edition

3.0

It took a very long time for me to really get into this book. I didn't like the chapters called "Lists" and "Extracts" that were filled (in my opinion) with useless information. I only found a few to be useful as background information, but overall they took away from the flow of the story. If it wasn't for the fact that I liked the last third of the book, it would have gotten two stars.

canadajanes's review against another edition

3.0

I tried to get into it, but I could never quite get the feel for this book. I really liked the background/universe that Robinson built, and a lot of the sections were really interesting, but I felt like he tried to do too much without really doing any of it that well. Overall I'm glad I read it, but not sure I'd recommend it to many people.