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A review by grahamclements
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson
4.0
2312 is a different Kim Stanley Robinson novel, but it also follows the ideas of some of his previous books. Let’s start with the same. There is a lot of terraforming of planets and establishing human settlements on them, like his Mars series and Aurora. These settlements have to battle the planetary environment to survive. Each settlement has been constructed and terraformed in a different way. Robinson goes into some detail about how they were developed.
Then there is the big difference. In this case the main character Swan. She is not a typical alpha male or female, at least in her behaviour. She is a wild adventurer who will recklessly try anything. She does have the advantage of an AI quantum computer implanted in her head to help get her out of trouble, and alien bacteria in her blood to help her heal. The other difference she has to Robinson’s normal characters is that she is a chemical altered hermaphrodite.
The story begins on Venus, where Swan is a renowned artist after a career as a designer of the interior of giant space vehicles made from hollowed out asteroids. Venus comes under attack while she is on its surface. Much of the story then is about who attacked Venus and why. Was it the slowly crumbling society on Earth or the rapidly developing and powerful Mars, or rogue artificial intelligence?
There is a fault with this plot, because in the end we are basically just suddenly told who did it and why. But the reason for attacking Venus just does not make sense. There are some other times where I questioned the motives and intelligence of the bad guys.
So, I loved the characters, the settings, the technology, how the other planets and moons in the solar system are made habitable, but the conclusion did not stand up.
Then there is the big difference. In this case the main character Swan. She is not a typical alpha male or female, at least in her behaviour. She is a wild adventurer who will recklessly try anything. She does have the advantage of an AI quantum computer implanted in her head to help get her out of trouble, and alien bacteria in her blood to help her heal. The other difference she has to Robinson’s normal characters is that she is a chemical altered hermaphrodite.
The story begins on Venus, where Swan is a renowned artist after a career as a designer of the interior of giant space vehicles made from hollowed out asteroids. Venus comes under attack while she is on its surface. Much of the story then is about who attacked Venus and why. Was it the slowly crumbling society on Earth or the rapidly developing and powerful Mars, or rogue artificial intelligence?
There is a fault with this plot, because in the end we are basically just suddenly told who did it and why. But the reason for attacking Venus just does not make sense. There are some other times where I questioned the motives and intelligence of the bad guys.
So, I loved the characters, the settings, the technology, how the other planets and moons in the solar system are made habitable, but the conclusion did not stand up.