Kim Stanley Robinson

In "The High Sierra," Kim Stanley Robinson says that "Shaman" is his work of fiction that most closely resembles his High Sierra life, despite being set thirty thousand years in the past. Having enjoyed "The High Sierra," I thought I should give "Shaman" a chance.

I keep coming back to the writing of KSR because I like his choice of subjects. Musing on life thirty thousand years ago is a worthwhile meditation. That said, I often feel let down be the KSR's methodically plodding prose.

My wish was that "Shaman" would be a deeply weird book, like a myth. Many myths feels too peculiar to have been manufactured; no matter how many times you hear them, they remain inscrutable, growing more mysterious with each passing year. "Shaman" does not have this sense of mystery to it. Although there are animist elements to the book, and moments of mystery, they do not form the black whole at the center of the book's galaxy.

For example, the story begins with a passage dripping with terror at the end of of the protagonist's vision fast where he is being pursued by a humanoid but beastly entity. Given the dark power of the haunting vision, one might think that it would be an anchor point for the rest of the book. Instead, not only does KSR leave this vision languishing, at the end of the book, the protagonist's teacher dispels any weight the vision might have had by saying a neighboring shaman probably dressed up as this geist, and not to make anything of it.

KSR continues to sidestep potentially potent core themes. Our protagonist has a child, but very little is made of this seemingly significant life chapter. Although shamans are said to be healers, our protagonist spends almost none of his time doing healing work.

To make matters worse, the bulk of the book is taken up when our protagonist's life is sidetracked by the kidnapping of his wife and his subsequent enslavement. Like many of the social norms in the book, this trope of slavery seems to have more to do with modern social norms than with inspired archeology and anthropology. KSR is perpetually projecting contemporary bigotry onto our ancient ancestors; for example, monogamous relationship guarded by jealousy. If I'm reading a book set thirty thousand years in the past, I don't want any of the social norms to feel familiar—otherwise the book should just be contemporary.

The one other major flaw of the plot involves an incident of cannibalism perpetrated against a friendly and helpful Neanderthal. The plot point feels entirely unnecessary (do we need more fiction justifying cannibalism?), and also comes across as racist (if they had to eat someone, why did it have to be the only Neanderthal whose name we learn?).

Despite the let downs of "Shaman," I have not given up on Late Pleistocene fiction. Next up: "Reindeer Moon" by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas.… (more)

I've read a handful of books by Kim Stanley Robinson and if there's one thing I can say for sure about him, it's that he really puts the science in science fiction. As much as I liked the Mars trilogy, what I remember most about them is slogging my way through dozens of pages that I couldn't understand. Red Moon definitely had paragraphs here and there that did the same thing, but I don't think it took away from the story. Or maybe I'm wrong, and someone who actually knows a thing about science would get something completely different from this book than I did.

Even without understanding the scientific descriptions, I liked Red Moon. It was part sci-fi, part revolutionary tale, part murder mystery. Not all the characters were able to hold my interest, but the three main folks kept me turning the pages. There are uprisings happening in both the US and China in the near future and all the characters of this book are wrapped up in them one way or another. Even though the action is happening on Earth, the politics are carrying over to the Moon, where many countries have bases set up, but China has the biggest presence. The characters bounce back and forth between to the locations (mostly China on Earth and the poles of the Moon), as they're trying to outwit people who want to take them prisoner and kill them.

As anyone who has read KSR could probably guess, this is a fat book. But unlike some others, the pages turn easily. I found myself halfway through before I realized, and the story was entertaining enough to distract me from the rough time I'm having with life right now. As much as I liked it though, it probably wouldn't even be in the top ten books I read this year.… (more)

Overview:
This is a story of the potential consequences of environmental mismanagement, specifically climate mismanagement. Along with ways on how people cope with the tragedies. Stimulating a reflection upon the potential destruction, and ways that can avert the destruction. A reflection of the psychological coping mechanisms to the destruction, the science and technology of climate management, and the global political and economic ramifications of the changes.

When India gets ravaged by a heat wave that produces havoc, a movement is started to prevent further catastrophes. But the rest of the world is not so eager to make changes. Even a global agency meant to protect present and future beings known as The Ministry for the Future, is hesitant to make changes as rapidly as they would like. India starts the changes, and breaks global political restraints on methods used to battle the deleterious climate. Years pass by with much of the world resisting changing their practices to become environmentally sustainable.

There are groups that cannot stand for the lack of change, the lack of responsibility for the environment. These groups rise up in resistance to those who would seek to destroy the environment. Groups that protect the environment initiate a War for the Earth. The methods are steeped in violence, but increase the costs of producing greenhouse gases. Creating a search for alternative means of production, without damaging the environment. The world economic and political stance on the environment gradually changes from resistance, to persecution of those who damage the environment. Changing the way people think, and behave in relation to their environment.

Caveats?
The book is composed of various ideas and narratives. With so many different perspectives, their transitions are poor. The book contains various ideas from environmental science, economics, politics, and psychology. But the ideas are not given much detail, and the way the ideas are described contain the biases of the author. The author presents many different ideals, in resolution of a single major ideal, but they are sometimes a distraction to the major ideal.

The science itself is simplified to promote an ideal for the climate, but there is a loss to information within that simplification. Science rarely does not have unintended consequences, while the resolutions to the climate problem in this book appear to be completely sustainable and without negative effects.

The ways in which policies change in this book, utilize instrumental evil. Doing acts of evil, for good outcomes. The promotion of these behavior is inappropriate, and have contradictory outcomes. Wars to end violence have historically tended to create more violence. But in this book, this type of tyranny has created a society in which people accept violence as righteous and do not abuse this method. Within this book, there appears to be no problem with persecution of any dissenter from the environmental policies enacted. Seemingly minor incidents on the way to changing policies, only bring about greater defense of the methods used to persecute those who think differently.

With global changes to the economic system, there are acknowledged major economic disruptions. Within this book, production methods and products quickly make adjustments. Daily life seems to be going without much disruptions. There appears to be nothing wrong with the different economic system.

An economic policy that is promoted in the book is a carbon coin, that pays to prevent release of carbon. Before the carbon coin, the author berated rents. Rents are incomes that peoples receive without doing anything. While the rents of the carbon coin are promoted in the book without any seeming contradiction. There appears to be nobody in this book who takes advantage of the policy. Historically, similar policies have been used, with devastating effect. Firms have produced more unwanted products, for which they wanted an income to prevent releasing the product. Damaging the environment way more than before the policy.… (more)