Forty Signs of Rain

First, KSR has this ability to make me hate his writing style so much that I want to chuck his books out my window. He's long winded in the science and the internal dialogue and short winded in the relationships and people interactions. Then, he will go for stretches where you get long winded dialog or minute detail of a person's life and nearly none of the science. It's like riding with Mario Andretti in rush hour traffic -- speed stop speed LEFT speed RIGHT speed stop RIGHT speed LEFT speed RIGHT stop. In fact, it reminds me of riding in my vanpool in the worst traffic on the worst roads.

Second, KSR DOES have the ability to suck me in. I want to know more about some of his characters. I'd like to throttle some of his other characters. show more It's a little too much like real life sometimes when I find myself wondering what such and such character would do or say about some real event in my life. It's disturbing and compelling.

Third (and final), KSR has this need to info dump. It's like getting hit with a fire hose and a waterfall. There's so much he wants you to know. I don't know if he wants to show how much he knows/researches or if he really wants to impart his information to you...engage you, so to speak.

I'm left liking this book; and wanting to know more...but resenting that both. show less

Forty Signs of Rain is possibly the weakest novel I've read from Kim Stanley Robinson. It's particularly frustrating because I don't understand why this needed to be a novel at all.

It's clear that the story here is just an excuse for Mr. Robinson to explore issues of climate change, the role of politics in science, and public vs. private science. These are important concerns and Mr. Robinson is a crusader for related causes.

Forty Signs of Rain is frustrating because the story gets in the way of what he has to say about these matters. I would much rather read a long-form essay or a series of op-ed pieces from Mr. Robinson on these topics. I think his criticisms, insights, experience, and hopes would all come across more clearly and show more powerfully.

He didn't need to write a novel to talk about these things.

If he had to write a novel to explore these issues, this one needed a lot more time in development. The plot is a flimsy veneer, with no real momentum or through-line. The characters are rough sketches, at best, with no depth and little actual personality. Mr. Robinson uses them to function mostly as mouthpieces for his ideas. Given the non-existence of a cohesive plot, these characters have little of substance to do to show their personalities.

Perhaps I should read the other two novels in the Science in the Capital series before judging the narrative too harshly. But Forty Signs of Rain is the one that kicks off the trilogy and it reads like a rough draft. It simply shouldn't be a complete and published novel in this state.

As voice in our cultural conversations about the environment, science, and politics, Mr. Robinson is important. He deserves a far stronger platform than he gave himself with this book. show less

near future: first of a trilogy. starts a bit slow: a lot of the book is setup for the trilogy, making me wonder if it wouldn't have been better to make two books out of that rather than three. anyone expecting a thriller, an elaborate plot, or an absence of scientific concepts will be disappointed, but that's usual with Robinson: he's a writer of many layers and complex personalities, who writes people the reader can care about from the inside out, and he's also amazing for boiling down a whole lot of science so that it never seems incomprehensible, or imposed on the narrative. ultimately the characters are memorable, and so are the problems (mostly scientific and political) they are trying to solve. and that's a whole lot harder than show more it looks. i come to his books for their ideas, become engrossed in his situations, fall to the charms of his characters, and always recommend him. show less

I might not have enjoyed it as much if I hadn't read some reviews of it first. It's the first book of a trilogy, and if you're familiar with Kim Stanley Robinson you know how he can get a little .. um .. detailed .... and beat you over the head with the point he's trying to make with the science. This first book has very little happen until close to the end of the book, but it sets things up and has lots of sciency talk which I enjoyed.

A good solid read, first published in 2004 and seemingly to be set around the same time, it is now somewhat out-of-date but no worse for that. Charlie works for the only senator that cares about the envionment, his partner Anna works for a science foundation based in Washington. Their home life and working life are described in detail and you get a sense of these characters. The build up to the catastrophe is subdued but well drawn when we got there, although a better sense of the geography of Washington would have helped. Meanwhile in San Diego the cliffs are falling in to the sea in chunks, we visit briefly and then back to Washington. There is humanity and humour in bucketfuls and some science.

This is a well-written, straight-ahead novel about a possible near future of global environmental catastrophe. There are times when it feels like the author is hitting you over the head with a two-by-four of science facts. But these can be excused because they are relevant and interesting.

The characters are well-drawn, charming, and down-to-earth. The author even manages to draw the Bush-like President in a likable, if not flattering way. The settings are mundane, yet evocative. The reader is always present in the places and the weather becomes another character.

The ending of this book is really the set-up for the next book, which makes it a bit unsatisfying. But I will definitely read the next two volumes to see where the story takes me.

I gave this one a chance because I was really enjoying Red Mars at the same time. The beginning of this trilogy is way too sketchy, as if Robinson doesn't want to give too much away so you'll buy the other books. He takes his fascination with the minds of scientists, and all generally-smart people, to absurd extremes. The most irritating parts of the book are the long passages when the Senate staffer on paternity leave whines inwardly about how boring and silly his life has become. I wanted to shake him (not the baby, the father)!

The premise of this eco-epic looked promising, but the characters are way too boring to generate interest, and very little happens in the book. Incredibly long sections are about meetings.