Informative but lacking in direction
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Fifty degrees below focuses on one mans life as he decides to revert to a neolithic lifestyle amid the aftermath of huge flood in Washington D.C. and set during one of the coldest winters yet to hit the capital.
This book is quite good at revealing the machinations of the U.S government and the politics of climate change. It has a notable environmental narrative which finds the main characters in the book working together to sink a giant fresh water bubble that is threatening oceanic sea temperatures. There is a lot of environmental science riddling the narrative, but this works for the book, not against it, as most of the environmental science is actually quite interesting. The book does a good job of describing the pitfalls of working against various lobby groups within the U.S energy industry as well as the government itself. Interestingly enough the romantic pursuits of the main character provide more interest to the reader than anything else in the book, betraying a distinct lack of direction in the novel. Although the book is long, it somehow seems to end prematurely although this saves it from banality and more importantly from turning into a rambling overture on climate change.
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NOTHING HAPPENS!
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If you liked the mars trilogy don't be fooled into thinking this will be as good. Nothing of interest happens to characters you don't care about. If there was the option of zero stars this book would have recieved it.
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Politics in the New Ice Age
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One of the good things about Kim Stanely Robinson is that he is unafraid to tackle the real issues facing humanity in the twenty first century unlike most modern scif-fi which appears to be stuck in fantasy. Fifty Degrees below is an interesting book, detailing how the American government attempts to cope with the shutting down of the North Atlantic Drift. However I found the whole read slightly unreal. It is mostly focussed on the characters in Washington DC who appear to carry on with their lives while the world falls apart around them. Major climate disaster is dealt with in a few very short paragraphes and the human sufferring brought about by these disasters is not discussed or dealt with, it is merely edited down to cold science. Also this rather like the Day After Tomorrow, with a new ice age threataning to descend on America - something climate scientists have taken great pains to point out won't happen, even if the NAD does shut down. The books real strength lies in the characters, particularly Frank who decides to live out in the Washington parks and regain his palaeolithic consciousness. The Buddhists were also very good. Alas if Robinson had focussed on warming rather than cooling this may have been a better book. A pity, a great idea missed out upon.
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Astonishingly dull
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Dull to the point of being unreadable. The first 150 pages are filled with meandering drivel that takes the plot exactly nowhere. By about this time the reader begins to loose the will to live. Does anything actually happen? Who cares.. the characters are unappealing, the protaganist ineffective, the plot so slow to develop that it actually feels glacial. I've struggled with this book for a long time, hoping that it will come to form, but to be honest it's a waste of time. Kim Stanley Robinson has written much better books than this. Don't waste your time with it.
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Recommended
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It's nice to see a more objective book about climate change by an American writer. Kim Stanley Robinson is the Anti-Crichton!
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United States | 
United Kingdom | 
Canada