Kim Stanley Robinson, 2312

So 2312 is the eighth book by Kim Stanley Robinson that I've commented upon here at Book Addiction HQ, though not for the first time, this has reminded me that I haven't written here about The Ministry for the Future (which is a novel I regularly discuss in my classes, and recommend widely as well).

I would say that 2312 is a long way from being my favourite, but in itself that's not a complaint. Genuinely, I haven't yet read a Robinson novel that didn't resonate with me, even when (as with Icehenge, for example) the novel didn't do nearly as much for me as I would've hoped.

In these AI/LLM times (about which I have strong feelings), I wanted Robinson to deal with his imagined AIs in such a way that I'd be able to use this novel to think with. 2312 came out in 2012, so that's hardly fair on my part, but the heart wants what the heart wants, you know?

There were really intriguing bits, and I appreciated his sense that an imagined future solar system would have be growing from its own future-to-us history. Me, I would read the heck out of the imaginary Charlotte Shortback's periodizing analysis of history; among other things, she terms the years between 2005 and 2060 as "The Dithering," followed by "The Crisis" between 2060 and 2130. Not all of the inclusions between the narrative chapters worked out for me (Robinson would use this strategy to much better effect in The Ministry for the Future, years later), but some of them were really affecting for me.

Robinson, in an interview with Space.com: "The novel is really a question, instead of an answer. If the Earth is struggling with higher sea levels and under enormous environmental stress, can the human civilization still thrive and prosper because of its enormous scientific power?" Except mostly we're not on Earth, and Earth isn't where we find the important characters or people or actions, and and and. Still, Robinson's imagination is for me always worth spending time with, and always worth taking seriously.

But I was really disappointed (though not annoyed, exactly, once I got over myself) that this turned out to be kind of a detective novel, driven by or driving a romance plot, in a solar system where the role of AIs is in flux. The resolution to the AI mystery/problem arrives suddenly, a human-conceived deus ex machina that ends with the machines getting booted ex from the machina, and then we're into the romance plot as an unmediated romance plot, so I found myself unreasonably cranky that I was still having to keep reading.

And also, what's the deal with Kiran, and why how what?!?

Feel free to read a thoughtfully mixed personable review ("not a particularly effective book," but also "a fascinating book"), and of course there's always something from the Guardian, but also don't miss this loathing-filled but also thoughtful screed for a different perspective ("2312 is a dreadful book and anyone who nominated it for awards should be ashamed").

It's a good read, if you don't hate it, and unlike other Robinson novels I've read, I recognize that it'd be reasonable just to resist this novel. I don't accept David Nicoll's assessment (the loathing-filled link from the previous paragraph), but he's not wrong in most of his details, and like I say, the ending didn't do it for me at all.