Forty Signs of Rain (Kim Stanley Robinson)
Sep. 6th, 2004 03:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aseNear-future novel about science policy, rapid climate change, emerging biotech, stay-at-home working fatherhood, Buddhists in Washington, and water in unexpected places.
Anyone who picks up this book smacks into KSR's heavily environmentalist slant within the first pages, and people familiar with his other novels won't be surprised by the disparagement of contemporary American conservatism, the Buddhist influence on the narrative (embodied in the embassy staff of the fictional nation Khembalung, which I've almost certainly misspelled) or the strength of the warm fuzzy feelings for the scientific community and method.* Suggestions about the interaction of scientific exploration, politics and funding aren't particularly new, but the National Science Foundation's prominence in the plot really foregrounds those considerations.
*I'm slowly coming to realize that scientific results are fascinating, but actual lab work tends to be dead boring. There's a lot of waiting, either for the protein to crystallize, or the filtrate to come off the column, or the NMR lab to finish running your sample, or... you get the picture. Maybe being a workingstiff adult is dead boring in general. I really hope not.
Frank the sociobiologist is fairly, um, monocentric and obsessed for much of the novel, but might get some fun character development later. And he gets the romantic cliffhanger. I'm afraid to ask who his mysterious woman is; their relationship to date's just been weird. (I'm horribly tempted to peg her as the kayaker from earlier in the novel, but I'll have to wait until the next book to find out. Augh! WiPness!) The Khembalung plot gets an interesting twist right at the end of the novel - not entirely unexpected after the Blocks Incident, but still surprising. I was expecting a little reincarnation twist and got an entire hidden kingdom. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out down the road.
This gets the Right Book at the Right Time reading award. I think I enjoyed the entire novel way too much because of the location. The main action's in DC, home since I was six, with sections set in the San Diego area, across the mountains from El Centro, where I lived until I was six. Two of the protagonists live close to the part of Bethesda I know sort-of well, I've been on and off the same Metro stops, I know the places Charlie Quibler's walking past! It's very cool to recognize the landmarks being described. The natural disasters that envelop the protagonists at the end of the novel are exactly the sort of thing I was fascinated by as a kid, and I haven't been able to shake my vaguely greenie liberal stance since I did four years in a high school environmental program. Having Forty Signs land on my lap at the end of August was an interesting coincidence of timing and placement, the exquisitely unpredictable whim of chance throwing me a huge hint: this is how you got here. Where are you going next?
(An exercise for the student: impending climatic catastrophe as a metaphor for dynamic life change. Discuss the narcissism of the review writer.)
Forty Signs of Rain hits all my narrative buttons. When's part two due out? I may have to get it in hardcover.
Anyone who picks up this book smacks into KSR's heavily environmentalist slant within the first pages, and people familiar with his other novels won't be surprised by the disparagement of contemporary American conservatism, the Buddhist influence on the narrative (embodied in the embassy staff of the fictional nation Khembalung, which I've almost certainly misspelled) or the strength of the warm fuzzy feelings for the scientific community and method.* Suggestions about the interaction of scientific exploration, politics and funding aren't particularly new, but the National Science Foundation's prominence in the plot really foregrounds those considerations.
*I'm slowly coming to realize that scientific results are fascinating, but actual lab work tends to be dead boring. There's a lot of waiting, either for the protein to crystallize, or the filtrate to come off the column, or the NMR lab to finish running your sample, or... you get the picture. Maybe being a working
Frank the sociobiologist is fairly, um, monocentric and obsessed for much of the novel, but might get some fun character development later. And he gets the romantic cliffhanger. I'm afraid to ask who his mysterious woman is; their relationship to date's just been weird. (I'm horribly tempted to peg her as the kayaker from earlier in the novel, but I'll have to wait until the next book to find out. Augh! WiPness!) The Khembalung plot gets an interesting twist right at the end of the novel - not entirely unexpected after the Blocks Incident, but still surprising. I was expecting a little reincarnation twist and got an entire hidden kingdom. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out down the road.
This gets the Right Book at the Right Time reading award. I think I enjoyed the entire novel way too much because of the location. The main action's in DC, home since I was six, with sections set in the San Diego area, across the mountains from El Centro, where I lived until I was six. Two of the protagonists live close to the part of Bethesda I know sort-of well, I've been on and off the same Metro stops, I know the places Charlie Quibler's walking past! It's very cool to recognize the landmarks being described. The natural disasters that envelop the protagonists at the end of the novel are exactly the sort of thing I was fascinated by as a kid, and I haven't been able to shake my vaguely greenie liberal stance since I did four years in a high school environmental program. Having Forty Signs land on my lap at the end of August was an interesting coincidence of timing and placement, the exquisitely unpredictable whim of chance throwing me a huge hint: this is how you got here. Where are you going next?
(An exercise for the student: impending climatic catastrophe as a metaphor for dynamic life change. Discuss the narcissism of the review writer.)
Forty Signs of Rain hits all my narrative buttons. When's part two due out? I may have to get it in hardcover.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-07 12:41 am (UTC)*I'm slowly coming to realize that scientific results are fascinating, but actual lab work tends to be dead boring. There's a lot of waiting, either for the protein to crystallize, or the filtrate to come off the column, or the NMR lab to finish running your sample, or... you get the picture. Maybe being a working stiff adult is dead boring in general. I really hope not.
Not a chemist myself, but unfortunately, you're right. Lab work in general is boring. That's why you get profs who sit in their offices and don't do lab work anymore. There's a special personality type that really enjoys it, and keep going, but most don't last past the first few years of profdom.
On the other hand, during my grad years, I discovered that listening to books on tape is WONDERFUL while you're doing really mindless lab work. I loved reading through lots of books from the public library and actually looked forward to the lab work!! :-)
Oh, and just this summer, I wrote a grant proposal, which meant I spent less time in the lab and more at my computer. The lab work was really relaxing to get back to and I realized that even when I had to stay late after a whole day of stressed writing at the computer, lab work was very relaxing.
Plus, depending on the type of lab work and the lab environment, you might be able to play on the computer during long waits. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-07 04:50 pm (UTC)Sounds like heaven right there.
Thanks for the offer to pick your brain about working in science: I'm definitely going to take you up on it, but need to work up a proper battery of questions first. Mind if I take a week or two to get back to you on it?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-08 04:56 am (UTC)But, uh, you did see the big "might" in that sentence, right? And the other not so good points? :-)
Mind if I take a week or two to get back to you on it?
Sure, take as long as you want, it's no problem! I just wanted to throw the offer out while I was writing about the topic anyway. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-08 06:31 pm (UTC)I'll get back to you as soon as reasonable. I'd like to throw out a set of questions, rather than a string over time.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 08:45 am (UTC)Sure, whatever works for you! It'll probably take me a while to get back to then, as well! :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-07 10:25 pm (UTC)Welcome to my revelation, three years on. :-) This is why I've conclusively made the leap from field/lab work to teaching as an ultimate goal. Reading the abstracts are fun, spending months on end to come _up_ with them...not so much.
Sorry to have completely ignored your "Where are you!?" hail. It happened to occur at the most stressful point of a somewhat stressful existence (and it's all internal stress too, so much harder to vent.) ;-). I promise an actual life-update missive in the not-too-distant future. Before Halloween, maybe? ;-)
In any case, have now gotten my hands on "40 signs..." and will begin reading immediately. I've been on a real non-fic kick recently, so it'll be nice to jump back into the novel pool.
Keep your head down and stay dry,
Eric
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-08 06:39 pm (UTC)Stan
Date: 2004-09-08 11:39 am (UTC)Unfortunately, actual lab work isn't as quick or exciting as it might seem from CSI. Fortunately, there are people willing to do these important jobs.
Re: Stan
Date: 2004-09-08 06:42 pm (UTC)