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Antarctica
In the near future, Wade Norton has been sent to Antarctica by Senator Phil Chase to investigate rumors of environmental sabotage. He arrives on the frozen continent and immediately begins making contact with the various scientific and political factions that comprise Antarctic society.
What he finds is an interesting blend of inhabitants who don't always mesh well but who all share a common love of Antarctica and a fierce devotion to their life there. He also begins to uncover layers of Antarctic culture that have been kept hidden from the rest of the world, and some of them are dangerous indeed. Things are brought to a head when the saboteurs—or “ecoteurs” as they call themselves—launch an attack designed to drive humans off the face of Antarctica.
What he finds is an interesting blend of inhabitants who don't always mesh well but who all share a common love of Antarctica and a fierce devotion to their life there. He also begins to uncover layers of Antarctic culture that have been kept hidden from the rest of the world, and some of them are dangerous indeed. Things are brought to a head when the saboteurs—or “ecoteurs” as they call themselves—launch an attack designed to drive humans off the face of Antarctica.
674 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 15, 1997
296 people are currently reading
3234 people want to read
About the author
Kim Stanley Robinson
250 books7,487 followersKim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer. He has published 22 novels and numerous short stories and is best known for his Mars trilogy. His work has been translated into 24 languages. Many of his novels and stories have ecological, cultural, and political themes and feature scientists as heroes. Robinson has won numerous awards, including the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the World Fantasy Award. The Atlantic has called Robinson's work "the gold standard of realistic, and highly literary, science-fiction writing." According to an article in The New Yorker, Robinson is "generally acknowledged as one of the greatest living science-fiction writers."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 303 reviews
July 19, 2019
Almost every time I read a KSR book, I'm either awestruck, amazed at the scope, or I have to say something silly like, "Every time I read a KSR book, it's the favorite book I've read by him!"
Well, guess what?
Seriously, though, this one has the added distinction of KSR actually having been to Antarctica, and plot aside, the descriptions of the 60 below landscape, the problems associated with long hikes or just plain living there at all, makes this one of the most vivid novels he's ever written. This is quite aside from the Mars Trilogy, as good as it was. This one obviously hits closer to home, with all our crazy and screwed-up personages making yet another mess of things.
Because, let's face it, no nation or corporation has a good track record when it comes to reckless greed, fear of the upcoming energy crisis, or just not giving a shit because "things are bad everywhere". What does this mean for Antarctica? For those oil deposits? Or every nation capable of staging an end-run around the international treaty? A treaty unenforced and possibly unenforceable?
It brings up other familiar topics from KSR's other books as well. Ecology is a big one. Antarctica is the last clean place on Earth. It's rough on us and that's the main reason why, but you and I both know that where there's a will, there's a way. But there are also people willing to fight for the love they have for the place, and this is their novel. The fighting isn't really done with guns, but there *IS* ecoterrorism going on. There are also some rather awesome ways of living with zero-impact on the continent. Political and economic ideas that deal with the full problem. And characters that immerse us readers fully in this gorgeous, stark landscape.
I totally recommend this novel for anyone in love with cold adventures. It's full of history and the present and has a strong eye to the future, in every aspect. Now it's time to close my mouth. Snow is getting in.
Well, guess what?
Seriously, though, this one has the added distinction of KSR actually having been to Antarctica, and plot aside, the descriptions of the 60 below landscape, the problems associated with long hikes or just plain living there at all, makes this one of the most vivid novels he's ever written. This is quite aside from the Mars Trilogy, as good as it was. This one obviously hits closer to home, with all our crazy and screwed-up personages making yet another mess of things.
Because, let's face it, no nation or corporation has a good track record when it comes to reckless greed, fear of the upcoming energy crisis, or just not giving a shit because "things are bad everywhere". What does this mean for Antarctica? For those oil deposits? Or every nation capable of staging an end-run around the international treaty? A treaty unenforced and possibly unenforceable?
It brings up other familiar topics from KSR's other books as well. Ecology is a big one. Antarctica is the last clean place on Earth. It's rough on us and that's the main reason why, but you and I both know that where there's a will, there's a way. But there are also people willing to fight for the love they have for the place, and this is their novel. The fighting isn't really done with guns, but there *IS* ecoterrorism going on. There are also some rather awesome ways of living with zero-impact on the continent. Political and economic ideas that deal with the full problem. And characters that immerse us readers fully in this gorgeous, stark landscape.
I totally recommend this novel for anyone in love with cold adventures. It's full of history and the present and has a strong eye to the future, in every aspect. Now it's time to close my mouth. Snow is getting in.
October 10, 2021
Eskimos think it's important to be happy. You're supposed to react to difficult situations cheerfully. A happy person is considered a capable person, a good person. Unhappy people are thought to be deficient in some significant respect.
Another KSR masterpiece. I'm always astounded by the amount of research behind each of his books. For this he even got to Antarctica, part of an NSF program for writers. He doesn't leave anything to chance, every little detail is incorporated into the larger scope.
It's not an action story, don't expect a plot or a climax. It's more of a historical fiction in a near future, if I may say so. It's about the life and work conditions of scientists in Antarctica, intermingled with politics and revolving around the Antarctic treaty.
The descriptions of the landscape are exquisite, breathtaking, surreal and fascinating; I hate cold but I would love to visit it.
A kind of white frozen ocean, pouring through a break in the shore and down to a lower world. Also curving down in places to stand right over the shore, like waves that would never break. Puffing, sweat stinging one eye, Wade was nevertheless fascinated by the sight, glaring even through his polarized sunglasses; it was surreal, a kind of Dalí landscape, with all its features made impossible and subtly ominous, as the ocean bulked higher than the land, and one surge of the immense white wave would sweep them all away.
What more can I say? For a more comprehensive review, Andreas' is the one to read. I'll just leave one more quote, which shows how insightful KSR is, as always:
Compared to life in the world it took no courage at all to walk across the polar cap; it was simple, it was safe, it was exhilarating. No, what took courage was staying at home and facing things, things like talking your grandma out of a tree, or reading the want ads when you know nothing is there, or running around the corner of the house when you hear the crash. Or waiting for test results to come back from the hospital. Or taking a dog to the vet to have it put down. Or taking a bunch of leukemic kids to a ball game. Or waiting to see if your partner will come home drunk that night or not. Or helping a fallen parent off the bathroom floor at four in the morning. Or telling a couple that their kid has been killed. Or just sitting on the floor and playing a board game through the whole of a long afternoon. No, on the list could go, endlessly: the world was stuffed with things harder than walking in Antarctica.
Another KSR masterpiece. I'm always astounded by the amount of research behind each of his books. For this he even got to Antarctica, part of an NSF program for writers. He doesn't leave anything to chance, every little detail is incorporated into the larger scope.
It's not an action story, don't expect a plot or a climax. It's more of a historical fiction in a near future, if I may say so. It's about the life and work conditions of scientists in Antarctica, intermingled with politics and revolving around the Antarctic treaty.
The descriptions of the landscape are exquisite, breathtaking, surreal and fascinating; I hate cold but I would love to visit it.
A kind of white frozen ocean, pouring through a break in the shore and down to a lower world. Also curving down in places to stand right over the shore, like waves that would never break. Puffing, sweat stinging one eye, Wade was nevertheless fascinated by the sight, glaring even through his polarized sunglasses; it was surreal, a kind of Dalí landscape, with all its features made impossible and subtly ominous, as the ocean bulked higher than the land, and one surge of the immense white wave would sweep them all away.
What more can I say? For a more comprehensive review, Andreas' is the one to read. I'll just leave one more quote, which shows how insightful KSR is, as always:
Compared to life in the world it took no courage at all to walk across the polar cap; it was simple, it was safe, it was exhilarating. No, what took courage was staying at home and facing things, things like talking your grandma out of a tree, or reading the want ads when you know nothing is there, or running around the corner of the house when you hear the crash. Or waiting for test results to come back from the hospital. Or taking a dog to the vet to have it put down. Or taking a bunch of leukemic kids to a ball game. Or waiting to see if your partner will come home drunk that night or not. Or helping a fallen parent off the bathroom floor at four in the morning. Or telling a couple that their kid has been killed. Or just sitting on the floor and playing a board game through the whole of a long afternoon. No, on the list could go, endlessly: the world was stuffed with things harder than walking in Antarctica.
March 9, 2018
This is the most perfect novel by KSR that I've read. The Mars books and Galileo's dream were more ambitious and perhaps achieved more but at the cost of some flaws. That often seems to happen when writers really reach out and try to grasp something big and complicated but I would encourage them to try it anyway...however Antarctica tackles a fair bit and succeeds every which way I look at it: narrative drive, characterisation, subtext, prose style (apart from an occassional jarring line here and there).
Weird things are happening in Antractica: robberies, hijackings. Senator Chase's aide Wade is sent South to find out what is going on and so an adventure starts... As is usual for KSR, the story is told as a patchwork of perspectives from diverse utterly convincing characters. Sometimes this leads to problems of pacing and digression, but not here. A whirlwind tour of Antarctica, a cold weather adventure and some real surprises are mixed with tales of the (human) history of the continent and the usual concern for the environment, in a scenario that is all to plausible a view of the near future where the Antarctic Treaty has broken down and mineral exploitation is in the exploratory phase.
KSR went to Antarctica and saw much of what he describes first hand - he describes it vividly and with proper awe. Few people writing today can describe landscape and its effect on people who live in it as well as KSR consistently does let alone with as much appreciation of its fragility and importance or concern for its imperilled future.
And of course, here Kim is making the same points he does elsewhere with regard to ecology, sustainability, population, corporations, co-operation and self-interest. It's not subtle but it isn't detrimental to a good story, either.
One of the characters is a Chinese feng shui expert who wrote minimalist poems in response to a previous visit to the cold continent. Some of these appear at the head of chapters and they get better as one progresses through the book. My favourite is:
white white white
white green white
white white white
which, in context, is a delight.
I'm not sure how well known it is that this book precedes the Forty, Fifty, Sixty series: it's miles better than any of those and all of them taken together, too. Read this one if you like KSR, cold weather or survival tales.
Weird things are happening in Antractica: robberies, hijackings. Senator Chase's aide Wade is sent South to find out what is going on and so an adventure starts... As is usual for KSR, the story is told as a patchwork of perspectives from diverse utterly convincing characters. Sometimes this leads to problems of pacing and digression, but not here. A whirlwind tour of Antarctica, a cold weather adventure and some real surprises are mixed with tales of the (human) history of the continent and the usual concern for the environment, in a scenario that is all to plausible a view of the near future where the Antarctic Treaty has broken down and mineral exploitation is in the exploratory phase.
KSR went to Antarctica and saw much of what he describes first hand - he describes it vividly and with proper awe. Few people writing today can describe landscape and its effect on people who live in it as well as KSR consistently does let alone with as much appreciation of its fragility and importance or concern for its imperilled future.
And of course, here Kim is making the same points he does elsewhere with regard to ecology, sustainability, population, corporations, co-operation and self-interest. It's not subtle but it isn't detrimental to a good story, either.
One of the characters is a Chinese feng shui expert who wrote minimalist poems in response to a previous visit to the cold continent. Some of these appear at the head of chapters and they get better as one progresses through the book. My favourite is:
white white white
white green white
white white white
which, in context, is a delight.
I'm not sure how well known it is that this book precedes the Forty, Fifty, Sixty series: it's miles better than any of those and all of them taken together, too. Read this one if you like KSR, cold weather or survival tales.
October 10, 2021
Synopsis: It's the early 21st century, and the U.S. American base at McMurdo is chock-full with scientists and tourists, managed by the NSF. The Antarctic Treaty isn't renewed, and South American countries conduct secret explorations for ressources like oil or methane gas. Communities which went native and propagate an indigenious life in the Antarctis try to stay out of sight of official monitoring, some of them ecoteurs preparing for ecotage.
Against this background, the author places an interesting cast of characters, telling the story from multiple POVs: It starts with "X", a General Field Assistant at McMurdo who is quite unhappy with the working conditions there - Robinson uses him to push his idea of cooperative work. Then there is Wade Norton, an aide from environmentalist U.S. senator Phil Chase, to uncover some ecotage incidents in the Antarctis. Val - a Valkyrie like strong beauty - is the ex-lover of X, a mountaineer leading a touristic group on a quite dangerous journey in the footsteps of Amundsen. Lastly, Ta Shu is a Chinese geomancer and former poet, returning to Antarctica to bring a multi-media diary for the Chinese audience. Several other protagonists - pseudo indigenous people, and scientists - are introduced to advance the story.
The story is quite easy: a travel over several stations in Antarctica to relive Amundsen's and Scott's journeys enters catastrophe after failure; this and Wade's investigations show us the most important protagonist: Antarctica itself with Amundsen's and Scott's South Pole Station, the McMurdo Dry Valleys, and the Shackleton Glacier to name just a few bring the landscape alive.
Review: Robinson wrote this novel after a six weeks stay with the US Antarctic Program's Artists and Writers' Program. One can feel his artistic familiarity with the novel's topics at every page and it certainly manifests in his famous and fascinating landscape descriptions. The plot isn't KSR's strength, and I'd never read his works to find a thriller. I always come back to him because there are few authors who can bring a site like New York, Mars or in this case the South continent to life like him. Expect breathtaking descriptions of a grand but alien continent, overburdened with facts and details thwarting the pace. When he told about the Airdevronsix Icefalls, one of the world's most impressive natural landmarks, and the Don Juan pond (a hyoersaline lake with 33% salt compared to some 3% in the sea; that’s the second saltiest sea in the world and it might have been gone already), I knew that I totally felt in love with the continent and this book.
One example which was a pure joy to read was Wade jumping buck-naked into a pitch black ice slide 300 meters down into a steaming whirlpool; South Pole station engineers carved out this fun slide using a powerful drill:
The novel is well embedded in KSR's oeuvre: senator Phil Chase has a prominent role in the Science in the Capital trilogy - he's very loosely based on Al Gore. Ta Shu reappears far more active and interesting in Red Moon, connecting the Chinese world and understanding to the moon. Some say that Antarctica is a prequel to the Mars trilogy, but I don't see that. All of the characters were top-notch described and I could connect well to their problems, hopes and expectations.
KSR's recurring topics are environmentalism, sustainable life in a hostile environment versus deep ecology, the philosphy of science, Work2.0, and exploitation of nature. He embedded these multiple dimensions in a Hard SF perspective masterfully within this travelogue of a story. Sometimes, the discussions went on lengthy, but I found them worthwhile following because the arguments were certainly interesting.
One issue that interested me most was the climatic change hitting the Antarctica. It currently breaks up the Ross Ice Shelf where several major glaciers drain the West Antarctic Ice Sheet into the sea with a potential sea level rise of 5 meters (which is the setting of Robinson's New York 2140). In the farther future, the far larger east Antarctic iceshelf might follow - with a potential of rising sea levels 60 meters. The predicted breaking of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is happening right now and intensively watched in the last couple of years since 2014. The reason for this accelerated process is that glaciers aren't rested on bedrock any more and rapidly break apart. Jeff Goddell - author of the wonderful "The Water Will Come" - talks about this phenomenon in a lecture from 2019 (24:40 his visit to Thwaites Glacier and the impressive drama with ice cliff instability presented 29:30 and the following destabilization because the cork in the bottle is pulled - ending around 33:30) but the whole scientific community monitors Thwaites Glacier currently. Yes, and I need to watch Werner Herzog's 2007 documentary "Encounters at the End of the World".
The histories of Scott's, Amundsen's, and Shackleton's journeys, their search for honor, risking death for their visions, are embedded in the narration, mostly as dialogues. This might qualify as information drops, but I loved their exciting quests. In Scott's case not only one version but a positive and a negative one. According to Tsa Shu, everyone chooses the colour he wants to interpret history:
The author seems to manifest mostly in Tsa Shu's voice - his strange, feng shui analysis, his open-minded and ever positive discussions, and most prominent, his short poems sprinkling the narration consisting mostly of color words - of course, KSR wrote those himself. They transport a special emotion, and one of them I liked most:
I came to love Tsa Shu's character in Red Moon which I read earlier this year, and was very happy to have him back again.
Before I read this book, I thought Antarctica as a cold but bland place. KSR managed that I still feel a bit chilly. But I don't think that Antarctica is uninteresting anymore - the book let me fall in love with the continent. Mars is talked about a lot and has manifested in lots of SF novels - Antarctica in contrast was a target a hundred years ago to pioneers like Amundsen, Scott, or Shackleton, and then mostly forgotten to SF authors. This book brings back the fascination for a part of our own world which is not as out of reach as those planets.
Against this background, the author places an interesting cast of characters, telling the story from multiple POVs: It starts with "X", a General Field Assistant at McMurdo who is quite unhappy with the working conditions there - Robinson uses him to push his idea of cooperative work. Then there is Wade Norton, an aide from environmentalist U.S. senator Phil Chase, to uncover some ecotage incidents in the Antarctis. Val - a Valkyrie like strong beauty - is the ex-lover of X, a mountaineer leading a touristic group on a quite dangerous journey in the footsteps of Amundsen. Lastly, Ta Shu is a Chinese geomancer and former poet, returning to Antarctica to bring a multi-media diary for the Chinese audience. Several other protagonists - pseudo indigenous people, and scientists - are introduced to advance the story.
The story is quite easy: a travel over several stations in Antarctica to relive Amundsen's and Scott's journeys enters catastrophe after failure; this and Wade's investigations show us the most important protagonist: Antarctica itself with Amundsen's and Scott's South Pole Station, the McMurdo Dry Valleys, and the Shackleton Glacier to name just a few bring the landscape alive.
Review: Robinson wrote this novel after a six weeks stay with the US Antarctic Program's Artists and Writers' Program. One can feel his artistic familiarity with the novel's topics at every page and it certainly manifests in his famous and fascinating landscape descriptions. The plot isn't KSR's strength, and I'd never read his works to find a thriller. I always come back to him because there are few authors who can bring a site like New York, Mars or in this case the South continent to life like him. Expect breathtaking descriptions of a grand but alien continent, overburdened with facts and details thwarting the pace. When he told about the Airdevronsix Icefalls, one of the world's most impressive natural landmarks, and the Don Juan pond (a hyoersaline lake with 33% salt compared to some 3% in the sea; that’s the second saltiest sea in the world and it might have been gone already), I knew that I totally felt in love with the continent and this book.
One example which was a pure joy to read was Wade jumping buck-naked into a pitch black ice slide 300 meters down into a steaming whirlpool; South Pole station engineers carved out this fun slide using a powerful drill:
"Will it be dark all the way?" Wade said, peering down the hole.
"Black as the pit. Have a good ride. "
Wade took a step up and sat his bare bottom on the ice. "Jesus. "
"Have fun!" Spiff shouted, and gave him a push and he was off, sliding on his bottom. Then the tube dropped away in the blackness and he was on his back, like a luge rider. In fact it had all the qualities of luge-insane speed, rapid turns left and right, up and down, but mostly down, down down down in gutfloating no-g drops, sliding in a stream of warm water over cold slick ice, and all in pitch blackness so
there was no way of telling where he would go next. He yowled. The cold of the ice seemed less severe as he sped up, but the air rushing over him was freezing. He shouted again at a heartstopping drop and right turn, you could crack your skull! Except he didn't.
Three or four more dramatic turns and he began to enjoy himself. Then he was flying through free space, and he shrieked just as he plunged into boiling water. His skin went nova, especially along his bottom and back.
He shot up spluttering and took several gasping breaths, shouting once or twice between them, treading water desperately. It was pitch black, he could see nothing.
"Must be the senator. "
"Just stand up, man. "
The novel is well embedded in KSR's oeuvre: senator Phil Chase has a prominent role in the Science in the Capital trilogy - he's very loosely based on Al Gore. Ta Shu reappears far more active and interesting in Red Moon, connecting the Chinese world and understanding to the moon. Some say that Antarctica is a prequel to the Mars trilogy, but I don't see that. All of the characters were top-notch described and I could connect well to their problems, hopes and expectations.
KSR's recurring topics are environmentalism, sustainable life in a hostile environment versus deep ecology, the philosphy of science, Work2.0, and exploitation of nature. He embedded these multiple dimensions in a Hard SF perspective masterfully within this travelogue of a story. Sometimes, the discussions went on lengthy, but I found them worthwhile following because the arguments were certainly interesting.
First it was capitalism versus socialism, and then capitalism versus democracy, and now science is the only thing left! And science itself is part of the battlefield, and can be corrupted.
One issue that interested me most was the climatic change hitting the Antarctica. It currently breaks up the Ross Ice Shelf where several major glaciers drain the West Antarctic Ice Sheet into the sea with a potential sea level rise of 5 meters (which is the setting of Robinson's New York 2140). In the farther future, the far larger east Antarctic iceshelf might follow - with a potential of rising sea levels 60 meters. The predicted breaking of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is happening right now and intensively watched in the last couple of years since 2014. The reason for this accelerated process is that glaciers aren't rested on bedrock any more and rapidly break apart. Jeff Goddell - author of the wonderful "The Water Will Come" - talks about this phenomenon in a lecture from 2019 (24:40 his visit to Thwaites Glacier and the impressive drama with ice cliff instability presented 29:30 and the following destabilization because the cork in the bottle is pulled - ending around 33:30) but the whole scientific community monitors Thwaites Glacier currently. Yes, and I need to watch Werner Herzog's 2007 documentary "Encounters at the End of the World".
The histories of Scott's, Amundsen's, and Shackleton's journeys, their search for honor, risking death for their visions, are embedded in the narration, mostly as dialogues. This might qualify as information drops, but I loved their exciting quests. In Scott's case not only one version but a positive and a negative one. According to Tsa Shu, everyone chooses the colour he wants to interpret history:
"All stories are still alive, " he said. "All stories have colors in them. " He looked
around at them, an older man from a different culture, weathered and strange, incongruous in his red parka. "This present moment-this is clear. " [...] "The past-all stories. Nothing but stories. All colored. So we choose our colors. We choose what colors we see. "
The author seems to manifest mostly in Tsa Shu's voice - his strange, feng shui analysis, his open-minded and ever positive discussions, and most prominent, his short poems sprinkling the narration consisting mostly of color words - of course, KSR wrote those himself. They transport a special emotion, and one of them I liked most:
white white white
white green white
white white white
I came to love Tsa Shu's character in Red Moon which I read earlier this year, and was very happy to have him back again.
Before I read this book, I thought Antarctica as a cold but bland place. KSR managed that I still feel a bit chilly. But I don't think that Antarctica is uninteresting anymore - the book let me fall in love with the continent. Mars is talked about a lot and has manifested in lots of SF novels - Antarctica in contrast was a target a hundred years ago to pioneers like Amundsen, Scott, or Shackleton, and then mostly forgotten to SF authors. This book brings back the fascination for a part of our own world which is not as out of reach as those planets.
March 6, 2025
I love this book. It was the first I read from Kim Stanley Robinson, and I think this was the third time I have read it. The book mixes a lot of historical facts about Antarctica with very believable fictional plot and group of characters-very well done! And it's fascinating as well. I recommend it!
January 27, 2011
Kim Stanley Robinson's Antarctica is the rare sort of book that can make the walls dissolve around you while reading it, so that you are no longer surrounded by the comfortable environs of your living room, or bedroom, but rather are completely immersed in the world described by the novelist: in this case, the knee-weakening, heartache beauty of the frozen southern continent.
I was not surprised to find, when reading the acknowledgments at the end, that Robinson has actually visited Antarctica himself, but in some respects it wouldn't matter if he hadn't. His descriptions were vivid and rang true, regardless of how true and accurate they were. (Finding out that they are indeed from his personal experience just adds that much depth.)
Robinson is known for being a sci-fi author, but this is not a book I would consider to be science-fiction. It is set in the near future, but it took me a few chapters before I even realized that, and only because some of the technology he describes is not quite a reality yet. This is not a book about technology, or futuristic events. It is a deep and probing character study, set in an alien environment that happens to be a part of our own planet.
The book slowly and methodically introduces us to the handful of characters that form the heart of the novel; a man working as a jack-of-all-trades at McMurdo Base, and the mountaineer tour guide that he is in unrequited love with, and the Washington, D.C. aide who is there to investigate the situation for his world-traveling senator. We meet these people, and see through their eyes, and hear their thoughts, and see them slowly exposed and unravelled before our eyes, so that, as readers, we understand them. We relate to them. We know them; either because they remind us of ourselves, or of someone we've known.
And this character study is set in a world of ice, and snow, and glaciers, and geological structures you've never seen with your own eyes, but that Robinson will show you.
It is not a heavily plot-driven book, although there is some eco-terrorist conflict that causes a fairly major crisis, towards the end. But I realized with some surprise, about halfway in, that so far nothing had really happened, per se, and yet I was still riveted. I wanted to find out more about these people and the world they lived in, and what would happen to them. I wanted to know more about their thoughts.
I think it would be easy to finish this book and think that it was about ecological terrorism, or eco-rights in general, or maybe just a place study about Antarctica, and I think that it is all those things, but for me it was even more of a meditation on thought, and ideas, and how we place and ground ourselves in the world around us. Early in the book, a character muses:
"It is eerie sometimes to contemplate how much we create our own reality. The life of the mind is an imaginary relationship to a real situation; but then the real situation keeps happening, event after event, and many of those events are out of our control, but many others are the direct result of the imagination's take on things."
This is no less true in the fictional Antarctica that Robinson is writing about than it is in the everyday life of every human being on the planet. We are all creating our own realities every day, and in Antarctica, Robinson is showing this in action, for a small handful of characters that you will care deeply about by the end of the book. It is a beautiful, perfect piece of fiction, evocative of place and speaking truth about the human condition. Highly recommended.
I was not surprised to find, when reading the acknowledgments at the end, that Robinson has actually visited Antarctica himself, but in some respects it wouldn't matter if he hadn't. His descriptions were vivid and rang true, regardless of how true and accurate they were. (Finding out that they are indeed from his personal experience just adds that much depth.)
Robinson is known for being a sci-fi author, but this is not a book I would consider to be science-fiction. It is set in the near future, but it took me a few chapters before I even realized that, and only because some of the technology he describes is not quite a reality yet. This is not a book about technology, or futuristic events. It is a deep and probing character study, set in an alien environment that happens to be a part of our own planet.
The book slowly and methodically introduces us to the handful of characters that form the heart of the novel; a man working as a jack-of-all-trades at McMurdo Base, and the mountaineer tour guide that he is in unrequited love with, and the Washington, D.C. aide who is there to investigate the situation for his world-traveling senator. We meet these people, and see through their eyes, and hear their thoughts, and see them slowly exposed and unravelled before our eyes, so that, as readers, we understand them. We relate to them. We know them; either because they remind us of ourselves, or of someone we've known.
And this character study is set in a world of ice, and snow, and glaciers, and geological structures you've never seen with your own eyes, but that Robinson will show you.
It is not a heavily plot-driven book, although there is some eco-terrorist conflict that causes a fairly major crisis, towards the end. But I realized with some surprise, about halfway in, that so far nothing had really happened, per se, and yet I was still riveted. I wanted to find out more about these people and the world they lived in, and what would happen to them. I wanted to know more about their thoughts.
I think it would be easy to finish this book and think that it was about ecological terrorism, or eco-rights in general, or maybe just a place study about Antarctica, and I think that it is all those things, but for me it was even more of a meditation on thought, and ideas, and how we place and ground ourselves in the world around us. Early in the book, a character muses:
"It is eerie sometimes to contemplate how much we create our own reality. The life of the mind is an imaginary relationship to a real situation; but then the real situation keeps happening, event after event, and many of those events are out of our control, but many others are the direct result of the imagination's take on things."
This is no less true in the fictional Antarctica that Robinson is writing about than it is in the everyday life of every human being on the planet. We are all creating our own realities every day, and in Antarctica, Robinson is showing this in action, for a small handful of characters that you will care deeply about by the end of the book. It is a beautiful, perfect piece of fiction, evocative of place and speaking truth about the human condition. Highly recommended.
July 26, 2016
Kim Stanley Robinson writes the driest prose and the stockiest of stock characters, but I thoroughly enjoy his work. I think that perhaps the stock nature of his characters allows them to function as every men that the readers can then project themselves into. Robinson is brilliant at fleshing out reasonable arguments for different view points. In this case I really like the discussion about the Antarctic Treaty (http://www.ats.aq/e/ats.htm)
I also typically don't like nonfiction explorer books, which is why I went with this over a nonfiction book for the GRI 7 contintent challenge. I think that perhaps my problem with nonfiction explorer books is that you already have a vague idea of how it ends before reading it and there's usually too many details of the "trudging" (in the case of Antarctica over ice) for my tastes. There was enough suspense about what was going to happen to make reading some of what would have been borring to me in a work of nonfiction about Antarctica worthwhile. I do confess to skipping some of the long detailed paragraphs about ice climbing.
A note on the science fiction elements of this book: It was written in 1997 and set sometime in the early 21st century...possibly now or a few years from now. The science fiction elements are very minor (relatively minor upgrades to technology) and probably not off putting to non science fiction fans.
A final note: Robinson wrote this book after participating in the Antarctic Writers and Artists program the United States National Science Foundation runs (http://www.nsf.gov/geo/plr/aawr.jsp).
I also typically don't like nonfiction explorer books, which is why I went with this over a nonfiction book for the GRI 7 contintent challenge. I think that perhaps my problem with nonfiction explorer books is that you already have a vague idea of how it ends before reading it and there's usually too many details of the "trudging" (in the case of Antarctica over ice) for my tastes. There was enough suspense about what was going to happen to make reading some of what would have been borring to me in a work of nonfiction about Antarctica worthwhile. I do confess to skipping some of the long detailed paragraphs about ice climbing.
A note on the science fiction elements of this book: It was written in 1997 and set sometime in the early 21st century...possibly now or a few years from now. The science fiction elements are very minor (relatively minor upgrades to technology) and probably not off putting to non science fiction fans.
A final note: Robinson wrote this book after participating in the Antarctic Writers and Artists program the United States National Science Foundation runs (http://www.nsf.gov/geo/plr/aawr.jsp).
January 26, 2023
blue sky
brown valley
white snow
Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson is not just a story, it is a journey through history, an exploration of Antarctica both past and present, and a glimpse into the modern day continent; the fight to preserve the land, the people living and working there, and multiple potentialities for the great southern land. It is literally all here. A reviewer on my copy says, ”This is the James Michener novel of the South Pole. If the meaty one word title didn’t give it away, the writing would. The whole human history of the continent is here.” This is a big book, with big scope, and I think Robinson does it all justice.
The story itself involves many players who are on the continent for various reasons; scientists, mountaineers, celebrities, workers at various stations, and many more. We are given a glimpse into their Antarctica. We see daily life at the bottom of the world, at McMurdo Station, ice camps, oil prospecting camps, and the South Pole proper. These characters eventually are drawn together through a sort of ecoterrorism that begins picking up speed. Who are these people, and what are their intentions? What do they want? So many questions, and so many possible answers.
We are treated to a wonderfully weaved in history lesson of the continent along the way. Shackleton, Scott, Amundsen…they’re all here. For me, this was an absolute treat. Antarctica’s human history is short in the grand scheme of things, but still no less fascinating. We are given all of this by a writer with both the skill of a novelist and non-fiction writer. Robinson’s prose is beautiful and always interesting, no matter what part of the story we may be on. It’s all here, and it’s all written in a compelling way. I’m so glad I read this book for so many reasons. I’ve discovered Robinson, I’ve learned all kinds of interesting stuff about Antarctica,I was told a hell of a story, and I was given a lot to think on involving the future of the place. To anyone who may be interested in the same thing, this book is an absolute must read. The only thing that may be lacking here are hugely fleshed out characters, but that was okay for me. We certainly knew them well enough to carry the novel. One more thing that is worth noting: there’s a certain feeling of absolute isolation here that very novels pull off this well. The first one that comes to mind is The Terror by Dan Simmons; although these two novels are very different in many or most ways, one thing they do share is this feeling of absolute and complete isolation, in a place where everything will kill you.
But as I’ve said in many different ways already, the true main character here is the continent of Antarctica itself. It is vast, and absolutely filled with mysteries. It may not be ready to open up to us yet, but what we do know is all here. Highly recommended.
brown valley
white snow
Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson is not just a story, it is a journey through history, an exploration of Antarctica both past and present, and a glimpse into the modern day continent; the fight to preserve the land, the people living and working there, and multiple potentialities for the great southern land. It is literally all here. A reviewer on my copy says, ”This is the James Michener novel of the South Pole. If the meaty one word title didn’t give it away, the writing would. The whole human history of the continent is here.” This is a big book, with big scope, and I think Robinson does it all justice.
The story itself involves many players who are on the continent for various reasons; scientists, mountaineers, celebrities, workers at various stations, and many more. We are given a glimpse into their Antarctica. We see daily life at the bottom of the world, at McMurdo Station, ice camps, oil prospecting camps, and the South Pole proper. These characters eventually are drawn together through a sort of ecoterrorism that begins picking up speed. Who are these people, and what are their intentions? What do they want? So many questions, and so many possible answers.
We are treated to a wonderfully weaved in history lesson of the continent along the way. Shackleton, Scott, Amundsen…they’re all here. For me, this was an absolute treat. Antarctica’s human history is short in the grand scheme of things, but still no less fascinating. We are given all of this by a writer with both the skill of a novelist and non-fiction writer. Robinson’s prose is beautiful and always interesting, no matter what part of the story we may be on. It’s all here, and it’s all written in a compelling way. I’m so glad I read this book for so many reasons. I’ve discovered Robinson, I’ve learned all kinds of interesting stuff about Antarctica,I was told a hell of a story, and I was given a lot to think on involving the future of the place. To anyone who may be interested in the same thing, this book is an absolute must read. The only thing that may be lacking here are hugely fleshed out characters, but that was okay for me. We certainly knew them well enough to carry the novel. One more thing that is worth noting: there’s a certain feeling of absolute isolation here that very novels pull off this well. The first one that comes to mind is The Terror by Dan Simmons; although these two novels are very different in many or most ways, one thing they do share is this feeling of absolute and complete isolation, in a place where everything will kill you.
But as I’ve said in many different ways already, the true main character here is the continent of Antarctica itself. It is vast, and absolutely filled with mysteries. It may not be ready to open up to us yet, but what we do know is all here. Highly recommended.
December 30, 2010
This book could have used some serious editing. Went on way to long with very little action or character development.
June 18, 2020
second read – 15 June 2020 - *****. This is a stand-alone novel, set in its own future history, but one closely related to that of KSR’s Mars Trilogy (begins with Red Mars). It is certainly true that all the major themes of the Mars Trilogy were revisited in this later-written novel, and it's been nicknamed "White Mars." This was my second read of it.
First some background – While Robinson was writing the Mars books, he learned that Antarctica's dry valleys were said to be the closest thing on Earth to the planet Mars. He applied for a grant to travel there for research, but was turned down because it required that the resulting work concern Antarctica. Robinson decided to re-submit the application and write a novel about Antarctica. It was approved, and he was there in 1995 as part of the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program – which is similar to the character Ta Shu in the novel.
The setting is near-future, and the plots follow several primary characters through thrilling events starting out from McMurdo Station on Ross Island. The main characters are “X”, a disaffected General Field Assistant laborer, who is assigned to ride in a self-driving convoy of supply vehicles from McMurdo to the Pole. Second is Val, a trekking guide for wealthy adventure seekers, who has just dumped X. Third is Wade Hampton, the Washington-based Aide of the usually travelling US Senator Phil Chase, who has been sent to investigate mysterious events. Finally, I should mention Ta Shu, a Chinese media star who is broadcasting and recording his Antarctic adventure throughout the novel, and serves both as narrator and voice of KSR. Wade Hampton and Phil Chase also appear in KSR’s Science in the Capitol trilogy (begins with Forty Signs of Rain). Ta Shu also appears in Red Moon.
The novel is highly descriptive of the Antarctica’s natural environment, with frequent explanations of the geology and paleontology. The stories of early Antarctic explorers like Scott, Amundsen, and Shackleton are given through dialog of the characters. During journeys by a variety of technologies to several settlements, KSR explores the sustainability of human life and culture in the highly stressed environment of the “Ice Planet.” This reflects on our population of resource-processing humanity that exceeds the carrying capacity of a climate-changing Earth. As well as the thrilling and sometimes surprising resolutions to the endangerment of groups stranded out in the wild, KSR also brings about a meeting of the political forces to forge an optimistic policy for the future status of Antarctica. It is a template, I think, for humanity on extraterrestrial planets as well.
On a personal note, I have been an occasional backpacking and hiking guide for adults on backcountry trips in the Ozarks and Southern Appalachians. Val’s internal mind during the Amundsen Footsteps trip, was completely realistic. Managing the abilities and emotions of an injured hiker, and the group dynamics in that situation, while hiding your own reactions and uncertainties, is a real responsibility, beyond merely directing logistics and pointing out features. I was there during a trip just last year, although obviously not as extreme a case as described.
An excellent read. I appreciated it even more this time, as I am more familiar with KSR’s body of work now. It sure looks like a re-read on the Mars Trilogy is queing up for me.
first read - 1 March 1999 - ****. I read this 1997 prequel to Kim Stanley Robinson's award-winning Mars trilogy when it was still pretty new. It gives some background on many of the characters from Mars, but it is a pretty good book in its own right. In the near future, radical environmentalists use advanced technology to establish permanent residence and live in harmony with nature, such as it is, in Antarctica. This book explores what sort of lives are lived, and what society is formed there. The novel was heavily influenced by Robinson's 1995 stay in Antarctica as part of the National Science Foundation's Antarctica Artists and Writers Program.
First some background – While Robinson was writing the Mars books, he learned that Antarctica's dry valleys were said to be the closest thing on Earth to the planet Mars. He applied for a grant to travel there for research, but was turned down because it required that the resulting work concern Antarctica. Robinson decided to re-submit the application and write a novel about Antarctica. It was approved, and he was there in 1995 as part of the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program – which is similar to the character Ta Shu in the novel.
The setting is near-future, and the plots follow several primary characters through thrilling events starting out from McMurdo Station on Ross Island. The main characters are “X”, a disaffected General Field Assistant laborer, who is assigned to ride in a self-driving convoy of supply vehicles from McMurdo to the Pole. Second is Val, a trekking guide for wealthy adventure seekers, who has just dumped X. Third is Wade Hampton, the Washington-based Aide of the usually travelling US Senator Phil Chase, who has been sent to investigate mysterious events. Finally, I should mention Ta Shu, a Chinese media star who is broadcasting and recording his Antarctic adventure throughout the novel, and serves both as narrator and voice of KSR. Wade Hampton and Phil Chase also appear in KSR’s Science in the Capitol trilogy (begins with Forty Signs of Rain). Ta Shu also appears in Red Moon.
The novel is highly descriptive of the Antarctica’s natural environment, with frequent explanations of the geology and paleontology. The stories of early Antarctic explorers like Scott, Amundsen, and Shackleton are given through dialog of the characters. During journeys by a variety of technologies to several settlements, KSR explores the sustainability of human life and culture in the highly stressed environment of the “Ice Planet.” This reflects on our population of resource-processing humanity that exceeds the carrying capacity of a climate-changing Earth. As well as the thrilling and sometimes surprising resolutions to the endangerment of groups stranded out in the wild, KSR also brings about a meeting of the political forces to forge an optimistic policy for the future status of Antarctica. It is a template, I think, for humanity on extraterrestrial planets as well.
On a personal note, I have been an occasional backpacking and hiking guide for adults on backcountry trips in the Ozarks and Southern Appalachians. Val’s internal mind during the Amundsen Footsteps trip, was completely realistic. Managing the abilities and emotions of an injured hiker, and the group dynamics in that situation, while hiding your own reactions and uncertainties, is a real responsibility, beyond merely directing logistics and pointing out features. I was there during a trip just last year, although obviously not as extreme a case as described.
An excellent read. I appreciated it even more this time, as I am more familiar with KSR’s body of work now. It sure looks like a re-read on the Mars Trilogy is queing up for me.
first read - 1 March 1999 - ****. I read this 1997 prequel to Kim Stanley Robinson's award-winning Mars trilogy when it was still pretty new. It gives some background on many of the characters from Mars, but it is a pretty good book in its own right. In the near future, radical environmentalists use advanced technology to establish permanent residence and live in harmony with nature, such as it is, in Antarctica. This book explores what sort of lives are lived, and what society is formed there. The novel was heavily influenced by Robinson's 1995 stay in Antarctica as part of the National Science Foundation's Antarctica Artists and Writers Program.
July 10, 2016
Wonderful.
Kim Stanley Robinson brings his imagination and joie-de-vivre to bear on yet another strange corner of the solar system. I loved the ferals: technological nomads who can't hunt and gather on the barren continent, and so instead they fish and farm. Mobile agriculture! It's one of those sci-fi ideas from KSR that's audacious but all the same you wonder why we aren't doing it already. And Antarctica is perfect for it: greenhouses on skis, pushed through the snow like one of the early explorer's huts. And they have blimps! Some of the other sci-fi technologies are interesting given that they were in their infancy when the book was being written and have already become commonplace.
And the characters are great: a nomadic Russian from an abandoned base who kiteboards the continent and creates an underground waterslide with an ice borer and plans to pump Lake Vostok to the Sahara, or the Chinese feng shui popstar who runs a livestream of his trip.
I liked that the villains in this eco-conscious tale aren't heartless oil oligarchs, which would be the case in a lesser thriller, but the sort of Greenpeace, Naomi Klein types who stand against technology and who somehow think they can veto their way out of the climate crisis.
There are history lessons as well. Which reminds me that I want to read Caroline Alexander's Endurance as well as Big Dead Place about a real life Antarctic GFA.
Kim Stanley Robinson brings his imagination and joie-de-vivre to bear on yet another strange corner of the solar system. I loved the ferals: technological nomads who can't hunt and gather on the barren continent, and so instead they fish and farm. Mobile agriculture! It's one of those sci-fi ideas from KSR that's audacious but all the same you wonder why we aren't doing it already. And Antarctica is perfect for it: greenhouses on skis, pushed through the snow like one of the early explorer's huts. And they have blimps! Some of the other sci-fi technologies are interesting given that they were in their infancy when the book was being written and have already become commonplace.
And the characters are great: a nomadic Russian from an abandoned base who kiteboards the continent and creates an underground waterslide with an ice borer and plans to pump Lake Vostok to the Sahara, or the Chinese feng shui popstar who runs a livestream of his trip.
I liked that the villains in this eco-conscious tale aren't heartless oil oligarchs, which would be the case in a lesser thriller, but the sort of Greenpeace, Naomi Klein types who stand against technology and who somehow think they can veto their way out of the climate crisis.
There are history lessons as well. Which reminds me that I want to read Caroline Alexander's Endurance as well as Big Dead Place about a real life Antarctic GFA.
July 3, 2017
DNF. The facts about Antarctica and past exploration of it are interesting, but as this is supposed to be fiction, it's not enough. The characters are quite colorless and you don't care what happens to them. The plot is very slow and badly written. Not for me, I'll opt for a non-fiction book about Antarctica or return to Matt Dickinson's wonderful thriller set in it.
October 27, 2008
I have to say, Antartica is me coming back to Kim Stanley Robinson after I gave up on him midway through his Washington Trilogy (at the end of Fifty Degrees Below for those of you keeping score at home). Like the Mars trilogy and the Washington trilogy, Antartica has themes of ecology, scientific advance and social organization. While it would be foolish to assume that every author's views match his or her subject matter, one starts to sense a pattern.
Antarctica is that blurry line between contemporary and science fiction that makes it hard to classify. There are some minor tech advances -- face masks that can reproduce a high-def image taken from goggle cameras while getting a narrator's soundtrack, wrist phones*, laser ice borers, and photovoltaic clothing that can keep people alive as they walk through 50 degrees below, by using sunlight to add extra heat and melt water for drinking. (Though really, it would be more efficient to not bother with converting the sunlight to electricity, and convert it to heat directly.) The US government hasn't yet acknowledged anthropogenic climate change in the novel, which puts it a tiny step behind ours (but not by much). On the other hand, politics remains identifiable as turn-of-the-millennium, and aside from a few new toys, it feels like modern Earth.
* Okay, given the size of the average cellphone, we could do this now if people wanted.
We follow four main characters. X (nicknamed for the size of his parka -- he is Very Tall) is a slacker-academic, the kind of bright kid who could have made it in academia except for the inability to get through college without going crazy, who ended up taking a job doing scut-work in Antarctica for the adventure and staying because he fell in love with the place. Val, X's ex-girlfriend, is a trail guide down there, who loves the outdoors, but doesn't care much for showing idiots around a very dangerous place. Wade is the aide of Senator Phil Chase, a kind of Obama-figure, if Obama got his start in the California suburbs instead of inner-city Chicago -- kind of funny, as Obama had yet to appear on the national radar when the book was written. Phil (and Wade, IIRC) show up again in the Washington trilogy as a character's boss -- guess Robinson didn't want to let a good minor character go. The last POV isn't so much a character as a POV; Ta Shu is a Chinese geomancer, poet and nature host, and he is filming down in Antartica, and we get his narration as well.
The big conflict of the book is centered around environmental issues -- the Antarctic treaty is being held up by the US government because There's Oil Down There, and some Southern Hemisphere countries are trying to get a slice of the pie. Here Robinson wins a brownie point from me. The environmentalists aren't always good -- in that they blow up some oil stations and jam communications, causing Val's trail group (already with an injured member and lost supplies from a previous problem), and a party containing X and Wade to get stranded in a spring storm. It's made clear that at least one person would have died except for good luck, despite the saboteurs' best attempt to do it non-violently. And, Carlos, the one oil station worker we get to know, isn't some Captain Planet Villain, out to make money on oil with no concern for the environment. He is legitimately concerned with the fact that the G8 nations have a big chunk of the pie and want to shut down the developing world, and does care about the environment (in that he wants to use technology to keep things clean while they drill). I found him sympathetic, to the point where X is watching Carlos and the saboteurs' lawyer* talk and realizing that both were angry at the same people, but were arguing with each other.
* Who is perhaps the one character who Robinson could get away with writing a page-long speech without sounding like he was talking to the audience, since later, everyone tries to shut him up before he gets going again. Still killed me to read it -- too long, and too much of a rant.
As always, I liked some of the themes of the book, and the setting work (Robinson spent some time in the Antarctic. It shows, in a good way), and the characters were likable. It was a bit slanted towards social and ecological politics, but not enough to impair the story of X and Val's attempts to make homes on a continent they have fallen in love with, the mystery of where the equipment has gone, Val's bad trail trip, and surviving a sabotage attempt in a place where the Environment is not your friend.
Antarctica is that blurry line between contemporary and science fiction that makes it hard to classify. There are some minor tech advances -- face masks that can reproduce a high-def image taken from goggle cameras while getting a narrator's soundtrack, wrist phones*, laser ice borers, and photovoltaic clothing that can keep people alive as they walk through 50 degrees below, by using sunlight to add extra heat and melt water for drinking. (Though really, it would be more efficient to not bother with converting the sunlight to electricity, and convert it to heat directly.) The US government hasn't yet acknowledged anthropogenic climate change in the novel, which puts it a tiny step behind ours (but not by much). On the other hand, politics remains identifiable as turn-of-the-millennium, and aside from a few new toys, it feels like modern Earth.
* Okay, given the size of the average cellphone, we could do this now if people wanted.
We follow four main characters. X (nicknamed for the size of his parka -- he is Very Tall) is a slacker-academic, the kind of bright kid who could have made it in academia except for the inability to get through college without going crazy, who ended up taking a job doing scut-work in Antarctica for the adventure and staying because he fell in love with the place. Val, X's ex-girlfriend, is a trail guide down there, who loves the outdoors, but doesn't care much for showing idiots around a very dangerous place. Wade is the aide of Senator Phil Chase, a kind of Obama-figure, if Obama got his start in the California suburbs instead of inner-city Chicago -- kind of funny, as Obama had yet to appear on the national radar when the book was written. Phil (and Wade, IIRC) show up again in the Washington trilogy as a character's boss -- guess Robinson didn't want to let a good minor character go. The last POV isn't so much a character as a POV; Ta Shu is a Chinese geomancer, poet and nature host, and he is filming down in Antartica, and we get his narration as well.
The big conflict of the book is centered around environmental issues -- the Antarctic treaty is being held up by the US government because There's Oil Down There, and some Southern Hemisphere countries are trying to get a slice of the pie. Here Robinson wins a brownie point from me. The environmentalists aren't always good -- in that they blow up some oil stations and jam communications, causing Val's trail group (already with an injured member and lost supplies from a previous problem), and a party containing X and Wade to get stranded in a spring storm. It's made clear that at least one person would have died except for good luck, despite the saboteurs' best attempt to do it non-violently. And, Carlos, the one oil station worker we get to know, isn't some Captain Planet Villain, out to make money on oil with no concern for the environment. He is legitimately concerned with the fact that the G8 nations have a big chunk of the pie and want to shut down the developing world, and does care about the environment (in that he wants to use technology to keep things clean while they drill). I found him sympathetic, to the point where X is watching Carlos and the saboteurs' lawyer* talk and realizing that both were angry at the same people, but were arguing with each other.
* Who is perhaps the one character who Robinson could get away with writing a page-long speech without sounding like he was talking to the audience, since later, everyone tries to shut him up before he gets going again. Still killed me to read it -- too long, and too much of a rant.
As always, I liked some of the themes of the book, and the setting work (Robinson spent some time in the Antarctic. It shows, in a good way), and the characters were likable. It was a bit slanted towards social and ecological politics, but not enough to impair the story of X and Val's attempts to make homes on a continent they have fallen in love with, the mystery of where the equipment has gone, Val's bad trail trip, and surviving a sabotage attempt in a place where the Environment is not your friend.
July 16, 2023
Wow— this is a big book, and touches on politics, ecology, direct action, economies, and basically everything.
Set in the near-future, this novel makes the point that everything that happens in Antarctica happens also in the larger world. Antarctica merely exposes or highlights the issues.
Can’t remember the last time I read a 650 page book. This one took 300 or 400 pages for the plot threads to come together, and not every discussion between characters was gripping. Thus the 4.5 star rating.
There is also much actual Antarctica history in this novel as well.
Set in the near-future, this novel makes the point that everything that happens in Antarctica happens also in the larger world. Antarctica merely exposes or highlights the issues.
Can’t remember the last time I read a 650 page book. This one took 300 or 400 pages for the plot threads to come together, and not every discussion between characters was gripping. Thus the 4.5 star rating.
There is also much actual Antarctica history in this novel as well.
January 29, 2012
This novel published in 1998 is set in an imagined Antarctica of the early twenty-first century
There is an odd feeling of reading about a future that isn't quite the future but nor is it the present that it's somehow supposed to be. Other than that though, this is an excellent piece of speculative fiction - gripping and meticulously researched (Robinson spent time in Antarctica as part of the US Antarctic Program's Artist and Writer Program).
This is an Antarctica fought over by African oil companies and eco terrorists while scientists continue their studies and an international group of 'ferals' try to develop an indigenous way of life on the continent. Meanwhile Val leads groups of tourists on extreme adventures, recreating the journeys of the original polar explorers. Stories of these explorers intercut the narrative in a very effective manner, giving the reader a sense of the real history of the continent.
The narrative is very intense in places, there are long passages outlining scientific experiments, political manoeverings and an expedition that Val leads, which doesn't go to plan.
The technology is worked into the narrative really well, wristwatch computers, recordings a trek participant makes for TV-masks and the intelligent fabrics that everyone's clothes are made from. Similarly the ideas around the ferals' construction of a potentially permanent way of life are well explored.
It's a compelling read and one that makes the reader think deeply about the future of the world's last great wilderness. And as this month marks the centenary of Scott's failed expedition to reach the South Pole, what better time to read this book?
There is an odd feeling of reading about a future that isn't quite the future but nor is it the present that it's somehow supposed to be. Other than that though, this is an excellent piece of speculative fiction - gripping and meticulously researched (Robinson spent time in Antarctica as part of the US Antarctic Program's Artist and Writer Program).
This is an Antarctica fought over by African oil companies and eco terrorists while scientists continue their studies and an international group of 'ferals' try to develop an indigenous way of life on the continent. Meanwhile Val leads groups of tourists on extreme adventures, recreating the journeys of the original polar explorers. Stories of these explorers intercut the narrative in a very effective manner, giving the reader a sense of the real history of the continent.
The narrative is very intense in places, there are long passages outlining scientific experiments, political manoeverings and an expedition that Val leads, which doesn't go to plan.
The technology is worked into the narrative really well, wristwatch computers, recordings a trek participant makes for TV-masks and the intelligent fabrics that everyone's clothes are made from. Similarly the ideas around the ferals' construction of a potentially permanent way of life are well explored.
It's a compelling read and one that makes the reader think deeply about the future of the world's last great wilderness. And as this month marks the centenary of Scott's failed expedition to reach the South Pole, what better time to read this book?
June 22, 2015
Enjoyable, but far from Robinson's best work. The reading dragged on, as he spends a lot of time detailing the minutiae of living in Antarctica. This is of course his intentions, and as with a lot of his books Robinson tries to tell us something about our world, our environment and the ongoing environmental crisis. The state of the arctic and the antarctic are both good signifiers of how well we are doing, and we are not doing well at all.
Antarctica is the story of a journey through the ice-covered continent, it is the story of the people who make their lives there, and it suggests alternatives to our current destructive lifestyles.
These are topics that Robinson have dealt with often, and I can't help but think it is a lot better executed in the celebrated Mars Trilogy or his Washington / Climate trilogy.
Still, if you're curious about Antarctica, but want to stay out of the cold, it's a pretty good read. Should be followed up by Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" for a comparison.
Antarctica is the story of a journey through the ice-covered continent, it is the story of the people who make their lives there, and it suggests alternatives to our current destructive lifestyles.
These are topics that Robinson have dealt with often, and I can't help but think it is a lot better executed in the celebrated Mars Trilogy or his Washington / Climate trilogy.
Still, if you're curious about Antarctica, but want to stay out of the cold, it's a pretty good read. Should be followed up by Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" for a comparison.
May 25, 2017
Despite my interest in the actual Antarctica, everything up to page 12 in this Antarctica was tremendously boring and I lost the will to go on.
July 7, 2022
This novel feels like 45% Mitchner, 35% Crichton, 5% Ballard, 5% PKD, & 10%... unknown. Although Antarctica is set in the future & includes some speculation about the geological impacts of the Anthropocene on Antarctica, this novel is really mostly about the “thin” human history of Antarctica. Has some characteristics of the “90s thrillers that teach you real facts” genre, but with more of Robinson’s trademark optimism, & a little bit of PKD or Ballardian absurdism. The idea of Antarctic adventure tourism taking off, and in the form of punishing, guided trips in the footsteps of the heroic-age Antarctic explorers feels like something out of a PK Dick or JG Ballard story, as do the expeditions to “repatriate” the explorers’ artifacts to where they were abandoned in Antarctica. The Chinese geomancer character felt especially like someone from a PK Dick novel. Antarctica is my favorite of the 4 or 5 Kim Stanley Robinson books I’ve read, & Robinson’s writing about those early polar explorers is the best aesthetically & style-wise that I’ve seen him. The explanation of “Gotterdammerung capitalism” on page 57 is extremely relevant to understanding our present & recent history. I liked how the action did not get in the way of the vibes. I was somewhat pleasantly surprised to find that the "action" half of the novel is more like the "utopian vision" half of the novel. Robinson depicts an "artificial indigenous" egalitarian society which seems to subsist on seafood, hydroponics, remote work, & youtube follows (before youtub was invented). I liked the parts with the would-be “indigenous” or “feral” people, but I kind of feel like the book would have been stronger if they’d been left as more of a mystery, the way Viktor was. The part that felt most dated about this 25-year-old sci-fi book was its ideas about the political power of scientists & technocrats. Overall a great read that makes me want to read more about the polar explorers of both yesteryear and today.
January 1, 2020
Published in 1997, Kim Stanley Robinson's Antarctica is a near future adventure story set in Antarctica. As readers of KSR's earlier and more lauded Martian novels might expect, much of this novel is about the land and the people that have come to it. There are histories of Scott, Amundsen, and Shackleton, often retold by hikers who have gone to Antarctica to retrace their steps, and believe it or not there is a disastrous trek across the snow. In the far background of the plot are ecoteurs, greens who attack extraction companies in order to save the planet. The ecoteurs, at first glance, are the antagonist, but they are really just one stakeholder group within a larger struggle to figure out what to do with Antarctica and by extension the planet. Other stakeholders are oil companies, scientists, people who live and work in Antarctica, and Although I suppose critics might dismiss Antarctica as too similar to other KSR novels (the Martian trilogy and Shaman come to mind), I still found that I enjoyed it. The characters were convincing to me and I find KSR's more utopian approach to science fiction so rare that it remains endearing when it works.
January 20, 2024
This feels almost nostalgic--with the style KSR has and its relation to my current research topic, I'm intrigued and loving it all. His style is more accessible here, less scientific, and more about the characters. His plot took a significant amount of time to manifest, but that was alright with me. His prose and imagery were what I was there for.
And the end was fascinating--I didn't realize how anti-capitalist he truly was. From the Mars trilogy I knew it was there of course, but here it seemed so present. He's obviously writing from an activist stand point, especially against capitalism and for workers and environmentalism. He had a great nuanced conversation written near the end with multiple viewpoints which were important. Loved.
And the end was fascinating--I didn't realize how anti-capitalist he truly was. From the Mars trilogy I knew it was there of course, but here it seemed so present. He's obviously writing from an activist stand point, especially against capitalism and for workers and environmentalism. He had a great nuanced conversation written near the end with multiple viewpoints which were important. Loved.
April 19, 2024
Liked didn't love
Antarctica often amounts to a less successful version of his other works. My favorite trait of KSR's writing is his ability to distill ideologies into his various POV characters. More than a year after finishing the Mars trilogy, I still use Ann Claybourne and Sax Russell to conceptualize arguments and thoughts. Here, I didn't feel that tight link between the characters and the conclusions they reached.
There are also A LOT of hiking passages and detailed accounts of early Antarctic exploration, which made for a choppy pace.
Antarctica often amounts to a less successful version of his other works. My favorite trait of KSR's writing is his ability to distill ideologies into his various POV characters. More than a year after finishing the Mars trilogy, I still use Ann Claybourne and Sax Russell to conceptualize arguments and thoughts. Here, I didn't feel that tight link between the characters and the conclusions they reached.
There are also A LOT of hiking passages and detailed accounts of early Antarctic exploration, which made for a choppy pace.
January 12, 2020
KSL is a marvelous writer the kind that see's and deals with huge stories and are able to draw them minutely in exquisite details. Antarctica the largest part of the planet that is untouched wilderness. This is a Novel in the 19th century model of being a long story that one wants to read during a equally long winter, so I'm saying it's slow paced but has a level of detail and various story lines that start to connect and the story which develops is so interesting but it's in the sense of place how KSL is able to explain the unexplainable which is Antarctica, some of the descriptions in the book sounded made up until I google earth Dry valley and Don Juan pond and found them to be amazing and true when you combine this with other books discussing Antarctica and climate change I found I'm becoming very much interested in learning more about this icy world that is or can be the main trigger that tips our weather from this inter-glacial period to something my children will have to live through. So that is why I'm attracted to this story it's very much like a James Michener or Leon Uris story but for our generation. It's a very thoughtful book very much an exploration into man's role in Antarctica and what should happen and what could happen and what is happening now. Well worth the time to read it four stars.
July 14, 2014
This review also appeared on Joe Follansbee's blog.
I’ve been a fan of master science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson ever since the Mars Trilogy, which dealt with terraforming the Red Planet. Now that humanity is engaged in an accidental terraforming experiment on its own world, it was the right time for me to read Antarctica, one of Robinson’s lesser-known novels. I was curious how he treated the changes sure to come to the South Pole, because I’m looking at a similar scenario in my own current project, The Princes of Antarctica.
Published in 1997, Robinson’s story takes place more than 50 years later, just after the expiration of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty. The treaty and several other agreements set aside the entire continent as a nature and science reserve. But the politics of preservation versus wealth creation stalls renewal of the treaty, and a series of unexplained incidents sparks an informal investigation by an aide of an influential senator with progressive leanings. Robinson weaves his trademark mix of science, history, politics, and human aspiration into a sprawling narrative. Climate change overhangs the novel, making it an early example of the climate fiction / nature fiction genre.
Much of the novel’s material derives from Robinson’s experience as a 1995 participant in the National Science Foundation’s Artists and Writers Program. In his book, Robinson has worked out every possible way to describe ice, ice fields, glaciers, mountains covered in ice, and being buried in ice. The ice-related words “firn,” “sastrugi,” and “nanutuk” are burned into the reader’s vocabulary. Robinson makes geology the marquee science of Antarctica, rarely mentioning the penguins and seals that dominate other fictional and non-fictional treatments of the South Pole.
His characters are workmanlike: the lonely bureaucrat, the amazonian mountaineer, the misfit jack-of-all-trades, and the get-r-done administrator. How Robinson got one major character’s name past the editor–just “X”, nothing more–escapes me. At critical moments, some characters make single-paragraph speeches that go on for a page or more (in my EPUB edition) using language no human would use in formal conversation, much less casual conversation. Robinson explains too much and shows too little, at least when it comes to the human-on-human dynamic.
Robinson leaves the best part of the story until the novel’s last third: a conflict between factions of “ferals,” an emerging culture of emigres from the capitalist north determined to make a new start in a fresh land. It’s a redux of Plymouth Colony and a hundred other utopian visions that Americans love. But he wastes an opportunity. Here’s the question Robinson should have asked: How does a warming world treat the last wild land on earth? Instead, he makes the fighting ferals one bit of a puzzle whose pieces don’t fit very well. And as one of the factions goes about destroying property and endangering lives, Robinson appears to suggest that the tactic might be okay to save the seventh continent from exploitation, as long as nobody gets hurt. Of course, somebody will get hurt or killed eventually, if we turn a blind eye to extremists using dynamite.
Nonetheless, the idea of people going to huge lengths to “start over” in a wild environment is compelling. Robinson’s ferals are more than fantasy; there’s a small but vocal anarchist faction calling for “re-wilding,” expressed in part by learning and practicing stone age skills and beliefs. In The Princes of Antarctica, I’m using these ideas in a group of Antarcticans I label “primitives” or “prims” (a derogatory term in the dominant Antarctic culture) of a 22nd century South Pole. I like it as a way to explore how some humans might pioneer a new land where night and day are divided into six-month intervals. The way things are going, it’s definitely a possible scenario.
I’ve been a fan of master science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson ever since the Mars Trilogy, which dealt with terraforming the Red Planet. Now that humanity is engaged in an accidental terraforming experiment on its own world, it was the right time for me to read Antarctica, one of Robinson’s lesser-known novels. I was curious how he treated the changes sure to come to the South Pole, because I’m looking at a similar scenario in my own current project, The Princes of Antarctica.
Published in 1997, Robinson’s story takes place more than 50 years later, just after the expiration of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty. The treaty and several other agreements set aside the entire continent as a nature and science reserve. But the politics of preservation versus wealth creation stalls renewal of the treaty, and a series of unexplained incidents sparks an informal investigation by an aide of an influential senator with progressive leanings. Robinson weaves his trademark mix of science, history, politics, and human aspiration into a sprawling narrative. Climate change overhangs the novel, making it an early example of the climate fiction / nature fiction genre.
Much of the novel’s material derives from Robinson’s experience as a 1995 participant in the National Science Foundation’s Artists and Writers Program. In his book, Robinson has worked out every possible way to describe ice, ice fields, glaciers, mountains covered in ice, and being buried in ice. The ice-related words “firn,” “sastrugi,” and “nanutuk” are burned into the reader’s vocabulary. Robinson makes geology the marquee science of Antarctica, rarely mentioning the penguins and seals that dominate other fictional and non-fictional treatments of the South Pole.
His characters are workmanlike: the lonely bureaucrat, the amazonian mountaineer, the misfit jack-of-all-trades, and the get-r-done administrator. How Robinson got one major character’s name past the editor–just “X”, nothing more–escapes me. At critical moments, some characters make single-paragraph speeches that go on for a page or more (in my EPUB edition) using language no human would use in formal conversation, much less casual conversation. Robinson explains too much and shows too little, at least when it comes to the human-on-human dynamic.
Robinson leaves the best part of the story until the novel’s last third: a conflict between factions of “ferals,” an emerging culture of emigres from the capitalist north determined to make a new start in a fresh land. It’s a redux of Plymouth Colony and a hundred other utopian visions that Americans love. But he wastes an opportunity. Here’s the question Robinson should have asked: How does a warming world treat the last wild land on earth? Instead, he makes the fighting ferals one bit of a puzzle whose pieces don’t fit very well. And as one of the factions goes about destroying property and endangering lives, Robinson appears to suggest that the tactic might be okay to save the seventh continent from exploitation, as long as nobody gets hurt. Of course, somebody will get hurt or killed eventually, if we turn a blind eye to extremists using dynamite.
Nonetheless, the idea of people going to huge lengths to “start over” in a wild environment is compelling. Robinson’s ferals are more than fantasy; there’s a small but vocal anarchist faction calling for “re-wilding,” expressed in part by learning and practicing stone age skills and beliefs. In The Princes of Antarctica, I’m using these ideas in a group of Antarcticans I label “primitives” or “prims” (a derogatory term in the dominant Antarctic culture) of a 22nd century South Pole. I like it as a way to explore how some humans might pioneer a new land where night and day are divided into six-month intervals. The way things are going, it’s definitely a possible scenario.
March 14, 2013
I really wanted to give this more stars but I just can't. Though a huge effort obviously went into researching and writing this novel, over half of the 672 pages is boring as hell and difficult to slog through. The scientific parts are too detailed and the average person would have absolutely no idea what they are talking about (including me). Oh I got the gist of the discussions but the minutia came across as the author just showing off his new-found knowledge. In some instances this information seemed like filler though a book with over 600 pages hardly needed filler. The point was made early on in these discussions and then just beaten into the reader with blunt force. After the first few instances of this, I found myself skimming these sections for the pertinent data and then moving on.
I found I had to take notes just to follow the many plot arcs. At final count I found 9 different things going on (which explains the page count!). I found it very difficult to keep track of who was who (and what side of the equation they were on) as well as where they were specifically in Antarctica. I thought the maps were a nice touch but most of the events happened in places that weren't on any of the maps which was incredibly irritating. What's the point of providing maps if they don't help location people or events?
I've always been fascinated with Antarctica and read any fiction I find relating or happening there so this book instantly drew my attention. But I was disappointed when the story went political. I'm sure most (if not all) Senators indulge in political double-speak but the conversations between Senator Phil Chase and Wade Norton were particularly difficult to read. I found myself saying "what the hell did he just say?" and subsequently passed over these passages quickly as after reading I didn't know what the heck just happened so what's the point of wasting valuable time floundering in political shenanigans.
The character that irritated me the most (other than Jack, who should have been put down like a rabid dog!) was Ta Shu and his Zen crap. Though I really liked the ferals and could appreciate their willingness to actually live in such an unforgiving location on their terms.
I do own a few other KSR books (Forty Signs of Rain and Sixty Days and Counting) but given my experience with this book and the political stuff that irritated me, I'm going to pass up reading these or anything else by this author. It's just too deep and totally not my cup of tea. Don't get me wrong, KSR is an amazing writer for those who enjoy political thrillers. I just don't happen to be that person.
For those interested:
1. The first 100 pages are very interesting and really grab your attention.
2. The next 200 pages are incredibly boring and are painful to slog through.
3. The following 250 pages are where the meat of the actual story takes place. This is very exciting and a quick read.
4. And the final 100 pages or so are totally boring and go back to the political stuff.
I found I had to take notes just to follow the many plot arcs. At final count I found 9 different things going on (which explains the page count!). I found it very difficult to keep track of who was who (and what side of the equation they were on) as well as where they were specifically in Antarctica. I thought the maps were a nice touch but most of the events happened in places that weren't on any of the maps which was incredibly irritating. What's the point of providing maps if they don't help location people or events?
I've always been fascinated with Antarctica and read any fiction I find relating or happening there so this book instantly drew my attention. But I was disappointed when the story went political. I'm sure most (if not all) Senators indulge in political double-speak but the conversations between Senator Phil Chase and Wade Norton were particularly difficult to read. I found myself saying "what the hell did he just say?" and subsequently passed over these passages quickly as after reading I didn't know what the heck just happened so what's the point of wasting valuable time floundering in political shenanigans.
The character that irritated me the most (other than Jack, who should have been put down like a rabid dog!) was Ta Shu and his Zen crap. Though I really liked the ferals and could appreciate their willingness to actually live in such an unforgiving location on their terms.
I do own a few other KSR books (Forty Signs of Rain and Sixty Days and Counting) but given my experience with this book and the political stuff that irritated me, I'm going to pass up reading these or anything else by this author. It's just too deep and totally not my cup of tea. Don't get me wrong, KSR is an amazing writer for those who enjoy political thrillers. I just don't happen to be that person.
For those interested:
1. The first 100 pages are very interesting and really grab your attention.
2. The next 200 pages are incredibly boring and are painful to slog through.
3. The following 250 pages are where the meat of the actual story takes place. This is very exciting and a quick read.
4. And the final 100 pages or so are totally boring and go back to the political stuff.
May 16, 2025
edit edit: fourth reread (audioobook)
LOL I think this is somehow becoming a comfort book?? Listening to beautiful descriptions of cold windy Antarctica while walking around Cambridge during exams season calms me down. Wish I was in a crevasse field too
edit: third time reading this book
I love this book EVEN MORE now that I have taken some very intro geology at Cambridge. Completely obsessed. Very obviously of the 90s but idc I love hiking and scientists
Wow, how I love this book. Arguably I love this more on the re-read.
1. Lots and lots of mountaineering and hiking. The re-read really rewarded this, now that I'm more familiar with ice climbing and crevasse navigation.
2. I love Antarctica; I love the utopian scientific project of it
3. I loved the history
The ending was a bit much - I don't love when KSR gets all preachy and just has his characters talk about politics. The whole book conveyed the message he explicitly wrote in the last few chapters (except for maybe the co-op stuff). Still, an amazing experience to read this! Especially before/after skiing :)
LOL I think this is somehow becoming a comfort book?? Listening to beautiful descriptions of cold windy Antarctica while walking around Cambridge during exams season calms me down. Wish I was in a crevasse field too
edit: third time reading this book
I love this book EVEN MORE now that I have taken some very intro geology at Cambridge. Completely obsessed. Very obviously of the 90s but idc I love hiking and scientists
Wow, how I love this book. Arguably I love this more on the re-read.
1. Lots and lots of mountaineering and hiking. The re-read really rewarded this, now that I'm more familiar with ice climbing and crevasse navigation.
2. I love Antarctica; I love the utopian scientific project of it
3. I loved the history
The ending was a bit much - I don't love when KSR gets all preachy and just has his characters talk about politics. The whole book conveyed the message he explicitly wrote in the last few chapters (except for maybe the co-op stuff). Still, an amazing experience to read this! Especially before/after skiing :)
November 28, 2023
This is the longest book I’ve read in some time, but then I read it while engaging in one of the longest trips I’ve ever taken, a visit to the Antarctic peninsula by a 130-person capacity cruise ship called the Sylvia Earle. While Jill read the primary documents about the continent—accounts of the Scott and Shackleton expeditions—I let Stan Robinson summarize those for me in his near future SF about people who want to work and live in one of the most inhospitable environments on Earth. Perfect fodder for a writer whose previous books were about terraforming Mars. Robinson’s book came from his own visit to Antarctica as a fellow for the NSF U.S. Antarctic Program’s Artists and Writers’ Program in 1995. The first third of the book, after a small action hook, is a slow burn through the details of what it is like to be in Antarctic as well as recaps of those adventurers who had strived to be the first: the first to go the farthest south, the first to the pole, the first to traverse or climb this or that. Halfway through, Robinson’s plot finally begins (somewhat predictably), leading to a climax that allows him to postulate about many, many things, from the effects of population growth, resource extraction, climate change, and sustainable living, to feng shi and employee co-ops and scientific endeavors. The paperback edition I read is 650 pages and Robinson packs it with a lot of thought experiments.
I enjoyed it, but some of that may have been the fact that I could look out my window, or reflect on the continental landing I had just completed, as Stan writes about the beauty of ice fields and the glassy ocean and how the cold hits your nose and tries to freeze the snot in your sinuses. While I did not engage in any of the hardships suffered by his characters or the explorers before them, it was certainly less difficult for me to imagine what they went through by being so close to the places it happened. I have no doubt that Robinson got his research right, nor that he spent long nights contemplating the Antarctic Treaty and its tenuous hope for a world where science rules over politics, or at least calls the shots. What he creates in this novel, however, is no utopian solution, recognizing such a thing is hopeless, but he does provide some clues as to how people might work towards something other than the dystopia we seem to be barreling towards. In the decades since this book was first published, science fiction has seen the birth of a burgeoning subgenre alternatively termed solarpunk or hopepunk. If that subgenre ever becomes a thing, Robinson’s Antarctica surely seems to be an early example if not precursor.
I enjoyed it, but some of that may have been the fact that I could look out my window, or reflect on the continental landing I had just completed, as Stan writes about the beauty of ice fields and the glassy ocean and how the cold hits your nose and tries to freeze the snot in your sinuses. While I did not engage in any of the hardships suffered by his characters or the explorers before them, it was certainly less difficult for me to imagine what they went through by being so close to the places it happened. I have no doubt that Robinson got his research right, nor that he spent long nights contemplating the Antarctic Treaty and its tenuous hope for a world where science rules over politics, or at least calls the shots. What he creates in this novel, however, is no utopian solution, recognizing such a thing is hopeless, but he does provide some clues as to how people might work towards something other than the dystopia we seem to be barreling towards. In the decades since this book was first published, science fiction has seen the birth of a burgeoning subgenre alternatively termed solarpunk or hopepunk. If that subgenre ever becomes a thing, Robinson’s Antarctica surely seems to be an early example if not precursor.
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March 2, 2021Llegué hasta este libro durante un proceso de documentación sobre supervivencia en entornos hostiles y, en ese sentido, ha colmado todas mis expectativas. Se nota que el autor conoce de primera mano de lo que habla y ha experimentado la realidad antártica. A mi juicio, Robinson ha sido capaz de algo muy difícil de conseguir: que la descripción de un paisaje dominado por la nieve, el hielo y la roca no se haga monótona. Bien al contrario, es capaz de aportar miles de matices que me dejan con una sensación tangible sobre la compleja diversidad de este lugar tan inhóspito como cautivador.
La historia, por otro lado, me ha resultado un tanto lívida, consumida en parte por el escenario y el trasfondo geopolítico del Tratado Antártico. Los personajes están bien construidos, aunque todos son bastante introvertidos y eso baja todavía más las revoluciones. Paisaje exterior y paisaje interior, con algunas breves escenas de acción (ligera), lo cual, hay que decir, queda muy antártico. Las largas travesías y los silencios, rotos apenas por momentos de actividad, suponen un acercamiento honesto y verosímil a la actividad de los escasos habitantes de los asentamientos antárticos. Incluso el sufrimiento tiene un ritmo pausado y agónico en esta tierra de hielo.
Como primer acercamiento al autor, me ha parecido interesante, aunque me queda pendiente leer su trilogía marciana para descubrir a un Kim Stanley Robinson más centrado en la acción.
La historia, por otro lado, me ha resultado un tanto lívida, consumida en parte por el escenario y el trasfondo geopolítico del Tratado Antártico. Los personajes están bien construidos, aunque todos son bastante introvertidos y eso baja todavía más las revoluciones. Paisaje exterior y paisaje interior, con algunas breves escenas de acción (ligera), lo cual, hay que decir, queda muy antártico. Las largas travesías y los silencios, rotos apenas por momentos de actividad, suponen un acercamiento honesto y verosímil a la actividad de los escasos habitantes de los asentamientos antárticos. Incluso el sufrimiento tiene un ritmo pausado y agónico en esta tierra de hielo.
Como primer acercamiento al autor, me ha parecido interesante, aunque me queda pendiente leer su trilogía marciana para descubrir a un Kim Stanley Robinson más centrado en la acción.
August 3, 2022
Starts off slow, particularly if you don't care much about the history of human exploration in Antarctica (which I really don't). Robinson pulls all of the threads together nicely in the final couple of chapters, though, proposing a model for sustainable living in Antarctica that could be extended not just to the rest of our planet, but planets beyond if/when the time comes. He has a lot of interesting ideas that can definitely seed fruitful debate. The book gets better the further into it you go!
Main cons for me, which aren't that big a deal: Robinson doesn't seem to be able to separate female characters from sex appeal and/or romantic ambitions -- the sole female protagonist spends as much time thinking about her romantic history as she does about her role in Antarctica, and is the only character to do so to that degree. And again, I don't like reading about exploration history, which pops up more in the first half than the second half. For someone other than me, you might replace 'exploration history' with 'glaciology/paleontology' or 'the philosophy of feng shui' or 'descriptions of different kinds of cold landscapes', but I don't mind all of those.
Main cons for me, which aren't that big a deal: Robinson doesn't seem to be able to separate female characters from sex appeal and/or romantic ambitions -- the sole female protagonist spends as much time thinking about her romantic history as she does about her role in Antarctica, and is the only character to do so to that degree. And again, I don't like reading about exploration history, which pops up more in the first half than the second half. For someone other than me, you might replace 'exploration history' with 'glaciology/paleontology' or 'the philosophy of feng shui' or 'descriptions of different kinds of cold landscapes', but I don't mind all of those.
February 4, 2025
an interesting story, but too heavy handed, too black and white, too simplistic. It is readable, but has many drawbacks, incuding an interest in feng shui and a cult of athleticism. Plus, although it is meant to be a progressive novel, it has some rather disturbing malthusian overtones, of the deep green variety. References to Scott and Amundsen and to the relevant bibliography abound. All in all, an interesting story, more disaster novel than sci fi, but a bit on the dated side: what heaven would look like to an athletic hippy
June 12, 2017
8/10
An intimate, dynamic portrait of Antarctica, chock full of history, science, and ecological and social commentary, all of which occasionally gets in the way of some engaging characters and interesting storylines. No one can say that author Kim Stanley Robinson doesn't do his homework; the research was extensive, including time spent on the icy continent itself. A thought-provoking read, even almost 20 years after it was first published.
An intimate, dynamic portrait of Antarctica, chock full of history, science, and ecological and social commentary, all of which occasionally gets in the way of some engaging characters and interesting storylines. No one can say that author Kim Stanley Robinson doesn't do his homework; the research was extensive, including time spent on the icy continent itself. A thought-provoking read, even almost 20 years after it was first published.
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