Aurora

Kim Stanley Robinson

Jul 2015 · Sold by Orbit

About this eBook

A major new novel from one of science fiction's most powerful voices, Aurora tells the incredible story of our first voyage beyond the solar system.

Brilliantly imagined and beautifully told, it is the work of a writer at the height of his powers.

Our voyage from Earth began generations ago.

Now, we approach our new home.

AURORA.

Ratings and reviews

A brilliantly written hard science fiction novel, that expertly weaves a narrative across an incredible breadth of space and time, without ever losing focus on the human and (artfully developed) artificial components. Aurora manages to blend the awe inspiring expanse of the universe, with the existential threat that any attempt to explore it will likely bring. Constantly balancing on a knife's edge and brutally realistic, there has never been a book that made me so grateful for the ability to step outside and just breathe.

Fantastic story with a backbone of realism. I'm a longtime fan of Kim Stanley Robinson, but Aurora packs surprises both in subject matter, by reaching beyond the confines of our solar system and in a literary sense by playing some fun tricks with narration (which I'll leave unspoiled here). In some ways, Aurora was a departure from the progressive optimism fans like me have come to love, but there was no shortage of material to think about for weeks and months after finishing this book. I recommend Aurora it to anyone like me who wants science to be inescapable in their science fiction.

I thought I was going to read one type of story, instead got another. There were some plot twists that changed the nature of the story rather dramatically. But some things were nicely depicted, including the sociology of the group. I've never been a fan of Robinson's narrative style but the worlds he brings are usually well thought out. Just a little disappointed because he promised a tapestry bigger than Mars but did not deliver that.

About the author

Kim Stanley Robinson is a New York Times bestseller and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards. He is the author of more than twenty books, including the bestselling Mars trilogy and the critically acclaimed Forty Signs of Rain, The Years of Rice and Salt, and 2312. In 2008, he was named a "Hero of the Environment" by Time magazine, and he works with the Sierra Nevada Research Institute. He lives in Davis, California.