The Ministry for the Future: A Novel

Kim Stanley Robinson

Oct 2020 · Sold by Orbit

About this ebook

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR

“The best science-fiction nonfiction novel I’ve ever read.” —Jonathan Lethem
 
"If I could get policymakers, and citizens, everywhere to read just one book this year, it would be Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future." —Ezra Klein (Vox)

The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, postapocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us. Chosen by Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of the year, this extraordinary novel from visionary science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson will change the way you think about the climate crisis.

"One hopes that this book is read widely—that Robinson’s audience, already large, grows by an order of magnitude. Because the point of his books is to fire the imagination."―New York Review of Books

"If there’s any book that hit me hard this year, it was Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future, a sweeping epic about climate change and humanity’s efforts to try and turn the tide before it’s too late." ―Polygon (Best of the Year)
 
"Masterly." —New Yorker

"[The Ministry for the Future] struck like a mallet hitting a gong, reverberating through the year ... it’s terrifying, unrelenting, but ultimately hopeful. Robinson is the SF writer of my lifetime, and this stands as some of his best work. It’s my book of the year." —Locus

"Science-fiction visionary Kim Stanley Robinson makes the case for quantitative easing our way out of planetary doom." ―Bloomberg Green

Ratings and reviews

I couldn't finish this book. I got to page 450 out of 570 and realized I was only reading it because I paid for it and dislike wasting money. Then I accepted the reality of sink costs and that the money was already wasted and there was no need to endure the torture anymore. It started well enough, but I was unable to feel anything for any of the poorly written characters. The supposed solutions to the threats of climate change and problems of capitalism were so ridiculous that even with a little critical thought you could poke massive holes in them. Maybe someone would get a kick out of the chapter that lists every single glacier in Antarctica, or the other chapter entirely consisting of stupid fictional names of non profit organizations from around the world. But for me: weak characters + dumb story + silly supposed solutions = 1 ⭐. I wish I could get my money back.

I don't understand the one star reviews. Yes some parts are overwrought but there is plenty of wit to make up for that. Agree the ending was not strong, but altogether still insightful and thought provoking.

mixed form, mostly narrative, interleaving of consistent story with vignettes of contemporaneous but sometimes anonymous and seemingly disconnected experiences and riddles. human, with all the passion, and flaws, and tenderness, and resolve. provocative af. motivating. way more optimistic than me though. full disclosure: I've been following KSR since forever

About the author

Kim Stanley Robinson is a New York Times bestselling author 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.