Antarctica (Paperback)

Icehenge by Kim Stanley Robinson 4.2 out of 5 stars (4)

Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson 3.3 out of 5 stars (6)  £5.49

Green Mars (Mars trilogy) by Kim Stanley Robinson 3.7 out of 5 stars (7)  £8.09

Blue Mars (Mars Trilogy) by Kim Stanley Robinson 3.6 out of 5 stars (20)  £5.99

Sixty Days and Counting by Kim Stanley Robinson 3.4 out of 5 stars (5)  £5.49

› Explore similar items

Amazon.co.uk Review
In the near future Wade Norton has been sent to Antarctica by Senator Phil Chase to investigate rumours 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 and diverse mix 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, some of which are dangerous indeed. Events 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. This is Kim Stanley Robinson's first book since his award-winning Mars trilogy, and while some of the themes may be familiar to seasoned Robinson readers the book is never less than engrossing. As usual Robinson does a masterful job with the setting of his story, and anyone interested in Antarctica won't want to miss this one. --Craig Engler, Amazon.com

Review
'Momentous' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'If I had to choose one writer whose work will set the standard for science fiction in the future, it would be Kim Stanley Robinson' NEW YORK TIMES 'A tour de force of adventure writing...The most important writer currently interested in real science... It is hard to put the book down. It is important, it is relevant, it gives us a huge new continent to imagine; and it is fun' MAIL ON SUNDAY

What does the author of the best-ever Mars epic (Blue Mars, 1996, etc.) do for an encore? He shifts to Antarctica, an environment as near to Mars as you can get on Earth, in a novel set a few years into the 21 st century. Earth's population has risen above ten billion. Global warming is no longer just a theory: Summers in Washington, D.C., for instance, have gone from unbearable to life-threatening. The Sahara is rapidly taking over all of northern Africa. Hardly any forests remain. Oil resources are also waning, and thus there is a call - just as renewal of the international treaty banning mineral exploitation of Antarctica stalls in Congress-to tap into the oil reserves near Ross Island. Surreptitious drilling may already be going on there, in fact, and so an environmentalist senator named Phil Chase dispatches his chief aide, Wade Norton, to investigate. Norton falls in love with the inhospitable continent and, along with others, becomes an"ecoteur," someone so committed to saving the planet that he'll engage in sabotage on its behalf. A young laborer (dubbed "X" by the author) joins the campaign, partly to improve his low self-esteem and partly to impress a young scientist and guide, Valerie Kenning. Obviously, Robinson has no love for the "globally downsized post-revolutionary massively fortified stage of very late capitalism" portrayed here. But he's no Ed Abbey, and his ecoplot seems almost perfunctory. He's like Michener (when Michener was good). He lays in lore and history and atmosphere with great care: the amazing cold and the equally amazing capacity of humans to endure it; unlikely wildlife; volcanoes steaming amid mountains of ice. And Robinson brings to life the expeditions of Roald Amundsen and Edward Wilson, as well as the history of scientific inquiry into the "least significant" continent. Passionate, informed, mildly flawed, and vastly entertaining. (Kirkus Reviews)

See all Product Description

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt

Search inside this book:

12 Reviews 5 star:  (7) 4 star:  (3) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:  (2)           Average Customer Review 4.1 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars Enough snow to make you blind, 24 May 2000 By  Stuart Mcmillan (Glasgow, Scotland, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    If you enjor KSR's books (Mars, Gold Coast etc.), then you'll enjoy this. If you haven't read any of his books before, this is not the place to start. KSR is an author I have enjoyed for years, capable of painting beautiful and detailed pictures of the landscapes and people around the central characters. The Mars books are cold and inhospitable, and KSR paints an equally bleak picture of this frozen earhly wasteland, but takes an awful long time doing it. The characters and plot are OK, and enough to drive a determined reader through the book, however, unless you're a completist, I wouldn't put it top of your reading list. Why four stars then? The descriptions of Antarctica were enough to make me shiver and reach for that extra sweater. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars A Stunning book, 24 Aug 1999 By A Customer This is an amazing book, full of vivid descriptions of Antarctica and careful renderings of personalities and situations. The most disturbing thing about the book is that it presents a frighteningly realistic picture of the possible future. This book is highly reccomended and it's made me want to visit Antarctica just to find out how much is true! Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   4.0 out of 5 stars Immersive, thought-provoking and rich - an excellent depiction of Earth's last wilderness, 8 Jun 2008 By  J. Aitcheson (Wiltshire, England) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    "Antarctica" is the tenth novel by Kim Stanley Robinson, the author of the highly-acclaimed Mars Trilogy. The story takes place in the near future, at a time when the Antarctic Treaty - designed to prohibit military involvement on the continent and to establish it as a scientific preserve - has expired, bringing Earth's last wilderness under threat. When scientific sites begin to be attacked in Antarctica, sabotage by underground environmental groups is suspected, and Wade Norton, advisor to the influential and eco-conscious US senator Phil Chase, is sent to Antarctica to investigate. As with all of Robinson's novels, "Antartica" embodies a vast amount of detailed research, including an extended visit made by the author in 1995, sponsored by the United States' National Science Foundation. Such first-hand experience shows in his superb evocation of place: from the confines of McMurdo Station, the largest settlement on the continent, to the heights of the Transantarctic Mountains and glaciers, to the inhospitable polar ice cap and the South Pole itself. Moreover, the landscapes are infused with a heavy sense of history, with numerous stories and legends of Amundsen, Scott and Shackleton - the first explorers - referenced throughout the book. This is a wide-ranging novel concerned with heritage, science, the struggle for survival, and the balance between exploitation and understanding of our natural environment. Indeed - in common with much of Robinson's writing - it is the complex relationship of humans with their environment which lies at the heart of this novel. Although Robinson's sympathies lie ultimately in the environmentalist camp, it should be said that he is careful to acknowledge competing attitudes. Every one of his characters has their own Antarctica, so to speak, and we are made to feel sympathetic not only to the scientific establishment, but also to the industrial interests of the less economically developed world, the ecoteurs, and those (the 'ferals') attempting to live self-sustainably and permanently on the continent. The novel's single failing in this respect is that it is hampered in the end by a search for resolution, rather than allowing the debate to linger in the reader's mind. For most of the novel the pace of the narrative is slow, and except for a period of about 150 pages in the middle, there is little action or tension - two factors which many readers may find frustrating. However, this is a novel driven more by ideas rather than by plot or by character. It is hard to imagine that a shorter book - or one more tightly-plotted - could have done justice to the vastness of the subject as Robinson achieves here. All in all, "Antartica" is an absorbing and rich imagining of what is often perceived to be a sterile and hostile place. With global warming becoming an increasingly pressing issue, it arguably has even more relevance now than when it was first published in 1997, depicting the unspoilt environment we could lose all too soon. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 12 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars Another gem from Kim Stanley Robinson A stunningly real portrait of Antarctica; the characters live and breathe in the icy air. Robinson's own experiences in the frozen continent shine through in this exhilirating... Read more Published on 27 Jan 2001 5.0 out of 5 stars Not a Thriller, not boring. One to be absorbed by. Well this has polarised reviewers! I'm well and truly with the pro's. It is quite true that for a long time nothing actually 'happens' but there are a *lot* of ideas in there, and... Read more Published on 16 Mar 2000 by Bryan 1.0 out of 5 stars Stank the place out! What a drag! The slow narrative is HELD UP by arid dull descriptions of the history and landscape of Antarctica which in no way held my interest or gripped me. Read more Published on 27 Feb 2000 5.0 out of 5 stars Maybe it should be that way.... In this book, Mr Robinson has colorfully described the life and adventures of the people working in Antarctica, from the scientists ('beakers') to the mountaineers, to the... Read more Published on 13 Jul 1999 5.0 out of 5 stars mixes past history and future possibilities credibly In the near future, people seek to save or exploit one of the last wildernesses.Tourism has started whereby travellers can repeat journeys made by past explorers - Shackleton is... Read more Published on 16 April 1999 4.0 out of 5 stars Deep thought, deep snow In this book Robinson condenses and matures the political thinking that went into his Mars trilogy. Whilst that's an interesting backdrop a story of eco-wars acts as the canvas... Read more Published on 2 Mar 1999 1.0 out of 5 stars BOORRRING! I struggled manfully for over 200 pages and guess what, NOTHING happens. Absolutely nothing. I thought this was meant to be a book about ecoterrorists battling it out with oil... Read more Published on 11 Feb 1999 5.0 out of 5 stars A positive and welcome follow up to the "Martian Trilogy" I finished "Blue Mars" wishing, as one often does at the end of a good book, for more of the same. Read more Published on 15 Jan 1999 5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good effort. Robinson is always good, and this is well within his range of goodness. It is certainly worth reading. Published on 26 Aug 1998 Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 12 customer reviews...

Airpoint Ballard Club: A list by Jonathan Webber   Some excellent stuff you might want to read: A list by A. C. Mochrie "satsuma-man"   Brilliant 21st Century Science Fiction: A list by SciFi Fanatic Create a Listmania! list

Search Listmania!

• Books > Fiction
• Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > R > Robinson, Kim Stanley
• Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction

• Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
• I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
• I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.