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August 13, 2004

Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson

Forty Signs of RainThe inside jacket of this bestseller bears a portion of the lead-in to chapter one:

”When the Arctic ice pack was first measured in the 1950s, it averaged thirty feet thick in midwinter. By the end of the century it was down to fifteen. One August the ice broke. The next year the breakup started in July. The third year it started in May.

“That was last year.”
Forty Signs of Rain follows a brief period of time in the lives of three scientists and one senatorial aide in that first, telling year of global warming.

Anna Quibler works for the National Science Foundation in Fairfax, and becomes drawn in to the plight of the new delegation from an embassy of exiled Tibetans whose small island nation is drowning in the rapidly rising Indian Ocean.

Her husband, stay-at-home father Charlie Quibler, juggles their infant son, Joe, and the ecological agenda of his boss, Senator Phil Chase.

What's remarkable about this novel is how close to the real issue Stan carries us. The "Hyperniño" effect that sends a cyclone1 carving out 15-foot pieces of Southern California feels like it's right off the Weather Channel. The devistating flood that nearly returns Southwest DC to its original, swamplike, state could happen tomorrow. In typical Robinson fashion, the author takes us on an entirely plausible journey into the beginning of the worst case scenario of global warming.

(Minor spoiler at end of paragraph.) Be warned, though. If you are expecting an intense climactic confrontation or great resolution at the end, you are bound to be dissapointed. Those not familiar with Kim Stanley Robinson's work are not aware that his overall plotlines are far more subtle. One might expect a sort of "Mr. Quibley goes to Washington" wherein, after a huge speech by Charley with the little baby Joe on his back, the Senate passes a resolution bringing about the end of fossil fuels, waste and corruption. As in real life, the Senator Phil offers his aide nothing more than a weak promise to "see what I can" do about the looming catastraphe.

Prepare yourself to be happy in the changes that the characters experience in their own lives, which is what the novel is truly about. As with the Mars Trilogy and The Years of Salt and Rice, Robinson sets real people in fantastic roles, and just like real life, are able to do little more than change their own lives.

Forty Signs of Rain is a learning experience and a novel well worth reading.

Buy the book here: Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson

1 As I write this, Hurricane Charley is bearing down on the Dry Tortugas

Posted by Bastique at August 13, 2004 11:25 AM

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