The Ministry for the Future is yet another massive snorter from Kim Stanley Robinson. The scale and multidimensionality of Robinson’s works are stupendous, as is his ability to combine hard facts with spellbinding fiction.
In this book, he is once again on the issue of climate change in building a refreshing science utopia. So no climate dystopia this time. The title of the book is quite dry, and there is a lot of serious matter in the work, which is, however, counterbalanced by emotional drama. As a whole, the work is sadly a bouncing superball, exhausting in places, especially for non-English-speaking readers. There is surprisingly little room left for intriguing sections in such a thick book as Robinson keeps banging ecology, economics, and politics into the reader’s ear.
Anyway, I’m glad I got to the end. There was no waste of time, by any means. No pain, no gain!