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Cavorite mars utopia basin7/18/2023 A first-person narrative, and coming of age story. They are - The Wild Shore - a post-apocalypse novel set in a world where the US was nuclear bombed, and then quarantined by the rest of the world for 100 years. But watching for that now just added to my interest. The first time I read them, I was not aware of the extent to which subtle geographic references, a few plot events, and one character, were re-used in different ways in each. They are related to each other, not sequentially, but as three alternate futures for the same Orange County (extensive suburban area of Los Angeles). In the past two months, I re-read all three Orange County novels, and still like them quite a bit. I have lived here and driven that freeway for almost three decades but I saw it all with fresh eyes that day, thanks to having read these books. As we sat in our car for two hours averaging 15 mph, I thought that Robinson was not that far off in his creation of our current Orange County from his speculative ideas in the 1980s. Thanksgiving week we drove down Interstate 5 from Los Angeles to San Clemente for a family gathering through the worst traffic I have ever seen on that unavoidable California freeway. I surely understand why KSR wanted in on the attempt, at least in his imagination. Many brave authors and brave souls have attempted to create utopias on our planet. Though this was my least favorite of the three, it grew on me as I read and as it picked up in tempo and literary excitement. In each, Robinson balances action/adventure and human relations with technical and environmental issues. Hence the collection is called Three Californias Triptych. The viewpoint shifts from book to book: a post-nuclear apocalypse, a dystopia and now an attempt at utopia. The fight over this proposal takes place in the town council as well as in the hearts and minds of the town's residents.Īs in the earlier two books of the trilogy, The Wild Shore and The Gold Coast, the natural world is front and foremost, existing uneasily next to scientific and economic progress. Now the charismatic Mayor of the town wants to develop the one remaining hilltop wilderness and build a complex for his medical company. In contrast, its surrounding towns have constantly expanded the building of structures, financial gain and exploitation of the natural world. In 2065, a medium size community has a strong Green Party and has maintained a sustainable lifestyle for the most part. Each book is set in the earlier years of the 21st century though later than our current present. Pacific Edge is the third in Kim Stanley Robinson's trilogy of possible futures for Southern California, specifically Orange County. Indulging it at all being an over-indulgement in my view because the only thing I find more boring in sport than watching baseball is reading about it. There is one flaw, though KSR's obsession with baseball (strictly soft-ball, in this case) is over-indulged. This aspect of the novel was particularly well done I don't off-hand remember relating so directly to the descriptions of the emotional state of the protagonist during his love-pangs in any other novel. That struggle, in microcosm, is the plot of the story - to save an undeveloped hill from organised powers intent on re-asserting control illegally. "Utopia" is in quotes because the point is that whilst this is KSR's optimistic view of how things could turn out, where corporate power is severely limited, the environment is a paramount concern and nobody owns a car as an individual, KSR recognises the will to power within humanity and that the fight against it would have to never stop. And how depressed he became when that didn't work, either: Galileo's Dream. Look at how strident he became when he realised that wasn't going to work: Forty Signs of Rain etc. This was back in the days of KSR's optimism, when he thought presenting a choice of futures to people might help. But "Three Orange Counties" is probably not as internationally marketable a title as "Three Californias". This is a "Utopia" the one I haven't read is post-nuclear holocaust. Gold Coast is an extrapolation of current trends toward money over everything, particularly environment. The Three Californias are really Three Orange Counties - three near future visions of what a place beloved to the author could turn out like. This is the second of the "Three Californias" series that I've read and it represents a huge improvement over the dull The Gold Coast, which probably would have put me off KSR forever if it had been the first book I'd read by him.
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