Ministry for the Future (Kim Stanley Robinson's 2020 Cli-Fi) starts with a harrowing chapter about a 35C+ wet bulb temp heat wave in Uttar Pradesh. Staggering read. The rest of the novel so far (33% in) reads like a survey of geoengineering ideas. I'm enjoying it but I don't "get" it yet. 1/X
I have been reliably informed that books (and art in general) aren't puzzles to be solved, so maybe there's nothing more to "get" than my own enjoyment in reading this, but this structure and the emotional distance in the prose seems to go against most other novels I've read recently 2/X
This reminds me of When We Cease to Understand the World (2021) more than (say) James or the Saint of Bright Doors. Closest analogue is maybe The Mountain and the Sea, which also does Big Ideas from a slightly detached perspective 3/X
Genuinely enjoying all the geoengineering. Also all the pointed jabs at market solutions and the core/periphery climate justice divide. His prognosis for India following the chapter 1 heatwave is interesting but I suspect it is incorrect 4/X