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Fifty Degrees Below
by Kim Stanley Robinson

Fifty Degrees Below Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Bestselling, award-winning, author Kim Stanley Robinson continues his groundbreaking trilogy of eco-thrillers–and propels us deeper into the awesome whirlwind of climatic change. Set in our nation’s capital, here is a chillingly realistic tale of people caught in the collision of science, technology, and the consequences of global warming–which could trigger another phenomenon: abrupt climate change, resulting in temperatures...

When the storm got bad, scientist Frank Vanderwal was at work, formalizing his return to the National Science Foundation for another year. He’d left the building just in time to help sandbag at Arlington Cemetery. Now that the torrent was over, large chunks of San Diego had eroded into the sea, and D.C. was underwater.

Shallow lakes occupied the most famous parts of the city. Reagan Airport was awash and the Potomac had spilled beyond its banks. Rescue boats dotted the saturated cityscape. Everything Frank and his colleagues in the halls of science and politics feared had culminated in this massive disaster. And now the world looked to them to fix it.

Whatever Frank can do, now that he is homeless, he’ll have to do from his car. He’s not averse to sleeping outdoors. Years of research have made him hyperaware of his status as just another primate. That plus his encounter with a Tibetan Buddhist has left him resolved to live a more authentic life.

Hopefully, this will prepare him for whatever is to come....

For even as D.C. bails out from the flood, a more extreme climate change looms. With the melting of the polar ice caps shutting down the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, another Ice Age could be imminent. The last time it happened, eleven thousand years ago, it took just three years to start.

Once again Kim Stanley Robinson uses his remarkable vision, trademark wry wit, and extraordinary insight into the complexity between man and nature to take us to the brink of disaster–and slightly beyond.

Review:

"Earth continues its relentless plunge toward environmental collapse in Robinson's well-done if intensely didactic follow-up to Forty Signs of Rain (2004). As a result of global warming, the Gulf Stream has stalled, and when winter comes, impossibly frigid temperatures hit the Eastern Seaboard and Western Europe. As people starve, multinational corporations explore ways of making a profit from the disaster. When Antarctica's ice shelves collapse, low-lying island nations quite literally slip beneath the rising waters. In Washington, D.C., clear-sighted scientists must overcome government inertia and stupidity to put into effect policies that may begin to salvage the situation. An enormous fleet of ships is dispatched to the North Atlantic to dump millions of tons of salt into the ocean in the hope of restarting the Gulf Stream. This ecological disaster tale is guaranteed to anger political and economic conservatives of every stripe, but it provides perhaps the most realistic portrayal ever created of the environmental changes that are already occurring on our planet. It should be required reading for anyone concerned about our world's future. Agent, Ralph M. Vicinanza. (Oct.)" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"FIFTY DEGREES BELOW should be required reading for anyone concerned about our world's future.... it provides perhaps the most realistic portrayal ever created of the environmental changes that are already occurring on our planet."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Fast-paced and exciting.... First-rate ecological speculation."--Kirkus Reviews

"Could give Michael Crichton a run for his money.... should be required reading for government officials and voters."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Synopsis:

The award-winning author continues his groundbreaking trilogy, begun in "Forty Signs of Rain," with this second novel, set in a near-future Washington, D.C., and inspired by headline-making scientific and environmental research.
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About the Author

KIM STANLEY ROBINSON is a winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards. He is the author of ten previous books, including the bestselling Mars trilogy and the critically acclaimed Forty Signs of Rain, The Years of Rice and Salt, and Antarctica–for which he was sent to the Antarctic by the U.S. National Science Foundation as part of their Antarctic Artists and Writers' Program. He lives in Davis, California.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Nick Chapman, November 7, 2007 (view all comments by Nick Chapman)
Robinson's Mars trilogy was one of the greatest things I've read. One aspect of that greatest was the tremendous, persuasive detail of his imagined exploration and colonization and transformation of Mars. But the more important aspect was the human and the social. The people were real and interesting and I enjoyed spending time with them - and the vision of human society, and the hope for the possibilities of more just and interesting human societies, was exciting.

His new trilogy, beginning with Forty Signs of Rain, continuing in this book, and then going on to Sixty Days and Counting, is every bit as wonderful and engaging. It lacks the epic scope the settlement of Mars provided, but instead we have a story that is much closer to our story, set in the very near future, a future rushing towards us - a future of catastrophic climate change. Again, the science is utterly persuasive, as with the Mars trilogy, but what makes these books great - and this one in particular of the three - is the utterly persuasive, and engaging, characters. This is not, in the end, science fiction, but simply fiction, as the science, crucial though it is, is always carefully subordinated to the human story - human both at the level of the individual characters who are wonderful, but also at the level of what is stake - humanity, human history. And again, there is the hope... Something that I am least desperately needed when it came to climate change.

Like Sax Russell in the Mars trilogy, Frank from these books has become one of my mentors - not to follow slavishly or worshipfully, but as a deep, intelligent and compassionate thinker, whose thoughts and example I feel I can learn about myself from considering.

These six books... I doubt I will be more moved or excited or encouraged by anything I read this decade more than I have been by these. Other books have made me laugh more, but none have made me think more, study more, or hope as much...
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780553803129
Author:
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Publisher:
Bantam Books
Subject:
Science Fiction - General
Subject:
Washington, d. c.
Subject:
Suspense
Publication Date:
October 2005
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Pages:
405
Dimensions:
9.38x6.50x1.17 in. 1.54 lbs.
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