this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2025
62 points (95.6% liked)

Science Fiction

16908 readers
32 users here now

Welcome to /c/ScienceFiction

December book club canceled. Short stories instead!

We are a community for discussing all things Science Fiction. We want this to be a place for members to discuss and share everything they love about Science Fiction, whether that be books, movies, TV shows and more. Please feel free to take part and help our community grow.

  1. Be civil: disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally insult others.
  2. Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, ableist, or advocating violence will be removed.
  3. Spam, self promotion, trolling, and bots are not allowed
  4. Put (Spoilers) in the title of your post if you anticipate spoilers.
  5. Please use spoiler tags whenever commenting a spoiler in a non-spoiler thread.

Lemmy World Rules

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Tenthrow@lemmy.world
62
Favorite Kim Stanley Robinson book? (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 days ago by Zombiepirate@lemmy.world to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.world
30 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Kim Stanley Robinson is probably my favorite living author; I don't think anyone does setting and worldbuilding better than he does, yet his stories are largely character-driven.

Here's my favorites of his that I've read:

  • Aurora, where a generation ship is on it's way to Tau Ceti
  • The Years of Rice and Salt, an alt-history where most of Europe perishes in a great plague in the 14th century
  • Shaman, a fictional narrative about the people who painted Chauvet Cave

I love how his stories are about being optimistic in times where that's a hard thing to be. I like the focus on environmentalism and the sublime (Ministry for the Future is basically a solarpunk novel). He mostly writes hard sci-fi, which is my favorite genre, but also spins off into history and philosophy like in Galileo's Dream.

I think most people know his writing from his Red/Green/Blue Mars series, which I love, but he's done so much more than that.

So what's your favorite of his books?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Zombiepirate@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I've heard that some people just can't get into them, which is fair enough, but I cannot relate.

I agree though that he's not everybody's cup of tea.

[–] _spiffy@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I finished the first of the Mars trilogy. I just found it for the most part very boring. I started the second but moved on to other books. I'm sure I'll finish them but they just need to be after things I desire to read more.

[–] db2@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The first book is a slower burn, stick it out it's worth it.

[–] Zombiepirate@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It does have one of the coolest moments in all sci-fi though, where

Spoilerthe rebels crash a moon into the planet as a form of direct action

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It's been a while, wasn't that the

Spoilerspace elevator that came down?

[–] Zombiepirate@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

Yup!

SpoilerThe cable wrapped it's way around the equator.

[–] Zombiepirate@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I couldn't get enough of them, myself.

I actually love that people enjoy different things though. How boring would life be if everyone liked the same stuff?

[–] _spiffy@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 days ago

Right!

[–] TribblesBestFriend@startrek.website 2 points 5 days ago

And I love Reynolds, hahaha

I have tried a couple of time Stanley’s and I will probably tried Red Mars in the future again