Antarctica - Hardcover

Robinson, Kim Stanley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0553100637 ISBN 13: 9780553100631

Publisher: Bantam, 1998

Synopsis

Kim Stanley Robinson is one of the most original and visionary voices in science fiction. In his highly successful Hugo and Nebula award-winning Mars trilogy, Robinson led us on an odyssey of transformation and discovery, as humans terraformed the Great Red Planet. Now, in his latest novel, he takes us to a harsh, alien landscape covered by a sheet of ice two miles deep. This is no distant planet; it is the last pure wilderness on Earth.

It is a stark and inhospitable place, where the landscape itself poses a challenge to survival, yet its strange, silent beauty has long fascinated scientists and adventurers. Explorers have crossed this vast, frozen terrain for many reasons: to stand in awe before the volcanic Mount Erebus or Antarctica's other natural wonders, to fathom the mysteries of ages past, to exploit its great stores of untapped mineral wealth, or to pit themselves against this cold, unforgiving continent.

Now Antarctica faces an uncertain future. The international treaty which protects the continent is about to dissolve, clearing the way for Antarctica's resources to be plundered, its eerie beauty to be savaged. As politicians wrangle over its fate from half a world away, major corporations begin probing for its hidden riches. Adventurers come, as they have for more than a century,
seeking the wild, untamed land even as they endanger it with their ever-growing numbers. And radical environmentalists carry out a covert campaign of sabotage to reclaim the land from those who would destroy it for profit. All who come here have their own agenda, and all will fight to ensure their vision of the future for this last great wilderness.

As complex and compelling as his Mars saga, as powerful and majestic as the continent itself, Kim Stanley Robinson's Antarctica takes us to the remote and awe-inspiring world at the South Pole.
Kim Stanley Robinson is the author of the Nebula and Hugo award-winning Mars trilogy, Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars, as well as The Wild Shore, The Gold Coast, Pacific Edge, A Short, Sharp Shock, and other novels. He lives in Davis, California.

About this title

Review

In the near future, Wade Norton has been sent to Antarctica by Senator Phil Chase to investigate rumors of environmental sabotage. He arrives on the frozen continent and immediately begins making contact with the various scientific and political factions that comprise Antarctic society. What he finds is an interesting blend of inhabitants who don't always mesh well but who all share a common love of Antarctica and a fierce devotion to their life there. He also begins to uncover layers of Antarctic culture that have been kept hidden from the rest of the world, and some of them are dangerous indeed. Things are brought to a head when the saboteurs--or "ecoteurs" as they call themselves--launch an attack designed to drive humans off the face of Antarctica. This is Kim Stanley Robinson's first book since his award-winning Mars trilogy, and while some of the themes may be familiar to seasoned Robinson readers, the book is never less than engrossing. As usual Robinson does a masterful job with the setting of his story, and anyone interested in Antarctica won't want to miss this one. --Craig Engler

From the Publisher

Praise for Antarctica:

"There is no finer writer of science fiction today than Kim Stanley Robinson, and he is at the top of his form in Antarctica... an exhilarating addition to a body of work distinguished by two elements all too rare in modern science fiction: a sense of character and a sense of place."
--The New York Times Book Review

Praise for Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel:

"A tremendous achievement."
--The Washington Post Book World

"Promises to become a classic...This is epic science fiction in the best
sense of the term--thoughtful, provoking, and haunting."
--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Green Mars, winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel:

"Dense as a diamond and as sharp; it makes even most good novels
seem pale and insignificant by comparison."
--The Washington Post Book World

"Has the breathtaking scope, plausible science and intellectual
daring that made Red Mars a hit."
--Daily News of Los Angeles

Blue Mars, winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel:

"Blue Mars represents a breakthrough even from his own consistently high level of achievement....Beautifully written...A landmark in the history of the genre."
--The New York Times Book Review

"A complex and deeply engaging dramatization of humanity's future...Exhilarating."
--The Philadelphia Inquirer

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0553100637
• ISBN 13: 9780553100631
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 528