Antarctica: A Novel - Softcover

Robinson, Kim Stanley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553574027 ISBN 13: 9780553574029

Publisher: Bantam, 1999

Synopsis

The award-winning author of the Mars trilogy takes readers to the last pure wilderness on Earth in this powerful and majestic novel.
 
“Antarctica may well be the best novel of the best ecological novelist around.”—Locus
 
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.
 
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, 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 the remote and awe-inspiring world at the South Pole.
 
Praise for Antarctica
 
“Forbidding yet fascinating, like the continent it describes . . . echoes Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air.”—People

“[Antarctica] should be included in any short-list of books about the frozen continent.... Compelling characters...a rich and dense story...Robinson has succeeded not only in drawing human characters but also in bringing Antarctica to life. Whatever happens in the outer world, Antarctica—both the book and the continent—will become part of the reader's interior landscape.”—The Washington Post Book World

“The epic of Antarctica. This is the James A. Michener novel of the South Pole. If the meaty one-word title didn’t give it away, the writing would. The whole human history of the continent is here.”—Interzone

“Antarctica will take your breath away.”—Associated Press

“A gripping tale of adventure on the ice.”—Publishers Weekly

“Passionate, informed...vastly entertaining.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Robinson writes about geography and geology with the intensity and unhurried attention to detail of a John McPhee.”—The New York Times Book Review

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: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0553574027
• ISBN 13: 9780553574029
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 672