Antarctica

By: Kim Stanley Robinson

Narrated by: Adam Verner

Length: 19 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

The award-winning author of the Mars trilogy takes listeners to the last pure wilderness on Earth in this powerful and majestic novel.

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.

©1998 Kim Stanley Robinson (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

not his best work by a lot

it seems to me like he took way longer to wrap up the ending then what it should have taken. but then again that's just me and I'm not professional author. was never really interested in a couple of the main characters, especially 'X'.

White Mars

Could easily be a prequel to the Martian Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. There are many similarities:
- long descriptions of desolate landscapes,
- call for harmony between settling the alien land and adjustment to its alien original form to keep it as unchanged as possible,
- long deliberations about utopian social orders necessary for settling an alien land.

Only here Mars is Antarctica. Blue sky, white ice. The plot moves forward like a tectonic plate. Gray sky, white ice. Ten hours of descriptions of the Antarctic landscape, captivating like looking through the window on a monotonous terrain for an entire day. White ice, black water. I'm not kidding, that's the rhythm of this book. Crevasse here, crevasse there. And black mountains on the horizon. Blue sky, black peaks. Probably a gem for aspiring polar explorers, keen to read bits and pieces of stories about Amundsen, Scott and Shackleton.

Positives: the characters are less irritating and immature than in the Martian Trilogy. Or maybe one does not expect temporary Antarctic residents to be up to the same psychological standard as astronauts.

Incredible

This is the second KSR book I’ve read, the first being Aurora. It takes a little while to come to terms with his style of writing, but once you do he shows what an incredible talent he is. Antarctica is presented with such beautiful imagery and the characters are fantastically developed. This is not only a good story, but full of history from the early days of Antarctica exploration. I’m genuinely sad that this book is over, however I’m looking forward to reading more KSR. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

This is a good place.

Kim Stanley Robinson is the hardest of hard science fiction writers. He will joyfully spend 2/3 off his book creating a world, and just letting his characters inhabit it. And it is entirely worth it to go along with him. In this case, he describes Antarctica, with its real science stations, and their contractors, and its fictional adventure treks and fossil fuel explorers, he describes Antarctica in so much detail, one would almost imagine that he himself has spent many field seasons there. It’s a labor of love, and we will fall in love with this future continent along with Ex and Val and Wade, and Carlos, and all the ferals determined to call it home.

Narrator ruins an otherwise interesting book.

I cannot stand Adam Verner's narration. His phony melodramatic nonsense falls squarely in the uncanny valley of never quite believable emotion and is weirdly a bizarrely over-sympathetic on every sentence, most of which require no sympathy. Its like listening to someone wax nostalgic about a science text.

athe performance was awesome. The copyright not.

Please stop making legitimate purchasers listen to your tired comments. I want to appreciate and celebrate the writers. making anyone listen to the justification is theft, of my time. Please give me a reason why this theft of my time is justified.

Lame story

I bet ecologists will enjoy it, but it’s too liberal minded for me.

I always have enjoyed Adam Verner as a narrator but because I’ve listened to too many books he’s narrated every voice he does reminds me of a character from another book.

And one more comment. If you believe we live on a flat earth you aren’t going to like this book. I’m a flat earther and I could not wrap my head around (get it? Lol) the descriptions of Antarctica. It’s an ice wall not a continent.

Go watch grass grow.

I found this book to be boring, pedantic, and condescending. But especially boring. I doubt I'll bother reading any other Robinson books. A waste of my time.

Mmmyeaahhh. Man. Really wanted to love this new KSR book 😕

After reading aurora, the New York one and Shaman KSR blew my mind. Next level all day. Well, I suppose not Antarctica. I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for something KSR to happen. There was but one small moment that got me. Otherwise flat. Except for the super duper annoying tea bagged bandit narrator. I had to not think about that narration here. As I type and listen to the very last of it I realize I want to punch my phone. Sorry narrator if you’re reading this. Not your fault.
Anyhow. Sadly - don’t buy this book. This must have been his doo doo time on the throne over the last 7 years as he Siri dictates to Siri moments before the Zamban kicks in all the way. ✌️