2312

By: Kim Stanley Robinson

Narrated by: Sarah Zimmerman

Length: 19 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

The year is 2312. Scientific and technological advances have opened gateways to an extraordinary future. Earth is no longer humanity's only home; new habitats have been created throughout the solar system on moons, planets, and in between. But in this year, 2312, a sequence of events will force humanity to confront its past, its present, and its future.

The first event takes place on Mercury, on the city of Terminator, itself a miracle of engineering on an unprecedented scale. It is an unexpected death, but one that might have been foreseen. For Swan Er Hong, it is an event that will change her life. Swan was once a woman who designed worlds. Now she will be led into a plot to destroy them.

©2012 Kim Stanley Robinson (P)2012 Hachette Audio

Yes, this is great, and so's the narrator!

Not really getting the negative reviews of Sarah Zimmerman's narration. I saw the bad reviews, but I love KSR, so I listened to the preview, thought she was fine, took the chance, and now I'm about halfway through and finding her reading unobtrusive, unforced, and quite enjoyable.

That aside, this is superbly written, deeply thought and researched, and everything I expect from KSR at the top of his game. If you're expecting a space opera kinda thing, or epic struggle between good and evil.... well, no. This is hard SF, in the sense that it envisions a plausible world with technologies not based on unobtainium, working within physics that may be cutting edge but are certainly projectable from what we know now. But if that sounds dry, it is absolutely not. KSR works from that platform to do some incredibly beautiful and meticulous world building, within which he places characters that are allowed to reveal themselves and evolve at their own pace. Multiple story arcs, a sense of how history works, how social and personal relationships develop in reality--that doesn't necessarily fit "genre" fiction expectations of McGuffin-driven plots and simplistic good-guys/bad-guys driven momentum, but if you're looking for SF as written for adults, raising questions and exploring the implications of science and technology as they impinge on real lives and real history, you can't do much better than KSR, and this is right up with his best.

soaring poetic epic

Love the feeling and tone. loved the existential futurism. A performance artist searches for meaning and identity in a fully described future "post melt" society.

Exceptionally slow

I usually like the descriptive style of the writer, and absolutely loved New York 2140, but here it was just so extreme I had to return the book after just a few chapters. Maybe it depends in what kind of situation you tend to listen but as bedtime reading it didn't work for me at all as I kept loosing focus feeling like the story wasn't going anywhere.

Slow Moving but Entertaining

Where does 2312 rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

2312 ranks below average among the audiobooks I have listened to so far. Robinson spends to much time describing the scenery and not enough time developing the plot and the characters.

Would you recommend 2312 to your friends? Why or why not?

I probably would recommend other audio books before recommending this one, but I would add that the descriptions of the locations off-world were vivid and captivating.

What about Sarah Zimmerman’s performance did you like?

Zimmerman worked relatively well with the dialogue but became somewhat monotonous with the rambling descriptions.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I became bored at times and had to fight the temptation to skip ahead.

Any additional comments?

The story failed to deliver what the promotion promised.

Couldn't get attached to the characters

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes. I loved the world-building and the descriptions of the terreria etc.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

There was a fair amount of boring dialogue and I wish that space had gone to giving the actual plot and events of the story more intensity. When you are talking about potential war, human suffering and major social change you'd think there would be a very palpable sense of intensity and some emotion. It seemed like I should have felt a sense of urgency or of there being "a lot to lose." Instead everything felt a little numb. Also I feel like there was an opportunity lost in dealing with the ramification of life extension. He went into it a little but I think there was a lot more room to delve into that in a less cerebral way.

Which character – as performed by Sarah Zimmerman – was your favorite?

None. I had an extremely difficult time getting attached to the characters. The performance was fine... this was more an issue of how they were written. I just couldn't get myself to care about them at all.

Do you think 2312 needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No. Because I don't want to read it.

though provoking

Where does 2312 rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

robinson does a great job of weaving a human story through a solar system trotting explanation of humanity's possible future. however, the narrator speech pattern expresses about as much emotion as stephan hawking's.

another great story

Any additional comments?

This is another great story from Kim Stanley Robinson which could be, but not necessarily, set in the same universe as the Mars series. I found the plot to be weaker than the Mars books, but the characters were extremely interesting. The story is about events leading up to the year 2312 and involves characters from Mercury, Earth, Venus and Saturn. There are descriptions of the rolling city on Mercury, and really cleaver ways of turning asteroids into cities and what might happen if we could do this. There are thousands of large asteroids out there. If we could hollow them out, we coudl put different environments in each of them. The plot involves people, politics, the way different societies respond to stimuli, and the way youth perceive things as opposed to those with more experience. For example, the sun walkers on Mercury walk along the edge of the sunrise as the planet rotates. Some walk for the glory of the walk, some walk for the excitement of the continuously rising sun, some walk for the beauty, some walk for the challenge. The lead character, Swan, is a sun walker, but her current view is much different than her younger days.

I wish I had read the reviews first

my first bit of advice, get the ebook or print version. The narration is awful.
The book is laid out with extremely interesting story and character building interspersed with history lessons, the science behind it all, or social structure lessons. The narrator manages to make the interesting parts sound boring and the “boring” parts really hard to focus on.
Otherwise it is an interesting society and characters. I wish the world building was more built in rather than a solid chapter on “here’s the science/history/social rules” followed by a chapter of plot development. But a better narrator could have made it sound less textbook and more interesting.

For heck's sake, someone get him a real editor!

This would have been interesting in about 1/3 the length. It just wanders and wanders, taking a grand tour of various concepts of terraforming and otherwise changing worlds to support life, and changing humans just because you can. During this interesting but endless exploration, you follow the life of a someone with almost no actual direction of her own and an inability to make decisions and she flounces from place to place with exactly the skills and contacts to make that work as the worlds around her change and conflicts build and ultimately resolve. Yes, it's well plotted -- but that plot is buried and neverending metaphor and description. There are also whole passages describing and comparing several different kinds of human sexuality that are now possible with body modification -- often in some detail -- for no real reason. This doesn't bother me but doesn't really make any difference to the story either so it just sort of sits there laid out like an unnecessary pose on a Cadillac. Oh hell, now I'm doing it.

No Red Mars

Is there anything you would change about this book?

It is an okay story, but certainly not up to KSRs usual standards. The guy is an amazing talent! Nobody can write all pure-gold. And it is certainly not a bad story. Just not his best work. But still, if you like KSR, it is worth reading. And since Red and Green Mars, I will likely read everything he writes, from then on, as I have.

If you’ve listened to books by Kim Stanley Robinson before, how does this one compare?

See above. ;-)

Have you listened to any of Sarah Zimmerman’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Not sure.

Could you see 2312 being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No. Make the Washington DC intrigue into a miniseries. Make the Pacific stories into one. Most of all, make Red and Green Mars into a full series, one season for each. Or even his newest one, but this one is far down the list. So, naturally, this will be the one that gets made into television. And "they" will no doubt add lots of battle scenes, since space war stories seem to be the closest thing to actual science fiction that is made into film and television. Don't get me started! ;-)

Any additional comments?

"It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent."
-Q, STNG, Deja Q


"This weakness disgusts me. I hate it!"
-Sarek/Picard, STNG s3e23


"You can show girls kissing once, but you can't show them kissing twice... because the second time, it means that they liked it."
-Neal Conan (January 24, 2002), "Analysis: Portrayals of gays on mainstream TV and the future of gay cable channels". Talk of the Nation (National Public Radio).