Aurora

By: Kim Stanley Robinson

Narrated by: Ali Ahn

Length: 16 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's Summary

A major new novel from one of science fiction's most powerful voices, Aurora tells the incredible story of our first voyage beyond the solar system.

Brilliantly imagined and beautifully told, it is the work of a writer at the height of his powers.

Our voyage from Earth began generations ago.

Now we approach our new home.

Aurora.

©2015 Kim Stanley Robinson (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Deus Ex A.I.

Aurora struck me as a short story or novella that the author padded the heck out to keep from having to return his publisher's advance. Thinly drawn human characters lacking any vestige of self-awareness and stilted character arcs. The AI's character arch was properly developed and even interesting through the first half of the book though the story it was narrating wasn't.

After half a book of anticlimactic crises narrowly avoided through human ingenuity the second half is straight up "Deus Ex AI" with the Ship's AI swooping in like the god-machines of Greco-Roman plays saving the now-bumbling idiot humans again and again. The ending was anticlimactic and the way KSR disposed of the only properly developed character of the entire novel was just plain lazy. Would not recommend.

Beautiful

I'm a longtime fan of Robinson... and this is one of his best. It's not often I wish I could unhear a book just to have the pleasure of hearing it again. Aurora is a slow meditation on not only the physics, engineering and biology involved in space travel, but also on the psychology behind the desire to explore and escape. Really lovely writing and narration.

Tried to like this, but came away disappointed

I have enjoyed many of Kim Stanley Robinson's books in the past. Maybe I had different expectations regarding this generation ship story. I suppose it conflicted with my desire for some "happy ending" scenario. The science is very accurate, the Ship voice was excellent --- but the overall story was just depressing. The end -- maybe I missed the point -- was just disappointing. If you are looking for escapist SF -- it is not here. This is a VERY realistic look at how a generation ship journey may turn out.

Beam me up Scotty

I’m sci-fi naïve, so it’s hard for me to know how this novel rates in the genre. I certainly enjoyed it – with some reservations. It’s the story of a big space ship that sets out from earth and will take 3 or 4 generations to cross the galaxy. But don’t worry, you won’t be strapped into a chair in a rocket all that time – This space ship is so big that it has different zones representing each of earth’s major climate systems, housed in giant pods. A little bit of Africa here and a little bit of Greenland there, and all the animals that go with it. So it’s an interstellar Noah’s Ark.

The destination is Aurora, in the Tao Seti solar system (please excuse my spelling – this is an audiobook remember), and the reason for choosing such an obscure planet so far away is that it appears to be an excellent earth analogue.

Ok, that’s enough plot revelation. A lot happens after this but I’m not in the spoiling business. What I will say is that it keeps you interested, the narration is mostly good (with a bit of inappropriate word emphasis, but this applies to about 90% of audiobooks), the science is pretty sound, the characters are a bit bland, and the ending is weak. But I still enjoyed it quite a lot and didn’t want to claim a refund despite these weaknesses. Why not? Because I enjoyed being transported across the Galaxy, and I had no problem suspending disbelief - and I think that's the hallmark of good fiction.

Best book I've listened to all year

"Wherever we go, there we are." -- I can't imagine being born and raised on a starship six generations after it left Earth, but Kim Stanley Robinson can. Unlike their distant ancestors who volunteered for this mission, the space travelers we meet bound for Aurora have no choice but to be where they are, fighting to get to a habitable planet before they run out of food, fuel, and time. We experience some of the psychological burden of a lifetime spent on a spaceship, and come out at the end of the journey appreciating our home planet for the treasure that it is. Like Robinson's other books, this one is rich with both scientific and emotional detail. I grew to care deeply about the characters, and didn't want to stop listening.

Ultimately Uplifiting

Any additional comments?

Great story. Very thought provoking. Not your typical journey to the stars. A much more realistic and encompassing study of what a multi generational starship journey would be like. In many ways sad but ultimately heroic and uplifting. The message seems to be that people should not get so caught up in the pursuit of grand ideas or ideals but should stop and take time to smell the roses.

Slow, hard sci-fi essay against space travel

Kim Stanley Robinson is a brilliant writer. Each of the shifting narrative perspectives he used to tell this story was expertly done... But most were not engaging. There is a little something for everyone in this book. Everyone will find a part they will enjoy. But most parts they won't.

This book is based on good research and is filled with fascinating ideas. The author's intent was carried out perfectly. But his intent simply wasn't a good idea. This is a long essay about why space travel may be impossible, filled with great ideas that made me thing. Most of this book simply wasn't an engaging read, despite being filled with awesome ideas.

Wonderful writing. Complete downer.

I loved this book, and absolutely hated it at the same time.

Seems like KSR is tired and jaded for sci fi. Maybe he's just getting old. Either way, this novel seems like an indictment of all his past grand explorations and world creations. A call to remember the earth and to stop yearning for new worlds. Hmm. Can't say I agree.

What I can say is that the novel is just as wonderfully written and exquisitely detailed as his other works. No one could ever doubt Robinson's scientific prowess and his unflinching commitment to hard facts. It deserves all the stars I gave it even though I really didn't like the story at all.

The Future is Limited, Get Used to It

Works of fiction can make wonderful and effective means for promoting philosophical and political agendas. As satire they can overcome restrictions of censorship and social punishment for distributing ideas and criticisms. As the “god” of a fictional universe, the author chooses who is bad and who is good, who is right and who is wrong. Even better he or she can demonstrate the terrible consequences of following a path the author wishes to attack. Thus it is very important that readers understands how and for what purpose this tool is being used to influence them.

In the case of this book it is clear that Kim Stanley Robinson does indeed have a very specific point of view about humanities future. In interviews regarding this particular book he makes it quite clear what these are. I believe these can be summarized as follows:

1. Because of biological constraints and the complexity of our biological environment it is very improbable that we can live full and healthy lives off our native planet.
2. It is urgent that we take care of the environment we have so that it remains fit for our continual existence.
3. The distance between stars makes it nearly if not completely impossible for humanity to continue existence outside the solar system. That is it is an illusion to believe that our descendants will prevail beyond the lifetime of our local environment both in space and time. All is finite and we are no exception!
4. The continual advance of science is unlikely to solve the above problem, in particular we can expect to meet unassailable boundaries both in the biological and physical sciences.
In addition to the above our psychological make up is such as to prevent overcoming our propensity for social and political conflict.
5. Contact with alien biological systems is so risky as to best being avoided.

Aurora is the story of how this plays out in an attempt to colonize near by star systems. Robinson is an adept author and the story he weaves on these premises is vivid and exciting, even if pessimistic and gloomy. The question remains, is it reasonable? Of course the challenges of interstellar travel are awesome, requiring vast energies and the overcoming of tremendous problems. The rub is that in this book Robinson, using current scientific attainments and relatively modest extrapolation, allows his characters to reach nearby star systems that are between 10 and 20 lightyears distant. I should warn the reader of this review that what follows does reveal some major plot points, though I at least expected things to turn out as they do in the book after reading some 50 pages. Basically things go bad, illustrating the points made above. Despite a technology allowing velocities of 1/10 the speed of light and a capability to maintain a closed environment for 200 years our colonists are defeated by their own biology and psychology as well as the presence of cell size alien life forms. Some of the protagonists do manage to escape this fate providing an unrealistic “happy ending” that confirms that staying home is best. Thus this is not a book for someone looking for an optimistic future for the human race, at least in the long run. The theme is the familiar one of if something can go wrong it will.

On more specific grounds I find Robinson’s pessimism inconsistent with the main premises of the assumed technology. A technology that can achieve speeds of 10% of light speed and maintain a closed environment between the stars for 200 years is not going to fold as easily as Robinson assumes. Though his story is to take place in the 25th century he seems unduly pessimistic in regard to expected advances in biology as well as physics. Also a planet wide society that can put together not one but many interstellar capable vehicles can be expected to have found solutions to many of the problems of social and political interaction. Yet he seems to be determined to demonstrate certain failure in any attempt to travel profitably between stars.

Another theme of the book, and one that is quite interesting, is that the original colonists that take on the multi generational voyage are not only keen but are the winners of a huge planetary lottery for the privilege of participating. Robinson asks if this is an immoral act in so far as dooms the descendants to the restricted life of living in a closed and limited environment. That is, do the original participants have the right to force their descendants into such a limited and dangerous way of life. It is an interesting question, but one should also realize that it is not a unique one. Mankind would still be living (or not living) in a restricted region of Africa if humans has refused to take chances that might prove difficult for their descendants. Life is designed to evolve by having creatures that take risks and adopt to new environments. Robinson’s ethos seems to say that we have reached the zenith of development and should rest content with what we have, i.e. we should end the process of adaptation and evolution. Indeed there are and probably always will be those that agree with such a view. We can all blame our parents or ancestors for making wrong decisions that have caused us pain. On the other hand we enjoy the benefits that have accrued from the experiences of our ancestors, such as longer life spans and as so well put by Steven Pinker, decreased normative violence in our societies.

Aurora is a book well worth reading, if only to see the kind of arguments put forth by the stay at home and take little risk part of our population. But for those who would like to see an optimistic future for our descendants the book is far from pleasant reading. In fact this reader does not even find Robinson’s future plausible. The book is really not about the future, it is about now. It is a polemic for us to adjust our hopes and plans to expect a circumscribed and limited future. Its message is take care of what we have and limit our risks as much as possible. Face not only our own mortality but the mortality of man. Somehow this theme seems to have a great deal of popularity. Not a healthy sign for our civilization, but understandable.

Went downhill fast

This novel was set well and the storyline promising. But by about the third or fourth hour, the 3rd person omniscient narrator of the book shifts almost entirely to a computer (there are other human narrators at times). While this could be fine, essentially the story starts veering towards the 2001 Space Odyssey plot line very swiftly. More than that, the Audible narrator decided to make the voice of the computer sound like, well, a computer. So what you're facing is about nine remaining hours of monotone A.I. speak, and so the listening experience automatically gets dull.

On top of all that, the author seemed to think it was a good idea to periodically put the entire storyline on hold to embark on extended digressions of the computer's "thought processing" or reflection on humanity. What this amounts to is like listening to the Verizon helpline automated voice read ten or fifteen minute passages of vapid pseudo-philosophy and hobbyist linguistics meant to be profound, but actually rubbish.

I quit halfway through in favor of having Siri read my new vacuum's user manual out loud for me.