The Ministry for the Future

A Novel

By: Kim Stanley Robinson

Narrated by: Jennifer Fitzgerald, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Ramon de Ocampo, Gary Bennett, Raphael Corkhill, Barrie Kreinik, Natasha Soudek, Nikki Massoud, Joniece Abbott Pratt, Inés del Castillo, Vikas Adam

Length: 20 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

From legendary science-fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson comes a remarkable vision of climate change over the coming decades.

The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us - and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face.

It is a novel both immediate and impactful, desperate and hopeful in equal measure, and it is one of the most powerful and original books on climate change ever written.

One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2020

"If I could get policymakers, and citizens, everywhere to read just one book this year, it would be Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future." (Ezra Klein)

"The best science fiction-nonfiction novel I’ve ever read." (Jonathan Lethem, Vanity Fair)

"A breathtaking look at the challenges that face our planet in all their sprawling magnitude and also in their intimate, individual moments of humanity." (Booklist, starred)

Also by Kim Stanley Robinson:

• Red Moon
• New York 2140
• 2312
• Aurora
• Shaman

©2020 Kim Stanley Robinson (P)2020 Orbit

Critic reviews

"Science-fiction visionary Kim Stanley Robinson makes the case for quantitative easing our way out of planetary doom." (Bloomberg Green)

"[A] gutsy, humane view of a near-future Earth.... Robinson masterfully integrates the practical details of environmental crises and geoengineering projects into a sweeping, optimistic portrait of humanity's ability to cooperate in the face of disaster. This heartfelt work of hard science-fiction is a must-read for anyone worried about the future of the planet." (Publishers Weekly, starred)

"A breathtaking look at the challenges that face our planet in all their sprawling magnitude and also in their intimate, individual moments of humanity." (Booklist)

Let us hope "...we will keep going."

This is a must read for a comprehensive application of various solutions for mitigating the climate crisis. And yet it is so much more. Take your time enjoying this unique cultural expression.

Great book

Best narration, using several narrators to express different characters.

The story is both terrifying and hopeful. It is written in Robinson’s style reminiscent of his Mars trilogy, weaving a possible future from possible beginnings.

Many intriguing story ideas that in his other world novels are entirely fictional in this book about our home planet seem possible and even actionable.

We need a hopeful vision and with his art Robinson paints one. The ending is beautiful and reminded me of the ending of Blue Mars. Loved it!

The most important book of the decade

author poses important questions that must be considered and answered.

change or extinction

a must read

an optimistic story about climate. change??

This. rambling, magnificent novel gave me some much needed hope. Maybe we can tame this monster we have created. Maybe we can actually reach the point where we are willing to take the actions necessary to do so.

Great book, inconsistent performances

The book is a great - a compelling look at near future. The performances, though sometimes good, are sometimes bizarre caricatures, with mispronounciations throughout (diaspora as die-uh-SPORE-uh, Kerala as care-AH-lah, Army Corps of Engineers as Army "corpse" of Engineers, etc.). And some narrators add almost cartoonish levels of "emotion," making it sometimes feel like a bad community theater play reading. This is too bad because of the quality of the source material and some of the performances.

Good, but

A better read than listen. It's a fantastic book and very interesting. But it lacks a story thread. There are a lot of disconnected anecdotes tied to a common theme. But it is difficult to listen to because of this. It's disjointed. However, I can see myself buying this book so I can refer back to some sections and further explore others on my own.

A convincing argument

The book is a convincing argument for solidarity and common effort. The storyline serves to tie elements of the argument and vision together - this is not a plot driven book, but there are a lot of poetic moments. The idea of working together, doing the needful is a good counterpoint to the sense of division and hopelessness which seems pervasive in the current moment.

My least favorite book by my favorite author.

The book isn't bad. This book is interesting, but compared with all of Kim's other works it doesn't measure up. I'd recommend it for most people, but if you are a KSR fan, skip this one.

A book to discuss

Today I finished listening to Ministry For The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's a fantastic book. If you like audiobooks, I highly recommend listening to it, as it's extremely well narrated by a whole cast of readers.

My one complaint about the book is the way that they used blockchain for money and for social media, which would be a disaster in and of itself. The larger a blockchain gets, the more CO2 emissions it will be responsible for, unless you can somehow guarantee that all the power behind it is clean energy (something that even in this story is not quite possible until the end). Blockchain is built on difficult math problems, and the more transactions on the chain, the harder the math problems and the more energy needed to solve them. This fact seems to have been completely missed by Kim Stanley Robinson.

The thing I love most about this book is that it isn't really set in a far off, unknown future. It starts in our present, though a slightly different present, where a heatwave devastates India instead of a pandemic devastating the world. It moves through the years after that. The voices are of UN Agency officials, activists, refugees, scientists, and ordinary people. The story tracks some realistic ways that we could be combating climate change, and has a hopeful arc overall without sugar coating things.

The book does not shy away from pointing a strong finger at the way that capitalism values money over everything else. It plots a path out that is mostly based on positive steps, though it recognizes the impact of some violent actions as well. Some might see the violence in the book as an encouragement to terrorism, but I think that it's more of a warning or a reminder that if you don't take positive steps that are available, desperate people will take desperate and horrible measures.

Everything in the book is stuff that is either possible today or so close to possible that it makes sense on our current technological trajectory IF THE MONEY WERE PUT IN THAT DIRECTION. And that is so key. Without capital to support the shift, we can't meet the challenges. If we don't meet the challenges we face, then we will have heat waves like the one described in the book, where millions of people die in a matter of days. We will have floods that destroy entire urban areas. We will continue to face new pandemics. We must reduce CO2 emissions.

Ministry For The Future is an excellent book. I not only recommend reading it, I recommend discussing it with friends, family, and community.

Blueprint for a livable future

This beautifully written and eloquently performed audio book transcends the genre and becomes a mind expanding exploration of the perils and promises of the Anthropocene.