[FRIAM] Cautionary Tales: CliFi

[Steve Smith]

On 1/25/22 5:58 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
>
> < It might not surprise anyone here that I have become a CliFi 
> obsessionist with Kim Stanly Robinson's stuff well represented 
> ("Ministry for the Future" standing out well above the others).  His 
> Red/Green/Blue Mars series is a good complement with the 
> social/technological/spiritual implications of Terraforming there. >
>
> Huh.  I found MftF drawn-out and boring with distracting little 
> nonsense chapters interleaved.   I don’t see why it is popular.   A 
> few good ideas here and there but couldn’t care less about the 
> characters.  It could be massively compressed.
>
That would be *all* of KSR's novels I'm afraid...  my obsession with the 
ideas (unanticipated problems as well as unanticipated responses) trumps 
any need I have for being entertained by the characters or even plot.

It really read to me (as you point out) as a series of loosely connected 
vignettes of specific interest.   To the extent that *some* of the MoTF 
characters did get under my skin, it was as an irritant as much as 
anything.   I probably read Red Mars when it was new as my introduction 
to KSR and did not go back to his writing until as little as 5 years ago 
when I found his topics more relevant than I had acknowledged before...  
He seemed to me to be a lot preachy and I guess now I'm enough of the 
choir to be able to hum along with his sermons now.

Stephenson also gets very tedious for me, but I find his depth of 
research and quirkiness of characters and technical surprises worthy of 
my attention through his gruelingly long and seemingly careening 
storylines and characters.


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