Review of 'The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
KSR is an author not afraid to experiment, which has led to some flawed, ambitious, highly rewarding novels and some flawed flops, too, but he saves his most extreme experimentation for his short fiction.
The Martians is a brave collection that goes from the depths of awfulness (baseball on Mars, "poetry") to radical genius (the discovery of Martian nanobacteria told through abstracts from scientific papers, the Martian constitution in full).
This collection is the same: dreadful (same bloody baseball on Mars story, in fact), awe-inspiring (how history works - or doesn't - as exemplified by several alternative histories of the first atomic bomb drop on Japan). But mostly excellent. KSR themes all present and correct - Mars, ecology, (anti-)capitalism, music, mountaineering, California, science and society, story telling through character, epiphanies, exaltations, revelations. Also some things rarely seen in KSR's work - aliens, interstellar travel.
All the more shocking, then, that …
KSR is an author not afraid to experiment, which has led to some flawed, ambitious, highly rewarding novels and some flawed flops, too, but he saves his most extreme experimentation for his short fiction.
The Martians is a brave collection that goes from the depths of awfulness (baseball on Mars, "poetry") to radical genius (the discovery of Martian nanobacteria told through abstracts from scientific papers, the Martian constitution in full).
This collection is the same: dreadful (same bloody baseball on Mars story, in fact), awe-inspiring (how history works - or doesn't - as exemplified by several alternative histories of the first atomic bomb drop on Japan). But mostly excellent. KSR themes all present and correct - Mars, ecology, (anti-)capitalism, music, mountaineering, California, science and society, story telling through character, epiphanies, exaltations, revelations. Also some things rarely seen in KSR's work - aliens, interstellar travel.
All the more shocking, then, that I found it discounted to only three pounds!
Strongly recommended for lovers of KSR or the short story form.