2312

by Kim Stanley Robinson

First US Edition, 561 pages

English language

Published May 2012 by Orbit.

ISBN:: 978-0-316-09812-0
OCLC Number:: 707964781
ISFDB ID:: 1245152

(8 reviews)

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.

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PaperbackReader reviewed 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

Review of '2312' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I'm finding it difficult to summarize this book without dishonest praise or undeserved criticism. The truth is the story at the heart of the novel is a simple one: a whodunit in space, and a surprisingly blinkered story of shunning the Other. The structure of it reminded me of Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, with its rambling passages and none-too-subtle "extracts", which came across to me as the real reason the book existed -- an excuse to world-build.

While there were some wonderfully poetic turns of phrase, and a lot of fascinating assertions on the future of gender and sexuality, the predominance of the novel came off as naval-gazing.