This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
Robinson began his career with a bang: a trilogy, known as Three Californias, that extrapolated several potential futures for the Golden State. This, the second book in the sequence, is the most dystopian, taking place in an Orange County that has been overdeveloped and overpopulated, in a world that looks very much like the one we occupy. At the center of the action is a conflict between characters: Jim McPherson, young and disenchanted, and his father, who works for a defense contractor that creates government weapons. Yet more to the point, Robinson insists, is that if the future is unwritten, anything is possible, for good or for ill. This, then, is a novel that asks us necessary questions about who we are and who we want to be.
RELATED STORIES
Event Recap: Kim Stanley Robinson
The High Costs of Convenience
The Simultaneity of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Past, Present, and Future Visions
Beyond the Dystopia: A Utopian Reading List
Past Meets Future in ‘The Gold Coast’
Excerpt: ‘The Gold Coast’
Why You Should Read This: ‘The Gold Coast’
Why I Write: An Acceptable Degree of Coherent Narrative
Book Review: ‘The High Sierra: A Love Story’
