What I got was one long, coherent novel split into eight parts like the acts of a play. When I heard that New York 2140 gave us a picture of the future city via the residents of one apartment building on Madison Square, I was expecting something like overlapping short stories. Structurally it was an interesting novel. However, for me it was the political tension that kept me on the edge of my seat during the latter part of the book. Kim Stanley Robinson hasn't won all those awards for nothing, and of course he's created a believable and detailed version of a battered but functioning city tackling partial submergence, and he's populated it with a cast of varied and mostly engaging characters having adventures and love affairs. The optimism and belief in people's ability to come together and make a difference are what made this book so wonderful, in my opinion. It seems like New York has stabilised into a new, watery normal but when a couple of programmers go missing from a building on Madison Square and some of the other residents start looking into it, a question begins to be asked: Does it have to be this way?įor a novel about catastrophes caused by manmade climate change and capitalism's wilful disregard for long-term consequences, this is pretty utopian. There are still financial traders, local politicians, celebrities, street urchins (albeit known as water rats) sharing the city and getting by. Consequently New York remains a thriving, popular place even though half of Manhattan is under water and the streets are now canals. Some places will always be desirable, however, and when you've invested a lot of time and money somewhere you're reluctant to leave. Recommended for those interested in politics, as well as the science fiction fans.īy 2140 sea level has risen by around fifty feet, leaving coastal cities the world over with major problems. Summary: This is a surprisingly optimistic novel about a future where climate change has raised the sea level by fifty feet and the residents of half-submerged New York's so-called Super Venice are not going to be bossed around.
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