Every time I read a story about some billionaire getting angry about their private jets being tracked I recall a part of the Kim Stanley Robinson novel Ministry for the Future, a (very) near-future tale about how a few global climate catastrophes wreak such havoc that regular people start taking extreme measures – for example randomly shooting down passenger aircraft for months, causing the collapse of the air travel industry. I have to imagine that the 1%ers are thinking about that too now.
In the book, I noticed upon re-reading – it was always the biggest polluters (usually, the richest of the rich) that had unfortunate drone-strikes while flying.
Not the electric planes. No commuter planes. Straight up 1%-er targets.
B admits to it later on in the book, when they hint B might be Mother.
It was kind of a difficult read for me - things just hit a little too close to home for me, and the resolution was too perfect. I’d still recommend it though - at the end of the day it’s still Kim Stanley Robinson, and he is an absolute master of hard social-scifi.
Every time I read a story about some billionaire getting angry about their private jets being tracked I recall a part of the Kim Stanley Robinson novel Ministry for the Future, a (very) near-future tale about how a few global climate catastrophes wreak such havoc that regular people start taking extreme measures – for example randomly shooting down passenger aircraft for months, causing the collapse of the air travel industry. I have to imagine that the 1%ers are thinking about that too now.
“If those kids could read, they’d be very upset.”
That book is a not-so-covert manifesto, I swear.
In the book, I noticed upon re-reading – it was always the biggest polluters (usually, the richest of the rich) that had unfortunate drone-strikes while flying.
Not the electric planes. No commuter planes. Straight up 1%-er targets.
B admits to it later on in the book, when they hint B might be Mother.
Would you say it’s a good book? I’m always down for a riveting read :)
It was kind of a difficult read for me - things just hit a little too close to home for me, and the resolution was too perfect. I’d still recommend it though - at the end of the day it’s still Kim Stanley Robinson, and he is an absolute master of hard social-scifi.
Kim Stanley Robinson is likely one of the best sci fi authors alive. You generally can’t go wrong with his stuff.
Read it! Simply skip chapters you don’t like. Watch this speech after you finished the book.
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this speech
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I loved it!
I enjoyed it