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Aurora, by Kim Stanley Robinson
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A major new novel from one of science fiction's most powerful voices, AURORA tells the incredible story of our first voyage beyond the solar system.
Brilliantly imagined and beautifully told, it is the work of a writer at the height of his powers.
Our voyage from Earth began generations ago.
Now, we approach our new home.
AURORA.
- Sales Rank: #136730 in Books
- Published on: 2015-07-07
- Released on: 2015-07-07
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.50" h x 1.50" w x 6.25" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 480 pages
Review
"A rousing tribute to the human spirit."―San Francisco Chronicle on Aurora
"The thrilling creation of plausible future technology and the grandness of imagination...magnificent."―Sunday Times on Aurora
"[Robinson is] a rare contemporary writer to earn a reputation on par with earlier masters such as Isaac Asimov or Arthur C. Clarke."―Chicago Tribune on Aurora
"If Interstellar left you wanting more, then this novel might just fill that longing."―io9 on Aurora
"Aurora may well be Robinson's best novel...breaks us out of our well-ingrained, supremely well-rehearsed habits of apocalypse - and lets us see the option of a different future than permanent, hopeless standoff." ―Los Angeles Review of Books on Aurora
"Humanity's first trip to another star is incredibly ambitious, impeccably planned and executed on a grand scale in Aurora."―SPACE.com on Aurora
"The Apollo 13 of interstellar travel."―SciFi
"[A] near-perfect marriage of the technical and the psychological."―NPR Books on Aurora
"[A] heart-warming, provocative tale."―Scientific American on Aurora
"This ambitious hard SF epic shows Robinson at the top of his game... [A] poignant story, which admirably stretches the limits of human imagination."―Publishers Weekly on Aurora
"This is hard SF the way it's mean to be written: technical, scientific, with big ideas and a fully realized society. Robinson is an acknowledged sf master-his Mars trilogy and his stand-alone novel 2312 (2012) were multiple award winners and nominees-and this latest novel is sure to be a big hit with devoted fans of old-school science fiction."―Booklist on Aurora
"Intellectually engaged and intensely humane in a way SF rarely is, exuberantly speculative in a way only the best SF can be, this is the work of a writer at or approaching the top of his game."―Iain M. Banks on 2312
About the Author
Kim Stanley Robinson is a New York Times bestseller and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards. He is the author of more than twenty books, including the bestselling Mars trilogy and the critically acclaimed Forty Signs of Rain, The Years of Rice and Salt and 2312. In 2008, he was named a "Hero of the Environment" by Time magazine, and he works with the Sierra Nevada Research Institute. He lives in Davis, California.
Most helpful customer reviews
227 of 254 people found the following review helpful.
some major problems of pace and character, but moving at times and always makes you think
By B. Capossere
Aurora, by Kim Stanley Robinson, has major issues with pacing, characterization, and to some extent, plotting. Which would seem to make this review a no-brainer “not recommended.” But if one can overlook issues of plot, character, and pace (and granted, that’s a Grand Canyon-level overlook), there’s a lot here to often admire and sometimes enjoy, and a reader who perseveres will I think not only be happy they did so, but will also find Aurora lingering in their mind for some time. (Note: While I don’t think anything revealed ahead will mar the reading experience, it’s pretty nigh impossible to discuss this book substantively without some plot spoilers. So fair warning.)
Generations ago, a starship left Earth with plans to set up a colony in the Tau Ceti system. Aurora begins in the final stage of the journey, with the ship only a few years out. Early on we’re introduced to a young teen, Freya, daughter of the ship’s chief engineer, Devi. The novel moves quickly through the years as Freya grows older, documenting the problems the ship faces as landfall nears: a host of mechanical/environmental issues (power plant problems, crop failures, etc.), biological obstacles (especially island devolution), and social problems. With landfall, new issues arise as the ship’s population lands a small number of early settlers who begin building the colony and preparing it to receive the rest of the ship. Eventually, the colonists come face to face with the basic question of viability—is this mission even possible? This problem — the social division it causes and its eventual compromise solution — drive the second half of the book.
Much of the novel’s narrative point-of-view focuses on Freya, but more interestingly, the narrator, or perhaps more accurately, the “author” of the story is the Ship, tasked early on by Devi to “tell the story” of the mission. Ship is a relatively rudimentary AI at the start of the novel, but one who grows in consciousness and responsibility throughout the novel’s course. Thus Aurora is a coming-of-age story both for Freya and, more compellingly, for Ship, in addition to being a generation ship story.
This choice by Robinson to have Ship “author” the text is at times delightful and at times frustrating. Ship’s early difficulties in composing a narrative allows for Robinson to play in the meta-fiction field for the first quarter or so of the book, as Ship tries to nail down basic storytelling concepts and techniques:
This is proving a difficult assignment … Lossless compression is impossible, and even lossy compression is hard. Can a narrative account ever be adequate … Summarize the content of their moments or days or weeks or months or years or lives? How many moments constitute a narrative unit? … What is a particular, what is important?
Devi offers suggestions, and some complaints (Too much backstory!), and Ship after a good number of false starts, begins to find her narrative way, before bumping into the more complex issues of figurative language:
Clearly metaphors have no empirical basis, and are often opaque, pointless, inane, inaccurate, deceptive, mendacious, and in short, futile and stupid.
Nevertheless, despite all that, human language is, in its most fundamental operation, a gigantic system of metaphors.
Therefore, simple syllogism: human language is futile and stupid. Meaning furthermore that human narratives are futile and stupid.
How much tolerance you have for this sort of thing will go a long way toward determining your enjoyment of the first 100+ pages. I confess that my patience was less than Devi’s, so that by the time she complains about how tedious Ship’s narrative was, I’d already been at that point for some time. I like the idea, I like the portrayal of the idea, and beyond my enjoyment of some of the “inner weeds” of narrative (Ship for instance has a nicely insightful point re the distinction between analogy and metaphor), I think all of it is integral to the Ship’s development of consciousness/being. But even getting that it was meant to be annoying, I could have done with if not fewer false starts, shorter ones.
Freya’s story, meanwhile, the actual “plot,” isn’t all that compelling early on. There’s a nice scene that opens the book with her sailing with her father (effective in its characterization as well as a nice bit of foreshadowing), and then some rather perfunctory wandering from biome to biome during a rite of passage known as the Wandering. To be honest, I didn’t feel much for her, or the majority of the characters (most of whom were pretty thin) through to the end; none really felt alive to me, save one or two.
It didn’t help that the story is interspersed with some, for me, over-long nuts and bolts description of how the ship worked. I’m glad Robinson didn’t just hand-wave the whole “how does this all work” question; I do like the science in my hard science fiction. And there’s no doubt the reader will feel like this could be exactly how such a mission would work. But still, four pages on the lighting were a bit much for instance (even if some of the description was absolutely beautiful). At one point a character says, “It must be like an endorphin, or a brain action in the temporal region, near the religious and epileptic nodes. I read a paper saying as much,” and I thought to myself, “I wish less of the book felt like that whole ‘I read a paper’ on it.’” Even when major problems arise that should have driven a sense of urgency in the plot, including several acts of violence, it all felt a bit too academic, a bit too removed.
So, pacing issues thanks to Ship’s narrative difficulties and long stretches of too much detail. Characters who fail for the most part to come wholly alive. And a plot that moves along but never really compels. What’s to like, right?
Well, let’s begin with the character that does, ironically, come to life. Before our very eyes in fact. Ship. Her character arc is masterfully handled: from rudimentary AI that struggles with language, communication, empathy, and understanding, and that has a basic lack of self-awareness, to a fully conscious, feeling being that can experience (and convey) sorrow and humor. This development wasn’t simply conveyed through her monologue, which runs throughout, but through much more subtle means—the gradual change in pronoun usage, tiny baby steps toward that aforementioned sense of humor. By the end of the novel, I felt more for Ship than probably any character in the book.
Another strong aspect of Aurora is its sheer thoughtfulness. One part of this is the fact that it is by far the most carefully considered depiction of a generation ship story I’ve ever read. Granted, it does at times become perhaps too carefully depicted, but still I appreciate the depth and seriousness with which he approaches the concept. Examples abound — the ways in which such a small population will suffer across generations due to its isolation and small size, the problem with differing rates of evolution between large-scale creatures (humans, livestock) and small-scale creatures (bacteria, viruses) over the time scale of a generation ship’s voyage, the very realistic (if somewhat depressing) discussion over the possibility of meeting other intelligent life in the universe or of human colonization of the stars.
This latter was especially striking, as it runs counter to so much science fiction, which often begins with one or both premises (there are aliens to meet, we can live on other planets) as givens. Along those same lines (and here is another spoiler warning for plot as I’m about to discuss how they solve their biggest obstacle so you’ve been warned to not read farther if you care not to know), the decision by some to simply turn around, to return to Earth, was both a shock (I don’t think I’ve ever seen a science fiction story about a colony mission that said “Screw it, we’re going back!”) and a wholly believable and natural outgrowth of the plot up to that point. And this decision, and the depiction of their arrival back on Earth, was again, thoughtfully, rationally explored. And even as it depressed the hell out of me in some ways, because let’s face, most of us who read science fiction/fantasy don’t do it to be told that maybe we’ll never get to the stars and even if we do we’ll never meet anyone else out there—we do it because we already believe the opposite with every fiber of our beings; even as it depressed me, this section made me think both about the very real possibility that what these characters say might be right and also about why I have such a need to believe them wrong.
In other words, it hit both head and heart; it made me think, and it moved me. And really, aren’t these the two things we ask books to do? Or at least, two of the most important?
If I had my druthers, I would have made Aurora a much shorter novel, maybe even a long novella. I could see it being incredibly effective at about a 150-200 pages. Those few non-Ship moments of emotional power would stand out all the more, Ship’s arc could stay nearly entirely intact and thus remain powerful, and the high-concepts could still be explored without the interruption of needing a narrative plot. But since I’ve not been elected King of the Universe yet, I’ll take Aurora as it stands—an ambitious but too-long novel with some major issues that make its reading less pleasant than it could have been, even a chore at times, but that despite its flaws remains worthy of a recommendation for the way it lingers well after the final page is turned.
31 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
Awesome and Depressing
By Joe R
“Aurora” is probably the closest Kim Stanley Robinson has come to the feel of his Mars trilogy. As in “Red Mars”, KSR takes his own approach to a classic SF theme, in this case, the colonization of a planet outside our solar system using a multi-generational starship. In many ways, there is no writer on Robinson’s level for such a story – at least, I have never experienced anyone else who has examined both the scientific and social challenges in such a thorough and logical manner. This is as “hard” as hard science fiction can be, and loaded with fascinating explorations of topics ranging from the Fermi Paradox to the nature of prions. There are no “deus ex machina” surprises in the form of warp drives or alien civilizations – everything is believable and logical – coldly logical, in fact.
I enjoyed “Aurora” more than any other book Robinson has written since the Mars series. The style and pacing has been criticized by some, but I found the framing (the story is narrated by the starship’s computer) valid and certainly much more readable than a lot of recent experimental styles.
(Spoilers Below)
In truth, I enjoyed the first half, maybe two-thirds, of “Aurora”, but the last third was so depressing that I believe it actually made me feel moody throughout the days I finished the book. I don’t usually like to spoil in a review, but this book takes such a turn that I feel disclosure of its nature is necessary. First, the book is mistitled, as “Aurora” is the name of the planetary body the colonists attempt to settle. That implies the story focuses on that place, but in fact, less than 10% of the book involves it. A more apt title for this book would be, “The Failed Mission to, and Attempted Return from, Aurora”. An even better title might be, “Two Thousand People Leave Earth and Die”. Here’s a summary:
1. 2,000 people in a generational starship reach a planet they name Aurora.
2. 200 of those people go to the planet’s surface, which seems highly promising for colonization.
3. An unidentified infectious agent on that planet makes them sick, and about 100 of them die on the planet.
4. Another 100 try to return to the starship, and the people aboard kill them.
5. The people still on the starship fight each other about what to do, and some kill each other.
6. About half the remaining people stay in the new system to try to establish a colony anyway. The book never relates any more information about them except to say that they failed and died.
7. The other half decide that space colonization is a terrible idea and try to return to Earth.
8. Their starship starts failing on the voyage, a famine strikes, some people starve and some commit suicide.
I actually think that in KSR’s first draft of “Aurora”, at this point the famine and system breakdown progressed and killed the remaining voyagers and his book / humility lesson ended here. If so, his editor made him add a *slightly* less depressing ending. He inserts an uncharacteristic “technological savior” in the form of human hibernation, and from this point ignores the points he had made about hyper-evolved bacteria damaging the ship’s mechanisms, so I truly wonder at this turn. So:
9. The starship’s AI puts the remaining survivors into hibernation and flies them back to Earth.
10. Some people die during hibernation, some die upon awakening.
11. About 600 people land on Earth, though some – you guessed it! – die during reentry.
12. The survivors keep dying after landing on Earth. The rest feel their lives are pointless. Oh, and the starship’s AI itself tries to reach a stable orbit but fails and crashes into the sun.
Now, I don’t need all stories to be unrelenting optimism and tales of the inevitable, easy, human conquest of the galaxy. The trials and challenges, especially when supported by serious scientific analysis and speculation (which KSR does superbly), make a story stronger. I’m certainly not unhappy that I read “Aurora”, and I recommend it – to people who know its dark perspective and want to consider it. Just understand that this book is essentially “Anti-Science Fiction”, as Robinson seems to be on a mission to debunk all the Heinleinian / Asimovian tales of space colonization. This is really apparent when, near the end, he adds – almost spitefully - that not only did the colony attempt that remained in the Aurora system fail, but that Earth had sent out many other starships attempting to colonize other star systems, and they ALL failed, too!
The book ends with an odd-feeling section on Earth in which Robinson expounds on humanity’s abuse of the homeworld’s environment, and even says that the belief in space colonization contributed to people taking Earth for granted. It seems as if one of the most respected science fiction writers of his time is disavowing the genre, even pointing a finger at hopeful speculation as harmful.
27 of 32 people found the following review helpful.
A Failure on All Fronts
By Jason Barnes
I was super-disappointed by this book. The headline is that it's about interstellar colonization, but we only spend a few chapters there at another star. Instead the book is about dumb and unlikable characters making bad decisions and getting away with them, ideas cast aside without full consideration, and gross physical errors.
(Spoilers after this point)
Characters matter. The author does create good characters -- interesting, driven, well-formed characters. But then he kills them all off about a third of the way through. Instead we are left with Freya, whose every decision is a dud. And then when her poor, knee-jerk, uninformed decisions are about to starve her and the people who inexplicably followed her to death, they all get magically saved by earth technology. I was sooooo looking forward to Freya's lack of foresight having consequences. Silly me I guess. Sure, fly your interstellar starship around without understanding it at all, I'm sure it will turn out fine. No need to worry!
The denizens of the generational ship are supposedly drifting genetically, losing cognitive ability and physical size and other characteristics with each generation. But even that can't explain why after 170 years of travel they give up at the first sign of a challenge at Tau Ceti. Nobody even tried to study the amazing new life forms they found, or to try to develop a defense against them. You'd have to devolve awfully far to be intimidated so easily by what might end up as a minor hurdle.
But even then, no matter how bleak things might be at Tau Ceti, no matter if there's a chance of dying while building a new civilization, it is completely, utterly, and bafflingly irrational to instead choose certain death by heading back to Sol. That half the crew supposedly would think of that proposal as anything other than suicide was when this book jumped the shark. It wasn't any longer about what might actually happen in a given situation, and was instead about whatever the author needed to make happen to set up the boring ending. I mean, the surfing at the end -- was that supposed to be interesting to somebody?
To nitpick the astrophysics, the author clearly also has little understanding of orbital mechanics. He has his ship head in toward the Sun at 0.03c and slow down some. But it doesn't slow down all that much, so it comes around and slows down more on another pass. Um, excuse me? Another pass? Either you slow enough to be captured into orbit around the sun, or you don't. And if you don't, you fly on into interstellar space. That's escape velocity for you. Anything at Earths distance from the Sun moving faster than 42km/s is not gravitationally bound to the Sun, and must leave the solar system unless it loses energy to slow below 42 km/sec (at 1AU). The starship in Aurora first flies by Earth at 8333km/sec. And comes around for numerous other passes later. Ridiculous. Did they not think to have college freshman physics major proofread these things?
All in all, a failure of a book that does not do its characters, it's ideas, or its basic physical premise any justice. How far the author of Red Mars and Antarctica has fallen.
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