Housekeeping

 

By Marilynne Robinson

The scene: a small rural railroad town. A terrible train crash occurs near the town that kills several people, including the spouse of Sylvia, leaving her to raise her three daughters alone. One daughter, Helen, leaves town and has two daughters of her own, Ruth and Lucille. She returns to her home town and to her mother, Sylvia, after her husband abandons her. Leaving the girls with her mother, she kills herself. 

Sylvia is an old lady and not the most affectionate of grandmothers. She drops dead and her dead husband's two elderly sisters move into the grandmother's house to take care of Ruth and Lucille. But they are spinsters and not used to children and so they send for Sylvia's nearest daughter, Sylvie. 

Sylvie is a vagrant. She never settles for long in one place and her preferred mode of transportation is to simply hop on a freight train. She's a bum, in other words. Probably not the best person to be in charge of two young children. Once she moves back into her childhood home, she sort of takes care of the two girls. But meals are irregular and the kids are pretty much in charge of themselves. It's obvious that Sylvie is disconnected from reality in a way that is a danger to the children. Ruth accepts this strange neglectful parenting but Lucille, who has her feet more firmly planted on the ground than her older sister, wants out. She eventually moves in with one of her teachers, leaving Ruth to the erratic attentions of their Aunt Sylvie. Over time Sylvie draws Ruth into her vagrant lifestyle and they leave town together to avoid Ruth being taken away for her own good. 

I didn't like this book. My sympathies were totally with Lucille and I found Sylvie creepy and selfish. The same with Helen who kills herself rather than try to raise her two daughters on her own. About the only thing I will remember about this book was how much I didn't like it. 

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

Shaman

By Kim Stanley Robinson

Set in ice age, this is the story of Loon, a young apprentice shaman. It opens with Loon, naked and weaponless, on his "wander," a trial to see if he has what it takes to survive. If, at the end of a few weeks, Loon manages to take care of himself, he can come back to his tribe a man.
Loon does manage to survive but in the process he injures his ankle and the injury doesn't heal properly and this injury will continue to hamper Loon's activities. But the injury isn't only thing that is plaguing Loon. The shaman of the tribe, Thorn, wants Loon to settle down to his studies, but Loon just doesn't really care that much about being a shaman. Then, to anger Thorn even more, Loon falls for a foreign woman, Elga and marries her, becoming even more distracted from his apprenticeship. Then it turns out that Elga's people want her back and, at a large multi-tribal gathering, they steal Elga away. Loon sets out in pursuit only to find himself captured by her people and forced into slavery.
When Thorn gets word of Loon's capture, he sets off north to rescue both Loon and Elga, with the help of a Neanderthal friend, Click. He succeeds and the four of them set off for home hotly pursued by Elga's tribe. Their trek home is a terrible ordeal, with Loon's bad ankle, winter blizzards, and eminent starvation. But they do make it back and Loon finds new meaning in his shaman studies and settles down to become the tribe's new shaman in the course of time.

This was a very absorbing and, at times, intense read. A window on the past, as the author sees it, a time of struggle and life constantly on the edge. Loon's story is fascinating, frightening, enlightening and a terrific tale of our early ancestors. A very enjoyable read, one of those stories that I will remember long after reading.

For another review see http://valsrandomcomments.blogspot.com/2013/10/shaman-kim-stanley-robinson.html.

2312

By Kim Stanley Robinson

Swan lives on Mercury. Wahram lives on Titan, one of the moons of Saturn. They are "spacers," people born and raised off of Earth. Out there in the solar system life is pretty good. Advanced technology enables humans to live almost anywhere they desire. And with the advanced technology comes advances in medical care too. Both Swan and Wahram are in their 100s but have the vitality and well-being of people in their thirties.
Swan's grandmother Alex is the "Lion" of Mercury. She is the de facto leader of the people of Mercury. She is quite old but in good health yet dies suddenly. Swan is devastated by her death.  She is even more upset when she finds out that Alex had secrets she kept from Swan, secrets that involve the whole solar system. Wahram, one of Alex's confidants, arrives on Mercury just in time to be nearly killed in an attack on Mercury's largest city, Terminator. The city is destroyed and Swan and Wahram barely survive and spend many long weeks waiting for rescue in an underground passage.
But they are rescued and together they carry out Alex's secret mission and try to discover why Mercury's main city was targeted for destruction.

This was an interesting story and also a boring story. Over 600 pages long, it just goes on and on. What is interesting about it is the author's depiction of humanity free to wander the solar system, settling in the most unlikely places, like Mercury, the hottest planet in the system. The main city of Mercury, Terminator, moves on a track that keeps in constantly on the dark side of the planet and out of the burning sunlight. The attack that destroys Terminator is not directed at the city but at its track. Unable to maintain its trek in the shade, Terminator is caught in the light and burns up. Fortunately the population has plenty of time to evacuate.
Not only are people living on most of the planets of the solar system, they have also colonized the asteroids, hollowing them out and building small ecosystems that also serve as refuges for the Earth's endangered and even extinct (on Earth) species.
Robinson's vision of the future is quite appealing and that is what captured my interest. I didn't really care for the main character, Swan, who seems to be a bit unstable. I also didn't really understand the whole attack on Mercury plot of the story. I understand who but didn't get why. That part either didn't register with me or maybe it isn't fully explained. Anyway, my main problem with the book was its length: it's too damn long! That would be OK if it was an exciting, gripping story. But it's not. Interesting but not very exciting or engaging.

The Free Lunch

By Spider Robinson

Dreamworld, a high-tech amusement park beloved by all, has a couple of stowaways living in its underground structures. Annie has lived in the park since it was first built and has assumed a mythic identity to park employees as Mother Elf. Mike, a boy fleeing from an unhappy home life, finds a new home under Annie's wing behind the scenes at Dreamworld.
Annie doesn't just sponge off Dreamworld, though. She also works behind the scenes to keep the park functioning like it should and to protect it from its enemies. For even though everyone loves Dreamworld, there is someone who hates it, or more truly, hates its founders. This person would love to besmirch Dreamworld and his spies are constantly on the the lookout for opportunities to do so.
The park is staffed mostly by little people, dwarfs and midgets. So when Annie discovers that more dwarfs are leaving the park than are entering it, she and Mike have to figure out how and why. But the park's enemy has discovered the discrepancy and he is sure it is the key to bringing down the park's founders. And he thinks Mother Elf is just the person to answer his questions so he sends his thugs to grab her and Mike, who they mistake for her son. But with the help of the extra dwarfs, Mike and Annie just may be able to save the one place on Earth that they care about the more than anything.

This was an OK story. It was often a little dull and the whole antagonism between the park's founders and their enemy wasn't that believable. Nor was the reason for the extra dwarfs presence at the park. Also, Mike's super-intelligence was just too much. It's a pretty thin structure to hang a plot on.

Fifty Degrees Below

By Kim Stanley Robinson

First, you might want to read Forty Signs of Rain. It is the first in this series. However, you don't need to read it to understand and enjoy this novel.
This is an environmental/science fiction novel about climate change. In the first novel, climate change is just starting to affect the world. In Washington DC several days of record breaking rain causes flooding throughout most of the city. In the second novel, things begin to cool down, ocean currents shut down and DC experiences the coldest winter on record.
In this second novel, the story centers on Frank Vanderwalh, a scientist who works at the National Science Foundation. Frank ends up living in a tree during this brutally cold winter in Rock Creek Park even though he has a good job and a van. Frank is a bit of a strange bird to say the least. He is a scientist who is trying to live what he perceives as an authentic primate life in Washington DC. Plus he saves a lot of money on rent.

I really enjoyed this book about Frank's personal struggles and about the NSF's struggles with a Presidential administration that is in deep denial about climate change. I am looking forward to the next book in the group.

Review by Greg L. Johnson on The SF Site:   https://www.sfsite.com/11b/fd212.htm.