Book Review: Forty Signs of Rain, by Kim Stanley Robinson

I found “Forty Signs of Rain” by Kim Stanley Robinson over the list “Climate Change Fiction” I recently started at Goodreads. Please consider adding to that list if you know of some fiction book with a global warming theme not yet on the list.

There is not much happening for most of the novel. Most of it is just everyday life. I think this is more “scientist fiction” than “science fiction”, since it largely deals with what scientists think and feel when doing their jobs.

The book doesn’t tell the reader when things are supposed to be happening, what year it is. Therefore it is very difficult to say how realistic the developments on climate change are.

Clearly the author had a crystal ball, since he named the large storm at the end of the book “Sandy”. Or maybe Kim Stanley Robinson actually came back in a time machine to write this.

This was written well, with no obvious holes in the plot. Even if there is not much happening, it was still interesting and pleasant to read.

I am looking ahead to reading the other two books in this series.

Link to my own global warming science fiction novel Tasneem (free PDF file).