Book Review: Forty Signs of Rain and Fifty Degrees Below by Kim Stanley Robinson
The more I read of Kim Stanley Robinson, the more I like his books. Forty Signs of Rain and Fifty Degrees Below are the first two books in a eco-thriller trilogy on abrupt climate change. As usual, there's lots of great science in his books - in fact, outside of my environmental and socially responsible MBA program (BGI), I've never read about as many different ecological and sustainability principles in one place as I have in reading Kim Stanely Robinson's books.
Forty Signs of Rain is the much slower paced of the two books. In it, there is a gradual buildup of events and character development until the weather event described by the title comes to pass in the final quarter of the book. Then the pace picks up substantially. The book takes place in the geographical and political backdrop of Washington D.C.
Fifty Degrees Below is a fast paced thriller through and through. Though all of the characters from the first book make appearances, much of the story revolves around a single character - a disc golf playing scientist who spends much of his time relating the human behavior he sees back to the evolutionary basis for that behavior. I can indentify with this character, since I love relating the human behavior I see back to the tribal cultural basis for that behavior. This is a very highly enjoyable book.
I actually read Fifty Degrees Below first, and had I not known what was coming, I might have been slightly put off by the slow pacing of the first book. So if you happen to pick up these books and finding Forty Days of Rain slow going, just put it aside, read the second book, and then go back.