Micro Review: Sixty Days and Counting by Kim Stanley Robinson

Book Three of the Science in the Capital Series

Publisher's Synopsis

By the time Phil Chase is elected president, the world’s climate is far on its way to irreversible change. Food scarcity, housing shortages, diminishing medical care, and vanishing species are just some of the consequences. The erratic winter the Washington, D.C., area is experiencing is another grim reminder of a global weather pattern gone haywire: bone-chilling cold one day, balmy weather the next.

But the president-elect remains optimistic and doesn’t intend to give up without a fight. A maverick in every sense of the word, Chase starts organizing the most ambitious plan to save the world from disaster since FDR–and assembling a team of top scientists and advisers to implement it.

For Charlie Quibler, this means reentering the political fray full-time and giving up full-time care of his young son, Joe. For Frank Vanderwal, hampered by a brain injury, it means trying to protect the woman he loves from a vengeful ex and a rogue “black ops” agency not even the president can control–a task for which neither Frank’s work at the National Science Foundation nor his study of Tibetan Buddhism can prepare him.

In a world where time is running out as quickly as its natural resources, where surveillance is almost total and freedom nearly nonexistent, the forecast for the Chase administration looks darker each passing day. For as the last–and most terrible–of natural disasters looms on the horizon, it will take a miracle to stop the clock . . . the kind of miracle that only dedicated men and women can bring about.

MY REVIEW

The Science in the Capital series marks Kim Stanley Robinson's best work so far (for an author with the Mars Trilogy and The Years of Rice and Salt under his belt - that is saying something).

Sixty Days and Counting, picks up after the election of Phil Chase as President of the United States of America. All of the major characters from the previous books return - the Quibblers, Frank Vanderwahl etc.

The novel has the same engaging mix of smart science and excellent characterizations that has been the hallmark of the series. The portrayal of Frank Vanderwahl in particular, sticks with the reader and the conclusion of his story arc is very satisfying.

In contrast with the previous two books, which focused on the dramatic effects of abrupt climate change, Sixty Days and Counting has a much more optimistic tone, as the new President and his administration start to tackle abrupt climate change head on. Don't get me wrong, the hugely damaging impact of abrupt climate change is still felt heavily in this novel, but in Sixty Days and Counting if feels like the human race may actually have a chance of rising to the challenge.

Sixty Days and Counting also has a much better pace than the other two novels in the series and feels more focused.

All in all, Sixty Days and Counting is a worthy conclusion to this series, which should be required reading for every climate change denier on the planet (particularly conservative politicians in the Western world).

9 out of 10.