F O R WAR D TH I N K I N G
Page-turner
with a Point
In Kim Stanley Robinson’s newest novel, the race to save
humanity is on REVIEWED BY JESSA CRISPIN
SIXTY DAYS AND COUNTING
BY KIM STANLEY ROBINSON
(BANTAM, $25)
at the beginning of Sixty Days and Counting,
the third volume of Kim Stanley Robinson’s
eco-thriller trilogy, it is the near future, and
President Phil Chase, a Democrat, is taking
office after a rogue intelligence group’s failed
attempt to steal the election. Even though
the oceans have been resalinated and the
jet stream restarted in the earlier books, the
new administration must somehow find a
way to deal with rising sea levels, switch out
America’s entire energy system with either
new technology or older nuclear systems, and
help poorer countries alter their infrastruc-
ture—all while working within the confines
of a bureaucratic system.
Robinson, the author of the celebrated
Mars trilogy, has researched every nook and
cranny of these novels, and it’s a bleak, terrifying picture he paints. The “sixty days”
of the title refer to the first two months
of Chase’s presidency, when his science
advisory team and members of the National
Science Foundation attempt to stave off a
mass extinction of large mammals—including a large percentage of the human population. At every juncture, their efforts are
met with resistance. The World Bank does
not see how supporting their work in the
Third World will be profitable. There are
constant power struggles between governmental departments over who is responsible
for what. It’s amazing anything is allowed
to happen in Washington at all.
When Robinson is focusing on the details of
the weather’s impact on individuals, the book is
genuinely chilling: Craving eggplant, statistician Anna heads to the grocery store, only to
find shelves depleted by food-hoarding customers. The power goes out periodically, and each
time, Anna and her husband Charlie have to
prepare for the possibility that it will not be
coming back on. Robinson is also good at
explaining the science behind the government’s
attempts to stabilize the climate. It’s when he
tries to fill in the gaps between pre-apocalyptic
imagery and hard science that the trilogy suffers
under the weight of its subject matter.
There are just too many subplots to follow.
The stories that we care about—what happened
to Caroline after she put her life in danger by
warning that the Oregon election was about
to be stolen?—are shoved aside for stories we
don’t. Science advisor Frank’s head injury may
have caused him to…be indecisive. Not exactly
a gripping narrative. All of this could have been
slimmed down for one novel, but Robinson
crams so much philosophy, bureaucracy, hard
science, and exposition into each book, at times
it feels like you’re watching Senate hearings on
C-SPAN 2 instead of reading fiction.
There are huge problems with Sixty Days and
Counting as a whole, yet it’s perhaps the best
novel about global warming to date. Robinson
makes the reader understand the vastness of the
issue, and how challenging it will be to find a
solution. But the situation is not without hope.
Robinson infuses his book with the thoughts
of Thoreau and Emerson, and a group of
displaced Buddhists lends a sense of tranquility
to the story. A quotation from Oliver Cromwell
best sums up one of the novel’s most unsettling
points: “A man never rises so high as when he
knows not whither he is going.” ■
New and Noteworthy
Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla
Merian and the Secrets of
Metamorphosis
by Kim Todd
(Harcourt, $27)
In the late seventeenth
century, women didn’t study insects,
and they certainly didn’t sail alone from
Europe to the New World to do it. But
German publishing heiress Maria Sibylla Merian did both—and her findings
changed the future of biology.
32 | Feb/Mar/07 plentymag.com
The Last Forest: The
Amazon in the Age of
Globalization
by Mark London and
Brian Kelly
(Houghton Mifflin, $35)
The Amazon is one of the world’s
largest forests—and it’s also one of the
most endangered. Authors London and
Kelly explore whether sustainable farming and ranching could help save this
natural treasure from destruction.
From the Farm to the Table:
What All Americans Need
to Know About Agriculture
by Gary Holthaus
(The University Press of
Kentucky, $50.00)
Corporate contracts, overseas competition, and concerns about genetic
modification have made farming in
America more complicated today than
ever before. Holthaus takes a close look
at modern agriculture, and real farmers
discuss how their work has changed
with the times.
The Foundation: A Great
American Secret
By Joel L. Fleishman
(Public Affairs, $27.95)
Each year, private foundations supply America’s
nonprofit sector with billions of dollars
in grants, but the public knows surprisingly little about these philanthropic
organizations. Public policy expert Joel
L. Fleishman explains the history behind
this American tradition of giving—and
offers a rare glimpse inside foundations
past and present.