Forty Signs of Rain (Science in the Capital)

The Mars trilogy established Kim Stanley Robinson as one of the more thoughtful writers on the politics of the near future. Eschewing melodrama for rigorous detail that makes his tale all the more convincing, Robinson uses the everyday drama of science policy wonkery as the anchor against which to set the outrageous consequences of climate change. Although short on out-and-out action, it is long on sensitive characterization, making you care about what will happen in the next two instalments -- make no mistake, Forty Signs of Rain is clearly the first part of a much longer work, and does not stand alone as successfully as, say, Red Mars.

As someone else already put it, Kim Stanley Robinson's "Forty Signs of Rain" is like the real world version of "The Day After Tomorrow" and I wholeheartedly agree with that point of view. The difference however is probably more subtle than it meets the eye. In the film, everything gets graphically exaggerated whereas here, and thus in the real world, things are much more likely to be less spectacular but its implications far more complex, tragic, difficult to assimilate, to accept and to live (or not) with. It's not a matter of avoiding a catastrophe that didn't happen yet. It already begun and, should we accept the challenge, we're already poised for damage control.

"Forty Signs of Rain" tells many tales at once, with a common ground: the destiny of the biosphere and how the world we live in is quickly becoming quite uninhabitable. It also tells a story of how science gets done and how the scientific process truly unfolds, how scientists are not as cold hearted as many people suspect they are, how buddhism can shed new light on science, how capital makes it all the more difficult and even how a "Mr. Momhood" type of father deals with his baby son on a daily basis while trying to help a senator do the right thing.

This is a book which most of all tries to propagate important ideas. Never boring, but rarely amusing, it gets its message across loud and clear, even if it objectively lacks in the plot and story department. If, like me, this is the first Kim Stanley Robinson book you're planning to read, this nevertheless felt like a pretty good introduction to the author.

Robinson knows a lot about how the world works and it shows in this story. He obviously has dealt with venture capitalists and startup companies, Bhuddist monks, Lobbyists, NSF Government grants, senate staff offices, and raising a hyper little kid.

I agree with some of the other reviewers that this drags a bit. We really don't need that much text about all the annoying antics of the aforementioned little kid. The stay-at-home dad parent, Charlie, comes off as some sort of saint. Personally I would have tossed the brat into the Potomac by page 50.

One other thing, since nobody else seemed to mention it. The President who appears in the book is obviously George W. Bush, without the name, and his staff and the Congress are obviously the right-wing Republicans of 2004. When he was writing this Robinson probably figured the Democrats to take a one seat lead in the Senate and narrow the gap in the House to two seats and obviously that didn't happen. But the story doesn't suffer for it and the authors contempt for the faith-based and lobbyist-based pseudo-science of these characters is made abudantly and eloquently clear.

The short sightedness of this U.S. government really is a problem for our age, even if it can't be pinned on any one set of individuals, and this story takes it on in a real, if fantastic way.

We're not going to attempt to place the importance of what will ultimately be a trilogy; rather, just this book. As a book--even if it is the first part of a trilogy--it cannot stand on its own merits and will be forgettable by everyone who isn't a member of Greenpeace or otherwise very deeply committed to the politics of global warming. Forty Signs of Rain contains no moments of daring, no startling moments of insight, and certainly none of the sense of wonder or fear that one would normally associate with good science fiction. In fact, absent the references to current and modern politics, this would be a very, very drab book. The moments of charm provided by the main cast of characters are not nearly enough to propel it in to real importance. Without the support of the subsequent novels--which will have to be very good indeed to rescue this book--Rain will very quickly fade in importance.

WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS:

Those readers familiar with and committed to Robinson's work--particularly the less well-known Antarctica and A Short, Sharp Shock, will probably be right at home and please with this book. As we mentioned above, those people looking to reaffirm a political position of action against the threat of global warming will find a great deal to enjoy about this book and its publication just prior to a big presidential election is nicely timed for those people. It's very hard for us imagine any other kind of audience truly appreciating this book... it certainly is not the best introduction to Robinson's work.

WHY YOU SHOULD PASS:

There are much better disaster novels out there. If you're looking for that particular thrill or insight you shouldn't be looking here. Even if you end up liking Rain to some modest extent you're in for a long wait while Robinson finishes up the next couple of books. Readers of politically conservative convictions (if you like all of Terry Goodkind's preachings you fall in to this camp) will get pretty badly irritated by large portions. Rain is plain rice; it's pancakes without syrup, popcorn without salt and butter, a spouse without in-laws; it's just very, very unremarkable.

READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW AT INCHOATUS.COM

Kim Stanley Robinson may write good books(I wouldn't know, as this is my first go at reading his work), but this is not one of them. The premise is interesting, certainly, but the plot is non-existent. The high point of the novel is a severe rain storm that floods the DC area and it occurs in the last few chapters of the book.

I choked down pages and pages of rambling on about how the scientific community chooses which ideas to fund and promote, more pages about how the evolutionary theory informs human behavior and yet more pages about Buddhism in the hopes of finding a point. Something! Sadly, it was not to be found. The most interesting character in the book is a two year old, who-in one of KSR's more startling tangents-may be a reincarnated lama. No, really. I have no idea what that particular idea is doing in this book. Skip this, unless you live for committee meetings and the political sides of science.

KSR's books are generally challenging for the average person to read. They are heavy with science and not quick fluffy books that you can down in just a couple of hours. Forty Signs of Rain is no different.

The pacing is frustrating, at first. We get a look at the National Science Foundation, some of its scientists, a mostly stay-at-home dad who is also an advisor to a Senator, and West Coast scientists trying to solve the world's ills. All of this character development plays out against the background of a shifting global climate change. When the real action does hit late in the book, you are so enveloped by these characters that you are caught up and swept along with them in the floodwaters.

It does end abruptly, but that's nothing new in the world of the trilogy. It also sets up the next book seamlessly.

Forty Signs of Rain could read like a prophetic manual of what we might face as a society if we don't pay more attention to our world. For those who are denouncing the "science" in the book, I would relate one specific instance: in the book, there is mention of scientists trying to develop a lichen that would grow with trees, lichen that could 'super' absorb the tons of excess carbon dioxide being dumped in the atmosphere. Today, I read a news story of a small biotech company attempting to do just that. There's also a conference this weekend in the northeast on the importance of forests in being able to pull in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, something else that was also discussed in the book. So the science is real - it's not science fiction and it isn't alarmist propoganda.

This is a worthy read, right up there with watching An Inconvenient Truth. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series to see how well they stand up to the first book.

An interesting book, and one that politics geeks may well enjoy. Robinson has decided to have a look at climate change, via a couple of
political insiders, including an evironmental advisor, and a scientist.

An embassy from a small island nation literally about to disappear comes to Washington D.C. and the aforementioned characters become
involved with them.

Oh, and Washington gets really, really wet.

There are people on this web site giving "Forty Signs of Rain" 1 and 2 stars because the book is basically a bunch of people sitting around in different locales discussing science. Most of them have political opinions that are classified as "left" (some are center-left, some are lefty-left, but all are left). Some have complained that this isn't a fair or balanced look at abrupt climate change. Phooey. Kim Stanley Robinson has always done an excellent job bolstering his arguments. He doesn't need to give lip service--in a novel, of all places--to the counterargument.

Now, I loved this book. It IS a bunch of people sitting around in different locales discussing science. It doesn't have much action. It reads like it is the first 1/3 of the trilogy he's writing.

So why couldn't I put it down at night or wait to pick it up again the next day? Robinson's sense of pace, his flair for characterization, and his ability to set a mood or describe a place are all in top form.

If you want a book, as my review title says, that is both long-winded AND fascinating, that is clearly a left-inspired polemic and good science, then "Forty Signs" is for you.

Interesting but slow. A little too much attention paid to the protagonist's little son and family situation, and no real ending. Reads like the exposition - the first chapters - of a longer novel, which it clearly is, and I can only hope that the second book of the trilogy will build up a little steam ...

I don't understand where the negative reviewers are coming from. This is a straightforwardly gripping little tale of science and politics that presents a cast of intelligent and interesting characters, all involved (quite credibly I thought)in the day to day workings of US government and scientific institutions. The science fiction scenario is that we're a little further down the road toward major climate change. But Robinson isn't giving us a conventional "if this goes on" disaster story, or it doesn't look like it at this point. (I haven't read the 2nd book yet.) He seems to be trying to look at how the relevant institutions might respond, not just show us brave smart people coping with chaos. At any rate, there's more than enough enough interest in the lives and thoughts of these characters to keep a reader entertained.

I should perhaps note that I haven't read much sf in recent years, though I read a great deal of it in my youth in the 1960s and 70s. This is the 1st book by Robinson I've read. It won't be the last.

This was a fun, entertaining, and educational, read. Robinson combines fact, humor, and realistic characters going through their normal lives, yet still manages to give us a story about matters of global scope. I enjoyed this more than some or Robinson's other books. I also enjoyed the Mars Trilogy and Years of Rice and Salt, but this was a more fun read; it has fewer threads and is thus easier to follow. But it gets you thinking more than, say your typical mystery/thriller. If you like science fiction based on fact, and thrillers, you should give this book a try.

This is a tedious, preachy book that has thinly drawn, boring characters. Men, especially unmarried men with no children, do not give another man props for being a good house-husband. Every time we meet Anna she's working and pumping her breast milk. OK, we got the point the first time that she's a working mom. It does not work to pretend the mainstream press is ignoring severe weather changes; and the only ones in the know are the scientists at NSF, who never talk about it directly, just post interesting news stories in the break room so they can complain about it. More than helf the book is the set-up, when will the plot actually unfold?

Robinson has written some pretty good stuff -- the Mars trilogy and Years of Rice and Salt (one of my faves). This book is simply too preachy, too slow moving, and too boring. Even the scenes that were inserted to increase tension are surprisingly slack. Usually when I finish a book in a short series, I quickly go seek out the next volume. Here I have no interest in finding out what happens. It is all so obvious! Why bother reading on about it if the characters are so dull??

I had to force myself to finish this book. Ouch.

Read KSR's other books and leave this one alone.

Government jobs, NSF jobs, red tape, DC traffic.
Gee, if I didn't have a government job and get stuck in DC area traffic it might be news to me. Nothing actually happens and I can't even finish the book. Such a letdown from RED-GREEN-BLUE Mars. Repeat - NOTHING HAPPENS. Boring boring boring. Some things you will find odd though. One guy seems to really want to imbibe his wife's breast milk. Also a character from the west coast (same guy - can't recall) seems oppressed by the amount of trees in the DC area. He longs for the open space of California where everything is brown and dead. Well excuse us for having growing things here.........jeez.

I just skipped to the flood at the very end. Still boring.
BTW, no one is letting all the animals out of the zoo in case of a flood. What one earth gave the author an idea like that?

KSR should follow the example of John Brunner and provide some focus for his work. Given the title and author, I was prepared for a "true believer's" stance on global warming; but the book dawdles because Robinson has made it a bully pulpit from which to bludgeon the poor reader with homilies on Utopian Socialism, Marxian economic theory, Gouldian evolution-as-surrogate-religion, and - in a cameo cliché - the Dali-Lama.

The deliberate pacing and protracted realism may not appeal to many readers, but are not unreasonable for a trilogy. KSR is clearly a gifted wordsmith, and manages to find room between his Jeremiads to develop at least some of the characters. We can only hope for more story and less sermonizing in the remainder of this opus.

In the interim, for a delightful tongue-in-cheek contrast, try "Fallen Angels" by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Michael Flynn.

Kim Stanley Robinson's Forty Signs of Rain has all the makings of a masterpiece. Characters are so well drawn that one sentence into a new chapter is all that's needed for identification. The story is well-crafted and seemingly simple, starting with a basic education in Arctic ice levels, moving through U.S. politics with scathing brilliance, following the plight of Tibetan Buddhist refugees whose emerging nation is on a submerging island in the Indian Ocean, and dissecting the lives of scientists caught between searching for a viable medical truth and making millions off patents...and this is just book one in a trilogy. I couldn't put this book down and I can't wait for the next two books!

Sorry this is short, but the other reviewers have done a good job already. I am a KSR fan, but was disappointed in this book. Problem was that it wasn't a whole story. It's only a third of a story. A good trilogy requires a conclusion in each book and an anticipation of the next. This first book had good writing and story telling, but didn't have an ending. I say wait until all three books are published -- hopefully in one volume!

This is of course three books. I actually enjoyed the first, 40 Signs of Rain and would give it 3 1/2 stars. But the other two books don't even deserve one star. All three books contain digressions that lead nowhere. 40 Signs includes a great deal of info on targeted delivery of drugs. What does this have to do with global warming. Why, absolutely nothing. It is just Robinson showing of his diverse scientific knowledge. Nevertheless, 40 Signs was pretty decent and I was anxious to see where 50 and 60 would take us on the global warming journey. And where did they take us. NOWHERE! Page upon page upon page of the main characters' relationship with his 2 year old son. Entire chapters of playing frisbee golf in the park. One entire chapter about attending a dance recital which includes a half page of dialogue at the end of the chapter that actually moves the plodding narrative forward a few millimeters. A monumental sub-plot about a secret American agency that spies on other Americans that was monumentally meaningless. Another significant sub-plot about Buddhists who are forced to relocate to America that does virtually nothing to advance what could called a plot. And how do books 2 and 3 relate to global warming. They don't! All too infrequent chapters about political machinations and mitigation of global warming. By the third book I was experienced enough with the first two that I realized within a few paragraphs that the chapter had nothing to do with the supposed main plot and I completely skipped them. Do yourself a favor and skip this entire trilogy.

Great premise. Wonderful title, hints perfectly at problems we're going to face because of global warming.

.Unfortunately the first 200 pages are filled with pure drek; Robinson pontificates, describes accurately how National Science Foundation proposals are reviewed; how the wealthy are consuming the Earth's resources, how a science lab works, day to day, sans discoveries; how bio-tech companies (and squegee companies for that matter) are sold out from under the founders.

This is stuff that just maybe an uniformed 8th grader might find useful.

Finally, he gets down to the plot, which is fun; his characters are well-drawn; the disaster is detailed in realistic fashion; kept me turning the pages.

Hint for readers: Scan the first 200 pages (no lie) for bits about the characters and the setting. Start reading when the action (finally) begins.

Hint for author: get thyself an editor who is tough enough to resist your award-winning, best-selling track record and can tell you _ hey, this is drek. You can do better.

-- William Brand/[email protected]

I really tried to get into this book, appreciate it's realistic depictions of the NSF grant proposals (of which I'm intimately familiar), the portrait of D.C. and Bethesda (my hometown!), but this book was just plain dull. It simply became a chore to churn my way through the mundain details. Ugh. I gave up about 2/3rds through.

Well, the huge problem with this book is obvious -- it is not a complete novel. Lots of characters are introduced, and most of them become quite interesting. Several plot threads are started up, too. And then it just ends.

Frankly, I don't think it should have been published in this form. It is about as satisfying as buying only the A-G sections of an encyclopedia.

I didn't mind all the NSF scenes, or the child-rearing scenes, or the biotech lab scenes. It's just that they don't add up to anything. Yet.

I consider BOOKS as sacred objects. But I will cast a particular book aside if its author does not grab my attention or my interest (he had it from my opening the book and reading the blurb). I hate to say it, but by page 90 something I just gave up, whatever I was waiting for I stopped waiting for. The author was indulging his need never to throw out pages he's written, at the expense of the book it finally found itself in. Wait for the author to issue a re-write.

I purchased this for a reading group that was assigned the topic, "Global Warming". It is an interesting take on what the author sees as possible damage from global warming in a few years time. As I understand it, the book is the first of a series of three books. I think I'll see if the library has the next one.

I thouroughly enjoyed the "Mars" triology. The character development, the interplay between characters with different viewpoints and differing goals, all set in a sci-fi backdrop.

Too bad there isn't any of that here. The entire novel seems to preach about a socially liberal fantasy world. I just can't tell if it is a nightmare or Utopia.

In the end I just didn't care about any of the characters or the situations they were in. Even though most of the book, as the first of a trilogy, is given to character development I still couldn't connect with them. Maybe this should be called caricature deveolpment instead.

I might check out the second book from the library, but I won't buy it.

Short and sweet: Interesting premise, well written intro, and the rest was worthless.

It could have been a fabulous forray into our "there's no such thing as global warming" executive office position. It could have been about coping and reversing catastrophic envirmonmental changes. It should have been anything beside the long-winded drivel it was.

Definite garbage material. Author, editor, and publisher should all be embarrassed. I was.

Alas, Robinson is an excellent writer, except on those occasions when he lets his sense of self-righteousness run away with him.

He can't seem to imagine that anyone could disagree with him unless they were wicked or stupid, and the sock-puppets he's substituted for characters here show the same disagreeable trait.

This got old in the "Red Mars" series, but you could put up with it for the good bits.

Here, Stan the Soapbox Man has overwhelmed Kim Stanley Robinson the writer; the good bits become vanishingly scarce.

Don't bother. Get one of his older books.