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From: @RUTGERS.ARPA:donn@utah-cs
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Kim S. Robinson
Message-ID: <1833@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 30-Apr-85 07:19:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.1833
Posted: Tue Apr 30 07:19:56 1985
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From: donn@utah-cs (Donn Seeley)

Funny you should ask about Kim Stanley Robinson when the machine you're
posting from is at UC Davis, where Robinson is a writing instructor (or
at least he was as of last summer or so)...  I won't speculate on your
motives...

Robinson has two books out: THE WILD SHORE (Ace, March 1984, 371pp) and
ICEHENGE (Ace, October 1984, 262pp).  He apparently has a novel coming
out some time this year from Tor titled THE MEMORY OF WHITENESS (source:
Terry Carr in UNIVERSE 13).  SHORE is a story about life in a
post-Holocaust America written in a style reminiscent of realist
mainstream novels.  It is very strong on characterization and shows a
fine attention to prose which is often lacking in generic sf, but the
plot, which concerns a young man coming of age on the coast of a
dramatically altered Southern California, is very episodic and
languorously paced.  I liked the book anyway -- I'm still not convinced
of the value of the sort of novel which SHORE mimics, but SHORE is
modest enough about its goals that I didn't feel intimidated by it...
ICEHENGE takes place on the new frontier of the solar system, where
Mars is being terraformed and colonies are being established on the
moons of the outer planets.  Unlike SHORE, this novel is real sf, and
it has some interesting ideas about life in the next six centuries
which are integral to its plot.  The story consists of three segments,
each presenting a different point of view on an episode of history
which starts with a revolution on Mars and leads up to the discovery of
a peculiar artifact at the north pole of Pluto.  ICEHENGE reminds me
strongly of Gregory Benford's writing, and if you like Benford (as I
do) you will really enjoy ICEHENGE.

I once went to a reading given by Robinson at UCSD, sponsored by the
Lit Department.  It proved to be a peculiar experience.  Robinson got
his degree from this department and he was introduced by his former
advisor, whose description of SHORE made it sound like a major advance
in the history of Marxism; the rationale for this analysis went over my
head...  The reading went well -- Robinson picked one of the more fun
and amusing anecdotes from SHORE -- and when he was finished I was all
prepared to ask him questions about SHORE and about his dissertation on
the novels of Philip K Dick.  It was then that I discovered that I was
perhaps the only actual sf reader in the room: everyone else seemed to
be a Lit student or faculty member, except for David Brin, who had
spent most of the reading sitting in the back of the room doodling and
peering through photocopies of physics papers.  Nobody wanted to know
more about the structure of SHORE'S universe or Robinson's opinions
about Dick; they wanted to know why he was writing sf, of all things,
and how much money there was in it.  Robinson had facetious anecdotes
about growing up in the LA suburbs and suddenly acquiring an interest
in science when as an undergraduate he was forced to take a physics-
for-English-majors class.  I'm afraid I grew progressively less
impressed.  I stupidly managed to divulge my naivete by asking if he
would write any more about the SHORE universe ('If you want to see more
about it, write it yourself and send it to me.  Next question?')...
The only remotely amusing exchange occurred when I asked what he had
against Orange County (Disneyland takes a nuclear strike in SHORE):
Brin: 'Ever driven down Katella?'  Robinson: 'The place DESERVES to be
nuked...'

After I thought about the incident, though, I realized that Robinson
wasn't so obnoxious after all: EVERY author I've ever met in person has
been thoroughly artificial in just that way.  It must be an occupational
disease...

Donn Seeley    University of Utah CS Dept    donn@utah-cs.arpa
40 46' 6"N 111 50' 34"W    (801) 581-5668    decvax!utah-cs!donn