Station Archive

Let's go back, way back to California in 1849 and hear "Gold Rush Songs." (Rebroadcast)

Renowned science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson is an opinionated person.  And a thoughful one.  And a great researcher.  But mostly he is a very fine writer.  Of the many many books he has written and published since the 1980s, my favorite is "The Years of Rice and Salt", set in an alternate world where the Plague killed 90% of people in northern Europe leaving empty land to be resettled by people from further south and east.  This book is a series of about a dozen novellas tied together by a cast of characters who get reincarnated in different parts of the world amid different  circumstances and cultures.  A most fascinating book!

But then, I also was mesmerized by his possibilities of Orange County's future in the Three Californias trilogy: "The Wild Shore", "The Gold Coast", and "Pacific Edge".  What will happen in OC if (a) we start to recover from a nuclear war while the rest of the world decides that we are too dangerous to allow to re-build? or (b) we stop global warming but continue overpopulation in "an endless sprawl of condos, freeways, and malls"? or (c) we change our culture to a more ecologically-focused future and live in smaller places? These three award-winning books are also filled with fascinating characters.