Kim Stanley Robinson - (Liverpool Science Fiction Texts and Studies) by Andrew Rowcroft (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book argues that one of the most striking aspects of Kim Stanley Robinson's fiction is his concern with literary apprenticeship. Engaging with a sub-set of his novels concerned with the composition of a narrative account, this book reads Robinson's fiction as addressing problems bound to narrative, examining its structures, limits, possibilities, and value.

Book Synopsis

Kim Stanley Robinson remains one of the most progressive writers working today. His novels and short stories have mapped cycles of capitalist violence, economic expansion, and material despoliation, in turn proposing radical visions of social and economic justice through cooperatives, collective agreements, and stewardship of the environment. But if Robinson is readily considered a political author, less attention has been paid to his craft and composition. This book examines Robinson's concern with literary apprenticeship. In novels such as the post-apocalyptic The Wild Shore, the intergenerational star-ship narrative Aurora, and the tale of Ice Age hunters, Shaman, Robinson creates characters who struggle with and against storytelling. In these fictions, apprentices battle against the limits of their interpretative powers as they come to recognise the real pleasures, and the intense hardships, of art and narrative.

Review Quotes

'Rowcroft's spellbinding study follows Robinson as literary craftsman, as futurist, and as our last great citizen of utopia from his Three Californias (1980s) all the way to his late-career breakthrough novel, The Ministry for the Future (2020). Whether you're a new fan or an old one, this is the handbook to KSR you've been waiting for.' Gerry Canavan, Marquette University

About the Author

Andrew Rowcroft is an Associate Lecturer in English at the University of Lincoln.