2007 Book Log #29: Forty Signs of Rain, by Kim Stanley Robinson

[annathepiper]

I have to admit to feeling ambivalent about Kim Stanley Robinson's Forty Signs of Rain. This is another of my "picked up on a whim" books, in this case because I was in the mood to read a vaguely-SFish novel about what happens when global warming wreaks hardcore havoc on the planet. Sort of like The Day After Tomorrow, only in prose form, and presumably with a stronger story since it's after all written by a Hugo-award-winning author.

There are quite a few beefs raised about this book on its Amazon reviews, and to one degree or another I agree with all of them. It is a problem IMHO when the first 350 or so pages of a book are pretty much character development and setup, and only the last 25 or so pages show you actual plot. Couple this with the fact that the book's politics come across to me as way too heavy-handed, and that it spends way, way too much time in didactic lecture mode, and more often than not I found myself going 'For fuck's sake, get to the story already!'

Don't get me wrong. I'm someone who actually supports the idea that global warming is indeed a serious problem, so in general principle I agree with the book's overall politics. Problem is, with all the time it spends in lecture mode, that gets really boring really fast. Especially if you're already on board with the assertions it's trying to make, and especially if you have at least a basic level of clue about the science it's trying to describe. Very, very much a "preaching to the choir" situation here, not to mention way, way much Tell and not enough Show. I cut the book at least a little slack with the knowledge that this is actually Book One of a trilogy, and therefore not to be taken as a whole story. But even with that leniency, I found the time spent actually getting to the plot to be quite frustrating.

That said, I will grant that at least some of the character development parts were actually interesting, when things actually happened in between the long rambling paragraphs about how the various characters' minds worked. The characters got interesting enough, and the actual final pages set up an interesting enough situation, that I am rather curious about what happens next and am still considering whether I want to go get Book Two, Fifty Degrees Below.

But I have to think about it. Two and a half stars for some occasional interesting character development, but minus points for way too much lecture mode.

Comments

[wrog]

I cut the book at least a little slack with the knowledge that this is actually Book One of a trilogy, and therefore not to be taken as a whole story

I've decided that's not a reason to cut anyone slack.

A real trilogy is three complete stories. A "novel" that only tells 1/3 of a story and takes 600 pages to do it is just that. It means the writer couldn't bring himself to actually cut any of the useless crap and the editor is either being lazy, has lost control, or is going, "Yay, three books = $3x; maybe I can convince him to stretch it out to 4. Or 5. Or maybe just forever until he falls over dead. Yeah, that's the ticket."

[annathepiper]

I take your point that "trilogy" is the wrong word to use here; this story is clearly a "trilogy" only in the same sense that The Lord of the Rings is a "trilogy", i.e., one big story divided into three parts.

I don't take issue with the idea of "one big story divided into three parts", though. I mean, Tolkien did that just fine. ;) Julie Czerneda is doing it pretty well with the three-part story of hers I'm working on right now. Hell, one of the things I'm working on right now, i.e., Lament of the Dove, is the first part of a three-part story spread across three novels.

However, when this kind of thing is done well, each part has a pretty clear sub-arc in the storyline and gets to a pretty decent checkpoint in the plot. Both Tolkien's and Czerneda's books do that quite nicely. I'm trying to do it with mine. And to be fair to Forty Signs of Rain, it does get to a clear checkpoint in the plot.

However, it takes way too long to get to any actual plot. 350 pages of character development and setup and hardly any interesting plot developments is indeed a sign that the editor needed to hit the story with a bigger hammer.

[wrog]

I don't take issue with the idea of "one big story divided into three parts"

I suppose my problem is not with stories that need to be broken up because they're too long but rather with stories that didn't need to be as many books as they actually were. Granted, figuring out exactly what to cut is always something of an art from, but, well,... that's kindof the point,...

And anyway Tolkien didn't do that well; there are places in Fellowship and Two Towers where things really bog down. His forté was world-building, not pacing; it's just that he was good enough at the former that people cut him slack on the latter.

[annathepiper]

Yeah, padding a three-book story out to five books just for the sake of selling more books is indeed rather silly. It's one of the biggest reasons I've feared ever going anywhere near Robert Jordan. ;)

And I do agree that yes, LOTR could have used a tighter edit pass. But at least in LOTR, the plot actually does get underway reasonably quickly into the book.

With Forty Signs of Rain, though.... meh. Thinking about it, I feel coming out of it kind of like I did after seeing Phantom Menace... i.e., "okay, prologue's over, let's get to the real story now".

[wrog]

I should note that after the first reply I was, in fact, kicking myself for not having "forever until he falls over dead" be a link to Robert Jordan's blog

(... and of course, having bought the existing 11 books I'm all, "Okay, enough with this cancer shit. You have one more book to do. Get back to work. Arrrgh!")

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I expect he'd like to. :)

[wrog]

yeah. sigh.

[annathepiper]

Yeah really. Not that I've read any of his work or follow his blog or anything, but if he's been ailing, I can quite imagine that he's anxious for that to be Done Now!

[mojave-wolf.livejournal.com]

Jordan has cancer? Shit. I didn't know that.

How's he doing?


::also has all eleven books::

He's a perfect contrast to Robinson in some ways, for me. I picked up a book by him a few years ago because it sounded like something I'd love, and I'm with him on the environmental stuff (this one was set in a future California setting where nearly everyone is now ecologically aware and trying to live a sustainable, good for the planet lifestyle, I honestly can't remember the name or anything else about it), but I don't think I ever got to even page 100. I just could not make myself keep going.

Jordan, on the other hand, I originally bought as brain candy, thought it was a well done Tolkien riff, got hooked on the characters, and then decided one of the central ideas of the story was at best highly sexist. All sorts of problems w/the way he set up the books, but when he wants to make things interesting he's very good at it.

[wrog]

He seems to have survived the latest round of treatments. we'll see.

I wouldn't even have known about WoT except that there were all kinds of people gushing about it on rec.arts.sf-lovers -- which sort of gives you an idea of just how long ago he started on this...

at best highly sexist

I guess that depends on one's definitions. IMHO sexism is more than just asserting a difference between male and female, even if you have it being something fundamental rooted in the laws of physics/magic for your fantasy universe; what matters is where you go from there.

That said, the guy clearly has a bit of a traditionalist streak (... he may not be Orson Scott Card, but I don't think it's entirely unfair to draw some conclusions from his voluntarily living in South Carolina...), though it doesn't really manifest in the ways one would normally expect. And he has any number of female characters that kick ass, so... I dunno.

My big problem is the way he'll evidently be writing along, and then he gets an idea, decides to flesh it out, and then blam, 10 new characters introduced and another 5 chapters all taking place while Rand is having breakfast. The last several books have basically been Zeno's Paradox...

[mojave-wolf.livejournal.com]

Heh, yeah, tho he finally seems to have gotten a bit of momentum going again.

Err, I don't know how to argue the sexism issue w/out spoilers, even if the spoiler in question is for something that happened long before the current events in the story started. (started to say "ages" and then realized not quite the right term to use w/these books) But I will say that for all I think he's sexist, he's clearly *not* misogynist, and does have a lot of great women characters, many of whom excel in traditionally male roles. I don't think the books are awful or that Jordan hates women. I didn't get thru 11 fairly thick books (a couple of which didn't advance the plot hardly at all) because I felt immersed in ickiness while reading them. I just have issues w/the way the entire thing got set in motion, if you know what I mean. Err, okay, I have thought of some non-spoilery ways, but I don't want to slag the guy's books while he's sick. Esp since on the balance I very much like them and don't wanna scare anyone away.

[cafiorello.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm okayer with lectures, but I liked it. Anyway, I have the next one on request to borrow, not buy, so I'll let you know. I do see your points, though.

Cathy

[annathepiper]

*giggle* I'm.... ambivalent about how this book did it, to tie in with my initial reaction. There are parts where I thought the didactic lecture mode kind of worked as it tied in to things that were going on--like Frank in the traffic jam, for example. Situations where I could see "okay, this person is doing this activity and I can buy that that's how his mind would work at the time, since he's a scientist and all".

But several of those interspersed italicized, bolded bits I just found irritating and a little preachy rather than useful or informative. Those were where the Too Much Tell, Not Enough Show came in for me.

And yet I did find myself getting interested enough in the various characters that once I got to the end and stuff started actually happening, I was wanting to know what happens to them next. So I'm still waffling about buying the next book, but am kind of inclined in favor of getting it.

[kieri.livejournal.com]

Don't get it. The second book descends abruptly into pages and pages of more rambling, entirely losing all of the momentum from the end of the first book. It's about building freaking treehouses, for one.

I finished the first book and liked it well-enough despite its problems, thinking that "Finally, now we can get going!" and then I picked up the second and it was...Frank. Playing frisbee golf. And building tree houses. For six chapters.

I haven't even finished it, and I'm not a person who puts aside books lightly.

[annathepiper]

Ooooof. Oh dear. That settles that, then! Thanks for the warning.

[suzene.livejournal.com]

I only ever picked up any of KSR's work because I was a big fan of her hubby, Spider Robinson. (Actually, I've since found out that I'm only a fan of his Callahan stories, and not even the last two books of those, and his essays.) I really couldn't get into her work; waaaay too slow.

[annathepiper]

Um... Kim Stanley Robinson is a guy. ;)

And according to Wikipedia's Spider Robinson page, his wife's name is Jeanne.

[suzene.livejournal.com]

O.O

Well...that...um...

Please hold while user reconfigures some mental files.

[annathepiper]

*giggle* No worries, KSR's name gave me a bit of a start too. I mean, I have an Aunt Kim!