The Ministry for the Future

This author has never been afraid either of thought experiments or bold narratives, as a work like New York 2140 shows. The Ministry for the Future is arguably even more ambitious. It begins with an arresting scene of a man enduring a heatwave in India, rendered all the more poignant by the current extreme temperatures being experienced globally. Over 600 pages, Stanley Robinson skilfully draws together a series of diverse narratives and vignettes—combining fact and fiction to highlight how unchecked climate change and global warming could irreparably damage the planet. Fortunately, the eponymous Ministry is tasked with countering the threat through an inevitable narrative arc that embraces first failure and then, ultimately, success. Solutions are found. Readers do need to persevere and not get too distracted or irritated by the various narrative digressions, but the outcomes dictated by Stanley Robinson are plausible and should give readers some hope. That much of the novel is set in Switzerland also contributed to its enjoyability.

By Kim Stanley Robinson