Antarctica

By: Kim Stanley Robinson

Narrated by: Adam Verner

The award-winning author of the Mars trilogy takes listeners to the last pure wilderness on Earth in this powerful and majestic novel.

It is a stark and inhospitable place, where the landscape itself poses a challenge to survival, yet its strange, silent beauty has long fascinated scientists and adventurers.

Now Antarctica faces an uncertain future. The international treaty which protects the continent is about to dissolve, clearing the way for Antarctica’s resources to be plundered, its eerie beauty to be savaged. As politicians wrangle over its fate, major corporations begin probing for its hidden riches. Adventurers come, as they have for more than a century, seeking the wild, untamed land even as they endanger it with their ever-growing numbers. And radical environmentalists carry out a covert campaign of sabotage to reclaim the land from those who would destroy it for profit. All who come here have their own agenda, and all will fight to ensure their vision of the future for the remote and awe-inspiring world at the South Pole.

©1998 Kim Stanley Robinson (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

not his best work by a lot

it seems to me like he took way longer to wrap up the ending then what it should have taken. but then again that's just me and I'm not professional author. was never really interested in a couple of the main characters, especially 'X'.

White Mars

Could easily be a prequel to the Martian Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. There are many similarities:
- long descriptions of desolate landscapes,
- call for harmony between settling the alien land and adjustment to its alien original form to keep it as unchanged as possible,
- long deliberations about utopian social orders necessary for settling an alien land.

Only here Mars is Antarctica. Blue sky, white ice. The plot moves forward like a tectonic plate. Gray sky, white ice. Ten hours of descriptions of the Antarctic landscape, captivating like looking through the window on a monotonous terrain for an entire day. White ice, black water. I'm not kidding, that's the rhythm of this book. Crevasse here, crevasse there. And black mountains on the horizon. Blue sky, black peaks. Probably a gem for aspiring polar explorers, keen to read bits and pieces of stories about Amundsen, Scott and Shackleton.

Positives: the characters are less irritating and immature than in the Martian Trilogy. Or maybe one does not expect temporary Antarctic residents to be up to the same psychological standard as astronauts.

Vast

The comprehensive coverage of this book is most remarkable. It created an appreciation of a place which had previously held little interest to me. The story woven as a method to deliver a wealth of information was excellent. This d very representative of Mr Robinson’s Mars series.

The science behind the storytelling.

I like everything about this narrative. The voice was good and clear. The story was well thought out.

Cold and beautiful

I love the feel of the novel. You feel the cold and the beauty of Antarctica . The characters' love of the continent.