While
there remain differences, I have come to think of Kim Stanley Robinson as the
contemporary Arthur C. Clarke. More
diverse in the inclusion of science, writing lengthier novels, and more
obviously Californian than British, Robinson nevertheless approaches the
problems of humanity with the same optimism, lenience towards Eastern
religions, practically and realistically conceived science fiction concepts,
and underlying belief science can bring society to a higher plane of
existence. In short, they are very
similar in spirit, and Sixty Days and
Counting (2007), the third and final book capping Robinson’s Science in the Capital series, is
glaring proof.
The
conclusion of Fifty Degrees Below,
the second book in the series, saw Frank Vanderwaal caught up in a fracas with
a black ops intelligence team that had apparently been involved in a plot to
alter presidential voting. The election
going off smoothly despite their intentions, Senator Phil Chase was elected and
has chosen Diane, Frank’s boss at the National Science Foundation, to head his
science group, in turn bringing Frank even closer to the executive level of
science in government. Chase the most
open minded politician ever to sit the White House, a whole world of
possibility reveals itself to Frank and Diane, who immediately set about investigating
big-scale schemes that might mitigate ongoing climate change issues. Their massive salt operation having changed
the jet stream in Fifty Degrees Below,
they now look at ways to get the polar ice caps back into good condition and
the ocean levels lower such that the radical changes in weather patterns can be
brought back within normal ranges and frequencies. And the need is pressing. From the depths of a freezing winter, record
setting temperatures are predicted for D.C. in the summer.
