Description: "Before Kim Stanley Robinson published the international bestsellers Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars, he made his reputation as one of SF's most trenchant thinkers with his Three Californias trilogy: three science fiction novels set in three different possible futures of Orange County, California. The Wild Shore is post-apocalyptic; The Gold Coast is manic if-this-goes-on future reminiscent of the work of Philip K. Dick; and Pacific Edge is a visionary green utopia."--
Brief description:
Francis Spufford is the author of several highly praised books of nonfiction, including his debut, I May Be Some Time, which won the Writers' Guild Award for Best Nonfiction Book of 1996, the Banff Mountain Book Prize, and a Somerset Maugham Award. It was followed by The Child That Books Built, Backroom Boys, Red Plenty (translated into nine languages), and Unapologetic. His first novel, Golden Hill, won the Costa First Novel Award. In 2007 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He teaches writing at Goldsmiths College and lives near Cambridge.
Review Quotes:
The Wild Shore
"There's a fresh wind blowing in The Wild Shore. Welcome, Kim Stanley Robinson." --Ursula K. Le Guin "Part Huck Finn and part Our Town, Robinson's first novel is a well-written, engaging rite of passage..." --Publishers Weekly"Captivating and unflaggingly readable..."--Washington Post Book World "This rich fable is warm but excoriatingly honest and connects with the vulnerable cynicism so many of us feel about our political lives...It offers us something more precious even than gold: pride in being an American."--Philadelphia Inquirer The Gold Coast
"In this novel, Kim Stanley Robinson illuminates the selfishness and folly of the twenty-first century better than anyone actually living in the twenty first century is ever likely to."--Gene Wolfe "It is a rich, brave book."--John Clute, The Washington Post Book World "What a bold, manic, wonderful book this is!"--Los Angeles Times "Like light focused into a coherent beam, The Gold Coast brilliantly illuminates the craziness of technology out of control."--Interzone "Readers who seldom touch science fiction will enjoy it and certainly not find it disorienting."--The Philadelphia Inquirer Pacific Edge "An outstanding achievement."--Publishers Weekly "Pacific Edge...will definitely keep your attention from page one to grand finale."--The Houston Post "[Robinson] invites us to share his characters' intensely personal, intensely local attachment to what they have. The result is a bittersweet utopia that may shame you into entertaining new hope for the future."--The New York Times Book Review "Utterly convincing. There are no false notes."--The Washington Post Book World