Forty Signs of Rain - Softcover

Robinson, Kim Stanley

3.55

4,130 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007148879 ISBN 13: 9780007148875

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2004

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It's hot in Washington. No sign of rain. The world's climates are changing, catastrophe beckons, but no one in power is noticing. Yet. Tom Wolfe meets Michael Crichton in this highly topical, taut, witty and entertaining science thriller.

When the Arctic ice pack was first measured in the 1950s, it averaged thirty feet thick in midwinter. By the end of the century it was down to fifteen. One August the ice broke. The next year the break-up started in July. The third year, it began in May.

That was last year.

It's an increasingly steamy summer in America's capital as environmental policy advisor Charlie Quibler cares for his young son, and deals with the frustrating politics of global warming. According to the President and his science advisor Dr S, the weather isn’t important! But Charlie must find a way to get a sceptical administration to act before it's too late – and his progeny find themselves living in Swamp World.

Just arrived in Washington to lobby the Senate for aid is an embassy from Khembalung, a sinking island nation in the Bay of Bengal. Charlie's wife Anna, director of bioinformatics at the National Science Foundation and well known for her hyperrational intensity, is entranced by the Khembalis. By contrast, her colleague, Frank Vanderwal, is equally cynical about the Buddhists and the NSF.

The profound effect the Khembali ambassador has on both Charlie and Frank could never have been predicted – unlike the abrupt, catastrophic climate change which is about to transform everything.

Forty Signs of Rain is an unforgettable tale of survival which captures a world where even the innocent pattern of rainfall resounds with the destiny of the biosphere.

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Review:

‘One of the finest working novelists in any genre’
GUARDIAN

'If I had to choose one writer whose work will set the standard for science fiction in the future, it would be Kim Stanley Robinson’
NEW YORK TIMES

Praise for the Science in the Capital series:

‘The BRAVE NEW WORLD of global warming ... A narrative that is rich in closely observed characters and a wonderfully vivid sense of place ... depicts a society sleep-walking towards the abyss’
GUARDIAN

‘A funny, convincing, intelligent book’
INDEPENDENT

‘Finely written and persuasively paints what may be – if climate change happens the way so many scientists fear’
SFX

Synopsis:

The first of three linked novels set in the strife-torn world of big science, operating out of the corrupt political heart of the developed world In the interface between big science and big business lies the potential for the absolute destruction or salvation of our world, as new discoveries open ever more remarkable doorways into the future. And while good intentions may underlie the science that leads to these discoveries, human greed, on an individual, political or corporate basis, will always seek a way to exploit each and every new development. Combining superb narrative and beautiful writing, these will not only be highly entertaining thrillers but will also offer the reader a privileged insight into and greater understanding of the bigger picture and how the jigsaw pieces of science, politics and business operate in the modern world.

The events of the books will focus on: a science-industrial spy, based in part on the amazing multiple-lives of FBI spy Ronald Hansen; a US patent office lawyer; a venture capitalist; a Washington lobbyist; a Congressional aide; a Buddhist scientist, recently arrived in the West; a Senator and several scientists at a biotech lab outside Washington: and the storylines will include births, deaths, marriages and murder, as well as all the political, scientific and espionage elements: life on the micro, as well as the macro, level.

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