Sixty Days and Counting - Hardcover

Robinson, Kim Stanley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007148925 ISBN 13: 9780007148929

Publisher: Harper Voyager, 2007

Synopsis

In his first sixty days, President Phil Chase intends to prove he can change the world. A highly topical, taut, witty and entertaining science thriller.

By the time Phil Chase is elected President of the United States, the world's climate is well on the way to irrevocable change. It could be that a mass extinction event is beginning. A lot of the big mammals – tigers, gorillas – may already be in their last moments. But now even the Pentagon agrees that climate change is a bigger threat than terrorism, Phil Chase has the trillion-dollar military budget to call on for the technologically sublime task of saving the world.

Frank Vanderwal, in the office of Presidential science advisor, finds something reassuring about the world being so messed up. It makes his own life look like part of a trend. He's been homeless for a year, the ex-husband of the love of his life did permanent injury to his nose – probably his brain – with a punch, and the love of his life has had to go into hiding from the secret service, which has Frank under surveillance, too … but meanwhile there's the world to save. Frank's a scientist. He has to save the world so that science can proceed, obviously. This has become known as the Frank Principle.

China is close to meltdown, the security agencies are in overdrive, carbon figures are close to cooking the world … and the team has sixty days to establish a new reality.

About this title

About the Author

Kim Stanley Robinson was born in 1952 and, after travelling and working around the world, has now settled in his beloved California. He is widely regarded as the finest science fiction writer working today, noted as much for the verisimilitude of his characters as the meticulously researched hard science basis of his work. He has won just about every major sf award there is to win and is the author of the massively successful and lavishly praised Mars series.

From the Inside Flap

By the time Phil Chase is elected President of the United
States, the world's climate is well on the way to irrevocable change. It
could be that a mass extinction event is beginning. A lot of the big
mammals - tigers, gorillas - may already be in their last moments. But now
even the Pentagon agrees that climate change is a bigger threat than
terrorism, Phil Chase has the trillion-dollar military budget to call on
for the technologically sublime task of saving the world.

Frank Vanderwal, in the office of Presidential science advisor, finds
something reassuring about the world being so messed up. It makes his own
life look like part of a trend. He's been homeless for a year, he has brain
damage from trying to break up a fight, the love of his life has had to go
into hiding from the secret service, and Frank is under surveillance, too,
by even blacker agencies. But meanwhile there's the world to save.

Phil Chase intends to kick-start the saving of the world within his first
sixty days! Charlie Quibler is back at work on the President's staff
instigating the decapitation of the World Bank before free market
fundamentalists drag us into some dismal feudal eternity and destroy
everything in the process.

An ecological disaster overwhelms China and carbon figures are close to
cooking the rest of the world, the battle of science versus capitalism
erupts in this taut, topical and witty thriller.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Voyager
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0007148925
• ISBN 13: 9780007148929
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 512