The bestselling author of the classic Mars trilogy and The Years of
Rice and Salt returns with a riveting new trilogy of cutting-edge
science, international politics, and the real-life ramifications of
global warming as they are played out in our nation's capital-and in the
daily lives of those at the center of the action. Hauntingly realistic,
here is a novel of the near future that is inspired by scientific facts
already making headlines.
When the Arctic ice pack was first measured in the 1950s, it averaged 30
feet thick in midwinter. By the end of the century it was down to 15.
One August the ice broke. The next year the breakup started in July. The
third year it began in May. That was last year.
It's an increasingly steamy summer in the nation's capital as Senate
environmental staffer Charlie Quibler cares for his young son and deals
with the frustrating politics of global warming. Charlie must find a way
to get a skeptical administration to act before it's too late-and his
progeny find themselves living in Swamp World. But the political climate
poses almost as great a challenge as the environmental crisis when it
comes to putting the public good ahead of private gain.
While Charlie struggles to play politics, his wife, Anna, takes a more
rational approach to the looming crisis in her work at the National
Science Foundation. There a proposal has come in for a revolutionary
process that could solve the problem of global warming-if it can be
recognized in time. But when a race to control the budding technology
begins, the stakes only get higher. As these everyday heroes fight to
align the awesome forces of nature with the extraordinary march of
modern science, they are unaware that fate is about to put an unusual
twist on their work-one that will place them at the heart of an
unavoidable storm.
BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction by author Kim Stanley
Robinson.
