Three Californias Trilogy
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The Three Californias Trilogy (also known as the Wild Shore Triptych and the Orange County Trilogy) consists of three books by Kim Stanley Robinson, that depict three different possible futures of Orange County, California. The three books that make up the trilogy are The Wild Shore, The Gold Coast and Pacific Edge. Each of these books describes the life of young people in the three very different near-futures.
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[edit] Summaries
[edit] The Wild Shore
The Wild Shore was Robinson's first published novel. The Wild Shore (1984) is the story of survivors of a nuclear war. The nuclear strike was 2000 to 3000 neutron bombs which were detonated in 2000 of America's biggest cities in 1987. They have started over again, forming little villages and living from agriculture and the sea. The theme of the first chapters is that of a quite normal science fiction pastoral, which is deconstructed in the latter chapters, especially when it becomes clear that the post-nuclear war rural life is hindered from developing further by international treaties imposed by the victorious U.S.S.R., with an unwilling Japan charged with patrolling the West coast. The Wild Shore was nominated for both the Nebula and Philip K. Dick Awards in 1984.[1]
[edit] The Gold Coast
In The Gold Coast (1988) we learn about the Southern California of 2027, a dystopian extension of today's Los Angeles and car oriented architecture, mobility and life-style: "an endless sprawl of condos, freeways and malls." The book describes the life of 27-year-old Jim McPherson, who finds himself between literary and academic interests, anti-weapons-industry terrorism, and drugs, parties and casual sex. The Gold Coast was nominated for the Campbell, Locus, and British Science Fiction Awards in 1989.[2]
[edit] Pacific Edge
Pacific Edge (1990) can be compared to Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia, and also to Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed. This book's Californian future is set in El Modena, California in 2065. It depicts a realistic utopia as it describes a possible transformation process from our present to an ecologically sane future. The book does not assume a blank slate from which ecologial utopia can be erected, but assumes the buildings, cities and infrastructures of our past and present. An important aspect of the book is the way these are changed to become "green". Pacific Edge is also realistic insofar as conflicts about diverging interests play a big role. In 2065, these are mainly conflicts between Greens and New Federals as the main political parties which are the A.A.M.T. using small companies to buy the last piece of wilderness in the area and develop it; but also conflicts on the personal scale, for example, Kevin Claiborn, the main character builds a romantic relationship with the mayor's former lover. From a literary critique point of view the broad descriptions of nature and landscape are of interest, as well as the self-references in regard to writing about utopian futures vs. actual political work. Pacific Edge was the winner of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1991.[3]
These books, especially Pacific Edge, can be seen as forerunners to Robinson's Mars trilogy.
[edit] External links
- The Orange County trilogy at KimStanleyRobinson.info
- Audio review and discussion of The Gold Coast at The Science Fiction Book Review Podcast
[edit] References
- ^ "2003 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=2003. Retrieved 2009-07-06.
- ^ "1989 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1989. Retrieved 2009-07-06.
- ^ "1991 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1991. Retrieved 2009-07-06.
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