NY2140 is largely a novel with several plots of the conspiracy kind, but almost lacks an overt plot of the story kind. This compartmentalised structure maintains the flow of the novel and neatly disguises something. And each we begin to care about as they grow in the novel. Each has their own interesting things to say about their world. Mutt and Jeff, coders whose attempted hack on the financial systems precipitates the personal events of the novel Inspector Gen Octaviasdottir, policewoman who looks into Mutt and Jeff’s disappearance Charlotte, the lawyer & head of the Met residents Vlade, building supervisor passionate about his work and nursing a dark past Franklin, unscrupulous market trader gambling on his algorithms being ahead of the game, and it is a game Amelia Black, globetrotting cloud sensation with a dirigible from which she films her beloved wildlife and uneducated 12 year old orphan squatters with impulsive grand ideas Stefan and Roberto. (Clue: it’s a feature not a bug.) In this respect a novel set 123 years from now takes on the mantle of a historical novel.Įach broad chapter in this 600+ page novel is, like the Met skyscraper, split into units focused on 8 character sets. It’s a polemic about how and more pertinently why our market based economic systems fail and fail again. Here’s the thing though, despite Robinson’s just reputation as a (the?) leading climate change novelist, New York 2140 isn’t about climate change really. Robmatic: I’m not aware of any other novels that are set in a future flooded New York. What a stunningly original idea for a story. In the comments on Adam Roberts’ Guardian review we find the following exchange: Robinson’s characters live co-operatively mostly in one building, the former Met Life skyscraper, but exist in a variety of colliding worlds outside. Coastal cities are therefore largely underwater. Kim Stanley Robinson’s fascinating and provocative 18th novel New York 2140 is set several decades after two major climate events have raised sea levels hugely.

Ny 2140