Kim Stanley Robinson - Other Novels

Other Novels

• Icehenge (1984) tells the story, from different viewpoints, of the discovery of a monument in the style of Stonehenge found carved from ice on Pluto and the subsequent investigation into its origin. Because humans can now live hundreds or thousands of years, they can no longer trust their own memories; which makes this novel a mystery: At least two characters claim they know the truth behind the monument. The setting of this novel bears strong resemblances to the Mars trilogy, albeit with darker, more dystopian undertones.
• The Memory of Whiteness (1985) deals with a fantastic, unique musical instrument and the trials faced by its newest master as he tours the solar system; how it is described seems to contain the beginnings of many of the ideas later put to use in the Mars trilogy, although it is set centuries later.
• A Short, Sharp Shock (1990) one of Robinson's few fantasy stories, dealing with an amnesiac man traveling through a mysterious land - a ridge which encircles a planet, surrounded by oceans - in pursuit of a woman who features in his first memories.
• Galileo's Dream is a partially fictionalized biography of Galileo Galilei in which he is summoned by 29th century inhabitants of the Galilean moons who seek his advice. (UK release: August 6, 2009; US release: December 29, 2009).
• 2312 (2012) is set 300 years in the future, when most of the solar system has been colonized, and Earth has been ravaged by climate change.