Forty Signs of Rain
(Libby/OverDrive eBook, Kindle)

The new novel by the best-selling author of the award-winning Mars trilogy ( Red Mars, 1993; Blue Mars, 1994; and Green Mars, 1996) as well as 14 other books deals with the danger of global warming. His protagonist is Anna Quibler, a scientist at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Virginia. A chunk of the Ross Ice Shelf has broken off, a chunk more than half the size of France. The Arctic Ocean ice-pack breakup has flooded the surface of the North Atlantic with freshwater, and the hypernino, now into its forty-second month, has spun up another tropical system in the Pacific, north of the equator, and is barreling northeast toward California. Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware have been declared federal disaster areas, and it is up to the NSF to save the country, if not the world. Robinson intertwines this plot with family-life details--about, specifically, Anna and her husband's love of their children, which, unfortunately, becomes a little too extraneous to the story. Nevertheless, the novel ends with a noble cause: the NSF staff determined to curb global warming. Expect demand for this topical and compelling story. --George Cohen Copyright 2004 Booklist

In this cerebral near-future novel, the first in a trilogy, Robinson (The Years of Rice and Salt) explores the events leading up to a worldwide catastrophe brought on by global warming. Each of his various viewpoint characters holds a small piece of the puzzle and can see calamity coming, but is helpless before the indifference of the politicians and capitalists who run America. Anna Quibler, a National Science Foundation official in Washington, D.C., sifts through dozens of funding proposals each day, while her husband, Charlie, handles life as a stay-at-home dad and telecommutes to his job as an environmental adviser to a liberal senator. Another scientist, Frank Vanderwal, finds his sterile worldview turned upside down after attending a lecture on Buddhist attitudes toward science given by the ambassador from Khembalung, a nation virtually inundated by the rising Indian Ocean. Robinson's tale lacks the drama and excitement of such other novels dealing with global climate change as Bruce Sterling's Heavy Weather and John Barnes's Mother of Storms, but his portrayal of how actual scientists would deal with this disaster-in-the-making is utterly convincing. Robinson clearly cares deeply about our planet's future, and he makes the reader care as well. Agent, Ralph Vicinanza. (June 8) FYI: Robinson's Mars trilogy (Red Mars, etc.) received one Nebula and two Hugo awards. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Adult/High School-An elegantly crafted and beguiling novel set in the very near future. Anna Quibler is a technocrat at the National Science Foundation while her husband, Charlie, takes care of their toddler and telecommutes as a legislative consultant to a senator. Their family life is a delight to observe, as are the interactions of the scientists at the NSF and related organizations. When a Buddhist delegation, whose country is being flooded because of climate change, opens an embassy near the NSF, the Quiblers befriend them and teach them to work the system of politics and grants. The Buddhists, in turn, affect the scientists in delightful and unexpectedly significant ways. The characters all share information and theories, appreciating the threat that global warming poses, but they just can't seem to awaken a sense of urgency in the politicians who could do something about it. (Robinson's characterizations of politicians are barbed, and often hilarious.) As the scientists focus on the minutiae of their lives, the specter of global warming looms over all, inexorably causing a change here, a change there, until all the imbalances combine to bring about a brilliantly visualized catastrophe that readers will not soon forget. Even as he outlines frighteningly plausible scenarios backed up by undeniable facts, the author charms with domesticity and humor. This beautifully paced novel stands on its own, but it is the first of a trilogy. As readers wait impatiently for the next volume, they will probably find themselves paying closer attention to science, to politics, and to the weather.-Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

First in a trio of ecothrillers. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

After defying all expectations with his alternative history The Years of Rice and Salt (2002), Robinson hews back to the expected with the soggy first of a trilogy that has promise nowhere near what the Mars trilogy had. Set just a few years into the future, this one takes as its subject not the colonization of Mars, but something that should be more close to home and yet feels much more distant: catastrophic climate change. To populate this end-of-the-world scenario, Robinson has assembled a pretty unexciting and vanilla band of egghead experts. There's National Science Foundation program director Frank Vanderwahl, who has a tendency, when around humans, to think about them in evolutionary terms--making it quickly understandable why he doesn't seem to have had a girlfriend in quite some time. Charlie Quibler is a stay-at-home-dad and scientific adviser who's working on an environmental bill that, if passed, could have global ramifications for the better. Robinson also puts in, just for excitement's measure, Leo Mulhouse, a researcher at a West Coast biotech startup--these aren't the most engaging people in the world. Meanwhile, the only serious signs of climate change--affected by global warming, which is causing the polar icecaps to melt away, drastically altering the world's oceans--is that it's really hot in DC in the summer, and there's a doozy of a storm on the way. Now, your average 1970s disaster-novel writer might have had the same nerdy cast of characters but would have given them a few extracurricular affairs, a brush with the law, something to stir this mightily dull stew. Robinson is a true square, always has been, but that's never been a problem until now. As stiff and hard SF as they were, the Mars books succeeded through the sheer chutzpah of their epic insight. This one feels like the ho-hum preview for a run-of-the-mill end-of-the-world story. A hard rain is going to fall, yes indeed. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

The new novel by the best-selling author of the award-winning Mars trilogy (Red Mars, 1993; Blue Mars, 1994; and Green Mars, 1996) as well as 14 other books deals with the danger of global warming. His protagonist is Anna Quibler, a scientist at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Virginia. A chunk of the Ross Ice Shelf has broken off, a chunk more than half the size of France. The Arctic Ocean ice-pack breakup has flooded the surface of the North Atlantic with freshwater, and the hypernino, now into its forty-second month, has spun up another tropical system in the Pacific, north of the equator, and is barreling northeast toward California. Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware have been declared federal disaster areas, and it is up to the NSF to save the country, if not the world. Robinson intertwines this plot with family-life details--about, specifically, Anna and her husband's love of their children, which, unfortunately, becomes a little too extraneous to the story. Nevertheless, the novel ends with a noble cause: the NSF staff determined to curb global warming. Expect demand for this topical and compelling story. ((Reviewed April 15, 2004)) Copyright 2004 Booklist Reviews.

Stem-cell research. Genetic therapy. Global warming. This tale of politicians, scientists, and venture capitalists intent on finding a way to manipulate everyone else is nothing if not au courant. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

First in a trio of ecothrillers. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Focusing mostly on the quotidian working and domestic lives of three scientists-a bioinformatics specialist, a National Science Foundation statistician, and a consulting climatologist-this ecological novel from the author of the Nebula and Hugo Award-winning "Mars" trilogy examines the incrementally increasing, but unmistakably devastating effects of global warming. Somewhat awkwardly connected to this main plot are two subplots: a team of microbiologists at a Southern Californian biotech startup endeavor to discover a targeted, nonviral delivery system for gene therapy, and some Tibetan exiles lobby the United States to help save their Indian Ocean island home from being overrun by rising ocean levels. The novel ultimately offers a brief for scientists to play a more politically active role in developing policies and programs to limit global warming and other ecological threats, yet it also dramatizes the bureaucratic difficulties involved. While the novel doesn't always hang together, it remains interesting and timely. The first in a new trilogy; recommended for all public libraries where fan demand and interest warrants. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/04.]-Roger A. Berger, Everett Community Coll., WA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

In this cerebral near-future novel, the first in a trilogy, Robinson (The Years of Rice and Salt) explores the events leading up to a worldwide catastrophe brought on by global warming. Each of his various viewpoint characters holds a small piece of the puzzle and can see calamity coming, but is helpless before the indifference of the politicians and capitalists who run America. Anna Quibler, a National Science Foundation official in Washington, D.C., sifts through dozens of funding proposals each day, while her husband, Charlie, handles life as a stay-at-home dad and telecommutes to his job as an environmental adviser to a liberal senator. Another scientist, Frank Vanderwal, finds his sterile worldview turned upside down after attending a lecture on Buddhist attitudes toward science given by the ambassador from Khembalung, a nation virtually inundated by the rising Indian Ocean. Robinson's tale lacks the drama and excitement of such other novels dealing with global climate change as Bruce Sterling's Heavy Weather and John Barnes's Mother of Storms, but his portrayal of how actual scientists would deal with this disaster-in-the-making is utterly convincing. Robinson clearly cares deeply about our planet's future, and he makes the reader care as well. Agent, Ralph Vicinanza. (June 8)FYI: Robinson's Mars trilogy (Red Mars, etc.) received one Nebula and two Hugo awards. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Adult/High School-An elegantly crafted and beguiling novel set in the very near future. Anna Quibler is a technocrat at the National Science Foundation while her husband, Charlie, takes care of their toddler and telecommutes as a legislative consultant to a senator. Their family life is a delight to observe, as are the interactions of the scientists at the NSF and related organizations. When a Buddhist delegation, whose country is being flooded because of climate change, opens an embassy near the NSF, the Quiblers befriend them and teach them to work the system of politics and grants. The Buddhists, in turn, affect the scientists in delightful and unexpectedly significant ways. The characters all share information and theories, appreciating the threat that global warming poses, but they just can't seem to awaken a sense of urgency in the politicians who could do something about it. (Robinson's characterizations of politicians are barbed, and often hilarious.) As the scientists focus on the minutiae of their lives, the specter of global warming looms over all, inexorably causing a change here, a change there, until all the imbalances combine to bring about a brilliantly visualized catastrophe that readers will not soon forget. Even as he outlines frighteningly plausible scenarios backed up by undeniable facts, the author charms with domesticity and humor. This beautifully paced novel stands on its own, but it is the first of a trilogy. As readers wait impatiently for the next volume, they will probably find themselves paying closer attention to science, to politics, and to the weather.-Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.