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Sixty Days and Counting (Science in the…
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Sixty Days and Counting (Science in the Capital Book 3) (original 2007; edition 2007)

by Kim Stanley Robinson (Author)

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7902427,831 (3.56)39
I wanted to like this concluding volume of Robinson's trilogy more than I did--in fact, parts were very good. What holds me back and reduces my rating is primarily the naive politics, often expressed in unbelievable blog "chats" by the President of the US. The conspiracy suspense story is fun and exciting. The "domestic" drama of a father trying to do right by his young sons also good. The science in the science fiction is plausible and the effects of global climate change all-too likely. Then there is the unlikely resolution to all-things China that spoils much of the end of the book. I do like the weaving of Buddhism, science, and real politik. And the characters are complex and interesting. ( )
  dasam | Jun 20, 2018 |
English (22)  French (2)  All languages (24)
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Laatste deel van de trilogie, waarbij nu CO2-uitstoot (en bijkomende opwarming) een belangrijke rol speelt en dus de temperatuur op aarde enorm zal/kan beïnvloeden, zoals het smelten van de poolkappen en hoe dat enorme gevolgen heeft qua stijging van de zeespiegel, enz... Verschillende voorstellen worden uitgedokterd (o.a. water verpompen om het smelten tegen te gaan, droge landstukken weer met water vullen, ...), zonder echt te weten wat de gevolgen op (lange) termijn zullen zijn.

Ook speelt Frank Vanderwal nog steeds een hoofdrol, net als zijn nieuwe vriendin Caroline (geheime dienst), die moet onderduiken want in levensgevaar voor de kwaaie bedoelingen van haar man. Intussen speelt ze wel bewijsmateriaal voor de stemvervalsing van de verkiezingen door aan Frank, die dat op zijn beurt aan zijn collega's doorgeeft voor onderzoek. En zo komt er nog meer aan het licht, o.a. hoeveel geheime diensten er wel niet bestaan (en hoe het eigenlijk een zootje is). Frank zelf is ook in gevaar, wordt ook gevolgd in zijn doen en laten. Dat drijft hem zover dat hij de Tibetanen (Khembalung) verlaat - hij heeft er wel een hele tijd gewoond, ook helpen de nieuwe locatie in te richten (boomhut en zo) - en bij zijn makkers in het bos (eerder de krakers) gaat overnachten. Hij verkocht zelfs z'n busje om een ouder VW-busje te kopen en die op te knappen. Kwestie van iets anoniemer de baan op te zijn. Zijn boomhut was intussen toch vernield door het team van Cooper (man van Caroline).

De korstmossen van Yann Pierzinski en Marta (Franks ex) zijn zo goed dat ze zich in een onverwacht grote mate verspreiden. Ze zijn bijna té goed. Wat dat voor gevolgen heeft/zal hebben, kunnen ze niet voorspellen, want ze hadden niet op een dergelijke groei gerekend.

USA en China zijn in gesprekken inzake verbetering van het milieu en dus reductie van de CO2-uitstoot, evenals oplossingen voor schonere energie (= sluiting kolencentrales), met behulp van de Navy. Elektriciteitsproblemen zijn er nog steeds in Amerika (gelukkig zijn er generatoren). Charlie Quibler heeft het drukker dan ooit, maar vindt dat z'n jongste zoon, Joe, na de geestenuitdrijving door de Tibetanen, niet meer de spontane deugniet is. Vandaar dat Charlie vraagt om de betrokken geest te laten terugkeren zodat Joe weer de deugniet wordt ipv een iets kalmere versie. En zo kan Charlie dan weer aan thuiswerk doen, hoewel dat niet volgens de zin van president Phil Chase is, gezien de belangrijke milieukwesties die hoogdringend dienen aangepakt te worden.

Lang verhaal kort: het wordt spannender en spannender en alles komt uiteindelijk wel op z'n pootjes terecht. Zoals voorheen wordt elk deel geïntroduceerd door een tekst met spirituele dan wel wetenschappelijke inhoud (op vertelwijze, dus geen droge afhaspeling van feiten e.d.). Wel dienen er zich enkele typfouten aan, zoals nsf ipv NSF en dergelijke kleine dingetjes. Op zich niet erg, maar je kunt er niet naast kijken. Ook staat er weer heel wat filosofisch spul in van Emerson en Thoreau. Verder vergelijkingen met oude presidenten van de USA: Roosevelt (vooral deze, want Phil Chase spiegelt zich daaraan), Lincoln, ... Een mooie mix van fictie, wetenschappelijke input en geschiedenis. Altijd leuk wanneer je iets bijleert. :-)

Zoals eerder gezegd dien je de 3 boeken als een trilogie te lezen, anders ben je niet meer in het verhaal. Als je wat science-minded bent en bezorgd (of het ligt in je interessesfeer) over het milieu, klimaatkwesties, ... dan is deze trilogie zeker een aanrader, wat mij betreft. Misschien niet Kim Stanley Robinsons beste serie, maar zeker de moeite. Tot slot is het ook een betoog tegen het kapitalisme dat de wereld al tientallen jaren in z'n greep houdt.

Dit waren m'n eerste KSR-boeken en ik ga zeker andere van zijn werken lezen. ( )
  TechThing | Jan 22, 2021 |
To be honest, this book does have some great concepts, and some of the social commentaries are bang on.
Other than that, this novel is pointless, lacks focus and frankly gets to be quite boring after a point. I'm surprised I finished it, but I kept expecting the tempo to suddenly increase and for everything to make sense. ( )
  Eternal.Optimist | Aug 22, 2018 |
I wanted to like this concluding volume of Robinson's trilogy more than I did--in fact, parts were very good. What holds me back and reduces my rating is primarily the naive politics, often expressed in unbelievable blog "chats" by the President of the US. The conspiracy suspense story is fun and exciting. The "domestic" drama of a father trying to do right by his young sons also good. The science in the science fiction is plausible and the effects of global climate change all-too likely. Then there is the unlikely resolution to all-things China that spoils much of the end of the book. I do like the weaving of Buddhism, science, and real politik. And the characters are complex and interesting. ( )
  dasam | Jun 20, 2018 |
Great trilogy. I've just started the third installment, but the first two were interesting to say the least. ( )
  jwilker | May 23, 2018 |
this is the last of Robinson's series on the climate change debate. His characters all have their lives somewhat in order, though I can't see how his minimalist character could have summoned the mental energy to conduct his mental life. I've lived in a tent for the summer, and after a while I had the mental resources of a gerbil.
But it's a good piece of dystopia, and should be read by more people who blithely assume that "Fracking" has solved the energy crisis. At best, we got a trade off of another fifteen years of liquid oil in return for a permanently (by man's standards, say 1500 years) damaged aquifer / water table system. And, more earthquakes will also result. ( )
  DinadansFriend | Jul 11, 2014 |
The final book of a trilogy about climate change and public policy. Maybe because the author is wrapping things up, and making a point throughout all three novels about climate change, I didn't get quite the same kick out of this one as I did the previous two novels. Still, one of the better reads on my list. ( )
  nmele | Apr 6, 2013 |
This is the third book in a trilogy about climate change. I think one could read this book without having read the first two but it would probably be very frustrating. So I would recommend that you read this after Forty Signs of Rain and Fifty Degrees Below.

This book starts just after the presidential election in the US in which Phil Chase, the charismatic Senator from the first two books, was elected after running on a platform that included a promise to do something about climate change. He asks Diane Chang, head of the National Science Foundation, to be his Science Advisor and Diane asks Frank Vanderwal to transfer to the new office along with her. Anna Quibler decides to stay with NSF but Charley Quibler has to actually work from the White House instead of staying home with Joe. And so they start working on some of the pressing environmental issues including doing something about the rise in ocean level.

I don't think it is a spoiler to say that there are no easy solutions but Chase and his team have some innovative ideas. Mixed in with this (which would make for a rather tedious read) is some romance and some skulduggery and some Buddhism. The first book of Kim Stanley Robinson's that I read, The Years of Rice and Salt, dealt with Eastern religion and philosophy so it is obvious that he is quite interested in that area. The Khembalis play a minor role in this trilogy but I really enjoyed their participation. The quotes from Emerson and Thoreau that Frank reads every day were less of a hit with me but it did make me feel that I really should read Walden some time.

I wish the real world leaders were as proactive as Phil Chase and his team. I hope there is a future for the next few generations but I don't think people are as concerned as they should be. As an example, I finished reading this book while camping at Birds Hill Park but my enjoyment of being out in nature was considerably diminished by the generator next door being run. If it is hard for people to give up their comforts for two days imagine the backlash if they were made to do without for years. It may take a crisis to wake people up and maybe by then it will be too late. ( )
  gypsysmom | Nov 22, 2011 |
Stan is an elegant writer. I will keep reading long after I should be in bed because I am caught up in his descriptions of rocks and trees and forests. BUT (and this is a big, flashing neon "but" of 60,000 watts), he is also a socialist with a Utopian vision of human behavior. One of his protagonists is a White House science adviser who lives in his VW van when he is not living in a tree house in Rock Creek Park. He eventually ends up as a squatter, foraging for food in dumpsters and sharing communal meals of dubious provenience. Wouldn't the Secret Service have a really, really hard time giving this idiot a White House guest pass much less a White House security clearance? Isn't anyone else skeptical of the fact that none of his squatter friends have a drug problem, a violence problem, or a sexual addiction?

Moreover the newly elected President advocates government control of energy and food production with full health care and full employment for all. His approval rating keeps rising even if there are devastating floods, food shortages and power blackouts on a regular basis. I do believe that government is necessary for social justice, but I also know that the government is also responsible for long lines at government offices like the DMV, the lack of new energy plants and oil refineries, and the antiquated Air Traffic Control System which costs the airlines billions in wasted fuel every year.

If all people were as selfless as his protagonists, then possibly they would live in a world as Robinson describes, but I have not seen many families who would choose to live in a Buddhist commune in a treehouse with a teenager and and ADHD toddler just to reduce their carbon footprint. Although I enjoy his writing, his perspective on human behavior is so far on the end of the altruistic bell shaped curve as to make them unrealistic as human beings. ( )
  kd9 | May 31, 2008 |
The book had some great concepts and ideas. The character Frank, however, becomes more annoying as he becomes weirder. Would love to read more of the president's ideas from his blogs in the last bit of the book. Some truly radical ideas that are worth pursuing. ( )
  gregandlarry | Jan 13, 2008 |
The conclusion to KSR's environment warning scenario.

As was the case in previous books the climate change problems are magnified and used as a hook to set the real points that KSR is clearly making - the importance of science in infroming political policy and the weirdness of global economics.

Phil Chase has won the election and is now president elect transitioning his way to power, Charlie is finding out that "Moms" have a very hard life indeed. Frank has still opted out of modern life, but manages to hold down his advisory job anyway, his nosebleed is becoming ever more problematical and just when decisions are hardest he has to decide what to do about his love for his boss and his mystery spook sort of girlfriend. Is she really on the side of angels?

There are many fine rants in this book, particularly about the way the world is currently organised. It is very US centric, assuming that once the US decides the rest of the world won't act contrairally, but this is no more unbelivable than the various technological silver bullets proposed, or the means invented of instigating them. However KSR does a fine job of explaining why it is so tricky, and really makes you think. The bizzare addition of the tibetan spiritualistic beliefs seems off, when compared to the very rational background of the remaining characters.

.............
After re-read:
That's a fair summary. It's the longest book of the three but the least actually happens. It's also the most removed from life as we know it. Phil manages to railroad through a selection of policies that fundamentally alter how the US works. Mostly we follow Frank who get increasingly obsessed about Caroline and her involvement int he nefarious 'black' operations world. This is where the inability of near future settings to accurately capture the technological leaps of ony five or ten years really shows. The technology used by the secret services is obselete already, and Frank is miles behind that which everyone has already. That said the ;Fregan' living style and the options of opting out of the modern technological world are highlighted as valid, and remain much unchanged today. One can quibble about the numbers.

It is all tied up in a very romantic and somewhat unbelivable ending. ( )
  reading_fox | Oct 29, 2007 |
Better than the second book; not as good as the first. Frank is just too annoying to be the protagonist of a trilogy of fairly thick books. ( )
  alexbook | Aug 8, 2007 |
for some reason, this book just took forever for me to read. after plowing through forty signs and fifty degrees, somehow this end to the trilogy just didn't suck me in the way the first two installments did. it wasn't a bad read, in fact it was in many ways better than the second book, but i felt myself pulling away from the story for some reason. as seems to happen sometimes with sci-fi writers, i think this book maybe got a little too fantastical for me - although in this case, it wasn't the science that was taken too far into the realm of suspension of disbelief. overall, the trilogy is well worth a read, especially for politicos. ( )
  philosojerk | Jul 14, 2007 |
...Sixty Days and Counting is the most optimistic of the three in a way, but reading it didn't make me share Robinson's optimism. In the book things get done. Despite my annoyance with the way the American political system believing the universe revolves around them (really, in that respect they can teach Wall Street a lesson) you get the sense that the characters in this novel will not let the world cook itself. We have now arrived more or less at the point in time where this novel is set, and if I look around, I still see an outrageous level of denial about the state of the planet and how much trouble we are really in. Robinson is right, we can change things if we want to. But apparently we don't. There is a good chance we'll see another El Niño event this year and some predictions indicate it will be a strong one. Let's hope it won't be the hyperniño described in Forty Signs of Rain. I'm beginning to wonder if in the end, that is what it will take to wake people up. I'd much prefer it if people read these books, thought about it, and not let it come to that.

Full Random Comments review ( )
  Valashain | Jun 30, 2007 |
Not usually a big Robinson fan, I thoroughly enjoyed this series and want to have firsts of FORTY and FIFTY. This comes at a time when I am getting interested in climate change for work.

In retrospect, SIXTY DAYS does read a bit like a wish fulfillment fantasy. Climate change will come sooner rather than later, everyone will be sorry, and we'll adopt progressive scientific strategies for responding. Personally, I think it's a lot more likely that it will be gradual, and that we will bust through the 4xCO2 barrier (1120 ppm, 4x the historic level) before we really make much progress on managing it. ( )
  wfzimmerman | Apr 28, 2007 |
Sixty Days and Counting is the final book in Kim Stanley Robinson's "Science in the Capitol" series. A new president brings our scientist heroes inside the Beltway, as rising sea levels and increasingly wild weather make the dangers of global warming clear to the world's population.

During the day, Robinson's characters fight the good fight; outside work, they continue to deal with their own personal issues. Frank vanderWaal, now the Assistant National Science Advisor, deals with the consequences of his injury, his love for a mysterious woman involved in troubling events, and his confused living conditions. Charlie Quibbler deals with the changes in his son Joe after the Tibetan ritual in the previous book. Science advances, the world realigns, politics fall to practicality, love blooms.

I find Robinson's books inspirational -- I share many of the characters' enthusiasms, as well as some of their foibles and confusion about the best way to live our lives. Sixty Days and Counting continues that pattern, and I am both eagerly looking forward to his next book and to the opportunities to get involved in sustainability efforts at home and at work. ( )
  cmc | Apr 15, 2007 |
I love most of Kim Stanley Robinson's books, but I've had a hard time with this trilogy (starts with Forty Signs of Rain). I like the concept and the characters, but I find it takes me *forever* to get through the books. They're just not grabbing me. Still, a very intersting look at how we might deal with and be afffected by climate change in the very near future. ( )
  juliapequlia | Mar 29, 2007 |
Conclusion of Science in the Capital ( )
  jefware | Jun 9, 2016 |
exciting action-packed environmental thriller : Phil Chase is elected president of the United States because of his environmental platform though it might be too late as the climate has been devastated to the point that it behaves erratic with incredible swings. Still the upbeat President Chase insists it is not over yet that we can turn it around, but no longer can politicians hide in a bush from An Inconvenient Truth that doing nothing means the death of the third world from the sun.

Chase sets things in motion with the biggest government effort since FDR; perhaps even greater than the Great Depression WWII battles. Things look a bit more positive when the stagnant Gulf Stream begins recirculating but that will not be enough to save our planet. He has brought together a top rate team of experts to end the trend of a speeding death and beyond that bring life back to earth. Charlie Quibler is on the squad though that means he no longer can spend as much time as he needs to with son. National Science Foundation scientist Frank Vanderwal is still recovering from a brain injury suffered when he and his beloved espionage agent Caroline Barr prevented a conspiracy to steal the election from Chase, and Caroline is now also on the team. However, as they seek scientific solutions and the President seeks the political will to do the tough decisions, others like the status quo that leaves them with affluence and power not caring about saving the earth, as they will be dead before the planet's final death.

This is an exciting action-packed environmental thriller that makes a powerful case that global warming is destroying the planet. The environmental debates between key players augment the tale as they are lucid, intelligent and decisive, which in turn augments the belief to the reader that the end is near if we do nothing. As with FIFTY DEGREES BELOW, Kim Stanley Robinson turns up the heat on those who insist global warming has not been proven with this compelling tale that even with plenty of exhilarating escapades insists final proof will prove too late.

Harriet Klausner
  lonepalm | Dec 8, 2011 |
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