Forty Signs of Rain

April 12, 2004
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.

August 1, 2003
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 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2004
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 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2004
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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)