This is how the world ends

fantastic imaginative storytelling. I enjoyed the many first person narratives, and how the environmental disasters are played out on the world stage. Also the hard science and political theory, my goodness, if you're on the fence on purchasing this book, don't be, it's one of the most fascinating narrative stories about US as a people's, and our place on this fragile blue green dot we call home, Earth.

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This Book is perfect

I am not usually a listener of fiction...

but this beast had me gripped. not only is it a great story, it manages to imagine a post-capitalist world...

...which is some of the most original thinking I have encountered in ages...

simply marvellous

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brilliantly systemic exploration of our future

The analytical parts of this story are priceless. The story itself is mostly interesting but I felt some passages overlong and even self indulgent. the reading is a bit mixed, certainly good enough but not great with occasional errors that should have been picked up. but this is a timely book bordering on a must-read, and the most fully systemic view of a planet since Dune.

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1 person found this helpful

Really interesting story almost unlistenable voice acting

I think very hard to enjoy due to distracting voices that do not add to the story in any meaningful way. What is wrong with just having someone with a comprehensible voice reading the story without doing absurd accents. All of the accents attempted are done so half-heartedly and creates a squirming awkwardness when trying to enjoy the story.

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Thought-provoking

What will the future look like? Kim Stanley Robinson has thought widely and imaginatively about this question, and has clearly drawn deeply from the work of many people who are trying to solve our most frightening ecological and political challenges. The future he creates in this book doesn't always convince - and the narrative device might not always work - but it deserves huge credit for taking a global view of our globalized world. If you want to move beyond a doom-laden, frozen and terrifying vision of tomorrow, and think about how challenges and change can accelerate solutions, it is worth a listen.

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Interesting story but tough to get through

Interesting story that may just turn out to become reality. It is rather tough or dense to get through though.

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Science over Story

🧡 This was fascinating and so very insightful about world politics and economics. It's an incredibly detailed imagining of a climate catastrophe and its aftermath. But as a work of fiction alone, it falls short, with the story very much secondary to the science. I’m still glad I listened and it's made me think about so much, but it is much more dire warning than novel.

💚 I’d compare it to World War Z in tone and structure, but with climate change instead of zombies. Both are a series of separate accounts in the aftermath of a disaster. But this doesn’t hang together as tightly.
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SOUNDBITE

🎧 Eleven narrators take on this mammoth tome and, for the most part, deliver admirably. However, there are some questionable accents and strange production choices at times.

🎧 There were enjoyable aspects of the audiobook, but on balance, I’d recommend the written version. This was very hard to follow in audio form.

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Complex and realistic science but unfortunately fiction

Perseverance is key. Hard going at times but ultimately enjoyable, this book left me with mixed feelings of hope, poignancy, melancholy and mild panic. There is only a loose story structure into which sections of pertinent science fact, economic studies and fictional witness accounts are slotted to support the overall narrative, which is essentially a step-by-step instruction manual on how to reverse climate change and achieve the utopian dream of a united world living in harmony.

The narration is a little unusual but I found it strangely charming. Each character had their own unique style, some of which I preferred to others but it helped to differentiate the sections and keep it interesting.

Yes it’s ideological but that’s what books are for. We can but dream.

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Moving, motivating look at climate change effects

Incredible writing and content let down by a terrible performance.

The story is engaging, timely and genuinely motivating. It's the KSR you expect (if you like it you like it), but perhaps angrier and more urgent.

But... whoever plays Mary (arguably the main role, though it's ensemble) really struggled with the text.

I would recommend this book to everyone, as it is such a moving, motivating look at the effects of climate change. However, I may suggest the text version, or wait until there is a new audio production of this.

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A hugely important book for our time.

A playbook of solutions to climate change, wrapped up in a great story. if Don't Look Up explains the urgency of the situation, this book tells us what we need to do about it.
Hopeful, inspiring, terrifying.

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