Review | Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson

Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson

I recently finished reading the Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson, a science-fiction novel set in the near future (well, a few hundred years in the future, so maybe not that near). It tells the story of the interstellar journey of a generation ship, and its enormous crew, as they cross the depths of space. Their goal is to establish a colony on Aurora, a moon orbiting a distant planet of another solar system.

Suffice to say, things do not go well. In fact, they are constantly and consistently getting worse through the course of the novel. Robinson’s thesis seems to be that man was not made for traveling the stars nor for living on any other planet. Life is designed to evolve and does evolve, on a planetary basis, which life forms from bacteria up to humanity evolving in concert. As such as soon as life leaves its mother ecosystem, it comes under attack by forces for which it is not equipped to survive.

This isn’t just the often-stated truth that space is hostile to life. Whether it is Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress or Andy Weir’s The Martian, this is not a new theme for science fiction. But Robinson takes it to a whole new level, taking the theme and his story to a realm beyond our solar system to punch holes in the dream of colonizing and extra-solar system planet. I hesitate because I don’t want to put too many spoilers in here, but the gist of it is that other planets evolve other forms of life, and those lifeforms are naturally hostile to earth life. We’re not talking aliens—though Ellen Ripley will tell you all about just how hostile aliens can be–but simply bacteria or even more simple forms of life that are incompatible with ours.

One is tempted to think about H.G. Wells The War of the Worlds at this point…

In addition to the biological problems, there is the issue of distance and the attendant problems to the vast space between the start and end of the journey. The time that it takes for interstellar travelers to pass between the stars is so large it is impossible to travel between stars in a single lifetime. As resources become a problem, hibernation or suspended animation becomes necessary to economize. How does this affect human physiology? Does the duration of the trip and living in the small spaces of the spaceship, as well as the effect of being in space (with gamma rays, no protective atmosphere, etc) have the result of damage in the human body?

In addition to his speculations on space travel’s dangers, Robinson also looks at human politics. Not surprisingly, perhaps, given how negative he is on humanity’s potential outside our atmosphere, he is something of a pessimist about our ability to get along. Robinson doesn’t seem to think much of people’s ability to work together to find solutions, especially when the impact of violence is so dangerous to survival, as it is in space. In fact, Robinson often seems to demonstrate only the most rudimentary understanding of politics. It’s almost something that happens outside of his plot, even though it’s a massive part of his story. It comes up so late in the novel that it feels like an afterthought, a part of the cascading disasters that befall his travelers.

All in all, it’s kind of a depressing book. There’s no hope in his main character who, in the end, really only finds happiness on a beach. So, to be clear, I don’t disagree with anyone that thinks life on the beach is nice, but frankly, it’s a pretty depressing outlook that this is the only place to find serenity. If the only happiness you can find in life is walking in the surf, especially in comparison with the potential for interstellar travel, then it’s depressing outlook.

Now, don’t give me wrong: there really is something to Robinson’s analysis that space travel is dangerous, and I don’t disagree with him that we won’t likely be able to travel to through space between the stars with current technology. Heck, even with future technology, I’m not sure how we would approach anything close to the speeds necessary to visit another star in a single human lifetime, let alone in a period of time that is reasonable for establishing a new colony and maintaining some form of contact with Earth. But Robinson seems to see us as stuck on Earth.

He also seems like kind of a pessimist about how we interact as humans. We can’t work things out without my violence. This is not to say that there are not times when violence is necessary to maintain peace and order and greater violence. However, I don’t think that it would be prohibitive to find a way to avoid the kind of distractive and means less violence that seems to plague Robinson’s voyagers at a crucial point in his plot. The very fact that there was no real political system on the ship from the start seems like a massive oversight on behalf of his voyagers. Anytime you get two people or more together there are politics, there are rules, and there is governance…and on the ship, there are thousands of people. And yet, politics and governance is almost an afterthought. This for a ship that hundreds of years from Earth in the empty and deadly voids of space. I just don’t buy that no one would have created better governance systems or contingencies for various political problems.

Another major critique of the book for me was related to the characters. As a reader, we are distanced from the characters and few have depth. Robinson uses a literary device by conveying the story through the eyes of a quantum computer that outlives the ship’s passengers. As a result, the narrative often feels stilted, stiff, even impersonal. And to be clear, the story is being told by a computer, so it seems natural that it’s going to feel stiff. The device allows Robison to maintain an omniscient view of things on the ship, but it does make it difficult to sympathize with the characters and to feel sympathy for their needs more. Later in the book, we see some view of the characters’ perspectives, which is valuable, but much is lost by relying on the computer’s perspective.

So, when I recommend the book to anyone? Possibly. Depends on what kind of science-fiction they want. It’s in the hard sci-fi area of the genre but seems to lack a lot of the fun and hope that we often seek when we read science fiction. I only gave Aurora three out of five stars, though probably I could go with 3 1/2 or four stars based just on how thorough Robinson is. I was disappointed that he wasn’t more creative, with some of the technology barely ahead of the present time. I would’ve speculated that certain areas of human technology will be more advanced 500 years in the future than Robinson does.

All in all, Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson is an occasionally satisfying, if ultimately depressing, book. Worth the read, if you’ve got the time, but perhaps less likely to encourage man’s efforts to colonize terra beyond our atmosphere.