Science Fiction: Why I Have Problems With Kim Stanley Robinson`s Aurora

 (Drivebycuriosity) - Can humans leave our solar system and find a new home elsewhere? Kim Stanley Robinson, an award crowned science fiction writer, famous for his Mars trilogy, presents his own view in the novel "Aurora" (published 2015 amazon).

 

 

                     Spoiler Allart

 

This is usually a spoiler free blog. But in order to criticize the novel I have to give away the basic idea.

 

 

The plot follows a group of people who had traveled on a multi-generational starship to Tau Ceti, 11.9 light years from earth, a journey lasting 159 years and 119 days. The plot follows people belonging to generation six or so who finally arrived there. They try to settle on a moon of a fictional planet, which they name "Aurora". 

Unfortunately the moon is too dangerous, so a part of space travelers decides to call it quits and to fly back to earth, then hibernating till they arrive back on earth. The plot follows only those who went back and ignores those who decided to stay in the Tau Ceti system.

Apparently the novel is a vehicle for the author`s message: There is no alternative to earth, humans can not settle elsewhere, all other places are too far away and too dangerous, even the Mars cannot be terraformed (don`t tell Elon Musk). 

I think the author is too defeatist and his novel is too dark. It is like a Robinson Crusoe who - shortly after arriving on his island - carves as canoe and paddles back. 

What does the author know about future technologies and the planets in our universe? It is ok to express an opinion, but to blow up this opinion into a book over more than 400 pages is cocky - and unfair to the readers. And the title "Aurora" is misleading because the story is not about the fictional place.

The novel is saturated with too much information: Cosmology, engineering, quantum mechanics, chemistry, biology, evolution, psychology with references to mathematics, philosophy & even linguistics. I generally appreciate science in a science fiction novel, but the novel reads partly like a school book, teaching the pupils the value of our planet and the dangers of the alternatives. It is not surprising that the story ends in an idyllic hippie colony on the beach. 

Some of the information are unbelievable. The spaceship contains every ecological climate zone on earth, including tropical rain forests, taigas, steppes, temperate farmland. There are mountains, valleys, lakes & glaciers populated with all kind of animals. This is way too much mass for a vehicle which has to get accelerated to 10% of the speed of light and then decelerated to almost zero speed again.

I did not like characters either. The plot focuses on a very wilful & cranky person who becomes later in the book the leader of the back home crowd. What does her qualify for that?

Aurora is no fun to read.