The Last of Us Season 1

In 2003, a mutated fungus which had managed to make its way to human hosts through contaminated crops caused a global outbreak. In mere weeks millions were infected and driven by the urge to spread the infection. The Cordyceps Brain Infection wrought havoc on the globe and forced humanity back into fortified strongholds, leaving those who could not flee behind its walls to fend for themselves in a crumbling wilderness.

On the day of the infection, Joel (Pedro Pascal), his brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and his daughter Sara (Nico Parker) are trying to flee like so many others, only for tragedy to strike and his daughter dies in his arms. Twenty years later, he is estranged from his brother and living in the Boston Quarantine Zone (QZ) working as a smuggler alongside his love interest Tess. He gets an offer to transport a girl named Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to the headquarters of a group of freedom fighters called the Fireflies. In doing so, he might just save humanity.

Thus begins probably the greatest videogame adaptation of all time in The Last of Us. Spoilers follow!

The opening episode is one of the best adaptations of a game I've ever seen. Expanding on game material and the constraints of live acting, it delivers an amazing rendition of the chaos of the early infection and the loss suffered by the characters. It establishes the bleak tone of this post-apocalyptic world, fleshes out our main characters, and gets the message of grim reality across amazingly well. By the end I couldn't wait to see episode two and what might happen next.

The Last of Us, through its first few episodes, had moments before the opening credits rolled that set up how the virus was scientifically feasible for fiction purposes, as well as showing us some events from before the outbreak. The very first episode opens with a fake TV interview from 1968 in which two scientists talk about their fears over the future. One, portrayed by John Hannah, presciently warns that in a warming Earth many terrible diseases, but also fungus, could well end up infecting humans. In the second episode this is also done through the reaction of a mycologist in Indonesia discovering the first victims of the infection mere days before the outbreak. While a few pre-outbreak moments take place in other opening episodes, it was a sad thing to see that it was dropped across a few and we instead got into the immediate opening credits. I had hoped that each episode would open with some backstory, a cool scene spinning the pre-outbreak world or the post-outbreak aftermath before the present, but I can understand the time constraints.

In episode three, we have one of the bigger divergences for possibly the best post-apocalyptic love story ever told. It's the meeting of lone and closeted survivalist Bill (Nick Offerman) - who has effectively turned himself into Robert Neville from I am Legend - is bunkered down in an abandoned town. One day a trap is set off by Frank (Murray Bartlett) and the two develop an unlikely romance. In a short film style we explore their relationship, problems, and introduction to Joel and Tess. It was a bit of a departure from the full plot, but it expands the emotional stakes for Joel and Ellie each, while also telling one of the most tear jerking stories I've seen in a while. Simply a phenomenal episode.

Episodes four and five are a smaller arc where the characters take a detour through Kansas City only to be caught up in the aftermath of a violent revolution against the old authorities. Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) has inspired her followers to rebel and take the city from them and is engaged in a brutal series of reprisals. Here the two leads meet Henry (Lamar Johnson) and Sam (Keivon Woodard) who must work together to escape. In an action packed finale, we see that the wages of revenge are death, and just how bleak this world is! Wonderful series of scenes and acting which made it all come together.

Episode six sees Joel and Ellie meeting up with Tommy again, and meeting his new wife Maria (Rutina Wesley). In some extremely humorous explorations of survivor politics and ideas, we see the brothers reunite and Jeol and Ellie bond. It sets up the ending quite well.

Another small arc in episodes seven and eight address the final bonding of the pair, and an effective flashback to Ellie's discovery of her immunity. It also giving us one of the most iconic game villains, the cult leader David (Scott Shephard). David is an excellent foil as the sinister leader, and his introduction was a magnificent turn around and play on expectations while being supremely well acted. His creepy obsession with Ellie and desire to dominate her is fiendishly portrayed, and the final showdown is perfect. Joel's rampage through his followers sets up the final act of the show quite well.

Episode nine is probably the most divisive for me personally. It's very short for one, probably one of the shortest episodes. It also hews extremely closely to the game which, while very inspiring as an adaptation, felt like it missed some opportunities to do some legwork for the second season. Well done and effective at tugging your emotions, it could have been better I feel.

Overall however, the show is amazing. The acting of Pascal and Ramsey is stupendous with Pascal bringing out the jaded survivor in Joel and the ferocious protectiveness of a father who has already lost one child. Ramsey's portrayal as the 14 year old Ellie is really well done, and she's hilarious to watch, while delivering some amazing lines and well acted scenes. Her chemistry with Pascal is also excellent, making the pair an effective onscreen team.

The supporting cast is also amazing. One of the best performances I felt was given by Lynskey as Kathleen, where she hammered home how brutal this world is, even just between people.

The chemistry of the characters was superb, and we saw many important bonds formed. This was, ostensibly, a zombie show. However, the infected do not take center stage and are mostly an environmental threat, not the drivers of the plot. While the infection is omnipresent, zombies and killing them is not the point of the show. That made it a nice departure from The Walking Dead, but also allowed viewers to focus on the story and the more human element. It added something to the genre that really hadn't existed for a while.

Departures from the game and additions to the story we well done, and for myself, pretty universally well received. I think this is destined to go down as one of the best adaptations of all time, with an amazing story being told and being visually stunning. Definitely one to watch!

A Climate Leviathan

Recently, I was able to read Joel Wainwright and Geoff Mann's book Climate Leviathan, an intriguing look at how global politics must (and will) change as a response to looming climate change. The two analyze the problem from a leftist perspective, using previous philosophical discourse, political commentary, and the truly global nature of the problem to arrive at a simple conclusion; some form of supranational entity may be the only way to address the creeping climate emergency.

They lay out their reasoning quite well, pointing out how, in the words of Ursula K. Le Guin (quoting others) "it is easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism" and this is, especially in the political and economic sphere, rather true. From the failures of the world to band together in any meaningful way, to the flub that was the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, to increasing use of fossil fuels and no existent plan to meaningfully reduce their use. This is contrasted to the poisoned pill that the Obama administration took up in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis where banks were bailed out and, rather than hold those responsible to account, next to no one was prosecuted or censured for the outrageous acts that lead to the greatest recession in nearly a century.

With these somewhat depressing facts in mind, the authors both critique capitalism and the current liberal/neoliberal establishment that, as yet, has proven almost completely incapable of meaningfully addressing climate change. With no national solution (no single country can address or alter the global climate trajectory) to the problem, the authors posit a Hobbesian Leviathan which takes on supranational importance to govern the global response to the climate emergency. It would be, largely, the existing capitalist/liberal system we know, with tweaks to allow for supranational action. This is contrasted between the 'Climate Behemoth' which is a reactionary rejection of Leviathan where reactionary elements fight and defeat it, making a muddled, uneasy, and disunified fight at regional scale or simply national against climate change.

In contrast to those, we see Climate Mao, an authoritarian supranational entity which would be swept up by not only a populist clamoring for action to mitigate and adapt to the climate emergency, but also punish those responsible. On a global scale this would be rank authoritarianism of the worst kind, while also a means of cathartic solution to popular unrest as those deemed responsible (even their descendants) meet an unkind fate.

The authors stress though that none of these would be in any sense democratic. Mao is the most notably authoritarian, but Leviathan, despite coming with the trappings of liberal democracy, would still command the power and respect to crush dissent largely beneath its heel, and have the justification of saving the world in order to quash any other objections to its programs.

Only one imagined system, dubbed Climate X, would see this not come to pass. A decentralized and supranational, but not quite coordinated, movement of resistance to control, green energy initiatives, and effective decolonization of the modern neoliberal/capitalist systems and other statist means of control. It is moderately utopian in its vision, but the authors stress, not impossible or unimaginable. They lay out no specific goals, and only some examples, but offer it as a tantalizing image of a world where many old inequalities are torn down, but not one which is perfect.

Interestingly, this is not the first I have encountered the idea that planetary governance may be the only way to mitigate the worst fallout from climate change. In the world of The Expanse for instance, after centuries of climate disaster, the nations of the world prove unable to fight the devastation in isolation and so abdicate their political sovereignty in exchange for help to the UN which works to right the wrongs of a ravaged planet. In the Star Carrier series, we see something similar with the Terran Confederation and other supranational entities having banded together to help mitigate the damage. And in Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312 we see a world just hinting at better multinational collaboration for future cooperation.

While science fiction often is often only an examination of the present through a futuristic lens, it does say something that you can find many works envisioning the horrors of climate change only being capable of being resisted by humanity (more or less) united. As the authors of this work posit, fighting climate change in isolation is most likely going to be impossible, leading to supranational organizations and demands to fight against it, or even correct further damage. While this is, for now, only the speculation of some political wonks and science fiction writers, science fiction has occasionally been predictive rather than merely speculative.

Climate change and the various crisis it will entail is a threat to all of humanity, and despite this many people pretend that they can hide from the effects, whether with walls or money. A change in the planet though, is a change for everyone, and as changing weather patters, wildfires, and extreme weather events have shown, even the wealthy and powerful in the West are not immune. Whether we willingly, or unwillingly band together to fight this crisis remains to be seen, but the speculation on the nature (or necessity) of a potential Climate Leviathan is there, and does deserve some pondering on.

Walkaway

In the not so distant future, the world is falling into shambles amid climate change as encroaching privatization leaves many without work, without insurance and without hope. Though technology is plentiful and scarcity could be a thing of the past, the grinding desire of capitalism to own and consume leaves no room for that. It has led many people to simply up and walkaway from the default world and trust altruism and omnipresent technology to help them get by. They're talked about in hushed tones by others. They're terrorists, radical anarchists, Mad Max style hooligans, and much worse. But for some, the crushing horror of the default world is too much and they take their chances with the walkaways.

Enter Natalie Redwater, scion of a zotta (ultra-rich) family and her new friends after a crazy night at a "communist party" where they flip on old printers and just give everything away. After a run in with the law, she and her new friends Hubert-nineteen middle names-Espinoza (otherwise known as Etcetera) and Seth decide they've had enough and decide to give it all up and go walkaway. Enter Limpopo, a veteran walkway and sort-or proprietor of the B&B, a walkaway community where you can stop and get adjusted. She shows them the ropes and helps them decide if they want to stay.

In the background however, the world is changing with technologies that could change the meaning of life itself, and Natalie's ultra rich father, Jacob, has power and reach. Will he let his daughter get out from under his thumb or will he leave her to the changing world of the late 21st century?

Walkaway is a sort-of piece of utopian fiction where a new world is struggling to be born. This is author Cory Doctorow's bailiwick, with the common themes he talks about in both fiction and non-fiction. Omnipresent surveillance, creeping capitalist domination, and the possibility of a post scarcity society just at our fingertips. In this novel he presents a radical ideology of pacifism, technological sustainability, and gift economy which exists outside the norms of capitalist society.

Doctorow does a wonderful job elaborating on these ideas throughout the novel, his characters having real motivations for what they do, and complex and all to humanly flawed personalities which clash with their own ideologies more often than not. Though the throws a lot of slang and terminology at you, he does a good job explaining most of it and fleshing out how his world works, why the walkaway society is great, but by no means perfect. With the power of efficient recycling and 3D printing, the society is one which seems enticing, if weird and alien to the world of default sensibilities. Ideas of owning nothing, and carrying little more than what you have on your back are not only rational, but with the power of printing, viable.

Though the story starts from Etcetera's perspective, it is largely that of Natalie's and her work in adapting to the walkaway lifestyle and the world. The other driving characters are Etcetera and Limpopo who all shape the story to one degree or another alongside others introduced later on.

Walkaway spans multiple years, but this is never clearly indicated between chapter breaks. I found myself getting lost in the plot a few times as suddenly we were years down the line and I had no indication of what had happened which jarred me from the story more than once. The slang and jargon often goes unexplained with you having to pick it up as you go along, which does work in most cases but was a bit confusing at times.

There is also very little preamble into the state of the world leading up to when people just walkaway and despite some mentions of wastelands or abandoned properties I found myself wondering how so much land simply got abandoned. With looks at climate change and mentions of bankruptcy and social disorder, I had some inkling, but much of the world was a little vague for my taste.

That said, I do have a certain thrill that 99% of the book takes place in Canada. Doctorow is a Canadian by birth, and the setting early on in and around Toronto and Niagara was a huge tug at my heartstrings. It made for a nicely familiar setting to me, with talk about some differences between Canada and the US, but also some delightful time shock as it examined the breakdown and atomization of society to this future norm where I scarcely would have recognized Canada of the later 21st century!

Doctorow also does wonders with the aspects of passive and non-violent resistance. Not that walkaways won't defend themselves, but they almost exclusively use non-lethal means, except against drones and that doesn't count. That is part of the walkaway ethos where people can't take something from you if it wasn't yours to begin with. The action in the book primarily revolves around this kind of retreat and technical battling against aggressive electronic warfare by the state. It made for many amazing action scenes in which, on many occasions, no one actually dies! A very different form of action from what I'm used to.

Like any good utopian fiction, it grapples with the flaws and pitfalls of the society it creates. Selfish people still exist and they can drag the whole thing down - no one really solves the free rider problem. There's also the benefits, and they do seem legion. The science fiction aspect of course also plays a role with the technology, with some very interesting ideas being bandied about.

Walkaway is a radical utopia with warts and all. Despite some difficulty jumping in, I did enjoy the story and the trajectory for these characters. It's a fascinating world with radical ideas and some beautiful character growth. Give this one some love.

Parable of the Talents

Lauren Olamina has, after losing everything, finally found family and community again. She's built a community on the land of her husband's family, a place where her religion of Earthseed can grow. From there perhaps it can spread to the greater world, and then to the stars. First though, she'll have to keep it against the rise of a much more terrifying temporal power seeking to make America great again. Will she multiply her talents, or find them buried in the earth? This is Parable of the Talents.

From goodreads

The story picks up five years after the conclusion of Parable of the Sower in 2032, she and her small group in the community of Acorn have grown and prospered. Lauren hopes to use the community as a base of operations to spread her new religion of Earthseed. However, America is still in decline, coasts are collapsing, violence and banditry is endemic, and the economy is in freefall. However, one man, a Senator and preacher named Andrew Steel Jarret, is promising a vision of Christian America which will "Make America Great Again" and restore the nation to the glory it once had.

Against this backdrop, Lauren must try and spread her religion, raise a family, and keep her people safe. 

The story, again deliver in epistle style, is buttressed by another viewpoint this time. Lauren's daughter Larkin (or Asha Vere) writes about her mother and the spread of her religion, how that affected her development, and the way it impacted history. It adds a very critical, and not necessarily sympathetic, lens to the story. I greatly enjoyed how this was seamlessly interwoven into the material and it actually created far more suspense than you might expect. It also adds a great element of tragedy.

Unsurprisingly, the book is one of immense suffering and loss. It follows the country through the years of President Jarret and his "Christian America" which merges the worst parts of theocracy and authoritarianism. Indeed, it actually impacts Larkin's development in a way many who had read of Franco's Spain would find very familiar. This does allow though, for the exploration of many aspects of authoritarianism, ideology, ministry and proselytism. 

The Christian America brand is selling a vision of America of old and - stop me if this sounds familiar - a time when things were better, American values were emphasized and America was a Christian nation. They preach from the pulpit and the political campaign, and they deliver charity, homeless shelters and project an image of American strength. That they also deliver witch burnings, vigilante justice, and fanaticism metted out by "Crusaders" is part and parcel.

In contrast, Lauren must try and spread her new religion covertly. To avoid drawing the ire of the more powerful (and quasi state-religion) of Christian America, she has to work with those she trusts. Eventually she has to get on the road and preach, in sequences that will be familiar to missionaries and pollsters from time immemorial. It makes for more harrowing tales, but does give a very good insight into how religions or movements can start. It was something I found fascinating, and these internal problems make up many of the asides in the book.

You'll be gratified (horrified?) to see there's action as well. It's one where we find, and lose, family and even see that family can be broken up pretty spectacularly. Religion can unite, and it can divide. To quote an old professor of mine "Religion is wonderful, until it's not," which you can broadly say is what many of the characters in this book discover! It does though, share how Earthseed develops, and that is well worth exploring for contrast.

I will admit that there were some scary parallels to contemporary politics, but considering this book was written in the 90s, well after the Reagan Administration and the Satanic Panic and Moral Majority era, it's pushing it to call the novel "prescient" in that sense, as the edition I picked up did. It does have a number of worryingly close parallels with the rise of climate change, authoritarian political activism, and others, but it isn't about those issues per-say, but about how Lauren and her family, and religion, live through those times. That may be an important message going forward.

The final act of the book though, for all the implications of Earthseed and its growth, did feel a bit rushed. There could have been a little more with a time skip to help, some more exploration of Lauren's relationship with her daughter, and more about the future, but all in all I did enjoy it. Not perhaps as much as the first installment in the series, but I greatly enjoyed how it did its best to wrap the series up. Well worth exploring. As before though, I leave you with the true Parable of the Talents:

“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matthew 25:14-30 (ESV)

Cyberpunk 2020

This year was almost the genre of cyberpunk personified. Perhaps this is because the game Cyberpunk 2077 had such a buggy launch, but also I think that the real world is much more terrifyingly cyberpunk-esque right now than any video game can contrive to be. 

It was back in May when I saw the front page of many news sites. On one hand the biggest story going on was the ongoing George Floyd protests, but on the 30th, SpaceX successfully launched it's Dragon capsule to rendezvous with the International Space Station. This all took place against the backdrop of an ongoing global pandemic and one of the hottest years on record with wildfires scorching the West Coast.

From i.dailymail.co.uk

To my eyes there was almost something incompatible with these images. On the same front page you could see smiling astronauts docking with the ISS in one of the biggest breakthroughs for putting mankind in space, while you also saw tens of thousands of angry African Americans protesting racial injustice in the United States and then skies blotted out by smoke. It was jarring to say the least.

Needless to say, that got me thinking. I began reflecting on how much (and perhaps also how little) the world has changed from a century ago. In 1920 the world was just recovering from the greatest war humanity had ever known, a deadly plague had ravaged the world in the aftermath of said war, and the majority of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa were in the process of rebuilding. The Great Powers were in flux, and the social order which had prevailed for literal centuries had been dealt a massive blow by popular revolutions and the chaos of a global conflict.

We've come a long way since 1920. The atomic age dawned, the digital age, humanity expanded out into space and we explored the poles, the last places not yet reached by human feet. Now we are connected almost instantly around the world by the internet, satellites fly over head and we have in our pockets more computing power than that which sent astronauts to the Moon. It's almost mind boggling to think about.

However, with that also comes a disturbing loss of freedom. We take being surveilled by our governments for granted, and no one even seems to bat an eye at the idea that corporations watch and analyze our every move more that even Orwell's Big Brother was capable of. People are as physically connected to devices as they can possibly be without implanting them directly into their bodies, we let social media rule our lives far more than is healthy, and we are becoming trapped in bubbles and echo chambers that only reinforce our opinions rather than challenge them. It's a very creepy world which, like cyberpunk, highlights all the things that can go drastically wrong with technology and its effects.

The echo-chamber and self-reinforcing worldview that a constructed social media bubble builds is another problem. It allows people to get deeply involved with conspiracy theories and conmen promising simple answers, and helps breed violent extremist groups. That impacted the 2020 election far more than many seem to realize, and may play an ever increasing role in electoral politics going forward, to societies detriment.

It's mildly scary that we end up with a situation like this. The outcomes of introducing new technologies are, of course, not absolutely predictable, but we should be worried about the current trajectory technology is taking us on. 

We live in a world where a global pandemic can be killing millions, the world's only superpower is wracked by political turmoil and unrest, and in the same breath we're celebrating a cheaper launch system to orbit and an advance in streaming technology with 5G networks. All while people buy and sell for one day delivery on Amazon and try to become influencers on social media with amazing photos and snappy videos. 

There's no easy solution for any of this, and there's no denying that the technology we enjoy doubtless makes our lives easier too. It is important that people realize just how dangerous it can be if used uncritically. Trying to filter the world out through our preferences for news sources and information can't protect us from a rampant pandemic and climate change. 

Perhaps the best advice people can take is to disconnect from their social media for a while, get outside, enjoy some fresh air, and try not to take disagreements as life or death situations. I can be bad at taking this very advice, but sometimes, just disconnecting for a day is very cathartic. One resolution to keep for this year is to disconnect some, enjoy life, and take time with what you love. Outside the digital world of course. Stay safe, stay informed, and stay curious.

Parable of the Sower

In the late 2020s, Lauren Olamina lives in relative safety in her walled and gated community in California, under the protection and strict tutelage of her preacher father. Deep down, Lauren does not feel that anything they do can keep them safe. The world is falling apart. Despite having a colony on the Moon and a base on Mars, the United States is wracked with social unrest, rampant drug abuse, economic inflation and rising sea levels from unchecked global warming. Food is always getting more expensive and social services like police, ambulances and fire departments are costly and unreliable. Though her parents hope for a return to the 'good old days' Lauren thinks that is impossible.

Thus begins Parable of the Sower.

My first copy

I'd heard on and off about this book in interviews from other writers, numerous literary discussions and simple internet searches. It was often described as a "must read" by people. I picked it up expecting to disagree, but found myself adamantly agreeing with those who recommended it! From the discomfort of the near future vibes, the eloquence of the language, and the characters and messages it espouses, I can't recommend it enough!

Parable is a book with a message. First about the calamity of a slowly collapsing United States and all the uncertainty that brings, secondly it is about the idea of Earthseed. This is the religion that Lauren has discovered (not created, she is very particular about this) which realizes "God is Change" and that leads all she does from there. Lauren is young, grappling with how to explain her discovery to other people, and without scaring them away. One of the other messages in Earthseed is the importance of community, creating and building a stable one. Which, quite honestly, felt very much like something I would read in prepping fiction. 

As a very quick aside, it has a lot of the basics of the prepping movement seamlessly woven into the story. From having a bug out bag handy, to practicing with firearms, methods of hiding goods on your person, and pragmatic group oriented survival, this would be a very colorful way to introduce people to the concept. Truthfully I'm a little shocked I hadn't come across this book before in those circles.

Moving on, Lauren's life is one of loss and pain predominantly. She lost her biological mother at a young age, and her own community is losing its fight for survival. Then on the road, she finds that she can make a new community and a new family. Through acts of kindness, ruthless pragmatism, and knowing who and who not to trust, she embarks on a long journey of discovery, and one without a real destination in mind.

The story is told largely as diary kept by Lauren where she chronicles the break down of her family life, and her journey across much of California. It is also where she confides her deepest secrets and hopes for Earthseed. There too, she has an outlet for her 'sharing' ability, that is, an ability to feel the pain and pleasure of others. Though in a world as crazy as hers, it is sadly mostly pain and she does her best to keep people from knowing. It was caused by her mother's use of a new form of psychedelic drug which began flooding the US in the early 2000s. It's a secret she fights to keep, lest it be used against her.

I found the message espoused through Earthseed and Parable  as a whole, to be a very timeless one. The ideas behind Earthseed are interesting, and they fascinated me as they were an exciting exploration of how a religion is founded, how people view its early ideas, and maybe what it is like to be an early prophet absent some more dramatic divine revelation.

Readers will find it very easy to emphasize with Lauren's struggles, both personal and external, and will be rooting for her and her little family the whole way. Though I will admit some will probably find Lauren and Bankole's relationship a little off putting, but to each their own as that is a far too detailed topic to get in to. It was a read that really sucked me in, and I found myself wanting more. The only complaint I have against this book is that it was too short! It was exciting to discover that there was indeed a sequel, and I really look forward to getting my hands on it.

This is an easy recommendation whether you like science fiction or not in my opinion. Easily one of the best books I have read in 2020. Though for now, let me leave you with the original parable of the sower for some easy reading and appreciation for clever theme naming!

"Then he told them many things in parables, saying: 'A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.'" Matthew 13:3-9

The Ministry For the Future

In 2020, I was very much looking forward to reading another work by Kim Stanley Robinson, as he has become one of my favorite science-fiction writers. Most famous for his Mars trilogy, and in my opinion one of his best works, 2312, he has tackled one of the greatest issues facing the world in his most recent novel. With rampant climate change altering weather, coastlines, and threatening the biodiversity of our planet, it seems that The Ministry for the Future is the only option in a world rapidly cascading towards climactic disaster.

From wikimediacommons

This work is part of a growing body of literature which examines climate fiction (or cli-fi, if you will), and works to show both the perils of, and possible solutions to, climate change on Earth. Robinson has done some excellent interviews about the book, and has been very open that he's using it to address many of the problems with how society handles climate change, and how it thinks about the world economy, a system which supports a lazy or even do-nothing approach to combating climate change. As a piece of cli-fi, it is probably one of the most comprehensive in showing how many interconnected systems are contributing to, and accelerating, climactic change the world over.

Robinson's story itself begins in 2025 when a deadly heatwave kills 20 million people in India. More than plague, world wars, and any other natural disasters up to that point combined. In response, two things happen. The global shock to this catastrophe causes the UN to found the titular Ministry for the Future, whose job it is to see that the terms of the Paris Climate Agreement are held to. The second is that India, in the wake of this enormous disaster, undergoes a social and political change only a nation suffering that kind of loss on a psychological and social level could, it has an almost overnight revolution and begins desperate efforts to make sure such a tragedy never happens again. They launch what could probably be considered the first act of geoengineering by using particulates to seed the skies in their hemisphere with an artificial ash cloud to mimic an enormous volcanic eruption, and cut the intensity of the suns rays over their subcontinent for a time.

The story then follows members of the Ministry, Mary Murphy it's leader primarily, as they attempt to use what little influence they have to mitigate the damage caused by climate change. At first, this is a largely frustrating uphill battle, and many people see it as futile to fight against the currently entrenched global system. Mary is shaken by an unexpected visit from a foreign aid worker, Frank, who survived the Indian heatwave, who demands she do better. The story spreads out from there.

The deadly heat wave in India isn't the only natural disaster to plague the world in this book. More killer heatwaves rock the globe, a major one killing tens of thousands across the American South, L.A. is practically wiped off the map in a superstorm comparable to one which struck the state of California in 1862, and other deadly events stalk the world, motivating people to advocate for change.

In this story Robinson tackles numerous difficult ideas. If laws and jurisprudence aren't going to stop people from burning carbon, is it moral to use extreme methods to do so? Some groups say yes, and an extremely angry group of radicalized Indians who suffered from the heatwave, the Children of Kali, lead the way. They assassinate petrolium industry moguls, blow up private jets, and attack coal plants. In many other parts of the world, more people follow suit as the natural disasters grow more widespread. There's questions on the morality of this, weighing the worth of all future generations of mankind, and then the lives of men and women enriching themselves at the expense of others and then trying to flee from their problems. Of course, those people hit back, killing dissidents, and even targeting the Ministry!

As an alternative to violence, Mary uses her ministry to try and find a different path, an economic one. Much of the world, through both climate related damages and populist action against existing systems, begins to balk at the way they're governed and how wealth is transferred. Her own people propose a currency backed by carbon sequestration efforts, meaning that as you work to store carbon you will be rewarded by a new form of currency backed by the level of climate friendly action you engage in. To be honest, I freely admit I'm probably explaining this badly, but this should be read to be understood as its a fascinating idea.

From the ground up, people begin to agitate for change as they become broadly more affected by a changing climate, and the economic fallout from that. Students stage debt strikes, refusing to repay their loans, tenants simply occupy properties and dare someone to do something about it. The African Union pointblank nationalizes many internationally owned resources extraction operations, and in China the hundreds of millions of migrant hukou workers use their mass to occupy Beijing to demand change.

Even on an individual level, a different form of internet is developed. A new social media, web browsing app, YourLock, is launched. This app allows individuals to put their data in quantum encrypted data storage, which protects both their information and their money from theft, but also gives them a means of economic power. Since many modern internet and social media providers make money off of mining your data, the idea that you could deny them that resource and then negotiate with, and directly sell it for royalties to corporations is fairly revolutionary. It's almost an annual annuity for being yourself.

Against these backdrops, many different political and economic organizing ideas are touted. The ever familiar Mondragon model of federated worker cooperatives is of course front and center, with some fascinating expansion on the man who founded it. Before reading this, I had no idea who Father José María Arizmendiarrieta was, but he's a simply fascinating figure I'd love to know more about now! There's other examples offered, blockchain economics, even blockchain governance, as a system for the future.

In terms of science fiction, we even have a subplot following some Antarctic scientists who are engaging in an experiment in geoengineering of their own. Seeing that the West Antarctic ice shelf is in danger of slipping its bonds and collapsing into the ocean potentially adding a catastrophic seven feet of sea level rise in less than a generation, and if the Greenland ice sheet were to join it, that would be even worse! Interestingly, something like this is part of the plot of 2312, which makes for some fascinating parallel reading. However, these scientists are trying a novel approach which Robinson thought of and sketched out to try and present something that might work to help keep the worst effects of climate change and global sea rise down. It's some very interesting reading here.

What's important, I think, is that this book bucks the trend a lot of other more technocratic writers might argue for and presents no silver bullet solutions. It's a painstaking series of decisions, mistakes and uphill fights to try and build a better future. Robinson doesn't give us some easy solution and pretend everything will be alright, he instead reminds us that this is an issue we have to face head on, with everything we've got.

The plot is a bit thin though, the main characters really only exist as mouthpieces for the arguments around different ideas to deal with global warming and how to solve it. This made me less than invested in them as individuals, but more interested in the situations which surrounded them. 

The writing style was a bit difficult too, as certain vignettes would probably better have been served as being part of an overall interview process or categorization under some different internal structure similar to what was done in 2312 or World War Z to add a cohesive and overarching element to the story. This lack of structure did make me lose focus on what I was reading at some points, and occasionally served to suck me out of the book, and not in a positive way. I also tended to simply glaze over the more polemic interludes, some might enjoy them, but they weren't quite my fancy for this read.

On a purely literary level the book has a few flaws. However, the book should not be judged on its literary merits alone. In fact, its literary merits might also be better disregarded. Ministry is more a thought experiment than manifesto, an attempt to force us to confront difficult questions about climate change and its repercussions, and would make us change our minds. 

In that sense, it succeeds wonderfully. It makes you re-examine how we view the world and rather effectively points out its flaws with things such as wealth inequality, the oil and gas industry, refugee politics, and even the way our banking system works. I found many of the objections raised by characters to portions of the currently existing international system to be fascinating. There were many compelling arguments and a lot of good banter back and forth on numerous issues. You find yourself thinking "yes, why do we do things this way?" which is something not enough people seem to ask.

Rather than presenting a broad and sweeping plan for combating climate change and global inequality, the book presents many options, and gives you lots of ideas to think about. Jacobin probably had one of the best write ups on this novel saying that Kim Stanley Robinson imagines a future where we don't all die, which when you consider some of the rather apocalyptic visions of what unfettered climate change could bring, that's a nice image. I think that the hope this novel ends up conveying both in humanity, and our ability to combat climate change, is also a much needed message in a world where denialism is running up against increasingly self-evident facts, and a sense of hopelessness in younger generations.

For that reason, Ministry for the Future, while perhaps not being a literary masterpiece, might be one of the most important books you read in 2020 or 2021. It's made to make you think, and doing that, you might just come away with some ideas even this ambitious author couldn't imagine.