Aurora

By: Kim Stanley Robinson

Narrated by: Ali Ahn

A major new novel from one of science fiction's most powerful voices, Aurora tells the incredible story of our first voyage beyond the solar system.

Brilliantly imagined and beautifully told, it is the work of a writer at the height of his powers.

Our voyage from Earth began generations ago.

Now we approach our new home.

Aurora.

©2015 Kim Stanley Robinson (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"This ambitious hard SF epic shows Robinson at the top of his game... [A] poignant story, which admirably stretches the limits of human imagination."—Publishers Weekly

I did not like this book.

I love the Mars trilogy, and like 2312, but this book was disappointing. The writing is up to Robinson's usual high standards, but the story was rather defeatist. We shouldn't expect extrasolar colonization to be easy, and no doubt the first few attempts will end in failure, but that is an undertaking too important to give up just because some or a lot of people will die. If we don't colonize other star systems, our species dies with the sun. Actually, we could die out in under 700 million years when the sun heats the earth to the point when life as we know it can't exist anymore.

There is a solution to the possible problems Robinson outlined: Don't attempt it until we're ready. Personally, I don't think interstellar travel should be attempted until (1) greed, excessive aggression, unreasonably fear, and suspicion, have been bred or genetically altered out of our species, and (2) we can make the transit in under 100 years, real time or relative. Either relativistic travel or FTL will be required. We also shouldn't send single ships, or even just two. More like an armada.

Anyway, this is a good book if you want a defeatist and rather depressing vision of the future. I'm going to listen to the Mars trilogy again to cheer myself up.

excellent, thoughtful, and inspired

There are many layers to this story. To be truly appreciatiated you need to take the time to delve into each. In other books you find that perhaps each character represents a pt of meaning, or each location, or each act in the dramatic sequence. I am not sure that I can give such a predictive frame for the reader. Instead I would just say to remember the story is about many things, all of them being equally important.

Felt like 2 opposing stories

I felt that this story was torn between a space saga and a really long monologue by the computer AI.

The narrator did her best to bring life to the story. But the voice / word choice of the AI was so laborious and boring that it felt more like a Wikipedia reading than a narration. It dragged on during those endless monologues.

I like the human story and interactions. I wanted more of that.

I think this could have been a much shorter story with a more powerful theme.

Fascinating, but ultimately disappointing

This kind of sci-fi appeals most to those optimistic and seriously interested about interstellar flight. Yet the entire book feels like an "f*** you!" to those very people, even down to the comical caricatures of slavering beasts, foaming at the mouth in hatred and rage against anyone who doesn't share their religious fervor for interstellar spaceflight.

I definitely cannot fault many of the scientific findings in the book that are well-described as inevitably inherent problems on a generational starship. However, from beginning to end, it is indicated that these problems were not taken very seriously in the beginning by the ship's founders. Therefore, my view is that any future starship builders should read this book as Interstellar Spaceflight 101, and then do better designs.

The conclusion that is pounded into our heads by this author, from the very first chapter in so strongly a fashion that it is not a spoiler to say it, is namely that there IS no right way to do interstellar flight that is fair to the "crew". However, of course that's not true, based on human history and our proven track record of overcoming obstacles that at first seemed impossible.

We can and will attempt interstellar flight one day, if we don't destroy the planet first. And there will be failures, just like the first steps in every scientific endeavor ever undertaken. However, we will learn from those, and teach the next group how to do better than the first ones, and eventually, we will figure it out.

Why even read or write sci-fi if you're so pessimistic about the prospects of "leaving humanity's cradle"?

A nice long one

A really nice price of harder science fiction. Going to have to listen to this one a few times.

Fantastic hard sci-fi.

This may not be everybody's cup of tea. Lots of exposition. Very cerebral. But it hit me in my sweet spot. It is very much a meditation on how very hard it is to actually achieve interstellar travel. It digs deep into the really difficult problems that are often glossed over in most sci-fi.
And in the process, it attempts to give a soft answer to Fermi's Paradox.

More than a Cradle of Life

A bunch of awesome sci-fi literature. Maybe it's best that we wait to go between the stars until we can build something as big as a star destroyer. These stories about being on a 777 equivalent for 100+ years is dumb.
This book has space elevators how could they not have sent up enough material to make a stable ship????

A KSR book that comes from and speaks to the heart

There is one glaring thing that at first rankled me as being far fetched in this book, which luckily got better as the story progressed. The tale begins at the point at which the travellers are about 6 generations in, however they act as if they had much more connection and understanding of old Earth than I think would be plausible. Six generations is a very long time. Eventually, the characters seemed more in character with what you'd expect from a culture who has only known life aboard a starship. The charming naïveté of the main character in particular elicited an emotional, poignant response in me.

Say what you want about the writing, plot, character development etc etc. The fact remains that through it all, Robinson presents some genuinely original insights. That alone, in my opinion, makes Aurora worthwhile. That it also sports a memorable story and characters is wonderful hydroponically grown gravy.

Odd book

This was a very odd book. It never took off but kept a steady pace throughout. This read more like an interesting narative of some historical event rather than a science fiction novel.

Different Take on Generational-ship

A well done take of the generational-ship sub-genre of sci-fi. One interesting aspect is that the story is told primarily from the POV of the ship AI. Robinson is successful in ultimately taking the novel in a different direction then you have come to expect. What I liked was that he didn't just pull the new direction out of the blue. Looking back, you can see the path that got you there.

The narrator, Ali Ahn, was very good, especially when it came to voicing the AI.