Currently reading Ministry for the Future, which in some ways is a very optimistic book, but is still quite grim. Also, I'm thinking perhaps next time I'm tempted to read a book with climate change as the subject, I'll wait until winter to do it, rather than in the summer when the described scenes are a bit too easy to imagine by simply stepping outside.

Read the mars trilogy and Rice and Salt as well. I like his optimism in humans' ability to actually make radical political change. I suppose this is what I mean by his being both optimistic and grim -- severe outcomes aren't avoided in his books, but in the end societies do change before the absolute worst comes to pass. A "hard optimism" I suppose, which I find valuable.

I like Kim Stanley Robinson and Ministry for the Future has some interesting ideas but it reads a bit like a white paper disguised as a novel.

I'm having trouble with Ministry for the Future. It seems like it might be more of a manifesto than a novel. I've been pushing on...it seems like the plot might come together but I'm not positive yet and I'm considering giving up.

It's my first KSR book. I wish I'd started with the Mars trilogy as previously planned.

No shame putting down a book you're having a hard time getting into. That's something it took me longer than it should have to realize. There's a lot of books out there, and if one's not working out, no one's keeping score on how many you finish. I'd recommend following your gut and trying the Mars books first. If it turns out you like KSR, maybe you might find yourself coming back to Ministry, and in a different frame of mind. Or you might find you actually don't care for KSR even after trying Mars, and then you can move on to other books without worrying you're missing something.

Human history is filled with change, it's the only constant.

Unfortunately we don't see that when we're in the centre of the storm.

Isn't the narrative of Aurora slightly odd (at least at first) because of who the narrator is and how the narrator develops over time?

I really liked it.

Yup! That's part of what intrigued me so much about it.

I came across Memory of Whiteness while taking my college music theory classes. It's very fantastical but I loved how he connected various compositional techniques with physical processes. It's a very underrated book.

I actually really enjoyed Aurora and have been through it three times. It is a bit of a downer, sure. It felt quite fresh to me though, as I took it as a 'coming of age' story, but for the ship's AI.