Book Description
2065: In a world that has rediscovered harmony with nature, the village of El Modena, California, is an ecotopia in the making. Kevin Claiborne, a young builder who has grown up in this "green" world, now finds himself caught up in the struggle to preserve his community's idyllic way of life from the resurgent forces of greed and exploitation.
Customer Reviews:
Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03
Robinson again takes a look at his Californian setting, this time in a community that is environmentally focused, and has limited development and economic expansion.
The book's conflict come as one of the members of this community tries to get around their rules and laws for financial gain, another opposes him, and a woman is caught in the middle, being the ex-lover of the rulebreaker, and current interest of the community upholder.
Robinson's Utopia plays Softball.......2007-08-18
In this, the third of Robinson's "Three Californias" trilogy, we get a very personal story of love and life in the idyllic ecotopia of El Modena, a small California town where water is a treasured resource, the abandoned cities are being broken up for scrap, and economic development is carefully controlled by the democratically elected local government. The protagonist is Kevin, a likable conservation-minded young man who builds multi-family homes with an outdoorsy feel and complete with interior gardens. His rival for the attentions of the beautiful and athletic Ramona is Alfredo, who lusts for power and the glory of accomplishment. The love triangle between Kevin, Alfredo and Ramona takes center stage, paralleling the two men's conflicting designs on their magnificent natural resource.
The three novels in the series are completely independent of each other, and in fact exist in alternative timelines, so there's no reason to read them in any particular order. The idea is to show the various possibilities latent in California's present, but if one didn't know better, one could have read all three books and not realized they were connected. In this installment, Tom, the only character who appears in all three books, is a lonely elder statesman who enjoys a late-blooming romance with a traveling scientist, but he doesn't really have much purpose here.
The angst-ridden conclusion causes one to question the author's state of mind. While certainly realistic enough, there seems little real point to it. Perhaps Robinson felt it necessary to remind us that even in a utopia, the basic problems of love and death will still plague mankind. Unfortunately, this ending undercuts the pleasure one might have derived from reading the book, and given that it's pretty lightweight to begin with, this is a crucial failing. There's very little science fiction in this book, and not much philosphy (for a utopia novel) so the melancholy conclusion leaves this third of the triptych with nothing to especially recommend it.
fell in love in with all aspects.......2007-07-16
In all aspects of this book, I fell in love.
The descriptions of Ramona, the town beauty, left me longing for her. The realtionship between Ramona and Kevin sent my heart afluttering. I found Kevin to be as human as a character could be, hence his likablity and conveyance of the situations. Kevin is a very well-rounded and developed character whose eyes are suitable for the window into this world.
When the plot thickens, the characters thicken, as well. The reading is fluid and enjoyable. The ending seems a fitting end to all things brought to the forefront in the book. It left me smiling as I finished the last page and closed the book and set it upon my bookshelf.
Weak ending keeps it from being a great book.......2005-12-30
The theme of community that was touched on early in the first novel is fully developed here -- socially, economically, historically, politically, and even romantically. The story is primarily about a threat to the utopia of worker-owned businesses (a middle way between capitalism and socialism) and secondarily about two romances: the love triangle involving the protagonist, and the affair between two old people (which KSR dares to portray as passionate).
Considering that this book was written pre-internet (its original edition is dated 1990, a couple years BEFORE the Mars Trilogy was published), the two-way TV link-ups for global communication seem prescient. There are few other technical innovations, and the story really qualifies as speculative fiction rather than SF.
The character "played" by the personality named Tom comes into full bloom here as a global hero who was a significant force in establishing the utopia. I think KSR's greatest contribution to the utopia genre is his pointed question "How does a utopia come about?" I don't recall any other author addressing this issue in sufficient (let alone convincing) detail -- futuristic utopias appear out of nowhere as the story begins, without a good explanation of how we got (or can get) from here to there.
Unfortunately, KSR indulges in a kind of "author's diary" that opens each chapter with an entry full of his own ruminations. He should have spent less effort on it and more on developing the sketchy background story about how Tom et al transformed the kind of society epitomized by late 20th century US into the community-oriented utopia of the novel. But at least KSR gave it a try. The unsatisfactory fence-straddling ending keeps me from giving this book 5 stars. Even so, it's the best of the three.
I FELL IN LOVE WITH THESE CHARACTERS AND THEIR TOWN.......2005-08-25
This book is not action-packed and it's not really what I consider science fiction. All that makes it futuristic is that it's set a few decades into the future. If you're looking for high-tech or hard sci-fi, look elsewhere. However, if you want to read a pleasant story about the lives and loves of a small, mid-twenty-first century liberal community in southern California rendered in simple, clear prose that even achieves a certain degree of lyricism at times, then give this a try. You may end up loving it, as I did. Liberals probably more than conservatives will enjoy this book because the good guys are liberal while the one bad guy, if the story can be said to have a bad guy, is a republican-type who lets his greed get the better of him at the expense of the community. But nobody in the story is really all that bad (or completely perfect either); they're just basically decent people trying to do their best given their character flaws. The town, while not exactly a shangri-la, is a pleasant, healthy place to live. I really grew to like this community and its simple, back-to-basics (but without being primitive) way of living. In a sense, reading this book is therapeutic; there's nothing morbid here, but lots that is beautiful and uncomplicated, even spiritually uplifting (God is not banned from this liberal community). I found the plot compelling. It kept me turning the pages. The characters were mostly likable, some even adorable. When I finished this book, I got the sense of having visited a place in which I would like to live. Instead of giving a doom-day scenario of the future, the book allows the reader to imagine a future that, while not perfect, is still better than the past. If you are a parent looking to find a book to share with your young adult, this book is good because it works for both adults and kids (over twelve, I'd say). Notwithstanding the somewhat meloncholy ending, this novel is a very pleasant, light-hearted read. If innocence is not your thing, you may not like this book. But I am usually into much darker stuff and I nonetheless found this book to be like a ray of light shining through a cloudy sky.
Book Description
2027: Southern California is a developer's dream gone mad, an endless sprawl of condos, freeways, and malls. Jim McPherson, the affluent son of a defense contractor, is a young man lost in a world of fast cars, casual sex, and designer drugs. But his descent in to the shadowy underground of industrial terrorism brings him into a shattering confrontation with his family, his goals, and his ideals. The Gold Coast is the second novel in Robinson's Three Californias trilogy.
Customer Reviews:
Not Free SF Reade.......2007-09-04
A decaying California? Basically, Robinson's weakest work, this lot. Not something I am interested in, in general. Three Californias is perhaps two and a half Californias too many, in this case. This is perhaps close to mundane. Orange County is not a nice place to start with, not too suprising it will be less nice in the future. Prefer others to this, particularly his newer books.
Fascinating and frustrating at the same time.......2007-04-16
I'm making my way through all of KSR's novels (I have three or four left to go), and with a little reluctance place The Gold Coast squarely in the middle of his body of work in terms of achievement. I say this reluctantly because, as a man about Jim's age living in Southern California, I was prepared to love this novel as much as I love any other by Robinson. It is of course fascinating--the future setting is scrupulously plausible and the theoretical/political/philosophical issues Robinson brings up are all dealt with maturely and satisfyingly--but on a sentence-for-sentence basis I think this is some of KSR's weakest prose. He's best when he's waxing philosophical with a small cast of characters(especially in the earlier books like Remaking History and Icehenge) or world-creating on the scale of the Mars Books or The Years of Rice and Salt. The Gold Coast, on the other hand, is too short to realize fully the large number of characters while at the same time dwelling on Jim and his friends' antics which reveal less about them or their Orange County than one would expect to learn. The thoughts in this book that relate to Southern California--its ambivalence to its own history, its end-of-the-world location and worldview--are for me what make the book worth reading, but after finishing it I still felt like the characters were only beginning to get interesting.
Prescient vision of a militarized society.......2005-12-30
Southern California sex, designer drugs, malls, and corruption are all here, but the eerie part of KSR's dystopian vision goes beyond materialism. In this novel, the US is engaged in several simultaneous small wars around the globe and gags the media to keep images of American casualties from the public eye.
The military-industrial complex is unassailable, openly controlling the US economy, which has become completely dependent on warfare. Nevertheless, some rebels plan a guerrilla strike against a warbucks company. The climax of their sabotage effort involves a skillful plot twist that reinforces the author's critique of corporate greed.
The technological gadgetry (e.g., cars driven by computer, which keeps accidents low in light of all the recreational drugs) hardly qualifies this as science fiction, but the book is after all a vision of the future. The protagonist's scattered, other-directed quest for meaning, embedded in a culture that is almost as purposeless as Huxley's Brave New World, complements the strong notes of hope that the author sings in the other two novels of this series.
The passages about Orange County history are not distracting, but they foreshadow the poorly executed "author's diary" that KSR indulges in throughout the third novel of the series. Also, sad to say, the personality named Tom is virtually insignificant in this book, languishing in an old age home and doing little more than recount "dreams" that are actually references to the eponymous characters in the first and third novels.
More Morality Tale than Imaginative Fiction.......2005-05-14
Part of Robinson's "Three Californias" triptych, this book is set in a future Orange County where economic development has continued unabated, supplanting the region's natural beauty with a vast suburban sprawl. Military installations, enormous malls, and a mechanized transportation system are now the dominant landmarks in areas once dedicated to orange groves. Against this gray backdrop, we get the story of would-be writer Jim McPherson, a smart and sensitive young man who has given in to the ennui of his age. He holds jobs that he has no enthusiasm for. He has relationships that have little meaning to him. He spends much of his time in the company of his social group: a bunch of recreational drug users dedicated to living the good life, and many of whom have more focus in their lives than he does. With so little direction in his life, is it any wonder Jim finds himself drawn into a terrorist campaign against the military-industrial establishment that his well-meaning father works for?
There's not much science fiction here, aside from an overall upgrade in the level of gadgetry, and while 80's societal trends are neatly extrapolated, there aren't any radically new ideas that grab one's attention. But if you can identify at all with Jim's stultifying malaise (something many people have been through at one time or another) this novel provides an interesting look at the effect the military-industrial complex has on modern American life. If you can't, this book will probably leave you cold.
One gets the impression that Robinson is unloading a lot of personal baggage in this book, leading this reviewer to question his artistic distance from the material. It's easy for a writer to put too much of himself on the page, not realizing that his readers won't "get it" in the same way that he does. Some sections seem to border on autobiography while others (are those historical entries Jim's or Robinson's?) read like a history textbook. Ultimately the book stands as a cautionary tale about industrial "progress" and its impact on our humanity. Jim barely escapes the destructive force of his own alienation, but others will not be so fortunate, with results that could be catastrophic for us all. But although this isn't an especially happy story, it's not entirely without hope either. Like Jim, we can renounce violence and re-establish our connection to the natural world, and hopefully undo some of the damage that's been done, building a better future for all.
I don't think so........2004-01-03
I found this book to be unremarkable at best. After reading the outstanding Mars trilogy, this was a big disappointment. I suppose a staunch KSR fan might find it interesting, but I fail to see how.
I forced myself to finish it thinking something must happen to justify the books existance, but I never found it.
Book Description
2047: For the small Pacific Coast community of San Onofre, life in the aftermath of a devastating nuclear attack is a matter of survival, a day-to-day struggle to stay alive. But young Hank Fletcher dreams of the world that might have been, and might yet be--and dreams of playing a crucial role in America's rebirth.
Customer Reviews:
Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03
Russia and others have blown the crap out of the USA, nuclear style.
Now an isolated, broken down country, the United Nations enforces this situation, and Robinson looks at what it is like to live inside this boundary.
The main character is a young man finding his way.
There are some funny parts, such as the yarns their elders spin them at times about 'the old days', and the author has fun with that part.
a WHOLE lot of California.......2007-04-20
California, California... and more California.
Withholding the fact that the book is part of a Three California series, why are so many books plotted in California? More books ought to take place in the great state of Illinois!
For those not familiar with the geography and cities of the state of California (like myself), reading about the different cities becomes monotonous. I just started to skip over the names of most of the cities and landmarks. Beyond this California-ization, everything else was easy to read and also a great pleasure!
Relation to the characters was an easy build-up. Their lives, hardships and joys were all presented very well to the reader. The sheer detail of life in the post-apocalyptic California was refreshing to read: the author touched base on communications, technology, politics and idiosyncrasies in the time.
Perhaps one more complaint would be the lack of information about what happened to the rest of the country after the attack on America. From the reading, it almost seems as if the author thinks California is better and beyond the union of the USA. The neutron bomb attack on America was an America disaster, not just a local California disaster.
Dreaming of a Post-Apocalyptic California?.......2006-11-30
Being a California Native and a lover of post-apocalyptical fiction this book should have been a slam-dunk for me and in some ways it was.
Robinson got two things right -
First, she realistically portrays the life of a primitive, struggling, post-nuclear attack community along a wild and rugged California coast. They fish, hunt, sow and trade for their survival. Many want to forget their past in order to brighten their future while others are obsessed with their once powerful history and take great risks to reassert their independence. That is exactly what one would expect from a post-apocalyptical American society.
Second, the survivors would flounder under the burdens of lack of communication, lack of central government and the frustration of walking among the rubble of technology you know would be helpful but that no one alive has more than rudimentary understanding of. The geo-political situation would be not only misunderstood, but in many ways unknown and perhaps even irrelevant to survivors in such circumstances. The bits and pieces of the world situation that these people do happen upon are unvalidated and confused.
This realism, and the thought and consideration behind it, are impressive. It's very in tune with Robinson's detail-oriented style.
But that detail-heavy writing style is the thing that most turned me off of this book. The superfluous descriptions of the natural scenery was overwhelming and literally boring. I understand that Robinson is trying to imply a tie to nature that these post-war people would have that we can barely imagine in this day and age - yet pages and pages of scenic detail are unnecessary. I found myself literally skipping pages ahead to avoid having to read yet another description of the sea-cliff or the redwood grove. Not even an uber-naturalist would be interested in this much information. And it takes away from an otherwise fascinating and well-flowing narrative of a young boys life in the turbulent times Robinson has created.
While I'll probably finish this series, I'd only recommend it to those with a particular interest in California or post-apocalyptical writing. Or if you have trouble falling asleep.
More than a coming-of-age story.......2005-12-30
I read this a couple years ago, when I was 50, and enjoyed it very much. It's not strictly a coming-of-age story, but perhaps it is intended for the young at heart: romance, teenage rebellion, and idealism about the future.
After a nuclear attack, US society has rolled back to the sparse population and low tech that characterized the 19th century (part of the story focuses on trying to rebuild a railroad line). A major theme is "young man yearning to break free of restrictions" -- in this case, a US that has been quarantined as a protectorate of Japan (which Americans suspect is conspiring to keep them from regaining mainstream 20th century technology).
The wise old man Tom of this story not only is a key supporting actor here, but also appears in name and personality in the remaining novels of the triptych. But he's not really the same character, because there is no connection linking the three novels other than the common locale and a few "what if" musings (a contrivance by KSR).
A very good standalone novel. Also a good introduction to the series and to KSR.
No _Postman_ - this is a coming-of-age story.......2004-11-02
I had recently read David Brin's The Postman which, like Wild Shore, is also concerned with the rebuilding of community after a nuclear holocaust in the U.S. Both focus on men - young or middle-aged. Instead of being concerned with the rebuilding of a nation, however, Wild Shore focuses on community, being true to one's self, yearning for something more, and the horrors of war. While the Postman is fiercely patriotic set on a national scale, The Wild Shore is locally minded. Kim Stanley Robinson sympathetically portrays his protagonist, Henry, and it is his `coming of age' that Wild Shore is concerned with.
Book Description
Name your problem, and you name your possibility! That's the message in Dr. Robert H. Schuller's new bestseller, Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do! Dr. Schuller shows you how to build a positive self-image, no matter what your problem. Whether it's unemployment, poor health, loneliness, fear or anything else that blocks your success, you can turn your negative into a positive. No matter how tough times get, you have the potential to achieve the best of life. Through Dr. Schuller's dynamic principles, you can learn:
* 4 ways to evaluate a new idea * 10 commandments of possibility thinking * 5 principles for putting problems in a proper perspective * 18 principles of leadership * 5 phases necessary for the faith to move mountains * 5 ways to overcome a 'brownout' and prevent a burnout * 25 action words to get you started and never let you quit
Customer Reviews:
It's a Good Start!.......2007-05-07
If you're facing a tough challenge in your life, this is a good way to start down the road to facing it. It doesn't have all the answers, but it makes some good points along the way. It also let's you know that you're not the only one facing difficult times.
Practical, Focused and Useful.......2006-02-12
This is a book full of time tested techniques for dealing with adversity.
If he had written the book today, I think that he would have focused more on the development of resilience. That concept was in its infancy when he was writing, but in fact many of the practical methods in the book form basic biulding blocks of this important personal attribute.
Not just a book for people in trouble: it wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark!
Great Book!.......2004-03-11
Great book! Very inspiring! If you use the book's bottom line, to never give up, and repeat it to yourself so you eventually believe it, the book will work miracles! It is a must read!
The Tough Gets going when the Going gets Tough!.......2002-04-20
No wonder Rober Schuller with his inner wisdom shares his thoughts to show you how to build a self image with positive thoughts and know the truth that after every storm, there is a calm! Every problem has a solution. Tough times never last..is a Gift giver to self and others. It's the attitude to get going when the going gets tough as you face the challenges in life and struggle to face obstacles that rob your mental or physical peace. I gave this book to my hubby during his worst trial period of life in his career and he came out with positive influence to be a sane and wise decision maker to start a business on his own and reach to heights of success today! There is always a twist n sharp turns in life and Rob's book with his dynamic principles in life makes you build positive self image and turn out to be a success. Life isn't a tempest nor a midsummer night's dream, But a comedy of erros, Take it As you Like it!!! A Spiritual Motivation - another bedside shelf book to peek-a-boo to boost your spirits. After all, tough times never last, tough people do!
Helpful and easy to read........2000-08-23
"Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do!" and the "Be Happy Attitudes" are the best of Robert Schuller. I give out the Tough Times book to friends in tough times. It was a real help to me, and the folks I talk to find it helpful. Easy to read, easy to remember, and easy to apply. This book has the 'how tos' that are needed in the real world -- not high sounding theory.
Average customer rating:
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Tough Times Never Last but Tough People Do! (Expanded)
Dr. robert Schuller
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Tough Times Never Last, but Tough People Do!
ASIN: 0671529102 |
Book Description
Success can be yours with Dr. Robert Schuller's tough time never last, but tought people do!
Learn to handle any situation that comes your way.
The world's foremost producer of personal development and motivational audio programs now shows you that there's no limit to what you can accomplish.
From the personal experiences of possibility thinker Dr. Robert Schuller, you'll learn how to turn your problems into opportunities, and your opportunities into happiness. Based on the bestselling book of the same name, Tough Times offers a complete strategy for coping with seemingly hopeless situations.
You'll learn how to:
- Put problems in their proper perspective
- Test the success possibilities of new ideas
- Manage problems in a positive light
- Prevent burnout
You have the power to change things, no matter how tough they may seem.
Customer Reviews:
Too tough.......1999-03-22
The attitude to 'tough it all out' that the author has is a little extreme. Losing a leg is a big deal.
a must read!.......1998-10-05
could this book be any more perfect? it has helped me out of sevral life struggles, and a whole new life for myself and others! I always give out sevral copies for gifts, dr. schuller has made the way you look at life more uplifting! he has a real gift. I wish everyone would do thereselves a real favor and read this book!
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Tough Times Never Last, but Tough People Do!
Robert Harold Schuller
Manufacturer: Thomas Nelson Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
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ASIN: 0840799004 |
Customer Reviews:
Down to earth wisdom.......2000-06-01
I've read many of Robert Schuller's books and this is a great collection. His practical application, personal examples and his matter-of-fact wisdom make the book interesting and easy to read. He gives the reader great encouragement.
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Tough Times Never Last but Tough People Do/Audio Cassette
Robert Schuller
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster (a)
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 155525229X |
Books:
- Race Forever/Escape/Lost on the Amazon/Prisoner of the Ant People/Trouble on Planet Earth/War with the Evel Power Master (Choose Your Own Adventure 7-12) (Box Set 2)
- Rama II: The Sequel to Rendezvous with Rama
- Resident Evil Code: Veronica X Official Strategy Guide
- Return to Base: Memoirs of a B-17 Copilot Kimbolton, England, 1943-1944
- Roald Dahl/Charlie Boxed Set (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator)
- Robot Trilogy: The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn
- Schaum's Outline of Linear Algebra
- Schismatrix Plus (Complete Shapers-Mechanists Universe)
- Shadow Puppets
- Showdown at Centerpoint (Star Wars: The Corellian Trilogy)
Books Index
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The Gold Coast: Three Californias (Wild Shore Triptych)
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