Part Eight: The Comedy of the Commons Reviews Stefan and Roberto: orphan 12-year-olds that try to survive, and try to salvage sunken treasures the Dickensian water rats Summary Hexter, that the boys Stefan and Roberto become friends with)Īmelia: cloud (internet) video superstar, travels the world in her airship Assisted Migration, often does environmental documentaries and participates in animal conservation missionsĬharlotte: social worker at the Householders' Union, helps run the Met Life building, has run-ins with local, coop, city-wide, state-wide and national politics Vlade: the Met Life building's superintendent, solves all issues that arise, particularly anything that has to do with waterĪ citizen: a disgruntled sarcastic citizen with an acute knowledge of history, in particular New York local history (could be Mr. Inspector Gen: respected New York police inspector, with a good knowledge of her district, looks into their disappearanceįranklin: hedge fund manager at WaterPrice, creator of the financial product IPPI (Intertidal Property Pricing Index), womanizer, likes to cruise the New York canals with his hydrofoil bug Mutt and Jeff: quants for financial markets, get abducted when they unleash some disrupting code in the way financial markets work a comic-tragic duet a riff on the comic strip cartoon of the same name, invented in 1907 in San Francisco

CharactersĬharacters are connected by the Met Life building, most of them being neighbors inside that building. Quotes from a variety of sources on New York are interspersed between chapters.

The Mutt and Jeff chapters are entirely written in dialogue, like theater. Most chapters are written in a limited third person narrative, except the Franklin chapters, in first person narrative, and the citizen chapters, which are transcripts of in-universe logs or articles.

The novel is broken down in 8 parts, each consisting of several chapters following one or a group of the central characters. Through the eyes of the varied inhabitants of one building Kim Stanley Robinson shows us how one of our great cities will change with the rising tides. Though changed forever.Įvery street became a canal. The waters rose, submerging New York City.īut the residents adapted and it remained the bustling, vibrant metropolis it had always been. It is a comedy of coping in a future where climate change and sea level rise has happened, but life goes on.Ī new vision of the future from Kim Stanley Robinson, the New York Times bestselling author of science fiction masterworks such as the Mars trilogy, 2312, and Aurora. The paperback was released on March 14 2018. ' New York 2140' is a Kim Stanley Robinson novel published on March 14 2017 (hardcover, ebook, audiobook) in the USA, Canada and Australia (March 16 for UK).

New york 2140 by kim stanley robinson