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The Ministry for the Future

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The Ministry for the Future

By: Kim Stanley Robinson
Narrated by: Jennifer Fitzgerald, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Ramon de Ocampo, Gary Bennett, Raphael Corkhill, Barrie Kreinik, Natasha Soudek, Nikki Massoud, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Inés del Castillo, Vikas Adam
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About this listen

Chosen by Barack Obama as one of his favourite reads of 2020

Established in 2025, the purpose of the new organisation was simple: to advocate for the world's future generations and to protect all living creatures, present and future. It soon became known as the Ministry for the Future, and this is its story.

From legendary science-fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson comes a vision of climate change unlike any ever imagined.

Told entirely through fictional eye-witness accounts, The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, the story of how climate change will affect us all over the decades to come.

Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us - and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face.

It is a novel both immediate and impactful, desperate and hopeful in equal measure, and it is one of the most powerful and original books on climate change ever written.

©2020 Kim Stanley Robinson (P)2020 Hachette Audio UK Science Fiction Fiction Thought-Provoking

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All stars
Most relevant  
fantastic imaginative storytelling. I enjoyed the many first person narratives, and how the environmental disasters are played out on the world stage. Also the hard science and political theory, my goodness, if you're on the fence on purchasing this book, don't be, it's one of the most fascinating narrative stories about US as a people's, and our place on this fragile blue green dot we call home, Earth.

This is how the world ends

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I am not usually a listener of fiction...

but this beast had me gripped. not only is it a great story, it manages to imagine a post-capitalist world...

...which is some of the most original thinking I have encountered in ages...

simply marvellous

This Book is perfect

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I think very hard to enjoy due to distracting voices that do not add to the story in any meaningful way. What is wrong with just having someone with a comprehensible voice reading the story without doing absurd accents. All of the accents attempted are done so half-heartedly and creates a squirming awkwardness when trying to enjoy the story.

Really interesting story almost unlistenable voice acting

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The analytical parts of this story are priceless. The story itself is mostly interesting but I felt some passages overlong and even self indulgent. the reading is a bit mixed, certainly good enough but not great with occasional errors that should have been picked up. but this is a timely book bordering on a must-read, and the most fully systemic view of a planet since Dune.

brilliantly systemic exploration of our future

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What will the future look like? Kim Stanley Robinson has thought widely and imaginatively about this question, and has clearly drawn deeply from the work of many people who are trying to solve our most frightening ecological and political challenges. The future he creates in this book doesn't always convince - and the narrative device might not always work - but it deserves huge credit for taking a global view of our globalized world. If you want to move beyond a doom-laden, frozen and terrifying vision of tomorrow, and think about how challenges and change can accelerate solutions, it is worth a listen.

Thought-provoking

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Interesting story that may just turn out to become reality. It is rather tough or dense to get through though.

Interesting story but tough to get through

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The accents are ridiculous, quite offensive and frankly ruin a decent story. Very bizarre indeed.

Voice actors completely ruin this

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The themes of this book are very relevant and it is great that there is a novel about them. I love listening to books - especially while doing something else like cleaning, driving, gardening. However this book was so hard to follow. I felt like every chapter is from a new perspective, with a new character. Perhaps someone who reads or listens with more concentration than I do can follow it - I was not able to finish it. I have got to chapter 43 of 106 chapters and am still not sure if there are any main charaters. There is one which seem to come up a little more often - but it is exhausting trying to keep up with the plot. It seems very random.

Hard to follow

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multiple characters in the audiobooks make it very appealing.
The book itself is a masterpiece.

Fantastic

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Combining visceral descriptions of the consequences of climate change, and the geopolitical fallout, this book offers a roadmap to navigate to a stable relationship with our planet. The abstract chapters feel out of place, but the overall story is compelling. I’m a little sceptical that blockchain will form a credible part of the economic solution, but happy to be proved wrong.

Optimistic forecast for tangible ways to combat climate change

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