Pacific Edge

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For the most part Pacific Edge does feel realistic - even if Robinson fails to show the exact path how we would get to a world where the scourge of global capital is restricted. The fact that he doesn't even speak of the tipping point(s) that would set us on a more wholesome path might be the book's biggest shortcoming. Either way, it is remarkable that the story retains its realism, even if the society KSR portrays seems farther away today, in 2022, than it might have seemed in 1990 - and as such is unrealistic.

It's hard to wrap my head around those two conflicting notions of realism, but the fact that it retains a degree of realism is due to two things. Robinson draws his characters clearly, and as such his portrayals of love and friendship hit the mark. And maybe even more importantly for a novel that is about ideas as well: he identifies real problems standing in the way of utopia, most notably the way our market society is structured - problems that are still relevant today.

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As such, it was very interesting to read Pacific Edge with The Ministry of the Future fresh in mind. It is as if Ministry is the book one of the characters in Pacific Edge had wanted to write. Not only do they have a sharp focus on finance & law in common, but also because Ministry does try and chronicle the way we get to a better world, in much more detail.

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Full review on Weighing A Pig Doesn't Fatten It.