Rating: 
Summary: Amazing. Flawless.
Review: This book blew my socks off. I was deeply impressed with Robinson's Mars trilogy, and thought this book would be more of the same. Instead it's quite different, and quite possibly better. _The Wild Shore_ makes a strong case for sci-fi as literature. Robinson's descriptive ability - the way he catches the introspective moment by painting what the character sees and feels - sets him head and shoulders above the rest of fantasy/sci-fi writerdom. I found myself reading pages over a few times to savor the distilled essence of the events described. Then of course there's the whole phenomenon of the curious mix of suffering, hope, and excitement that Robinson's characters go through; if art is the mirror of nature, then _The Wild Shore_ is definitely art.
Rating: 
Summary: A WILD BUT BELIEVABLE TALE
Review: This book takes place in the year 2047, after 3,000 nuclear bombs are strategically placed in major cities all over the USA. The detonation of these nuclear weapons leaves the country in an age where Scavengers are set against those people trying to pull their family and world back to something that hardly resembles the past greatness of America. In this book the Russians are the culprits and they give several other countries the backing to help with the initial destruction. The countries of the world have ganged up on the USA for being greedy and using up most of the world's resources. It is many years later and history is at times comically rewritten by the elders who have lived through the nuclear attack. The aged Tom spends much of his time teaching the younger adults about the world as he remembers it from days gone by. Books are rare and trade is a major source for goods. I found this book completely believable. The borders of the USA are being watched and the Japanese are patrolling the west coast from a base set up on Catalina. It has been decided by the United Nation that the borders will be secured and America will stand alone for 100 years, what an incredible concept this author has come up with. The characters are well developed and I shed a tear or two. Science fiction is a new genre to me and this author has opened up realms of possibilities. This book is the first in the trilogy followed by "The Gold Coast" and "The Pacific Edge". I will certainly enjoy more of this author's writings. Kelsana 11/21/00
Rating:
Summary: What would you have done?
Review: This story takes place in post apocalyptic California. What I liked about the book was the characters and the woven world. Both were very real to me. The book is told from the perspective of the protagonist Henry and told in the first person. I have always prefered books in the first person as I am able to better connect with the character from whose perspective the story is being told. I don't think this book could of been written any other way. KSR paints an incredible picture of post apocalyptic California as you, the reader, and Henry, the protagonist, experience life in a world in what one hopes will never come to be. But, if it did, would it be like this? Perhaps. The story is strong and believeable, the characters as I have said are real and you easily get wrapped up in their lives. No super hero or villian types. Normal people struggling to survive. You get a real glimpse KSR's post apocalyptic California (and World to a small degree). I have never been to California, but through this book I was able to walk the shoreline, climb the cliffs, fish its waters and breathe its air. True, I wouldn't want to be there given the circumstances, but it was all very real. A very compelling read. Recommended for middle teens to adults.
Rating:
Summary: What would you have done?
Review: This story takes place in post apocalyptic California. What I liked about the book was the characters and the woven world. Both were very real to me. The book is told from the perspective of the protagonist Henry and told in the first person. I have always prefered books in the first person as I am able to better connect with the character from whose perspective the story is being told. I don't think this book could of been written any other way. KSR paints an incredible picture of post apocalyptic California as you, the reader, and Henry, the protagonist, experience life in a world in what one hopes will never come to be. But, if it did, would it be like this? Perhaps. The story is strong and believeable, the characters as I have said are real and you easily get wrapped up in their lives. No super hero or villian types. Normal people struggling to survive. You get a real glimpse KSR's post apocalyptic California (and World to a small degree). I have never been to California, but through this book I was able to walk the shoreline, climb the cliffs, fish its waters and breathe its air. True, I wouldn't want to be there given the circumstances, but it was all very real. A very compelling read. Recommended for middle teens to adults.
Rating: 
Summary: Strong concept, disappointing storytelling
Review: What started as a wonderfully inventive work went downhill after about the halfway point. Too many plot points depended on one character overhearing something important. I finished the book a week ago and while I remember the characters and the situations, I can't recall what happened at the end. That says something.
Rating: 
Summary: Post-apocalypse, post-modern SF
Review: Why is it that every post-apocalyptic book must have the same old tired plot: a youth, hearing about the grand old past, investigates and discovers the "truth" of the past? Of course, the fact is that these books, like most "non-adventure" SF, are about the present using this simplified vision of the future as a looking-glass to it. My problem with the sub-genre is that I don't hold with the simplification--most of these books Imply that our present life is "out of balance" and that, in a antediluvian world, the balance will be restored. I can hold with the former, but I disagree with the latter. So too may Stan Robinson, if I understand the theme behind his Orange County trilogy, of which this is the first book. Taking a common starting point, Robinson looks at the world through three different fun-house mirrors, the first of which is a back-to-nature, return to the "simpler" life. This is pure conjecture on my part, not having read the other two volumes as of yet, however. The Wild Shore was an Ace SF original, published in the same line edited by the late Terry Carr as Gibson's Neuromancer. While it did not set the genre on its ear as Gibson's novel, the seeds of Robinson's later career and his interests can be seen here. While post-apocalyptic, this novel is not a rehash of A Canticle of Leibowitz--rather than concentrating on the tragedy of the apocalypse and how it might happen again and again, Robinson celebrates the enduring human spirit by attempting to show that life goes on much the same as it ever did. Parents will continue to be parents, both supporting and domineering, and children will continue to be children, full of rash actions and the naive belief that they can live forever. Like his short story, "Down and Out in the Year 2000," The Wild Shore can be read as an answer to the cyberpunk belief that technology will reinvent the world. Robinson says, the world may change, but people will not. As a final aside to this incoherent rambling, I was surprised early on in the novel to find another coincidental relationship between this book and Neuromancer. Much has been made of Neuromancer's first line, which, to paraphrase, goes "The sky was the color of a television, tuned to a dead channel." On page 34 of The Wild Shore, Robinson depicts the same color by saying, "On the coast the sky was the color of sour milk...." The two similes are one of the best indications of the different milieu depicted, and the underlying themes of both books.
Rating:
Summary: Post-apocalypse, post-modern SF
Review: Why is it that every post-apocalyptic book must have the same old tired plot: a youth, hearing about the grand old past, investigates and discovers the "truth" of the past? Of course, the fact is that these books, like most "non-adventure" SF, are about the present using this simplified vision of the future as a looking-glass to it. My problem with the sub-genre is that I don't hold with the simplification--most of these books Imply that our present life is "out of balance" and that, in a antediluvian world, the balance will be restored. I can hold with the former, but I disagree with the latter. So too may Stan Robinson, if I understand the theme behind his Orange County trilogy, of which this is the first book. Taking a common starting point, Robinson looks at the world through three different fun-house mirrors, the first of which is a back-to-nature, return to the "simpler" life. This is pure conjecture on my part, not having read the other two volumes as of yet, however. The Wild Shore was an Ace SF original, published in the same line edited by the late Terry Carr as Gibson's Neuromancer. While it did not set the genre on its ear as Gibson's novel, the seeds of Robinson's later career and his interests can be seen here. While post-apocalyptic, this novel is not a rehash of A Canticle of Leibowitz--rather than concentrating on the tragedy of the apocalypse and how it might happen again and again, Robinson celebrates the enduring human spirit by attempting to show that life goes on much the same as it ever did. Parents will continue to be parents, both supporting and domineering, and children will continue to be children, full of rash actions and the naive belief that they can live forever. Like his short story, "Down and Out in the Year 2000," The Wild Shore can be read as an answer to the cyberpunk belief that technology will reinvent the world. Robinson says, the world may change, but people will not. As a final aside to this incoherent rambling, I was surprised early on in the novel to find another coincidental relationship between this book and Neuromancer. Much has been made of Neuromancer's first line, which, to paraphrase, goes "The sky was the color of a television, tuned to a dead channel." On page 34 of The Wild Shore, Robinson depicts the same color by saying, "On the coast the sky was the color of sour milk...." The two similes are one of the best indications of the different milieu depicted, and the underlying themes of both books.
Rating:
Summary: This shouldn't happen!
Review: yeah, it's a book about life after the bomb(s). I do think the bomb shouldn't happen, but that's not what I found upsetting in this book. I hereby swear this perversity has never happened to be while reading any other book: I actually enjoyed and looked forwards (at times) to the scenary descriptions in this book. No, I don't really understand it either. Something about reflecting the characters mood or such junk, but that's what they all claim. It never worked on me before, or after, I swear! I'm not like that!
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