Rating: 
Summary: Very realistic
Review: Not quite as good as Red Mars, or The Years of Rice and Salt, but this book by Robinson has a real sense of place. Perhaps it's because I know Mr. Robinson actually journeyed to Antarctica in the writing of this novel. Entertaining, and still having the greater character depth I've come to expect from him, however the story feels a bit sterile in places and lack some excitement for me.
Rating:
Summary: A story from a true believer.
Review: First, the obligatory comparison to the Mars trilogy. I didn't enjoy Antarctica quite as much as I did Red Mars, but I found it substantially better reading than the rest of the trilogy. That out of the way...There's some quality in the stories of the Lensmen or Conan the Barbarian that have caused them to persist in print, or at least in the collective memory of genre fiction enthusiasts, long after most of what appeared beside them in the pulps has faded (mercifully) into obscurity. I think it's a sort of authorial passion, a sincere belief on the part of the writer in his or her characters and the story. Antarctica is redeemed by this sort of passion. The strength of belief with which Robinson tells the story transforms a collection of passages which might otherwise be simply irritating into one of his better novels. It's not so much his own belief in his politics (there _is_ some incredibly bad environmentalist literature out there) as much as something more ineffable, some experience Robinson incurred during his own time on the ice continent that he manages to convey in these pages. Because really, most of the novel consists of
(1) Retellings of the more notable expeditions (Scott, Amundsen, Shackleton) of the early exploration of the continent. As told by Robinson, though, this isn't extraneous exposition, but a testament to human folly, courage, and willpower, the collected stories of men made of iron and boot-leather. (2) Almost Michener-esque descriptions of Antarctican landscape and culture. Yes, it's ice, ice, and more ice. In the hand of a skilled writer who's seen it firsthand, though, it becomes a beautiful desolation that first makes you want to go there and then makes you wonder if you should want to go there -- whether your own presence would somehow make the landscape less what you came there to see. (3) Groups of characters vigorously agreeing with each other about how dysfunctional capitalism is. OK, this gets preachy. But Robinson can preach well, and somewhere the idea that a what a few thousand people do on Antarctica should become a world-changing philosophical event for a globe of billions no longer seems like an absurd case of the tail wagging the dog, but of those few thousand daring to believe they should wag the dog. Oh yeah, and there's about a hundred pages worth of plot tucked away in there somewhere, regarding an eco-terrorist action that destroys the Antarctican communications infrastructure and the characters having to find their ways back to human settlements before their food and medical situations become critical. But seriously, this is peripheral. Writers of speculative fiction should take as a charge what Kurt Vonnegut wrote in the frontispiece of Cat's Cradle: "Live by the foma [harmless untruths] that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy." Antarctica is about people learning to be brave and kind and healthy and happy, and about the continent that catalyzes this transformation.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointment after Mars
Review: I finished this book, and thats about all I can say. I really enjoyed Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, and I was really looking forward to a similarly engrossing work. Alas, I was constantly distracted by the bland history book which one hopes was accidentally bound in by the printer, but unfortunately was not. Just when you start to get in a groove following a character or plotline, a big chunk of uninteresting history appears wrapped in one of several tangental-to-the-plot framing devices (broadcast artist telling his audience at home about the history of the area, ice-hikers sitting around a stove arguing with copius justification about whether the leader of a particular antarctic expedition was brilliant or a [fool], etc.) and things go spinning off somewhere else, forcing you to start from scratch. Although this book does begin to explore many of the same themes as the Mars trilogy, they're much more in-your-face here, causing the whole thing to come off a bit preachy. I'm all for the environment and agree that there are way too many of us bouncing around this planet of ours, but by the time the conflict in the book starts to ramp-up (which doesn't happen until very late), you've been numbed beyond caring by the multitudes of characters constantly exhorting how beautiful the ice and snow is, how oil companies and big corporations are evil, how brave the original explorers were, and how we need to get in touch with our planet more. Overall, if you're expecting compelling stuff like the Mars books, look elsewhere, you won't find it here.
Rating: 
Summary: Different planet familiar story still enjoyable
Review: After his Mars trilogy, just about anything Kim Stanley Robinson was going to do was highly anticipated. The worst thing he could have done was try and repeat his earlier trilogy just in a different setting. To his credit, he did try something different here, but not different enough at times to really make the book come alive. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautifully written and passionate book . . . in the acknowledgements Robinson mentions that he spent several months on the continent and the staggering amount of research shows . . . even if you've never been to Antarctica this book will make you feel like you have. Every mountain every cold gust of wind every pure blue sky is described beautifully here and that love of the land comes through both in the writing itself and the characters. The story, however, feels like a slight retread of the Mars trilogy, with the underlying conflict being whether to keep the land pure and unsullied or to exploit it as best we're able. To this end several plots spin around showing the different aspects, from the tentative oil drilling to the political angles to the scientific and the people just visiting. This crosssectioning almost defeats the book because with so many characters and views you don't get to know the characters as well as you did in the trilogy, only in several moments do they really come alive to the reader and the sparks start to fly. So the book functions mostly like a travelogue, albeit a wonderfully written one and the passion here just about makes up for the plot, but there are times when you'll sit back and wonder if the book is missing something important. The tension that drove the Mars trilogy is absent here, either because the setting isn't as futuristic or simply because he's trying to do more with less . . . but in the end it's entertaining and even a slight book by Robinson is miles better than anyone's best at this point. Don't expect to get as excited by it as his earlier books have done for you, but pick it up anyway. The pleasures it offers may not be new, but they're pleasurable nonetheless.
Rating: 
Summary: Done far better elsewhere
Review: I have been a faithful reader of Kim Stanley Robinson's work for sometime but as I was reading this book I had the uneasy feeling that I had read the same story before. The fact is that most of the themes dicussed in this book were touched upon already by Stanley Robinson (far more skilfully) in his outstanding Mars Trilogy. Many of the characters in this book have their analogs in the Mars trilogy. That being said, unless you must read everything about Antarctica, I suggest that you go pick up the Mars trilogy and read those books. This book is only a pale substitute
Rating:
Summary: Terrific read
Review: While this admittedly shares many themes with other KSR books--Gold Coast, the Mars Trilogy--this is a real page-turner. I've noticed several reviews saying the book was boring or too factual, but I couldn't disagree more. Sure, there are some weak spots, but the narrative is engrossing and I could hardly put the book down. That counts for my girlfriend at the time, who read it first, and loved it. The descriptions of the adventure-trek characters was right on, according to her experiences climbing, etc. I highly recommend the book, especially if you're in sympathy with the environmentalist and anticapitalist themes of most of KSR's work.
Rating:
Summary: I though I visited Antarctica after reading this
Review: There are aspects of this books to comment on: the setting and everything else. As far as setting goes, I'm not sure I've ever read a book that had this much impact on me. I felt that I had been there, seen that, smelled that, felt the cold, etc., etc. After I finished it, I surfed the Internet for pictures of Antarctica and, while what I saw in those pictures awed me, nothing surprised me (Like I said, I had already been there, through this book). The plot of the book was good and, while it was written after the Mars series, it took place before it (story-wise); echoes of that masterly series ran through this book. I think "Antarctica" can stand on its own, but it does have more meaning if you've read the Mars series. Now that all of books are available, I would recommend to anyone who has not read any of them, to read this first, and then read the Mars books soon thereafter. The characters are fairly deep and the mysteries and twists are good. Overall, this book is definitely worth reading. However, I find, over a year later, that I still have no urge to re-read it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: KSR has done it again! This book is awesome, it has it all, great characters, plot, and setting. Robinson skillfully weaves actual history into the story, giving it an added edge. I can't begin to say how much of a pleasure this book was to read except that i've read it 2 times in the 6 months i've owned it.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Unless you are an avid Antarctica buff I don't recommend this one. The main story could have been interesting, but is interrupted with in-depth historical (and other) asides. The main story suffers from lack of character development, lack of intrigue and a general lack of interesting detail. I almost gave up many times. The author's Mars Trilogy is by far better.
Rating:
Summary: Antarctica: hard reading
Review: Let me start by saying that I never finished this book. So i am not fully entitled to review it, but, no matter how self-ctitical I can be, I beleive that for someone to put a book down and never pick it up again there must be two guilty parties. So i suppose that the author had something to do with it. This is the second KS Robinson book I tried to read and failed. this, as the mars trilogy before it is a book o great ideas. Great enviromnent, great characters, nut the way they are presented, the style of naration, the whole style of writting seems wrong. very personal oppinion, very biased, but no matter how much I love Robinson's ideas in his books, I cant follow his writting. Maybe with a bit of practice...I just started "The Martians" and I am determined to take to the end this time
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