The Gold Coast

The Gold Coast, Kim Stanley Robinson, 389 pages

Part two of the Three Californias triptych, this standalone novel takes place in a future California, just as The Wild Shore does, but this California is a high-tech, concrete, capitalist cityscape, where the Cold War is still going strong (the book was published in 1988 and it shows on occasion). Jim McPherson’s father is an engineer for the military industrial complex, struggling to complete weapons systems with impossible constraints and deadlines, and Jim longs for revolutionary action or anything to put some meaning in his life.

Having read all of the Three Californias, I can firmly say that this one is my least favorite. It’s depressing in its depiction of urbanization (deliberately so, presumably), and its attempt at hopefulness falls flat except as a precursor to Pacific Edge, part three of the triptych. Government bureaucracy and the forces of industry feel inescapable, and the most anyone succeeds in doing is hiking in the distant countryside. If you’re feeling trapped and let down by current events, this is not the book for you. Skip to Pacific Edge for a much more hopeful look at a possible future.