Icehenge [Mass Market Paperback]

Kim Robinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1984

At the north pole of the planet Pluto there stands an icehenge created out of slabs towering 200 feet above the crater-pocked surface. The first mission to Pluto must ask themselves, is it an alien message? Or could it mark a human mystery left by a crew who might have passed decades ago?

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Voted one of the best science fiction novels of the year in the 1985 Locus Poll, Icehenge is an early novel by Kim Stanley Robinson (author of the trilogy comprising Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars) and takes place in the same universe. The story is part mystery and part psychological drama, divided into three distinct sections.

In the year 2248, Mars is ruled by a Politburo-like committee that actively discourages dissent as well as travel and exploration of other planets. Scientist Emma Weil becomes involved in a covert plot to convert a stolen ship into a self-supporting spaceship. She turns down a chance to accompany the starfarers, and returns to her beloved Mars where she joins the revolution already in progress.

Three centuries later, archaeologist Hjalmar Nederland unearths a governmental cover-up of the true facts behind the old revolution. At the same time, a Stonehenge-like monument is discovered on the north pole of Pluto, and Nederland sets out to prove his theory that the monument is connected to revolutionaries and their contemporaries who left for the stars. Seventy years later, his great-grandson Edmond Doya becomes convinced that Icehenge is a hoax, and attempts to disprove Nederland's theory.

In addition to futuristic issues such as interstellar travel and the terraforming of Mars, Robinson's characters grapple with politics, careers, families, and aging. Icehenge is a worthy introduction to the author's winning combination of hard science and believable characterization. --Bonnie Bouman --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

"Unforgettable." --The Baltimore Sun

"In a genre not often distinguished by strong characterization, Robinson is a welcome exception. Yet even the memorable community of his The Wild Shore did not prepare us for this brilliant triptych in which the monolithic artifact of the title and the events surrounding it are described and examined from widely different points of view. The distinct, personal voices of the narratives, as they construct and deconstruct their elegant theories, are a pleasure rare in SF." --Publishers Weekly

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Ace; 1st edition (October 1, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441358543
• ISBN-13: 978-0441358540
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,406,060 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kim Stanley Robinson is a winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards. He is the author of eleven previous books, including the bestselling Mars trilogy and the critically acclaimed Fifty Degrees Below, Forty Signs of Rain, The Years of Rice and Salt, and Antarctica--for which he was sent to the Antarctic by the U.S. National Science Foundation as part of their Antarctic Artists and Writers' Program. He lives in Davis, California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great out of the starting gate, January 20, 2002

By 

Michael Battaglia - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Icehenge (Paperback)

Kim Stanley Robinson debuted with this book and The Wild Shore practically in the same year, something that doesn't happen too often. Even rarer, it turns out that both book are key works of the authors and deserved to be read years after they were first published. The Wild Shore gets most of the glory because it's slightly better and part of a trilogy (all three of which are highly recommended) and also because it's less "SFish" than Icehenge. Icehenge has a similar structure as Asimov's The Gods Themselves in that the book is made of three distinct pieces with three distinct characters who all further the plot without ever meeting . . . sort of. There is some crossing of stories here, but not directly, but Robinson's charactizations are what shine through. All of the parts are written in the first person and each character has an individual voice, uniquely showing different views of a future society where life is good but not great, where you can live for hundreds of years but forget about the place where you were born. The plot partially concerns some monoliths (shades of 2001!) being found on Pluto, with the pervading theory that they were built by humans . . . the only question is by who and why. The first story sets up everything else and might give clues into what happened but the other two sections are what deal with the formations proper. The first guy has one theory, his great-grandson years later has a totally different one and both go about proving them. In the end though it's impossible to say and this is a book that will have you considering a lot of aspects of the plot long after you've put it done. Robinson didn't take the easy way out and give a neatly pat ending, which some readers may not be too fond of. But considering the themes of the book, of memory loss and forgetting the past, it fits in perfectly. It's not his best book but if you've enjoyed anything else he's written there's no reason why you shouldn't give this a shot.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Masterpiece, September 2, 2006

By 

Anthony D. Wright (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Icehenge (Paperback)

OK, I know this book was published before the Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars) and before "The Martians" but it was the last of the Mars books I read. This book brought Robinson's whole Mars reality back vividly into my mind.

I don't know if I would have enjoyed this book as much as I did had I not read the Mars trilogy first. Having the background of the trilogy allowed me to focus on the story unfolding in this book.

If you like Robinson's examination of society through the fiction that he writes then you will like this book.

The aspect of the book I found most enjoyable is its examination of how history is created and how a search of facts and historical objects can lead to many different interpretations of the same data. The book seems to me to be saying that we can't ever truly know what happened in the past; we can only examine the available information and take a guess. We should never forget that the victors make the history whether they were in the right or not.

The book itself is a triptych surrounding the creation of a monument near the north pole of Pluto. It is set in the future in the same fictional universe as the Mars trilogy and The Martians. I'd say it is most like The Martians in that it is a collection of three short stories that all deal with the same theme and build one upon the others. Each of the three stories could be taken individually and be interesting but they are related and the relationship between them is what gives this book it's unique quality. In the first part of the triptych Robinson provides an account of events in the form of a journal written by one character. In the reading of this journal one identifies with the character writing it and in a sense becomes her friend. As the book progresses the reader is confronted with the possibility that she never really existed and that the journal was written as part of an elaborate hoax. When confronted with this, Robinson's development of the journal writer's character in the first section of the triptych and of the supposed history of what happened to her presented in the second part makes the reader instinctually reject the proposal that she never existed. The evidence presented in the third section is very clear that the hoax exists but the reader is still led to believe that the journal writer was real and that even if the journal is part of a hoax it is still an authentic journal. There are no definite answers or conclusions presented in the book but none are truly necessary. Robinson presents the facts and lets the reader reach their own conclusion. Near the very end a final theory is presented that I reached about halfway through the third section. All the parts fit and it is a wonderful end to the story.

Anyway, I hope someone finds this interesting and helpful.

-Anthony

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good appetizer for the Mars Trilogy, March 26, 2002

By 

Robin Currier - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Icehenge (Paperback)

If I hadn't already read KSR's Mars Trilogy, I'm not sure I would have liked this book much. This book was written 10 years before Red Mars/Green Mars/Blue Mars were published, but KSR obviously had already thought through a number of the terraforming and long life issues he would deal with in those books. For that reason alone, this book is extremely interesting as a precursor to the trilogy (although it actually is set in a future time when Mars has an established atmosphere and settled government).

However, there was a darkness to this book that disturbed me. The main character in the middle section constantly struggles to avoid falling into a deep, immobilizing depression. There is little joy in this book, and overmuch political machinations, hopelessness and depression.