The Memory of Whiteness (Voyager) [Import] [Paperback]

KIM STANLEY ROBINSON (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 350 pages
• Publisher: VOYAGER; New Ed edition (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0006482562
• ISBN-13: 978-0006482567
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,223,945 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

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One word DEPTH., September 7, 2001

By 

Ryan E McMahon (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Memory of Whiteness (Paperback)

I would consider this one of the all around best works of modern fiction. The depth and breadth of the worked that Robinson creates is truly a wonder. Few writers can successfully juggle the complex ideas contained within this book and still present a coherent story.

When I started this novel I feared that the level of music theory and physics was going to overshadow the story and make for a dry and boring read. By the end of the third chapter I realized that I was hopelessly hooked and couldn't put the book down. This was not due to an attachment to characters but rather an involvement in the world that I have rarely felt.

Let's just hope that no one gets the bad idea to try and make a movie.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A far-futuristic symphony of ideas, March 19, 2002

By 

Christopher (Denver, Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Memory of Whiteness: A Scientific Romance (Paperback)

Calling Robinson a stream-of-consciousness author may be unkind, thanks to the label's attachments... let's rather peg KSR as a stream-of-ideas craftsman.

Those that made their way thru the Mars trilogy and called the journey pleasant will testify that what kept them entranced was not any certain traditional literary technique, but instead a technique possibly unique to KSR himself. KSR builds rich gardens, scenes built on pure thought and ideas, realistic enough and utterly fascinating, and then allows his characters to wander within for awhile. We never are fully guided through any of these idea gardens, but as we close the book, we realize that he has left a meta-map of 5 or 6 of these for our minds to explore later. Asimov may have created 1 or 2 of these idea gardens (psychohistory, as one), but KSR does it repeatedly. It is a totally unique experience in literature.

Speaking to The Memory of Whiteness itself, it is set in the year 3229... that alone speaks volumes, and KSR builds the finest 4th milennium stage I've yet read. You will be guided on a tour of worlds and cultures (KSR also being a fine 'culture creator', another of his distinct footprints), and the entire idea of 'music' will transform before your eyes. The story moves along with good pace, with enough complexity to entice you to read it again, and builds to an ending that will haunt your waking days. So this one certainly deserves an A+.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, February 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Memory of Whiteness: A Scientific Romance (Paperback)

Robinson is the only human who could possibly write a novel about a recovering drug addict on a mission from God to accurately represent 10th dimensional physics through music. Music lovers will love it, Physics lovers will love it. Simply grand.