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The Ministry for the Future

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The Ministry for the Future

By: Kim Stanley Robinson
Narrated by: Jennifer Fitzgerald, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Ramon de Ocampo, Gary Bennett, Raphael Corkhill, Barrie Kreinik, Natasha Soudek, Nikki Massoud, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Inés del Castillo, Vikas Adam
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About this listen

Chosen by Barack Obama as one of his favourite reads of 2020

Established in 2025, the purpose of the new organisation was simple: to advocate for the world's future generations and to protect all living creatures, present and future. It soon became known as the Ministry for the Future, and this is its story.

From legendary science-fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson comes a vision of climate change unlike any ever imagined.

Told entirely through fictional eye-witness accounts, The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, the story of how climate change will affect us all over the decades to come.

Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us - and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face.

It is a novel both immediate and impactful, desperate and hopeful in equal measure, and it is one of the most powerful and original books on climate change ever written.

©2020 Kim Stanley Robinson (P)2020 Hachette Audio UK Science Fiction Fiction Thought-Provoking Socialism

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All stars
Most relevant
Such an excellent researched book - a how to change human history to try and lessen the oncoming disaster that are children will suffer.

This is a treatise masked as Fiction that should be regarded like 1984. Only Peter F. Hamilton (Book 2 Night's Dawn and Fallen Dragon) has been to me as effective as Kim Stanley Robinson for me in the past.

A must read.

A Bible for the Climate Change End Game

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hope it comes true for the future of humanity hope it comes true for the future of animal kind

hope it comes true

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Ok voice acting, although too bad the author decided to ignore the current progress in climate programs.

Interesting scenario on what could happen

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thought provoking epic looking at how we can save humanity on Earth - and it's not by continuing how we currently do things.

our future?

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Great book, with a wealth of knowledge sourced from political, economic, cultural and scientific insights. Sometimes, I missed a strong story arch of characters. But I would recommend this book to all.

Hopeful, urgent and full of tools to create a better future

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Voice acting was incredibly cringey and difficult to listen to for a lot of the book. The story itself is also quite poorly written with a sprinkling of unrealistic ideas

Hard to listen to

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I read the book a while ago, and loved it. It’s an important story of an international body set up to coordinate efforts to mitigate climate change, but done in an engaging way as a thriller of sorts. I’m a fan of the book. However, the decision to have multiple actors, many of whom have attempted to. Try out a wide range of accents for the characters involved in their parts of the book - a really bad call. This makes the story almost incomprehensible as you try to work out who they are trying to portray. The book is almost ruined as a result. A big shame, but if this is your experience also I would urge you to abandon this version and instead go and read the book.
My first review I think, because I feel so strongly about what’s been done…

A gripping and important story spoiled by poor performances

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This is a brilliant book, and very well performed. It's like the old greats of Sci-Fi, one rooted in hard science and it's application to the real world.
There IS little characterisation in it. But that's to be expected with the themes and scope of the novel. It is not Utopian...more anti-dystopian. Things are set to right at the end and the world's safe. But it can get that way.

A story of ideas and concepts.

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Not heavily plot driven but riveting nonetheless. Enough emotional engagement in the main character, Mary, to keep you invested. But the carefully researched facts and about economics, science and ecology are vital and illuminating.

Everyone should read this book

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The analytical parts of this story are priceless. The story itself is mostly interesting but I felt some passages overlong and even self indulgent. the reading is a bit mixed, certainly good enough but not great with occasional errors that should have been picked up. but this is a timely book bordering on a must-read, and the most fully systemic view of a planet since Dune.

brilliantly systemic exploration of our future

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