The 40 signs of rain, K. Stanley Robinson: A Story of Cloudy Anticipation

"Things were really starting to go crazy on this planet: we were seeing climate disasters everywhere. Hyperniño, dramatic droughts in India and Peru, bushfires, a typhoon in Mindanao, a cold wave throughout Texas… Every day something happened." Today, we present you the 8th novel of Kim Stanley Robinson, a regular of the story of anticipation. The 40 Signs of Rain is the story of the earth's climate decline, plagued by an accumulation of increasingly regular disasters. A situation that in 2021, we, the readers, are now familiar with.

It is also the intersecting story of the daily life of Anna, Charlie, Leo and Frank, all researchers in ecology, biomathematics or biotechnologies… Presented through everyday scenes. Sometimes Anna and Charlie navigating between their children and their research work… Sometimes Leo and his experiments on mice. Or Franck the disillusioned, discussing disastrous stats and ironically on the fate of rich and poor. Life continues its course through encounters and discoveries.

Whistleblowers and ecological issues: like an air of déjà vu

When Anna meets a young monk from a small country in India, she becomes aware of the political stakes of his field of competence, the serious implications that science can have on the course of things. Indeed, his interlocutor and now invited testifies to the growing difficulties he is experiencing in his country: their island state is threatened by "global warming". This warming is on everyone's lips. We then understand that it constitutes the link of the intrigues, the very heart of the novel. We are beginning to see that the situation on the globe is far from ideal. But what are the exact causes? The fog around the climate state remains thick. To enlighten us on the case, the story is sometimes punctuated by informative parentheses on the climate, the oceans or the topographical dynamics of the planet … Like the pieces of a puzzle that fit together little by little, until the fatalistic denouement.

Confusing lengths that go out of the narrative

Despite a very interesting background and fashionable issues, this novel requires that we hang on to it. After about fifty pages testifying to the daily life of scientists (with everything you can imagine exciting like… , accounting or the advancement of research funding), it is difficult to stay focused. To get to the end of the story and grasp all its facets, you will have to hang on… or be in possession of a master's degree in ecology. To conclude this analysis, the results are relatively mixed. If you try the adventure anyway, we wish you good luck. Apart from this regret, this novel will convince the most assiduous of you, or the most committed. Ecology, politics, human solidarity… The 40 Signs of Rain tackles with accuracy – and precision – issues that bring us back to reality over the pages. What if it was time to react? While waiting for the flood, if you want to get some fresh air (and if you are Parisian), we recommend 5 outdoor places to walk around and forget a little about the gloom of confinement!