Readers pick up the story as the ship enters the last leg of its journey towards their destination in Tau Ceti, which is a moon the crew have named Aurora. Therefore, whole generations are born and die on the ship without ever knowing Earth or their destination planet in Tau Ceti. Each generation keeps the ship functioning, along with the artificial intelligence inhabiting a quantum computer at the core of the ship, and teaches each subsequent generation the knowledge and skills they need to do the same. This is obviously a multigenerational endeavour and birth control technologies are used to ensure that the population of the ship is maintained at a constant level. Each biome contains a fully functional society making up a total population of a little over 2,000 people.

The ship contains 24 ecosystems representing all the diverse climates on Earth and is packed full with as many animals and plants as it can carry (allowing for an optimal balance between weight and fuel). Most of the novel is set on a generation ship travelling at one tenth the speed of light for almost 200 years to a moon orbiting Planet E in the Tau Ceti system twelve light years away from Earth. The answer isn’t pretty, though the novel itself is quite stunning. Robinson takes the concept of a generation ship, a trope used in many science fiction stories, and applies exacting and cutting-edge scientific detail to question what it will actually be like when humanity tries to travel to the distant stars.

This book extends that concept to tell a story about humanity’s future attempts to extend itself outside the solar system. That novel postulated a possible future three hundred years from now, when humanity has spread across the solar system. The book, in some ways, can also be seen as a companion piece to his Nebula Award winning 2312. Aurora, Kim Stanley Robinson’s latest novel, is his version of the generation ship science fiction novel.

Aurora kim stanley robinson review