Fifty Degrees Below

Award-winning author Kim Stanley Robinson continues her groundbreaking trilogy of eco-thrillers and takes us deeper into the awe-inspiring whirlwind of climate change. Set in our nation's capital, this is a stunningly realistic tale of people caught in the collision of science, technology, and the consequences of global warming, which could trigger something else: abrupt climate change, resulting in temperatures...

When the storm worsened, scientist Frank Vanderwal was at work, formalizing his return to the National Science Foundation for another year. He left the building just in time to help sandbag Arlington Cemetery. Now that the torrent was over, large chunks of San Diego had eroded into the sea, and D.C. was underwater.

Shallow lakes occupied the most famous parts of the city. Reagan Airport was flooded, and the Potomac River had spilled beyond its banks. Lifeboats dotted the saturated cityscape. Everything Frank and his colleagues in the halls of science and policy feared had culminated in this massive catastrophe. And now the world looked to them to fix it.

Whatever Frank can do now that he's homeless, he'll have to do it from his car. He's not averse to sleeping outside. Years of research have made him hyperaware of his primate status. That, plus his encounter with a Tibetan Buddhist, has left him determined to live a more authentic life.

Hopefully this will prepare him for whatever is to come...

Even if DC emerges from the flood, more extreme climate change is on the horizon. With melting polar ice caps closing off the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, another ice age could be imminent. The last time this happened, 11,000 years ago, it only took three years to begin.

Once again, Kim Stanley Robinson uses her remarkable vision, wry wit, and extraordinary insight into the complexity between man and nature to take us to the brink of catastrophe and beyond.