KSR has always specialized in "realistic" feeling sci fi with characters that terraform and survive in tough settings through science, technological know-how, and political organizing. But his recent climate-change novels have gotten pretty bleak at some points- I couldn't finish Ministry for the Future.

Luckily Aurora isnt tough going like that - its lively, enjoyable reading. It's the kind of multi-generational space voyage and settlement narrative - laced with lots of technology and science talk -- that many sci fi writers have covered before, but he stops to ask a question I can't recall encountering before: what if this is a terrible idea? What if humans really can't conquer the stars?

@Akrazia One of my favourites exactly because it goes to show that whatever life we find somewhere else is going to be deadly for us, for we are a virus there. And if we find a planet without life, we could possible geoengineer it to become friendly for us, but that would mean living for 3-5,000 years in Tupperware-like configurations. That this is going to be impossible, living autark for such a long time, is what KSR also shows. So, best thing probably is not to dream of pioneering other planets, but to make sure this planet stays liveable for us. Hence KSRs newer SciFi books like Ministry for the Future.

@Akrazia I read Ministry of the Future in 2022 and it focusses on what we can do to save this planet for us (it is a book where KSR is recommending certain things). It also tries to show what would work and what not. I really liked it as a source of knowledge.

Red Mars is waiting for me on my bookshelf. But the books are hard to come by, not being sold anymore.

As for what made KSR shift, he's a mountain climber and hiker and maybe this led him closer to nature? See here: www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/31/can-science-fiction-wake-us-up-to-our-climate-reality-kim-stanley-robinson