2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson  Reviewed by Ernest J. Yanarella
2312 cover  With 2312, his latest work of science fiction, Kim
Stanley Robinson opens up the field of speculative fiction to a
nuanced and tension-filled portrait of a plausible future for
the human species beyond its earthly anchors three hundred years
from now. It is the beginning of the twenty-fourth century and
the wonders of science and technology abetted by the onset of
the Singularity (called the "Accelerando") have converted the
solar system into a playground for an expanded human population
beyond the confines of Earth. Technological advances in space
colonization and terraforming have allowed human beings to
convert Mars into an independent planet with a social,
political, and economic achievements surpassing Earth's
spiraling decline into a hot, crowded, inegalitarian planet of
ecological crisis, overpopulation, and corporate mischief.
Mercury is now ringed by a mobile city named Terminator that
slowly creeps along the ground ahead of t