Instead of "Critically Significant Issues,"
Let's Say "Funny New Story Ideas."

Science Fiction Weekly interviews Kim Stanley Robinson about Forty Signs of Rain (which those of us who read The Years of Rice and Salt in paperback were led to believe would be called Capital Code), the forthcoming first volume in a new trilogy of environmental thrillers. Or, as he puts it: "Humans trying to control nature, improve the world, it's always bound to backfire more or less. My current books could therefore be thought of as attempts at a new subgenre, call it maybe 'utopian farce' or 'utopian black comedy.' What would that read like?"

In suggesting some possibilities, he also namechecks one of my favorite novels in recent years, The Business by Iain Banks.

Robinson also waves off one suggestion about a potential role model for the president of this future history: "This book is a comedy, and there's nothing funny about George W. Bush. He's a disaster, and I wouldn't want to write about him, it would poison a book to do so. No, in my novel the White House is occupied by a benign sly grandfather, pretending to be a cowboy for fun and profit. Like Reagan but nicer, at least I hope that will remain true."