---
product_id: 337951733
title: "The Ministry for the Future: A Novel"
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---

# The Ministry for the Future: A Novel

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ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR An unsettling masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will impact us all. “The best science-fiction nonfiction novel I’ve ever read.” ―Jonathan Lethem, New York Times bestselling author of The Fortress of Solitude The Ministry for the Future 's setting is not a desolate, postapocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us. This extraordinary novel from visionary science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson will change the way you think about the climate crisis. "If there’s any book that hit me hard this year, it was Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future , a sweeping epic about climate change and humanity’s efforts to try and turn the tide before it’s too late." - Polygon (Best of the Year) "Masterly." ― New Yorker

Review: We can fix this - 60 Billion dollars a year is a lot of money. That simple point is at the heart of my thoughts on The Ministry for the Future, a new work by Kim Stanley Robinson, which I've just finished. Before the review, some caveats. I have read several of the author's novels - 2312, New York 2140, Red Moon. I like them all. This one is not bad. I bought it. You should buy it, too. That said: The Ministry for the Future is different. It is a collection of vignettes and reports from a variety of sources and perspectives (even the sun gets to have its say) amounting to a loose, mostly unconnected set of storylines with lightweight characterizations and a plot with less of a traditional narrative flow. It throws out economic theories, technical solutions, and proposed political changes to address the challenge of climate change, but none in great detail. Another critic said the book still 'oddly works' despite these flaws and I have to agree. I think it works because it is a broad survey of a more hopeful future in which humanity actually addresses and turns the corner on climate change and all of these little reports collectively add up to a positive outcome. That's encouraging and that is what makes it fun to read. Most fiction on this topic is decidedly dystopian. This book is optimistic. Refreshing, to say the least. It's still odd because a typical novel has more structure, more compelling characters (that you want to root for), and their journey and struggles, dangers and risks get more attention - like the author's other books. I came away wondering why one character was such a focus, their story not all that inspiring or sympathetic. Whereas another far more interesting character doing more risky and morally ambiguous activities is barely mentioned, their shadowy side only briefly mentioned. This second character is truly interesting, but we learn very little about them. The organizational geek in me keeps coming back to that $60 billion a year. That's the notional budget of the Ministry for the Future, a global agency set up to represent the future humans that don't yet have a voice but will be impacted by climate change. It's a fascinating idea, but this notional ministry gets very little substantive treatment. It has an office in Zurich. An Irish woman as director whose chief skill seems to be glaring at people she doesn't agree with. There are a dozen directors (biblical metaphor?) who engage in periodic brainstorming sessions. There are brief vignettes of various initiatives overt and otherwise, but not so much substantive discussion of what, how, and why it works. And that's a shame because we probably need such an agency in the future. But what is described on these pages is what I would think of as a small nonprofit with a venture capital portfolio. It's not an agency with a $60B budget. Consider what $60 billion will get you. The US Department of Energy has 14,000 employees, 95,000 contractors, 80+ labs around the country and does cutting edge research and development (okay, nuclear weapons, but also advanced solar, etc.). It also supports an academic research network - and it does all of that for about half of our notional Ministry for the Future's budget. I know a certain Fortune 500 IT technology company with over 500,000 employees around the world and the revenue supporting this vast organization is less than $45B and that includes a margin. The U.S. Air Force has a budget of roughly $160B a year (a lot more, of course, than the Ministry for the Future), but that gets you 5,000+ high tech aircraft, 320,000+ uniformed airmen(people?) and a civilian workforce of 320,000 - and of course the power of enough advanced high-tech weaponry to dominate any adversary anywhere in the world (for at least a few more years anyway). You get the point, I hope. You can do a lot with $60 billion a year. A Ministry for the Future with a budget of $60 billion is going to be a busy place. Whoever is in charge is going to be spending a lot of their time overseeing the different divisions that spend this much money, visiting key projects, negotiating major agreements. They are not just going to be holding a monthly staff meeting to brainstorm ideas or hosting the occasional conference. All of the vignettes and initiatives mentioned are projects funded by the Ministry for the Future, but the dots aren't quite connected. Running such an agency is going to be a 24x7 job and that person is going to have to know the details, all of them. And with public funding, there will be a governing body that requires endless reporting and likely has different stakeholders with different agendas and conflicts, not to mention audits. You don't get that much public money for free. Maybe that's too much to envision and manage in a novel, but, again, we just might need a Ministry for the Future - in the near future. I wanted to see the idea developed more, much less the seen and unseen struggles of what it tries to accomplish and how it works with all of the other state and non-state actors that make-up the global community. I'll close with my recommendation to buy the book. Despite some gaps and flaws and my very minor criticism, it 'oddly works', as they say. It adds up to a positive narrative of how we might possibly deal with global warming, which is all too rare these days and that, by itself, is worth the price of admission. Some of the projects to save the Earth are inspiring. If it gets you thinking that we can collectively solve this problem (global warming), then that by itself qualifies this book as a masterpiece, despite its flaws. So, go buy it. Start imaging a future that is more optimistic and less dystopian.
Review: Saving the World - The book starts out with a major heat wave disaster in India killing 20 million people, resulting in greater willingness to combat climate change as well as anger and desire by the survivors. The Ministry of the Future is an UN agency established in 2025 by the Paris Agreement. It was tasked with advocating for the rights of future generations especially with respect to climate change. We follow Mary Murphy and other characters in this agency throughout the following decades passed mid-century. Another central character is Frank May, an American aid worker, who was present when the Indian heat wave hit. He was traumatized and resorted to extreme actions. Since aspects of the Ministry appeared to be secret and its purpose was to save the world for future generations it reminded me a bit of the foundation in Isaac Asimov’s foundation series. An agency consisting of selected people who were not entirely aware of what was going on but ultimately saved the galactic civilization for the future. I loved the author’s reference to the Tzadikim Nistarim, the hidden righteous ones saving the world from destruction. The book is also sprinkled with words of wisdom, factual information, and fun riddles, all of which have solutions except the riddle in chapter 95. Try to figure that one out. I loved what he said on page 510 “Foxing their own cognitive errors might be one the greatest accomplishments……”. Did you know there are about 60 billion birds alive on Earth? The book is both a bit dark in the beginning but overall very optimistic. Most of the imagined solutions he provide, such as the carbon coin, I found to be both doable and ideologically neutral. He lays out the case against focusing on adaptation in a profound manner, discusses geoengineering in an informed manner, and drives home that carbon emissions is a cost that is unaccounted for, an externality. He came across as someone who had good insights into climate solutions. That said his socialist leanings and even soft spot for communism became apparent. This plus his naïve adulation for Vendana Shiva, a pseudo scientist, was off putting, and I found his mocking of the economic sciences both uninformed and hypocritical. He expresses distaste for rich people while being one himself. Yes I looked up his net worth. Even though his far left leanings was a problem to me it did not influence his writing too much, and I found myself agreeing with much of what he promoted. There are several story lines narrated by different narrators, some unnamed, the jumps between the story lines and the insertions of riddles or wisdom words or facts felt a bit disjointed and was at times confusing, but also fun. That combined with his left leaning viewpoints is why I am not giving the book five stars. However, I loved the setting, the character development, the many gripping stories, his profound understanding of climate science, natural science, international politics, and his love for nature. The author is not only a good writer and a good story teller but also intelligent and well informed, almost like an Asimov. The book was a great pleasure to read.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #22,337 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #68 in Hard Science Fiction (Books) #85 in Dystopian Fiction (Books) #91 in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.3 out of 5 stars 11,438 Reviews |

## Images

![The Ministry for the Future: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71kuPFdgqwL.jpg)

## Available Options

This product comes in different **Media Language, Media Format** options.

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ We can fix this
*by S***T on October 23, 2020*

60 Billion dollars a year is a lot of money. That simple point is at the heart of my thoughts on The Ministry for the Future, a new work by Kim Stanley Robinson, which I've just finished. Before the review, some caveats. I have read several of the author's novels - 2312, New York 2140, Red Moon. I like them all. This one is not bad. I bought it. You should buy it, too. That said: The Ministry for the Future is different. It is a collection of vignettes and reports from a variety of sources and perspectives (even the sun gets to have its say) amounting to a loose, mostly unconnected set of storylines with lightweight characterizations and a plot with less of a traditional narrative flow. It throws out economic theories, technical solutions, and proposed political changes to address the challenge of climate change, but none in great detail. Another critic said the book still 'oddly works' despite these flaws and I have to agree. I think it works because it is a broad survey of a more hopeful future in which humanity actually addresses and turns the corner on climate change and all of these little reports collectively add up to a positive outcome. That's encouraging and that is what makes it fun to read. Most fiction on this topic is decidedly dystopian. This book is optimistic. Refreshing, to say the least. It's still odd because a typical novel has more structure, more compelling characters (that you want to root for), and their journey and struggles, dangers and risks get more attention - like the author's other books. I came away wondering why one character was such a focus, their story not all that inspiring or sympathetic. Whereas another far more interesting character doing more risky and morally ambiguous activities is barely mentioned, their shadowy side only briefly mentioned. This second character is truly interesting, but we learn very little about them. The organizational geek in me keeps coming back to that $60 billion a year. That's the notional budget of the Ministry for the Future, a global agency set up to represent the future humans that don't yet have a voice but will be impacted by climate change. It's a fascinating idea, but this notional ministry gets very little substantive treatment. It has an office in Zurich. An Irish woman as director whose chief skill seems to be glaring at people she doesn't agree with. There are a dozen directors (biblical metaphor?) who engage in periodic brainstorming sessions. There are brief vignettes of various initiatives overt and otherwise, but not so much substantive discussion of what, how, and why it works. And that's a shame because we probably need such an agency in the future. But what is described on these pages is what I would think of as a small nonprofit with a venture capital portfolio. It's not an agency with a $60B budget. Consider what $60 billion will get you. The US Department of Energy has 14,000 employees, 95,000 contractors, 80+ labs around the country and does cutting edge research and development (okay, nuclear weapons, but also advanced solar, etc.). It also supports an academic research network - and it does all of that for about half of our notional Ministry for the Future's budget. I know a certain Fortune 500 IT technology company with over 500,000 employees around the world and the revenue supporting this vast organization is less than $45B and that includes a margin. The U.S. Air Force has a budget of roughly $160B a year (a lot more, of course, than the Ministry for the Future), but that gets you 5,000+ high tech aircraft, 320,000+ uniformed airmen(people?) and a civilian workforce of 320,000 - and of course the power of enough advanced high-tech weaponry to dominate any adversary anywhere in the world (for at least a few more years anyway). You get the point, I hope. You can do a lot with $60 billion a year. A Ministry for the Future with a budget of $60 billion is going to be a busy place. Whoever is in charge is going to be spending a lot of their time overseeing the different divisions that spend this much money, visiting key projects, negotiating major agreements. They are not just going to be holding a monthly staff meeting to brainstorm ideas or hosting the occasional conference. All of the vignettes and initiatives mentioned are projects funded by the Ministry for the Future, but the dots aren't quite connected. Running such an agency is going to be a 24x7 job and that person is going to have to know the details, all of them. And with public funding, there will be a governing body that requires endless reporting and likely has different stakeholders with different agendas and conflicts, not to mention audits. You don't get that much public money for free. Maybe that's too much to envision and manage in a novel, but, again, we just might need a Ministry for the Future - in the near future. I wanted to see the idea developed more, much less the seen and unseen struggles of what it tries to accomplish and how it works with all of the other state and non-state actors that make-up the global community. I'll close with my recommendation to buy the book. Despite some gaps and flaws and my very minor criticism, it 'oddly works', as they say. It adds up to a positive narrative of how we might possibly deal with global warming, which is all too rare these days and that, by itself, is worth the price of admission. Some of the projects to save the Earth are inspiring. If it gets you thinking that we can collectively solve this problem (global warming), then that by itself qualifies this book as a masterpiece, despite its flaws. So, go buy it. Start imaging a future that is more optimistic and less dystopian.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Saving the World
*by T***N on November 21, 2021*

The book starts out with a major heat wave disaster in India killing 20 million people, resulting in greater willingness to combat climate change as well as anger and desire by the survivors. The Ministry of the Future is an UN agency established in 2025 by the Paris Agreement. It was tasked with advocating for the rights of future generations especially with respect to climate change. We follow Mary Murphy and other characters in this agency throughout the following decades passed mid-century. Another central character is Frank May, an American aid worker, who was present when the Indian heat wave hit. He was traumatized and resorted to extreme actions. Since aspects of the Ministry appeared to be secret and its purpose was to save the world for future generations it reminded me a bit of the foundation in Isaac Asimov’s foundation series. An agency consisting of selected people who were not entirely aware of what was going on but ultimately saved the galactic civilization for the future. I loved the author’s reference to the Tzadikim Nistarim, the hidden righteous ones saving the world from destruction. The book is also sprinkled with words of wisdom, factual information, and fun riddles, all of which have solutions except the riddle in chapter 95. Try to figure that one out. I loved what he said on page 510 “Foxing their own cognitive errors might be one the greatest accomplishments……”. Did you know there are about 60 billion birds alive on Earth? The book is both a bit dark in the beginning but overall very optimistic. Most of the imagined solutions he provide, such as the carbon coin, I found to be both doable and ideologically neutral. He lays out the case against focusing on adaptation in a profound manner, discusses geoengineering in an informed manner, and drives home that carbon emissions is a cost that is unaccounted for, an externality. He came across as someone who had good insights into climate solutions. That said his socialist leanings and even soft spot for communism became apparent. This plus his naïve adulation for Vendana Shiva, a pseudo scientist, was off putting, and I found his mocking of the economic sciences both uninformed and hypocritical. He expresses distaste for rich people while being one himself. Yes I looked up his net worth. Even though his far left leanings was a problem to me it did not influence his writing too much, and I found myself agreeing with much of what he promoted. There are several story lines narrated by different narrators, some unnamed, the jumps between the story lines and the insertions of riddles or wisdom words or facts felt a bit disjointed and was at times confusing, but also fun. That combined with his left leaning viewpoints is why I am not giving the book five stars. However, I loved the setting, the character development, the many gripping stories, his profound understanding of climate science, natural science, international politics, and his love for nature. The author is not only a good writer and a good story teller but also intelligent and well informed, almost like an Asimov. The book was a great pleasure to read.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A brilliant exposition of the calamity we face and the frictions opposing effective action.
*by M***W on March 23, 2024*

This book is a work of genius. I should declare immediately that I am a ‘doomer’. I consider that humanity is now too far down the road of climate altering action and general resource overshoot to make the effective U-turn that most fervently hope to be possible. The book is constructed as a very clever series of mostly short chapters that both educate and keep the plot moving. Some chapters follow the main characters as they struggle creatively and mightily to force the entrenched powers-that-be to take an increasingly more radical approach to the efforts needed to turn spaceship Earth around from unmitigated disaster. Other chapters provide haunting and jarring vignettes in the form of first-person accounts of events occurring around the world. Interleaved with the above are short, informative and insightful essays on various relevant topics such as capitalist economics, international politics. PTSD, geoengineering, climate refugees, species extinction and alternative economic mechanisms. The titular organization which came to be known colloquially as ‘The Ministry for the Future’ is started as a quasi-independent spin-off from the United Nations. Its charter was to represent, on the world stage, the future generations of humans (current children included) as if they were a significant country and constituency. To give them a voice. The book begins with Frank May, an aid worker in India, who is caught up in an extremely lethal heatwave. This event is quite traumatic, and it kills about twenty million people. The shock waves from this event set a lot of things in motion including a very bold and radical action taken unilaterally by India. Multiple geoengineering efforts are undertaken. A radical restructuring of the worlds deeply entrenched financial systems is both persuaded and forced with much pushback from financiers, central bankers, oligarchs and the wealthy elites. Eventually more than 100 million refugees all over the world are on the move and bold solutions have to be found for them. Airships replace planes for air travel and solar/wind powered multi-masted schooners reappear on the oceans. Large scale wildlife corridors are established all over the planet. The earth is allowed to heal. As a doomer and pessimist, I have to say that I was very impressed. This book gave me a lot of new perspectives. It made me feel a small chink of hope. Robinsons prose is excellent and is a pleasure to read. His arguments are mostly quite solid. However, Robinson often seems rather naïve (or else prone to wishful thinking) as to the feasibility of getting the entrenched power-elites to radically rethink their world views. On the other hand, perhaps the power of the masses really can be brought to bear if enough people wake up. As he says, “When push comes to shove, it’s always humans looking at humans; and when a thousand people stand looking at one person, it’s clear who has more power”. In the end, I was convinced that these are the kinds of things that we (humanity as a whole) *should* be doing and indeed should have started doing long ago. The book is particularly realistic in the sense that the events described take place over a period of some forty years. There is no quick fix to our predicament if indeed there is a fix at all. This is a significant book. The fact that it made a doomer like me stop and think “What if that could still work?” and “m..m..maybe” surprised me. Highly recommended.

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*Last updated: 2026-10-08*