Forty Signs of Rain

Robinson set out for this to be a contemporary novel written as if it was science fiction. Reading it some 15 years after its publication perhaps dilutes its science fiction attributes. Whilst not yet as catastrophic as in the novel, severe climate events are at the forefront of our experience almost on a daily basis. I found it interesting that, whilst the conflict is global and the threat is of global extinction or at least civilization collapse; that the foreground story of the protagonists is best described as domestic and could by some readers be described as mundane. The protagonists if we can call them that are like us, running daily lives, but they differ in that they are also aware of pending ecological disaster, conscious of the role science can or should play in driving change.
Robinson as in all his novels explores the meaning or importance of science and here extends that into contemporary politics. The little outtakes on hominid evolutionary psychology suggest why we are stuck with behaviors that contribute to the pending catastrophe. He depicts quite accurately our current and recent history of denial or at best the attitude of not disrupting too much the status quo whilst making some ponderous progress.
It became obvious to me as I read that this novel was setting up the characters, the environment [Washington as physical city and political capital], science as the redemptive hope [metaphor of Buddhism as science], as the plot marches on to greater ecological disaster.
So if you are looking for a high action in your face doom-laden SF adventure this and I suspect its two sequels won't satisfy. That though for me was somewhat the point. We don't approach global warming and the rest of the damage we are doing to our ecology as if we are on a cliff edge.
It's a slow read, a slow fuse if you like. Are Charlie and Anna to saccharin? Perhaps but why not I'm told some relationships are like that and that made me smile at times. Frank has his demons, his early mid-life crisis which I suspect will feature more in subsequent novels. Are the Buddhists just a colourful sidetrack and some aspect that Robinson has a fondness for. [See previous works]. I think not but will read on to see.
So, in short, I want to know more. Robinson re-worked this series, updating and shortening it into one novel Green Earth. This is where I will pick up my reading.