Icehenge (1984)

Icehenge is a science fiction novel by American author Kim Stanley Robinson, published in 1984.

Though published almost ten years before Robinson's Mars trilogy, and taking place in a different fictional future, Icehenge contains elements that also appear in the trilogy; these elements include extreme human longevity, Martian political revolution, historical revisionism, and shifts in perspective among primary characters.

Plot

Icehenge is set at three distinct time periods, and told from the perspective of three different characters.

The first narrative is the diary of an engineer caught up in a Martian political revolution in 2248. Effectively kidnapped aboard a mutinous Martian spaceship, she provides assistance to the revolutionaries in their quest for interstellar travel, but ultimately chooses not to travel with them but to return to the doomed revolution on Mars.

The second narrative is told from the perspective of an archaeologist three centuries later. He is involved in a project investigating the failed revolution, and during this finds the engineer's diary buried near the remains of a ruined city. At the same time, a mysterious monument is found at the north pole of Pluto, tying up with a passing mention in the engineer's diary.

In the final narrative, the great-grandson of the archaeologist visits the monument on Pluto, a ring of standing slabs of ice. He is investigating the possibility that both the diary and the monument were planted by a reclusive and wealthy businesswoman who lives in the orbit of Saturn.

Development history

The first part of Icehenge was originally published as the novella "To Leave a Mark" in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (November 1982). The third part of the novel was originally published as the novella "On the North Pole of Pluto" in the anthology Orbit 18 (1980), edited by Damon Knight. While Robinson was enrolled in author Ursula K. Le Guin's writing workshop at University of California, San Diego in the spring of 1977, he gave her the novella in rough form to read and edit. In the novel's third section, views of Saturn from the space station visited by the narrator were inspired by images of Saturn taken during Voyager probe flybys in 1980–1981.

Publication history

1984, United States, Ace Books ISBN 0-441-35854-3, publication date October 1984, paperback

1985, United Kingdom, Futura Orbit ISBN 0-7088-8166-1, publication date December 1985, paperback

1986, United Kingdom, MacDonald ISBN 0-356-12402-9, publication date October 1986, hardback

1986, France, Denoël ISBN 2-207-30425-6, publication date September 1986, paperback

1986, Italy, Editrice Nord ISBN 88-429-0171-7, publication date 1986, paperback

1987, West Germany, Bastei-Lübbe ISBN 3-404-24092-8, publication date 1987, paperback

1990, United States, Tor Books ISBN 0-8125-0267-1, publication date September 1990, paperback

1997, United Kingdom, Voyager ISBN 0-00-648255-4, publication date 15 September 1997, paperback

1997, Croatia, Zagrebačka naklada ISBN 953-6234-26-2, publication date 1997, paperback

1997, Bulgaria, Лира Принт ISBN 954-8610-18-3, publication date 1997, paperback

1998, United States, Tor Orb ISBN 0-312-86609-7, publication date July 1998, paperback

2001, People's Republic of China, 漓江出版社 ISBN 7-5407-2610-5, publication date 2001, paperback

2003, France, Gallimard ISBN 2-07-031304-2, publication date December 2003, paperback

2004, Spain, Minotauro ISBN 84-450-7495-4, publication date 9 March 2004, paperback

2009, United Kingdom, Voyager ISBN 978-0-00-733674-6, publication date 1 August 2009, paperback