“Working in the Next Present” in Aurora and New York 2140
The final chapter considers Robinson’s two most recent novels, Aurora (2015) and New York 2140 (2017), that offer different visions of the future. Aurora drives a stake through the heart of interstellar romance by depicting the failed mission of a multigenerational starship to colonize another solar system. Narrated in large measure by the spaceship’s artificial intelligence, Aurora brilliantly experiments with the narrative structures of sf even as it explores the ecological and biogeographical limits of terrestrial life. New York 2140, in contrast, depicts the struggle for the city’s political and environmental future in a future where a sea-level rise of forty feet above today’s level has occurred and rampant financial speculation still drives a capitalist worldview. Rather than a dystopian struggle for survival, however, the novel offers a utopian comedy of political and ecological regeneration.