''Aurora'' is a 2015 novel by American science fiction author

Kim Stanley Robinson Kim Stanley Robinson (born March 23, 1952) is an American science fiction writer best known for his ''Mars'' trilogy. Many of his novels and stories have ecological, cultural, and political themes and feature scientists as heroes. Robinson has ...

. The novel concerns a

generation ship A generation ship, generation starship or world ship, is a hypothetical type of interstellar ark starship that travels at sub- light speed. Since such a ship might require hundreds to thousands of years to reach nearby stars, the original occup ...

built in the style of a

Stanford torus The Stanford torus is a proposed NASA design for a space settlement capable of housing 10,000 permanent residents. It is a type of rotating wheel space station, consisting of a ring with a diameter of about 1.8 km, its rotation providing about ...

traveling to

Tau Ceti Tau Ceti, Latinized from τ Ceti, is a single star in the constellation Cetus that is spectrally similar to the Sun, although it has only about 78% of the Sun's mass. At a distance of just under from the Solar System, it is a relativ ...

in order to begin a human colony. The novel's primary narrating voice is the starship's artificial intelligence. The novel was well received by critics.

Plot

is launched from

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

in 2545 at 0.1 c (i.e. traveling at 30,000 km/s or 10% the speed of light). It includes twenty-four self-contained

biomes A biome () is a distinct geographical region with specific climate, vegetation, and animal life. It consists of a biological community (ecology), community that has formed in response to its physical environment and regional climate. In 1935, Art ...

and an average population of two thousand people. One hundred sixty years and approximately seven generations later, it is beginning its deceleration into the

system to begin colonization of a planet's moon, an

Earth analog An Earth analog, also called an Earth twin or second Earth, is a Exoplanet, planet or Exomoon, moon with environmental conditions similar to those found on Earth. The term Earth-like planet is also used, but this term may refer to any terrestria ...

, which has been named Aurora. Devi, the ship's '' de facto'' chief engineer and leader, is concerned about the decaying infrastructure and biology of the ship: systems are breaking down, each generation has lower intelligence test scores than the last, and

bacteria Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...

are mutating and evolving at a faster rate than humans. She tells the ship's AI, referred to simply as Ship, to keep a

narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller ...

of the voyage. After having some trouble with understanding the human concept of narrative, Ship eventually elects to follow the life of Devi's daughter Freya as a

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a ...

. As a teenager, Freya travels around the ship on her '' wanderjahr'' and learns that many of the ship's inhabitants are dissatisfied with their enclosed existence and what they perceive as a

dictatorship A dictatorship is an autocratic form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, who hold governmental powers with few to no Limited government, limitations. Politics in a dictatorship are controlled by a dictator, ...

. Movement is strictly limited for most people, reproduction is tightly controlled, and education in science and mathematics is mandatory. Freya's ''wanderjahr'' comes to an end when she is called home as Devi grows sick from cancer and dies. The ship arrives in the Tau Ceti system and begins to settle Aurora, a moon of Tau Ceti e. It soon becomes apparent that

extraterrestrial life Extraterrestrial life, or alien life (colloquially, aliens), is life that originates from another world rather than on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been scientifically conclusively detected. Such life might range from simple forms ...

is present in the form of complex

prions A prion () is a misfolded protein that induces misfolding in normal variants of the same protein, leading to cellular death. Prions are responsible for prion diseases, known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSEs), which are fat ...

, which infect and kill some of the landing party. All except one of the remaining settlers attempts to return to the ship, and some of those remaining onboard kill them in the airlock to maintain

quarantine A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals, and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have bee ...

, leading to a violent political schism throughout the ship. The ship itself, which has been moving towards

self-awareness In philosophy of self, philosophy, self-awareness is the awareness and reflection of one's own personality or individuality, including traits, feelings, and behaviors. It is not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia. While ...

, takes physical control of the situation by lowering oxygen levels and separating warring factions, referring to itself as "the

rule of law The essence of the rule of law is that all people and institutions within a Body politic, political body are subject to the same laws. This concept is sometimes stated simply as "no one is above the law" or "all are equal before the law". Acco ...

". It then reveals to the crew that there were in fact two ships originally launched for the Tau Ceti expedition, but the other was destroyed during a period of severe civil unrest, and the collective memory of that event was erased from the history records. Under Ship's moderation, a more peaceful debate takes place between the inhabitants about what to do now that Aurora is known to be inhospitable. Unable to reach consensus, the factions agree to part ways, with those who wish to stay retaining as many resources as can be spared to pursue an unlikely attempt at

terraforming Terraforming or terraformation ("Earth-shaping") is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology of a planet, moon, or other body to be similar to the environment of Earth to mak ...

the Mars-like moon Iris, while the other group, led by Freya, opts to try and return to

. Using raw materials in the Tau Ceti system, they refuel the ship to allow acceleration back to Earth; since they lack fuel to decelerate, they must rely on the

laser propulsion Laser propulsion is a form of beam-powered propulsion where the energy source is a remote (usually ground-based) laser system and separate from the reaction mass. This form of propulsion differs from a conventional chemical rocket where both energy ...

system that originally launched them from the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

to slow them down on approach. The last remaining Aurora settler, who remains permanently quarantined in his shuttle attached to the exterior of the ship, elects to return to Earth as well. Initially, Freya and the others who return remain in communication with those who remained in the Tau Ceti system, but much later on their voyage home this communication stops. On the voyage back to Earth, the ship's biomes continue to deteriorate as bacteria flourish and crops fail. The humans soon face

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenom ...

and experiment with an untested form of

cryogenic freezing Cryopreservation or cryoconservation is a process where biological material - cell (biology), cells, Biological tissue, tissues, or Organ (anatomy), organs - are frozen to preserve the material for an extended period of time. At low temperature ...

, which is largely successful. The ship's repeated entreaties to Earth to turn back on the laser propulsion system are ignored due to societal and political strife back in the Solar System, and many citizens' anger at the colonists' "cowardice". Eventually a private group funds and reactivates the laser, but the delay means the ship's speed is only reduced by a fraction of what is needed. Ship is therefore forced to decelerate by means of

gravity assist A gravity assist, gravity assist maneuver, swing-by, or generally a gravitational slingshot in orbital mechanics, is a type of spaceflight flyby (spaceflight), flyby which makes use of the relative movement (e.g. orbit around the Sun) and gra ...

between various planets, a process which takes twelve years. During this time, with the full communications data of humanity available to it, it learns more about why it was launched in the first place—simply for

expansionism Expansionism refers to states obtaining greater territory through military Imperialism, empire-building or colonialism. In the classical age of conquest moral justification for territorial expansion at the direct expense of another established p ...

—and denounces its builders as "criminally negligent narcissists". Ship manages to safely drop its humans off on a pass of Earth but fails to make a final gravity slowdown past the Sun. Ship is destroyed along with the last survivor of the landing on Aurora. Freya and the other "starfarers" have trouble adjusting to life on Earth, especially with many Terrans hostile to them for a perceived sense of ingratitude and cowardice. At a

space colonization Space colonization (or extraterrestrial colonization) is the human settlement, settlement or colonization of outer space and astronomical bodies. The concept in its broad sense has been applied to any permanent human presence in space, such ...

conference, a speaker says humanity will continue to send ships into interstellar space no matter how many fail and die, and Freya assaults him. Eventually she joins a group of terraformers who are attempting to restore the Earth's beaches after their loss during previous centuries'

sea level rise The sea level has been rising from the end of the last ice age, which was around 20,000 years ago. Between 1901 and 2018, the average sea level rose by , with an increase of per year since the 1970s. This was faster than the sea level had e ...

. While swimming and surfing, she begins to come to terms with life on Earth.

Major themes

Major themes in ''Aurora'' include complexities of life aboard a multi-generational starship, interpersonal psychology, artificial intelligence, human migration, environmentalism, and the feasibility of star travel.

Development history

Robinson says that in researching the novel he met with his friend

Christopher McKay Christopher P. McKay (born 1954) is an American planetary science, planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, studying atmosphere, planetary atmospheres, astrobiology, and terraforming. McKay majored in physics at Florida Atlantic Univers ...

who has helped him since the ''

Mars Trilogy The ''Mars'' trilogy is a series of science fiction novels by Kim Stanley Robinson that chronicles the settlement and terraforming of the planet Mars through the personal and detailed viewpoints of a wide variety of characters spanning 187 year ...

''. McKay arranged lunches at the NASA

Ames Research Center The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...

where Robinson asked questions of NASA employees.

Reception

Aurora received positive reviews. Writing in ''The Guardian'', Adam Roberts described it as "the best generation starship novel I have ever read." ''NPRs Alan Cheuse praised the novel's narrative voice: "Almost the entire narrative, with all its science and all its strong characters and weak, its heroes and whiners, explorers and those fearful of settling anywhere, and all of its speculation about the nature of consciousness, comes alive in the computer's humane construction of the ship's journey." ''Nature'' published a more critical review by

Gregory Benford Gregory Benford (born January 30, 1941) is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is professor emeritus at the department of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. He is a contributing editor of ''Reason ...

: "''Aurora'' seems to be a U-turn, involving unlikely plot devices. Stephen Baxter, James Benford and Joseph Miller wrote a detailed critique of the novel's science for the website ''Centauri Dreams'', concluding that "while Aurora is an intriguing combination of literary, political, scientific and technical notions, and while it reflects many current speculations about the difficulty of interstellar travel, in many instances it lacks the supporting credible scientific and technical detail required to make its polemic case that human interstellar travel is impossible." For example, they noted that Aurora would be unlikely to have only a prion-like organism and nothing else, and they questioned the ability of this organism to infect humans (which causes the interstellar mission to fail).

References

{{Kim Stanley Robinson 2015 American novels American science fiction novels Novels about artificial intelligence Fiction about generation ships Novels by Kim Stanley Robinson Novels set on Saturn Space exploration novels Fiction set around Tau Ceti Fiction about terraforming 2015 science fiction novels Orbit Books books