The Ministry For the Future

Dust jacket and interior illustrations by François Vaillancourt.

Subterranean Press is pleased to announce an oversized signed limited edition of The Ministry for the Future, which may be Kim Stanley Robinson’s most impressive and important novel to date.

Their edition will be oversized, printed in two colors throughout, with full-color endsheets—different images in the front and back of the book—as well as three full-color additional illustrations by François Vaillancourt.

Told through an engrossing, globe-spanning narrative that blends nonfiction and the viewpoints of multiple characters across a variety of formats, from meeting notes to his usual astonishing elegiac prose, The Ministry for the Future is acclaimed author Kim Stanley Robinson working at the height of his prescient powers. A cautionary climate tale that manages to be realistic and hopeful, this urgent, essential work of science fiction is a must-read for everyone invested in the future of humanity and our planet.

In 2025, a heat wave sweeps through Uttar Pradesh in India, killing 20 million in a catastrophe that cannot be ignored, but which is quickly enough forgotten by most as “all around the world, the CO₂ emissions continued.” Frank May, an American aid worker suffering on the ground when it happens, who manages to survive—barely—never will, however. 

Created shortly before the heat wave under the Paris Agreement, the Ministry for the Future in Zurich, Switzerland, is charged with advocating on behalf of future generations. Mary Murphy, its head, is a former foreign minister of Ireland, charged with a job made delicate by politics, in a time when extreme measures are needed. When Mary is kidnapped by Frank, she finally becomes willing to take those measures--and she won’t be alone. 

The Ministry for the Future carries forward the powerful ecological message Kim Stanley Robinson has been sounding since his beloved, award-winning Mars trilogy. His well-documented work for environmental justice—ranging from presentations to governments and scientists to meeting with the Dalai Lama—is presented here in its purest distillation yet.

Limited: 400 signed numbered hardcover copies