The Sword and Laser discussion

I'm hunting for a novel I read maybe 15+ years ago. It was a near-future, dystopian story set in N. California (I think) on the coast. The US has been plunged in to a pre-Industrial Revolution level of technology as a result of...something (war? Civil War?), and the rest of the world is trying to keep them that way. Can't remember the author or the title of the book, and I'm having no luck searching for it using key words. Ring a bell with anybody? Protagonist lives in coastal village, sometimes goes inland to trade with gypsy types for old technology. Orbiting satellites keep tabs on US to make sure there are no electrical "hotspots" or other signs of technological recovery. You get the picture.

Help! I'd really like to read it again, but I need to track it down, first. It was probably written in the 80s.

Hey

it sounds to me like The Wild Shore, part of Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Californias trilogy.

They're all set in California (Orange County, I think) toward the end of the 21st Century in very different futures.

The Wild Shore is, as you say, set in a US that has been bombed back to the stone age after the rest of the world gets tired of it throwing it's weight around - at least, that is what we think; the only historical knowledge comes from an old man (the protagonist's grandfather?) who himself has a very confused idea of history, so this idea may be completely wrong.

Pacific Edge has California as an eco-socialist utopia where income is capped, fossil fuels are banned and and people can barely believe the wasteful way in which their forebears lived. Of course, Robinson is a good enough writer that he questions whether this can only be achieved by isolationism and ignoring the wider world's problems. This was the book that introduced me to KSM.

The Gold Coast is a much more straight-forward day-after-tomorrow SF, California a high tech wonderland of ubiquitous computing and fast, self controlled cars - using this to examine the philosophy of progress and as a lens viewing our own world, in much the same way as the rest of the trilogy.

I hope this is the one you mean. If not, you should read it - and the other two!

Paul 'Pezski' wrote: "Hey

it sounds to me like The Wild Shore, part of Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Californias trilogy.

They're all set in California (Orange County, I think) toward the end of the 21st Century in ver..."

Nope, this isn't it, and you're not the first to suggest this trilogy. It sounds really good, and I'll have to take a look at it at some point, though!

I don't remember satellites in Always Coming Home by Le Guin, but other bits sound right.

kvon wrote: "I don't remember satellites in Always Coming Home by Le Guin, but other bits sound right."

Yes, there were satellites and the Internet. However, I don't remember the people being forced to live with limited technology.

Always Coming Home is one of my favorite books. Amazing how a collection of field notes of an anthropologist can create a world. The musings of Pandora are also a nice meta commentary. The introduction where LeGuin brings her grandchild to the grasses by the coast is stunning.

Bit of a long shot here, but Could it have been Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle, or Dr. Bloodmoney They are both a lot older, but they each have some elements you mentioned. I remember really liking Dr. Bloodmoney, I really should re-read that.

This sounds a lot like the beginning of the Rings of the Master series by Jack L Chalker. First book in the series is Lords of the Middle Dark. The main difference is that if I remember correctly there is an AI that is keeping the entire world primitive, not just the U.S. The series starts on Earth and then moves on from there.

If nobody here knows it, try the group "What's the Name of That Book?"

Neb wrote: "I'm hunting for a novel I read maybe 15+ years ago. It was a near-future, dystopian story set in N. California (I think) on the coast. The US has been plunged in to a pre-Industrial Revolution leve..."

Neb, I recognize the book from your description, but I cannot dredge up the name.
Arraagaaa ... now it's got me too. What's that book!

Neb wrote: "I'm hunting for a novel I read maybe 15+ years ago. It was a near-future, dystopian story set in N. California (I think) on the coast. The US has been plunged in to a pre-Industrial Revolution leve..."

Neb, I posted your question over at Baen's Bar. (Sorry, I forgot to attribute it to you.) Perhaps we'll get an answer there.

Lawrence, over at Baen's Bar, recognized the book. It is The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Neb says above that people keep suggesting The Wild Shore but it's not. Ah, well....

If it is not The Wild Shore, then there are two books out there with very similar stories (small struggling West coast community, America destroyed by war and other nations keeping her down) and very similar details (teenager coming of age, the old man who remembers the pre-fall days, the communal bath house, etc.). Meh, I think this is it.