2312

Kim Stanley Robinson's newest hard science fiction novel, 2312, takes the reader on a tour of the Solar System as it exists that momentous year.  It describes a collapsing society on Earth, a rising human civilization on Mars, and city-states all over the System.

The strength of the book is the description of the wonderful engineering achievements that allowed humanity to live in and travel throughout the Solar System.  The plot involves some murky politics that stay murky to the end for me.  Also unclear is how humanity achieved the breakout into space if Earth's society and economy had been in decline since roughly our time.  Maybe I missed something.