This second book in Kim Stanley Robinson’s richlydetailed Three Californias triptych reveals another, all-too-plausiblepossible future for Orange County.

North America, 2027. Southern California is normally adeveloper’s dream eliminated mad, an endless sprawl of condo properties, freeways, and malls.Jim McPherson, the affluent son of a protection contractor, is a man lost ina world of fast cars, casual sex, and developer drugs. But his descent in to theshadowy underground of industrial terrorism brings him into a shatteringconfrontation with his family members, his goals, and his ideals.

TheGold Coast can be an epic work of science fiction thatexplores a grim potential and what a single man can do to turn the tides.