Pacific Edge was published by Tor in 1990, completing the Three Californias triptych with a utopian future. In 2065, El Modena (a neighborhood in Orange City) is a green, cooperative community: water is recycled, power is solar, work is shared, corporations have been broken up, and the land has been allowed to recover. The novel follows Kevin Claiborne, a young builder, as he fights a proposed development on Rattlesnake Hill — the last undeveloped hilltop in the community.
Robinson’s challenge — writing an interesting novel set in a good society — is the hardest problem in utopian fiction. He solves it by making the conflict genuinely local and genuinely difficult: the proposed development would bring needed housing, and the man behind it (Alfredo Blair) is not a villain but a neighbor with a different vision of what the community needs. The political struggle (town meetings, environmental reviews, personal lobbying) is democratic, messy, and inconclusive.
The novel interleaves Kevin’s story with journal entries from his grandfather, written decades earlier — documenting the transition from our present to the utopian future. These entries reveal that the change was not revolutionary but incremental: tax reform, corporate breakups, land reform, ecological restoration. Robinson’s thesis: utopia is not a destination but a process.
Collecting Pacific Edge
First edition (Tor, New York, 1990): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $30–$60
- Signed: $60–$120