The novel “Pacific Edge” by Kim Stanley Robinson was published for the first time in 1990. It’s the third book in the trilogy of the Three Californias. It won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.

Kevin Clayborne was elected to the city council of El Modena, a town in Orange County. A member of the Green Party, he finds himself on the opposite side of the New Federal mayor Alfredo Blair regarding the project to open up the last hill in the city still remaining in a completely natural state to possible commercial exploitation.

The situation for Kevin is made more complicated by the relationship he’s trying to build with Ramona Alvarez, who has just ended a relationship with Alfredo. Kevin must juggle his personal and political situation in what is supposed to be a utopia of 2065 California.