Rating: 
Summary: Booorrinnnnngg!!
Review: I had heard so much about the trilogy, with so many Hugos and Nebulas and whatnot, and being a major SF fan, I bought all three books before taking #1 for a test drive. I managed to finish #1, but was very disappointed in the tedious storylines following too-blah characters. Every one is annoying, and the only partially interesting one croaks at the end of the first book. sigh... When I lost book #2 in a taxi with only 100 pages til the end, I didn't even bother to replace it...
Rating: 
Summary: A VERY STRONG DISSAPOINTMENT
Review: When the movie "Mission to Mars" camed up, and i started reading the Carl Sagan books, I decided to read this books beacuse they were recommended to me, but then i started reading them, and guess what?, IT'S AN INFINITE BOOK!, This book it's very, very, very, very, very, very very, very very, very, BAD!, it's the worse book i had ever red, beacuse all that they do in this book it's nothing but POLITICS!there is no page in the book that dosen't talk about politics!, It's a disaster, if you want to read a excelent book about Mars, read all the book of Carl Sagan, read "The Mystery of Mars" by Graham Hancock, read anything you want about Mars or even see "Mission to MaRS", BUT DON'T BUY ANY OF THIS BOOKS!, THEY ARE NOTHING BUT BOOKS THAT SHOULD BE THROWN INTO THE VORTEX OF THE MOVIE "MISSION TO MARS".
Rating: 
Summary: A comprehensive look at the colonization of Mars
Review: I am currently halfway through my second excursion into this book. I currently feel that it is very much worth it to read it twice, although it was excellent the first time. Many of the reviews have made the points that I want to make, but I just want to emphasize them. First, this is not a "sci-fi thrill ride." It is almost a drama-documentary. I don't want to make it sound boring though. I was always involved with the reading, and almost constantly in awe of the excellent characters and vivid descriptions (of everything). There is never really a central plot. The book is divided up into chapters, each one from a different person's viewpoint. This is very effective. You will get to know many of the realistic and likable characters in depth. It is really unlike any book I've ever read in this aspect. Also, the book doesn't just utilize the physical sciences. It really shows how important the social sciences will be in the future. Although initially surprised by the politics and psychology in the book, I felt like I grew and learned a lot from the challenging questions it presents. It takes a lot of patience to enjoy Red Mars, but it is worth it. I felt the reward of reading a non-fiction science book while still enjoying it as fiction. So, if you are a patient and attentive reader, you will probably be more successful in realizing the excellence of this book. I recommend it to all who are willing to step up to the challenge.
Rating:
Summary: I agree 100% with eheidel's review!
Review: What's sad is that I actually DID try to read this book a second time, over a year after the initial attempt stalled after a couple of hundred pages. Once again, I thought it really good for some tens of pages and, once again, I became thoroughly bored with it and had to stop. It's finally time to sell all three books in this series.
Rating:
Summary: On my all-time list of favorite sci-fi novels
Review: In light of the recent elections, I thought I'd write a review of Red Mars. Great science fiction not only offers insights into future technologies (and KSR does this very well), but it also offers insights into the human condition and our future possibilities as a species. The Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson not only was a fabulous introduction to learning more about Mars in general (a planet I knew little about aside from Ray Bradbury-type speculative fiction), but it also gave me a clearer understanding of the present-day political/economic forces shaping the global economy and a vision of a utopian future in which mankind shapes its destiny not on the basis of weath and multi-national corporations, but in creating a society which truly values its members. Red Mars, and the other books in the series, challenge our notions about the "way things are" and what could be in the future. It also gives one insight into the controlling factor in the last election....I doubt there is any American who read this series who would not see parallels between the multinationals wrestling for control of the vast resources of Mars and American politics, which increasingly are dominated by wealthy special interests. I will always be grateful to KSR for helping me visualize our future in a different manner.
Rating: 
Summary: Really, really, really Long
Review: I like the ideas. I like the characters. But did I mention that it was really long? I think that if you really studied this book you could create an entire 3 dimensional model of mars. Mr. Robinson describes nearly every peeble and crevise on the planet as if he spent 16 years there wandering the barren wastes.The bottom line is - clip 200 pages of scenery description out and it would get 4 stars. I would have never finished this book if I was reading it in book form. I did it on tape and it took me about 3 weeks.
Rating:
Summary: Coming from the perspective of a 6th grader...
Review: Well, my entire class was assigned to read this book, and I wouldn't say we hated it... but it was pretty bad. It was essentially a soap opera on Mars. Ronbinson worded it well, but it just didn't have enough content to be enjoyable... to us, anyway. I would suggest reading it if you are older than a junior in high school...
Rating:
Summary: This was a great book!
Review: first of all I would like to say that other reviewers who said they found this book to be slow or tedious have the attention spans of a 5 year old. I mean come on seriously folks i'm 13 years old and i didn't find it boring and if a young teen like me can get through it full grown adults should certainly be able to! I found the characters to be deep and interesting and the plot though a bit slow to be fasinating. My ONLY rants about this book is that the ending did seem a bit forced and hurried and the endless desciptions did seem a bit much. However read this book it is along with it's sequels a true classic!
Rating:
Summary: Another Crazy Soap Opera Book
Review: A book this boring could be justified only by good science and realistic theory on Mars colonization, both of which Red Mars lack. Rather than deal with the real difficulties of creating infrastructure on Mars, Robinson chose the lazy way and gave his colonists technology way beyond the achievability of the year 2030. Technology allowing them to manufacture EVERYTHING through robotic plants that were virtually self-created: plastics, computer components, research equipment, all electronics, clothing, steel mills and automobiles. So if you want to read something realistic on how the first martian colony will be created this is not the novel to read. This would all be forgivable if it were not for the colonists being in some instances outright insane and not exhibiting the rational, dependable, cooperative thinking that any descent space program selects. Many writers fill their pages with glaring character foibles in an effort to make something exciting and Robinson is even more guilty of this than most. When the time comes for the colonists to determine what form of Martian government they wish to create they determine they want to go communist despite the simple fact that every communist government has shot millions simply trying to flee its tyranny. The stereotype of the big bad "greedy corporations" is laughable. There are so many silly things in this novel: Hundreds of Martian cities are covered by a thin plastic tents that pop easily; the first colonists trek for days to try and see if there's ice on the pole when in reality that region would have been already heavily explored by probes; thousands of windmills with tiny heaters like in your house are spread across the surface of the planet in an effort to heat up the atmosphere (ha ha ha!); small numbers of Martian scientists repeatedly make scientific discoveries surpassing the efforts of all of Earth's scientists (e.g., Gene sequence transformation machine, the immortality virus); dirigibles are used on a planet notorious for its monster winds (in all but the calmest winds they would be about as effective as a balloon); After reading Red Mars it is apparent any ill-written novel can win an award nowadays so henceforth I am ignoring all awards and editorial comments and choose my readings based purely on reader reviews, which are far less biased in favor of the author and in generating sales.
Rating:
Summary: Oh, so sloowww and painful....
Review: I may be going against the tide of opinion here, but I feel very strongly on the subject. A few years back I began to read this award winning book. That I still remember the experience so vividly should say something. I'm a major sci-fi fantasy reader and this looked to be a good read. Whenever I start a new author, I usually allow myself at least 100 pages to get into the book and get a taste of the style. I could barely do it. I ended up reading almost 200 pages straight in, over the course of a few weeks. Mind you, 200 pages normally takes me about 2-3 hours. In those 200 pages, I saw no coherent plot developing, no characters seemed to stick around long enough to follow, and I couldn't sense any overall theme (other than mars being colonized, but that was mere backdrop, it could have been anywhere and didn't seem to bear on the story). I found myself avoiding reading more in this book. I would do anything, housework, laundry, go for walks in the pouring rain, to avoid more reading in this book. In desperation, I began to flip through the book to find anything that would entice me to read further. No luck. So, yes, the truth is that I never managed to read the entire book cover to cover. I tried and failed, although I felt like I would die of boredom. I do hope to some day try to re-read the book (the other reviews lead me to believe I missed something), but I cannot stand the idea just yet. I cannot in good conscience suggest this title to anyone.
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