Rating: 
Summary: Forgets the basics
Review: A very good technical book on the colonisation of Mars. However the author, though very good at telling the tale lacks something. The characters are interesting but there is nothing compleling about them. The best characters have serious problems regarding their longevity! Though seriously flawed on the 'ripping yarn' front, a book that must be read by anyone interested in the story of man and Mars.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Waste Your Time
Review: I should have read more of the reviews before buying this book. Even most people who give it 5 stars say that it is boring in parts. The only reason I gave this a single star was because the first 100 pages or so were kind of interesting and held some promise, but Robinson definitely does not deliver. The characters are about as deep as they would be if this were a new MTV show called The Real World: Mars -- Frank, the angry one; Maya, the hot one; John, the charismatic one; Arkady, the guy with the red beard. They have NO depth whatsoever. Even though this story takes place over the course of several decades, not a single one of them grows as a human being -- they all remain exactly the same. It's true that the book is intelligent and well-researched, but as fiction it stinks. If you want to learn about the colonization of Mars, read a science book. If this is the kind of thing the Science Fiction Writers of America and their fans praise with awards, then SF is truly a dead genre.
Rating:
Summary: Major Disappointment
Review: Due to all the critical acclaim, I was eager to read the trilogy that commences with this book. In short, I was very disappointed. The author brilliantly describes a barren planet and the effort to terraform it. Thus I give it one star. For me the story line is terribly weak. Once the murder is disclosed, the author never delves into the motivation of the key protagonist and his vision for the planet Mars. Rather the author shifts from one character to another devoting long sections where the characters indulge their own petty neuroses. Two final points. First, the rebels who set about causing the downfall of the colonization of Mars are never fully revealed in person or motivation other than in their efforts to stop the colonization of the planet and second, a mysterious character is revealed farily early on in the book who is referred to as the coyote. This character is never developed although one is given the impression that he is responsible for much that goes on behind the scenes with the rebels. This was a major disappointment to me. This may novel may be a marvel of technology and vision but it left me wondering what the hype was all about. I, for one, will not be reading the sequeals to Red Mars.
Rating: 
Summary: Politics-Martian style!
Review: In this book Kim Stanley Robinson comes as close as is possible to bringing an alien environment to life.Some reviewers have criticised the amount of geological description contained in Red Mars.Even though I didn't understand all of the terminology,I have never been to Mars,so the detail helped me to re-locate,as it were.The extent to which the Martian landscape is portrayed and empowered does mean that Mars itself is perhaps the central character of this book,albeit a passive one as it becomes involved in a chain reaction of events.This chain of events can be traced back directly to the actions/inactions of the 'first hundred' colonists. One aspect of this book which I found particularly interesting was its sub-theme of political interaction.The action in the book is played out against the backdrop of a diarchy.It is here that there is a juxtaposition between the characters of John Boone and Frank Chalmers. Boone represents the populism and charisma of a JFK,whereas Chalmers is the ultimate political insider who understands and manipulates the system in the mould of an LBJ.As the book draws to its cataclysmic finale,it is the charisma and populism of Boone which could possibly have saved the day.Perhaps the author is presenting a subtle critique of contemporary US politics.This book is a tremendous read and as such it cannot be pigeon-holed into one type of genre.But whatever you do,don't think of this book as 'nerdy' SF,because that would be your loss!
Rating: 
Summary: Absorbing hard science
Review: This is one of those books that asks to be read slowly. Most good "hard science fiction" does, after all. The verisimilitude might be a turn-off to some, but I found the lush descriptions of Mars to be quite lovely and an integral part of the story. Robinson creates terrific characters which tend to remind me of the people we met in the TV series Babylon 5. In fact, as I read the book, I kept hearing John Boone, the charismatic leader in Red Mars, speaking with the same voice as John Sheridan, the charismatic leader of Babylon 5.
Rating:
Summary: The best book I've ever read
Review: No other book has ever been written like it. It's in it's own genre, not because of how good it is, but because it is simply unlike everything ever written. It brings more truth to politics than Tom Clancy ever could.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of details take up space
Review: I have read all three of the books in this trilogy. While I liked them, I found that there was too much detail. This caused the story to drag at times. As an engineer though with a great interest in space, I can appreciate the obvious research the author did with this book. The beginning jumped around a little bit (starting 60years after the next chapter) and the first time that the perspective changed, I sort of lost my bearings. The political play between the characters was interesting, but seemed to be one of the few aspects of the characters. Characters were very one-dimensional. If you don't mind a detailed filled story with little action at times and like the subject of Mars, I would recommend this. Just beware that it is slow going.
Rating:
Summary: Red Mars is hard-core reading
Review: After finishing Red Mars, I thought back to another hard to read sci-fi classic, Lucifer's Hammer...No doubt, Kim Stanley Robinson focuses on the science, politics and technology, but within all that is a believable, 3-dimensional story that left a serious impression on me... Unlike Lucifer's Hammer, which I also reviewed here, Red Mars treats the reader to a visual feast, rich details of a planet only robotic eyes have seen first-hand...It's a terrain as beautiful and spectacular as it is unforgiving and deadly... Although I enjoyed Ben Bova's Mars and think it is better (mainly because the story keeps moving), Red Mars is a fine example of a marriage between solid details and old-fashioned imagination...
Rating:
Summary: Rather long and hard
Review: It feels like going to work every time I pick up the book. Too much detail, too much politics.
Rating: 
Summary: Pathetic.
Review: I wanted to stop reading this book after I had read about 20 pages, but forced myself to read about 300 pages more of it, until I decided it really wasn't going anywhere. The writing is really dry and boring, the descriptions of martian terrain are very repetitive and needlessly detailed, the characters one dimensional. What a waste of time!
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