Rating: 
Summary: Don't Believe the Hype (or the NY Times) on this one.
Review: I love science fiction. I love politics. I love the pull of a good story. Yet after slogging my way through the 1,500 plus pages of Robinson's mars trilogy I feel like I've wasted my time. I'm at a loss to see what all the fuss is about. Granted, the science in Robinson's books is carefully crafted, and it was nice to see a science fiction writer who tries to give you fully rendered adults acting like adults in a world you've never been to before. But by now I'm granting way too much. First, the "action," such as it is, proceeds at a glacial pace. Hundred of pages are spent in long, detailed descriptions of characters exploring rock formations or noting minute changes in atmospheric pressure. Often you feel like you're reading a weather report. Some of the characters are interesting, especially when they're introduced in the first book, Red Mars. Yet Robinson will spend chapters introducing you to a character, building his or her possibilities, and then let the character fade into obscurity or into some trite or simplistic ending. This tendency becomes especially pronounced in the later books. It often seemed as if Robinson had either lost interest in the character or (more likely it eventually seemed to me) just plain ran out of ideas. The same can be said for the political ideas and scenarios Robinson tries to develop: many are promising at first, but they bear little fruit as you wait and wait for a resolution that is either insightful or dramatic. Instead, you get hastily drawn wrapping-up sequences that are filled with deus ex machinas. It would all be disappointing if you weren't so tired by then. The best I can say is that Red Mars offers possibilities that the author does not, or cannot, exploit in the sequels. Spend you time elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Imagine being able to see what the Mars will be like
Review: It has been over a year since I have read this book, but by far it is the best book I have ever read. I have been criticized for reading science-fiction, but this is truly not like any other science fiction ever. The way Mars is described and the processes and technology is so vivid! And besides having the interesting settings and futurism to draw you in, it has a plot too! Not just love. That would be too simple. The story draws on love, hate, revolution, war, power, greed, eternity, and wonder. A book for everyone interested in space and everyone who enjoys science-fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: HARDcore science fiction
Review: robinson's MARS trilogy is more science than ficton, hardcore scifi. Only flaw is that it's too long,but i recomend them anyway.
Rating: 
Summary: good but long
Review: I found this book to be an interesting read although the descriptions got to be too much halfway through the book. He has already described what the surface of Mars looks like about three times from as many different points of view and frankly, i was sick of it. The comments on radiation were completely wrong and some of the characters were quite stereotypical although others were good. I agree that it was a very political book since nearly every character (in Red Mars at least) was a heavy supporter of some movement and that sometimes got in the way of the plot. It felt as though this was really what would happen if we colonized Mars so in that sense, it was a fairly good book. If you like hard sci-fi, buy the book but if you're looking for a light read, this isn't it.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely outstanding! Robinson is marvellous!
Review: The Red-Green-Blue Mars Trilogy is perhaps the greatest set of books ever written about space exploration.After a friend introduced me to Red Mars, I actually made a trip to the bookstore and bought the paperback Green Mars and the then-hardback Blue Mars. These books are not for closed-minded people in any way. More than just the politics, the technology, the meta-economics,the science or the human interaction, Stan Robinson brings all these factors together in a trilogy that keeps you hooked.The Mars trilogy is not a pure Asimov-style Sci-fi thriller. It's a slow paced series spread over several lifetimes. The anti-aging technology is a convenient tool which allows us to retain the same characters over the whole series, and the inter-generational conflict between, say, Jackie Boone and Maya Toitovna and its parallels in Jackie's own conflicts with her doomed daughter, Zoya, brings out the personal nature of this saga.A saga, that's what these books are. They aren't Star Trek or Star Wars pulp fiction, which someone like me can finish in three hours. I come back to Red, Green and Blue Mars at least once every six months and every time I take days just reading them.I recommend that you buy this book NOW.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Literature, exciting and passionate
Review: This book's vocabulary and complexity is stunning. The amount of detail is wonderufl. Robinson has really written a masterpiece that is worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Slow ride to mars
Review: Some of my friends had read this (and its sequels) and it won a few awards, so I figured I'd give it a try. After all is said and done, I know a lot more random facts about Japanese and Arabic culture, the fundamentals of psychology, astrophysics, biology, and materials science; but I can't say I really enjoyed the book much. The trouble for me was that I look to science fiction as an escape from reality, not the written form of a documentary on the Discovery channel. If you're looking for lots of "hard" science, or enjoy fiction that's long on characters and short on action, then this book will suit you well. I just couldn't get excited reading about somebody wandering around in his rover, going from camp to camp and having philosophical discussions about the role of women in Bedouin culture. Things do start to pick up around 500 pages in, but in a book with slightly under 600 pages that's not quite soon enough for me.
Rating:
Summary: Epic Saga & Guide for expansion off the Earth
Review: No Warp Drive, No Jump Gates, No Aliens that seem mimic various human cultures, & No Fantasy, just hard core science fiction that shows humans with all their gifts and flaws expanding into a new wilderness. If your looking for a book with aliens to solve all our problems or kill us, read something else. This richly detailed epic follows the first 100+1 people going to Mars, what happens when they are beyond reach of the governments that sent them there and what effect opening a new frountier will have on human society, a change no less than opening the Americas had on it. Having finished all three books for a second time, my only problem with Red Mars is that chapters two to five were written as a flashback. If you can't get into chapter one, read chapters two thru five first then read one jumping back to six. It will be in chronological order.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful! A one of a kind book
Review: Everyone into sci-fi and fantasy should read this book
Rating:
Summary: I'll give it an E for effort.
Review: I read the whole trilogy so I'm reviewing it as a whole. I think the strongest element of this series was the huge amount of research that must have gone into it. Unfortunately, a good deal of it did not lead the author to any sort of understanding. Pretty much all of the physics is hilariously wrong; I can't speak for the other sciences. The story line is also praiseworthy in that it has an interesting concept and the various wars and revolutions seem mildly plausible. That's about all the good I can write about this book. The characters are very one-dimensional and exaggerated. The social and political dissertations in the last half of the series are dull and preachy. The potentially entertaining story gets bogged down and scattered, making the plot less and less worth following as the series progresses. The editing also leaves a lot to be desired. What kind of editor overlooks such absurdities as "they got their just desserts" and "the elevator cable looked like an elevator cable"? Most importantly, I think the series leaves a nasty aftertaste, because on the whole it feels like a great song of praise the author wrote to himself.
| 
