Red Mars

Rating:
Summary: The Best SF Trilogy I have EVER read!!
Review: A thoroughly stunning book which is more science than fiction. It's not only a book about the colonisation of Mars but a book about people, politics and history of the future.

The only problem is that three books are not enough, I didn't want the trilogy to end.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating Characters, Engrossing Setting
Review: Red Mars reads almost as if recounting history, yet it takes place in a very possible, plausible future. There are no explosive confrontations, pitched battles, unrealistic alien encounters. Instead there are intriguing characters displaying all forms of human behavior against a harshly beautiful landscape. Certain passages made me wish I could visit Mars, painting a picture almost like some strange variant of the American Southwest. Despite his strangeness I came to enjoy reading about Sax, his wierd labrat-like mannerisms, his concept of the great unexplainable. Boone was fascinating, a true historical icon with his ideological pursuasivness. This book caught my interest as no other Science Fiction novel ever has. It is so different than typical sf; so much deeper, denser and just so rewarding, I felt like I knew each character personally. Especially upon finishing the third installment, Blue Mars. I rank them all amongst my favorite books.

Rating:
Summary: Good but slow.
Review: This was a well written book with a lot of good ideas, but there was way too much time taken in describing the planet. How many different ways can you describe red rocks? It's almost insulting to the reader. Despite that, it was a good book, just really really slow in places.

Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: There is only one thing to say: BUY THE WHOLE TRILOGY. I loved it.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing epic
Review: I think that Red Mars is a truly amazing example of top science-fiction. His characters were fleshed out and developed over the course of the book. And his desciptions of Mars were beautiful. The technical and political aspects of the book were also very interesting. One problem: He killed off all the good characters, the ones who really moved the along and made it interesting. I hope that he can come up with some more interesting characters, at the same caliber of the old ones, to move the other two books along

Rating:
Summary: Good but not the best
Review: I just finished reading Red Mars, and while I did enjoy the book, I can't say it was great. I enjoyed how the author moved from character to character during the story, and the predictions for the near future he made. However, the book didn't have a very fast tempo, and I felt that it got hung up on landscape details. I would have liked to see more story faster and less scenery. The story is rather addictive and I found myself unable to put it down for long periods of time. I plan on reading the next two books in the series (partially because the story clearly didn't reach a conclusion in Red Mars).

Rating:
Summary: GREAT! Just GREAT!
Review: I think this is one of the most compelling books I have ever read. Mr. Robinson very skillfully captures your mind, and leads you to that beautiful planet just an astronomical doorstep away. After reading 'Red Mars', waiting for the sequel was hard and waiting for Blue Mars even harder. After finishing all three books, you almost have to slap yourself in the face, and tell yourself that it has not YET happened. Because it will happen this way, I'm sure.

Rating:
Summary: Red Mars is an excellent book.
Review: Red Mars had a great plot that was set against Mars. Mars is an awesome planet that has set our imaginations wild. Mars is a cold lifeless world, but should man be sent there? A group of 100 explorers leave Earth to start a colony. Hopefully a colony will be started on Mars in the near future. It will be my generation that will start a colony on Mars. Our future looks very hopeful the way this book portrays it.

Rating:
Summary: What a missed opportunity...
Review: When I started reading the book I was captivated by its depth in technical knowledge - but by the middle of the second one I was thoroughly bored by a cast of uni-dimensional characters that I could not care less about.

What a pity...

Rating:
Summary: For those excited about Mars
Review: The book, I suppose, would be quite boring as a simple sci-fi story, but what makes it good is that it is a fantasy for us Mars-philes who hope that someday, humanity wakes up and gives Mars colonization some priority.

If you like the book, read Dr. Robert Zubrin's The Case for Mars, which lays out a feasible plan for putting men on Mars within ten years, and is a very interesting book, even for those not scientifically literate.