Red Mars

Rating:
Summary: Good, but a little boring
Review: RED Mars is a really good book. Kim Stanley Robinson must be one of the greatest science fiction writers that I have read books of. This book is imaginative and in depth and very engrossing. There are a few problems with this book, though. First of all, there is too much complicated science in this book. The author often goes into long complicated descriptions that are not essential to the plot and that bog the reader down. The book can become immensely boring at times. I ended up reading this book off and on, stopping at the boring parts and coming back a couple of weeks later and starting to read it again. I ended up taking a long time to read the book because of this. This book is a hard read and many long and hard words. I am in ninth grade so it may be because i'm only 14 that it is hard, but I think it will be hard for most people. Another thing is that I've always loved detailed books, but this book almost has too much detail. The author is brilliant for coming up with all this detail, but it can bog the reader down sometimes. Overall this is a good book but a hard read.

Rating:
Summary: Awards (Apparently) Aren't Everything
Review: "The Great Escarpment was strange country, cut by north-south canyon systems, marred by old craters, overrun by lava flows, broken into hummocks and karsts and mesas and ridges; and all of them on a steep slope, so that on top of any rock or prominence one could see far down to the north" (408).

The above quote is to give you a real taste of Red Mars. A very large percentage of the novel is devoted to landscape descriptions like this, or the science background to the geological/terraforming events. Perhaps you're looking into Red Mars for the same reason I chose to give it a read--it won some prestigious awards. Having just finished the book, I can say that it won those awards on the strength of the large amounts of research that obviously went into its creation.

While I applaud those efforts as well, it is also possible that you're like me in that you're seeking a good story with an exciting plot and well-drawn, sympathetic characters. In those respects, Red Mars is quite a disappointment. The characters are fairly flat and, save for the ones that die, they essentially are the same from beginning to end. Further, none are particularly endearing; by the end, I did not care much what happened to them, or who succeeded, or who failed. The plot begins promisingly enough, but once past the first couple hundred pages it begins to meander off, neither building tension nor resolving anything.

Part of the problems lie in the fact that the author wants his story to be "epic." Thus, he tells the story over several decades. The problem with this approach is that it distances us from the characters and the plot. There is no sense of immediacy. Also, it underlines the unchanging nature of the characters--surely someone could develop a new insight over thirty years? Further, the pacing is horrendous, punctuated as it is by all of the landscape details as noted above. The truth is that Mars does not have a particularly interesting landscape, being mostly rock and sand. The author tries his darndest to make it interesting, describing it at length, and he occasionally succeeds, but it just becomes frustrating after about page 300. As a parting slap, he makes the last 40 pages or so just about nothing *but* landscape description... sort of a final exam, I suppose. It is alienating and loses whatever interest the events in the story generate.

Lastly to discuss is the philosophy of the piece. I got the impression, throughout, that the author is presenting two extreme sides of an issue (terraforming)--radical environmentalism (Ann) and radical, "meddling" science/humanism (Sax)--and saying that there must be some sort of compromise we can manage. The only real villain is capitalism (Phyllis/transnational corporations); otherwise, the author wants to be the voice of moderation. Sadly, the author displays very little real sympathy for any of the viewpoints presented and no understanding for those who would genuinely disagree with what he believes to be moderation (a strange form of socialism). His arguments will only seem right to you if you agree with him beforehand. The tone of the writing is clinical. Its prognosis for humanity, bleak.

In all, I'm certain this book has an audience. After all, it has several glowing reviews here and did win those awards for some good reason, no doubt. It represents a mountain of research and, I am sure, painstaking work. Perhaps you are a part of its audience. I am not. The things I look for in a novel include exciting plots, engaging pacing and well-drawn, sympathetic characters who grow and change over the course of the story. This novel fails in those respects. There are two sequels but my journey ends here.

Rating:
Summary: Best Science- Fiction ever red
Review: It would take to many time to explain all the reasons why i loved this and the two following books. If you like hard sci-fi its a must read book.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: KSR is not a writer you read for thrills and spills. If you want that but still need a science fix, Stel Pavlou's Decipher is the ultimate. KSR forgoes the thrill aspect for ultra believable, ultra realistic. If you could have novels that fall in to a documentary catagory then Red Mars is it. Unfortunately a few recent discoveries have made Red Mars's science a little dated already! I hope KSR thinks about going back and doing a revised version some day. For an epic tale of the colonization of Mars and just what a hard slog it's going to be, this is about as good as it comes.

Rating:
Summary: Too much science - where's the story?
Review: It took me two months to get through Red Mars. The story was BARELY interesting enough to get me to keep turning the pages. I imagine that physicists, geologists and atrologists may love this book, but for those of you who enjoy character and plot-drive fiction, this book offers only a half-hearted effort. If you thought you'd enjoy this book and didn't I recommend any of the Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle efforts (except for Footfall). Try The Mote in God's Eye or The Legacy of Heorot for some semi-realistic science fiction storytelling with fascinating plots.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding visionary masterpiece
Review: Stan Robinson does an outstanding job of tackling one of the most talked about and inspirational next steps in the human spaceflight program. About the only thing missing is Burt Rutan and his SpaceShipOne.
Character development is realistic and very detailed. You feel yourself living the lives of these characters as they embark on an amazing journey that provides discoveries not just about Mars, but about humankind itself.
The technical aspects of the book are second to none. In this respect the Mars Trilogy would stand up to the most serious critics. It could be future history itself - it's that good.
It is an outstanding book (and Trilogy) and comes with the highest recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: Accurate but Dull
Review: Red Mars is an engrossing technical narrative of Mars colonization, covering the entire catalog of issues that such an endeavor would involve, from the psychological dimensions of extended space travel and confinement with a small closed community of scientists to the new challenges of establishing a society that is both entirely indebted to and yet entirely independent from the rest of humanity and human history.

But in the end, the book falls flat--it's like Tom Clancy meets space travel. The book is really little more than an inventory of carefully researched technological episodes (slowing for reentry, establishing a contained atmosphere, suiting up for the Martian surface, etc.) with no characters and no story, and ultimately no reason or point. What characterization there is feels pasted on. Some readers may find a purpose or message in the book's exploration of social and political questions; but these are ultimately superficial and naive, and feel contrived, so that readers looking for a novel, or even average science fiction, will be disappointed.

However, you're looking for a kind of documentary on Mars colonization (and aren't bothered by an overly long book with little motivation and almost no energy) then you may find this worth reading. If you can (like Clancy's readers) simply revel in the technical details, and in the excellent and accurate descriptions of Mars and the Martian environment, you will be rewarded (though you probably will want to stop with this book and not read the increasingly speculative later books in this trilogy).

Rating:
Summary: All you ever wanted to know about terraforming Mars
Review: Read this book if you want to explore, in depth, the theories and challenges of terraforming Mars. Oh, and there is a cool story built around it as well! Robinson, known for his attention to detail and research that goes into his books, does a fabulous job of providing great insight about Mars without bogging the book down with boring detail. The story rolls smoothly and has great momentum throughout. Top-notch, realistic, believeable sci-fi. Some great climactic moments and a good feeling of adventure.

Rating:
Summary: Epic
Review: The Mars trilogy is a masterpiece. Frank Herbert and Isaac Asimov had the luxury of building a world and history from scratch, in an indeterminate period sometime in the future. Kim Stanley Robinson creates an epic that takes place on a world we all know, in a time not very distant, and whose fate is irrevocably linked to that of Earth's.

His epic is constrained by our current understanding of physics, ecology and sociology. Within these constraints he creates a very plausible future history of the human race, especially as how it pertains to the settling and terraforming of another planet, and how those settlers-and their descendants-deal with their "masters" on Earth. There are no great leaps of knowledge one might come to expect from other SF epics, just a believable scenario based on our current scientific knowledge.

Due in large part to the introduction of genetic treatments that greatly increase human lifespan we are allowed to witness the development of characters across centuries of experience, and likewise to observe the evolution of a new planetary society through the eyes of a host of familiar characters across the entire trilogy. Rather than feeling like a gimmick, Robinson allows us this viewpoint in an entirely plausible scenario.

It is awe-inspiring that an author could not only pull this type of speculative fiction off in such grand style, but that he does so while at the same time presenting such fully developed and believable characters. This is quite frankly the most fully evolved work of science fiction ever attempted that presents a linear progression from our present times to those of the not-too-distant future. It is remarkable that he is able to do this with a minimum of gimmickry and implausible science.

This trilogy will not be for everyone. It's somewhat slow-paced, like much of Robinson's other work. It's heavy on character development and is extremely successful in that regard. You're not going to get a lot of sci-fi magic or breathtaking innovations. There are innovations to be sure, but they are innovations that fit into the context of a near future and might not be spectacular enough for some.

In short, this is a work of the near future that reads like history told by someone who knew (and loved) those who made that history. It's science fiction, it's social commentary without appearing to be so, and it's spectacularly imaginative and believable.




Rating:
Summary: A Flawed Success
Review: Kim Stanley Robinson obviously did a very great deal of research on this book and feels the need to show off the knowledge thus acquired at every opportunity.

That's understandable, but it is a pity. This exhibitionism partly smothers a generally interesting story peopled by characters who aren't always sympathetic, but mostly manage to hold our attention in different ways. Like Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles", the view taken of mankind's future is gloomy, but, unlike in that book, the gloom is not unremitting. At the end, there is sufficient hope to make me, at least, want to move on to "Green Mars", the second book in the trilogy.

I think I need to read this again first though, to make sure I got everything. However, I'll skip the dozen or so pages on bipolarity, for example. They tell me more on the subject than I want, or need, to know.

Recommended.