Rating: 
Summary: An Extraordinary Contribution to a Vast Literature
Review: "Red Mars" is an astonishing achievement. As "hard science fiction" (ie, SF which is scientifically accurate), it rates high, though I did detect a few errors -- some possibly just typos -- in the area of astronautics. Still, it is clear that Robinson has great knowledge of and love for planetary geology and chemistry. His extensive discussions of the planet may even be boring for some readers, but I found them fascinating and highly believeable.Especially insightful -- almost spookily prescient even, in the light of recent images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor mission -- is the understanding that there is a real possibility of large amounts of subsurface water and ice; even though the surface itself cannot sustain liquid water due to the presently very thin atmosphere. However, it is plausible that liquid water could be trapped just a little below the surface, sealed under a hard- frozen layer of permafrost, somewhat as a liquid ocean seems to be present under the ice of Jupiter's moon Europa. The extent and accessability of such water is likely to crucially affect the economics and near-future development of any human settlements on the planet. Fascinating as this all is to hard core space buffs, the real interest of the book is political and human. Robinson has what seems to be a very sophisticated understanding of the rich human complexities that may plausibly shape our future settlements in space, a vision that is both non-judgemental and I think pretty realistic, yet which is filled with hope and a fond appreciation for the human spirit and its heroism in the face of vast difficulites.
Rating:
Summary: Best serious Mars novel
Review: Kim did a great job on this novel; it shows lots of research in all areas of human progress. The imagery of scenes and character developement were first-class writing. The author was also brave in his inclusion of idealism to a very sensible and realistic scenario. I think anyone who doesn't want to live in the past should read this novel.
Rating:
Summary: one of the most important works sf has produced.
Review: A work of vast scope and moving detail (both this title and the series for which it is the first installment). Nominally an adventure story about the colinization of Mars (bet you didn't see that coming) it is ultimetly about ideas and the people who must wrestle with them in the real world. Touching on scientific, political, and philosophical issues and the points at which they intersect Stanley uses Mars as a backdrop to discuss the human condition and the nature of human society. Stanley's prose brilliantly portrays the stark, claustrophobic enviroment that living on Mars would bring. I can not find anything negative to say about this work except that at times it may seem a little dry and rambling but it is so overflowing with new ideas and fresh perspeciteves that it well rewards that effert that it demands to complete. A must read.
Rating:
Summary: The next best thing to being there
Review: The red planet comes to life in this brilliantly conceived and stunningly
executed novel from Kim Stanley Robinson. The story opens with a brutal
murder that takes place amidst the buzz of the annual festival. From there,
we go on an extended flashback that describes how the original 100 settlers
(a sampling of the world's brightest, if not necessarily most stable minds)
first colonized Mars. Summarizing their training, we get to know many of
the personalities intimately on the long voyage out, and as the initial
settlement is established. Like Faulkner, Robinson changes the point of
view with each section to give a variety of viewpoints on what was done and
why, allowing the reader to decide who is right and who is wrong. Returning
to the present, we see the fruits of their labors: several domed cities,
thousands of residents, a working space elevator (based on the Arthur C.
Clarke design), and a radical genetic treatment that will vastly alter what
it means to be human. But there are dangers present as well, and the
resulting catastrophe makes for an unforgettable climax to a masterfully
told story. There's a lot to love about this book: the painstakingly detailed
descriptions of the Martian landscape, the attendant environmental concerns,
the even more pressing psychosocial problems, the mysteries of the stowaway
and the lost colony and the assassination all work together to form a Mars
that is more alive than any other. The powerful personalities at play in
this story, and their failure to come to terms with the greater issues at
stake, set this book apart from everything else in the field. A simply
overwhelming experience that doesn't let up through 500 pages; this reviewer
read it in less than a week, it was so gripping. Some day, man may really
try to conquer the planets, but for today, Red Mars is the next best thing
to being there.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful portrayal of a giant lifeless rock
Review: Nominally a future-history of Martian colonization, Red Mars covers the initial 100 Martian colonists, the influx of workers as corporations attempt to exploit the planet's resources, and the consequences as conditions worsen. The book is divided into eight parts, each telling the story from the point of view of one of six characters. Each character is interesting and three dimensional. The first, Frank Chalmers, is a stunning example - a machiavellian sociopath who arranges the murder of his best friend. The book suggests early on that the characters are dysfunctional, but most are not, and Robinson describes each personality in a way that's easy to relate to. Most readers will see some of themselves in every character, and will be moved when many disappear from the story as events unfurl. Robinson's prose is easy to read and descriptive. He lovingly describes the Martian landscape, and the events that change the planet. He explains the processes and technologies being used to make the planet more habitable. Mars and its future is viewed through different cultures and ideologies. And Robinson describes political and social systems evolving, growing, and collapsing - the only challenges the colonists seem unable to solve are those that cannot be fixed technologically. The ending is dramatic and, cheesy last line notwithstanding, overwhelming. A word about the politics: Several reviewers have trouble understanding the concept of sympathetic characters not representing the author. Nobody argues that, through Chalmers, Robinson is advocating murder, so why assume that characters portrayed as idealistic hot-heads advocating an enlightened Utopia (not communism) are attempts to convert readers to Marxism? Robinson's prediction of a near future where a handful of democratically unaccountable transnational corporations wield more power than governments is neither unreasonable nor extremist propaganda nor unique; nor is it that people sick of these conditions might reject them for something Utopian, and might make up a sizable proportion of those wanting to leave Earth. Robinson is describing what might happen and why, rather than pushing a particular ideology. It is notable that the consequences of the actions of most of the first 100 are hardly positive: why would an author promote a vision of an enlightened Utopia by having for it such divided, belligerent, builders? If Red Mars has faults, they are that it is fairly humourless, and some of the science (nothing, fortunately, important to the principle of convincing the reader that colonization is possible) is somewhat stretched. There are no ray-guns or bug-eyed aliens: there is much to think about. If you're looking for an airport novel, go read L. Ron Hubbard. If you can watch CNN talking 23 hours a day about scandals effecting minor Democrats, and still grumble "Darned liberal bias", you may be too right-wing to cope with fictional characters disagreeing with you; go read some "Doc" Smith or something instead. Otherwise the reader needs patience and a willingness to get inside a whole range of radically different characters. Most of the book is interesting, but the climax is especially so. Posing more problems than answers, Red Mars leaves the reader uneasy about humanity's progress, with a mix of optimism about what we can do, and pessimism for what we are likely to do; it portrays characters the reader can feel for, and a planet to fall in love with. What a wonderful book.
Rating: 
Summary: A flawed-but-brilliant start to an amazing series
Review: What _Red Mars_ attempts is monumental: Robinson examines humankind in work, in love, in politics, spirituality, reasoning, madness, life, and death, and attempts to chart a course for what we can become. The backdrop of Martian colonization is well-researched and intriguing in itself, and so are the science and theory that enables much of the book's social and political change. And -- lest my weighty words decive you -- this book is *fun*. A few sections drag, but there was no question that I had to find out how it would all end. The story's great flaw is that it does take place on Red Mars. Robinson lets loose a hundred brilliant, uninhibited neophiles and gives them the resources of a small nation to toy with. Many times during this book I felt like he was gratifying a high-schooler's wish for a magic wand that would let the dorks, poets, and science-fiction fans run the world. His ideas about changing humanity are still quite valid! I just wish they were realized in a setting more like the one we have to work with today. I also found Robinson's lavish, technical descriptions of Martian geology to be painful. They're well-written and doubtless scientifically interesting, but he just couldn't make me care. As a research psychologist, I also have to express that //my profession and I completley and totally disown Michel Duval//, for reasons that should become clear. Despite this, I give _Red Mars_ my hearty recommendation, and think it should be part of the universal science-fiction canon. This is because it's followed by _Green Mars_ and _Blue Mars_, which improve on _Red_ in every way. The writing improves; the characters feel more like our family; and the environment gets more and more like the mess we non-elite earthlings are faced with in real life. If you're with me in wanting to see the world become kinder, smarter, and less self-destructive, these are some ideas you should have in your head.
Rating:
Summary: Challenging, intelligent fiction, wholly realistic & humane
Review: The Earth has been fully mapped. No matter, for Kim Stanley Robinson has invented a new universe... a universe for daydreamers and adventurers alike, a civilization of words born on that crimson neighbor floating in the night sky. Robinson may one day be known as the father of "integrated-humanity" fiction... he is at least at the vanguard of twenty-first century science fiction. Red Mars begins on colonized Mars in the middle of the twenty-first century. Under the pressurized tent city of Nicosia, Frank Chalmers, one of the original mission leads, sits in a state of stressful anticipation. He is planning something diabolical... to him, it's only politics. A festival of migrated humanity swirls about him... Arabs, Swiss, Americans, Russians, united in celebration. Then, as minutes pass, the crowd starts to quiet... news spreads. Fear and dread pass from person to person like a virus, and everyone scrambles. In the next several panic-filled moments, we are introduced to the primary leaders of this new Martian civilization... one of whom now lies dead. We now step back to an earlier date, December 2026, during the voyage from Earth to Mars. Maya Toitovna, official leader of the Russian contingent, is one of the one hundred men and women, primarily Russian and American scientists, who have embarked on this 300-day journey to the barren red world. As Mars draws closer, preparations are made, assignments handed out, and the political discussions ensue. Some will land on Phobos, one of two natural Martian satellites, others will begin construction of the first town. The lines of power are being drawn. But for now, everyone is excited about the endeavor in front of them... a new world, so much potential, the beginning of history... and so much to build! Ideals conflict, but there's enough planet and enough adventure for everyone. We learn much about Maya, too. A fierce temper to match her fierce beauty... a woman who could "impale you with a look", a woman not afraid to "let the knives show" when she thought a discussion was becoming irrational. She is a definite leader, and she contributes to every aspect of the endeavor. But she is anxious. She lays her sexual fingerprint on both American mission commanders, John Boone and Frank Chalmers... sometimes one of them occupies her moods. She is in control of everything, everything except her psychology. The confinement and the personality conflicts push against her. Demons are forming in the shadows of dreams. Robinson not only introduces us to Maya, John, Frank, and five or six other near-primary characters, he places their challenge in our mind, blending science, politics, and psychology with the extant cultures onboard. His vision is readily digestible, and we are hooked. The ship lands on Mars, and we turn to page 92. Nadia Cherneshevsky has plans for this red world. So she gets to work. "Very quickly, she became the colony's chief troubleshooter, the universal solvent as John had called her." As well as the colony's primary architect. She loves this enterprise more than any she's ever experienced... she works by herself and with others. "There was something so fluid about tired muscles at the end of a day's construction work." Her reputation grows as her ability shines. "Mutual professional respect, a great maker of friendships. And so nice to talk about nothing but business." Nadia lives through the arms of her machines, fueled by the world that will be. "A compulsion, a life with a goal, how could you tell the difference?" We are actually present as the first city evolves, fostered by this engineering Mother Ares. And we are still only 1/3 through this story! Red Mars is divided into 8 parts, each lived through a different primary character. We vicariously experience the colonization and expansion of Mars through Frank, Maya, Nadia, and mission commander John Boone, as well as Michel Duval, the psychiatrist and one member who didn't request this post, and Ann Clayborne, an irascible scientist who turns red-environmentalist. This forms within the reader an intense intimacy and understanding of each person's psychological makeup. When we discover the character of the pioneer killed in Part 1, we comprehend the profound loss to the group entire. But Red Mars isn't tragedy... it's sheer reality. Robinson writes the best "science science-fiction" of any major author out there. Arthur C. Clarke himself wrote of Red Mars: "A staggering book... the best novel on the colonization of Mars that has ever been written... It should be required reading for the colonists of the next century." Robinson's scientific research is impeccable, as is his awesome understanding of world cultures. The reader becomes a citizen of the world by first becoming a citizen of Mars. The men and women of Red Mars overcome much in this volume: the planet's forces, internal factions, the politics of city-building and immigration from Earth; and the joy is in the details. "It was a world of acts, and words had no more influence on acts than the sound of a waterfall has on the flow of the stream." This book spans decades of acts and actions, individual and collective. By the end of the book, Mars has undergone large-scale terraformation, introduction of biological agents, and mass emigration from Earth. The planet's potential has been noticed and exploited (in both positive and negative manner) by religious groups, transnational corporations, and Earth nation-states. The undercurrent of revolution is strong in this still colonial wilderness, and threatens to explode at any moment. (The subconscious parallels made to America in this book are utterly fascinating.) This is challenging fiction, written by the man who would probably be elected mission commander if the shuttle left for the red planet tomorrow. Robinson has so much to teach, and his work spans humanity like few authors before him, fully integrating technology, friendship, war, politics, government, sexuality, medicine, terraforming, psychology, environment, and science. This book would be a wise choice for a college humanities curriculum.
Rating: 
Summary: Feminist PC Sci-Fi
Review: The science was OK but the fiction was decidedly female, even feminist, and rife with 1990's-style political correctness. Unworthy of a Hugo. Try Dan Simmons or Vernor Vinge instead.
Rating:
Summary: Approaching Earth through a Martian lens
Review: Robinson imbues the tradition of humanist, people-centered science fiction with new realism and life in this three-volume Mars trilogy. A true modern Renaissance man, the author combines sophisticated ideas about political science, economics, culture, religion, and technology with lush, fluid prose and believable, fascinatingly flawed characters. The work is epic, weighty, and emotionally affecting - not a light read, but often one that is very difficult to put down. Though the setting is Martian, the issues involved are strongly Terran, and highly relevant to life in the twenty-first century. Despite all this high praise, however, I personally found the first half of _Red Mars_ difficult to get through. This first volume introduces a large cast of characters and focuses heavily on speculative technology and the landscape of the virgin planet Mars. Though the exploration of potential developments in technology is well-grounded in current research and science, as a reader whose interest lay more with the characters and the culture I felt that the pace dragged during Nadia's (a concrete-minded engineer) first long chapter. Having finally slogged through it, however, I found myself unexpectedly swept away by the great variety of voices with which Robinson gives his narrative life. In fact, the diversity of these voices may be the novels' greatest strength - each character has his or her own vocabulary and metaphorical paradigm with which they approach the world. Not only does this device emphasize Robinson's themes of the nature of memory and the subjectivity of human experience, but almost any type of reader will find a character or two that they especially like, even if they fail to identify with others. These books are sophisticated, well-written, and realistic, and have the potential to enthrall any thoughtful reader, not just the loyal science-fiction crowd. Though I consider _Green Mars_ the best and most focused volume of the series, _Red Mars_ is a powerful read and may well have special appeal for those with a love of the concrete.
Rating:
Summary: A Terrific Book That Needed An Editor
Review: I found Red Mars, like the rest of the series, to be a book with great potential that is only partly realized. While the book is true science fiction, with the emphasis on 'science,' it is seriously in need of a ruthless editor with a sharp pencil. Those who've suggested that the book could have been about a third shorter are, in my opinion, completely correct. Don't get me wrong, it's a terrific book. Robinson's descriptive abilities are extraordinary, as is his grasp of science. I found myself struggling at times with the detailed and highly sophisticated views of various sciences; that's not necessarily a criticism, I enjoyed the challenge. His characters are well-drawn: strong, individualistic, interesting, and flawed. His account of the process of the development of Mars, the differences which develop between the early settlers, the conflicts with Earth, and finally the outright hostility between the scientific and political spheres of the colonization process and between the two planets as well, is realistic and involves the reader deeply. He caused me to think about issues regarding colonization that I'd never considered before - again, a challenge I enjoyed. But all this does not mean that the book isn't without serious flaws. Two of Robinson's strengths, his descriptive abilities and his grasp of science, occasionally work against him. His descriptions of the planet are often simply too long, and as others have pointed out, he tends to send characters off for long trips around the surface not only to explore their own thoughts and emotions, but the details of the planet's geology (or areology) as well. And while I appreciated the advanced scientific descriptions, some of these passages became self-consciously detailed, almost lectures, and could have been pared down significantly. What it comes down to is the need for more careful editing. A general reduction in the lengthier passages, and even elimination of some of these, would have made the book tighter without changing its pacing. So for me, while I enjoyed the book a great deal and consider it a powerful and ambitious work of science fiction, I'm a little disappointed that it wasn't as good as it could have been.
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