Rating: 
Summary: A very good book, although not as good as the Mars trilogy
Review: It is the year 2248 A.D, and Emma Weil, a life support engineer, is asked to join a bold enterprise that will take them to Pluto and beyond, away from the bureaucratic rule of the Mars Development Commitee, towards new planets to colonize. She declines, and joins the Unrest at Mars (chronologically the fourth revolution, if we use the Mars trilogy's timeline). Three centuries later, scientist Hjalmar Nederland have reached the city of New Houston, and begins the excavation of the last place of resistance for the rebels, in an attempt to disprove the Commitee's cover up of the Revolution. There he finds Emma's journal, and a field car full of papers concerning the escape plan of the rebels. In the meantime, a huge icehenge at the Pluto North Pole is discovered, bearing an inscription in Sanskrit: "To push, to farther out/ To cause, to set out towards" Is that the work of Emma Weil and her group? Or have humanity finally come into contact with aliens? Nederland is convinced that Weil and her group is responsible for the Icehenge. Seventy years later, Nederland's great-grandson, Edmond Doya, who've studied the Icehenge theory, tries to disprove the theory, claiming that the Henge is a hoax.This book features some of the best characterization I've seen, and coupled with Robinson's remarkable sense of science and his ability to make readers really believe what they read, this is an extremely good novel, but definitely inferior to his masterpiece, the Mars trilogy.
Rating: 
Summary: Great out of the starting gate
Review: Kim Stanley Robinson debuted with this book and The Wild Shore practically in the same year, something that doesn't happen too often. Even rarer, it turns out that both book are key works of the authors and deserved to be read years after they were first published. The Wild Shore gets most of the glory because it's slightly better and part of a trilogy (all three of which are highly recommended) and also because it's less "SFish" than Icehenge. Icehenge has a similar structure as Asimov's The Gods Themselves in that the book is made of three distinct pieces with three distinct characters who all further the plot without ever meeting . . . sort of. There is some crossing of stories here, but not directly, but Robinson's charactizations are what shine through. All of the parts are written in the first person and each character has an individual voice, uniquely showing different views of a future society where life is good but not great, where you can live for hundreds of years but forget about the place where you were born. The plot partially concerns some monoliths (shades of 2001!) being found on Pluto, with the pervading theory that they were built by humans . . . the only question is by who and why. The first story sets up everything else and might give clues into what happened but the other two sections are what deal with the formations proper. The first guy has one theory, his great-grandson years later has a totally different one and both go about proving them. In the end though it's impossible to say and this is a book that will have you considering a lot of aspects of the plot long after you've put it done. Robinson didn't take the easy way out and give a neatly pat ending, which some readers may not be too fond of. But considering the themes of the book, of memory loss and forgetting the past, it fits in perfectly. It's not his best book but if you've enjoyed anything else he's written there's no reason why you shouldn't give this a shot.
Rating:
Summary: Great out of the starting gate
Review: Kim Stanley Robinson debuted with this book and The Wild Shore practically in the same year, something that doesn't happen too often. Even rarer, it turns out that both book are key works of the authors and deserved to be read years after they were first published. The Wild Shore gets most of the glory because it's slightly better and part of a trilogy (all three of which are highly recommended) and also because it's less "SFish" than Icehenge. Icehenge has a similar structure as Asimov's The Gods Themselves in that the book is made of three distinct pieces with three distinct characters who all further the plot without ever meeting . . . sort of. There is some crossing of stories here, but not directly, but Robinson's charactizations are what shine through. All of the parts are written in the first person and each character has an individual voice, uniquely showing different views of a future society where life is good but not great, where you can live for hundreds of years but forget about the place where you were born. The plot partially concerns some monoliths (shades of 2001!) being found on Pluto, with the pervading theory that they were built by humans . . . the only question is by who and why. The first story sets up everything else and might give clues into what happened but the other two sections are what deal with the formations proper. The first guy has one theory, his great-grandson years later has a totally different one and both go about proving them. In the end though it's impossible to say and this is a book that will have you considering a lot of aspects of the plot long after you've put it done. Robinson didn't take the easy way out and give a neatly pat ending, which some readers may not be too fond of. But considering the themes of the book, of memory loss and forgetting the past, it fits in perfectly. It's not his best book but if you've enjoyed anything else he's written there's no reason why you shouldn't give this a shot.
Rating: 
Summary: There were some good ideas, but untimately disappointing
Review: Kim Stanley Robinson is one of those writers who gets better with time. Icehenge is interesting in places -- but it didn't work for me. There just is not enough meat there to make a book. The book is written in three parts, each separated by 50 years or so; and the parts just don't work together very well. Now, perhaps that was the point...but that point could have been made better...and it's a pretty damn small point to make in a book of this scale. His Mars books (especially the first one) are spectactular. This one...well...not.
Rating: 
Summary: Great read, but leaves one wanting more to think about
Review: My thoughts on Icehenge are difficult to gather - it's a gripping story, a page-turner. Page-turner-ness is an important criterion for any book to rated highly. However, even though I loved reading the book, and hated when I had to pause, I am still left somewhat empty after reading it, because ultimately, it doesn't get across what I think the author wanted to get across to us - which is the vagaries of historical research, and how human fallability, and human ego, especially as they are enhanced by a human life-span that has reached the 600 year range, interferes with our ability to ever accurately reconstruct the past, no matter how advanced our scientific archeological technology might progress. The story takes place in three different times, all after we have colonized Mars. The first part is the Mars rebellion of 2248, told from the point of view of a woman who ended up hijacked by a rebellious faction who were planning on going out of the solar system to escape the dreaded corporate committee that rules Mars. The second part takes place a few hundred years later, and involves the discovery of "Icehenge", a stonehenge-like construction of ice on Pluto, with a sanskrit inscription and a date of 2248. The main character of this section is an archeologist who reconstructs through "scientific" means that the group of rebels from part I made icehenge on their way out of the solar system. The third part of the story is a few hundred years after the second, and involves a main character who does a lot of research and ends up being able to go to Pluto, and then "substantively" proves that icehenge could not possibly have been built by the rebel group, since it must be relatively recently constructed. The society and culture that Robinson created in this book is very believable and interesting; his characters are fantastic - I cared for them all, whether they were jerks or good people; his writing style is readable and exciting. But still, the story just doesn't leave me thrilled to have read it. The potential was there to make a real important inquiry into the nature of historical reconstruction, and thus be a commendable treatise on our own fallability in accurately reconstructing history and our ego-stupidity in assuming that what we "discover" must be the "truth". But, unfortunately, he doesn't quite do that. But, in all respect, this is also an early work of Robinson's, before reaching maturity, so to speak, as a writer. It's definitely worth the read, absolutely. But if you are in the mood for something more meaty, then pass this one up, and head for something else. 3 stars becuase the writing style is so awesome, but the story doesn't go as far as it could have in enlightening us about the author's point of view.
Rating:
Summary: Great read, but leaves one wanting more to think about
Review: My thoughts on Icehenge are difficult to gather - it's a gripping story, a page-turner. Page-turner-ness is an important criterion for any book to rated highly. However, even though I loved reading the book, and hated when I had to pause, I am still left somewhat empty after reading it, because ultimately, it doesn't get across what I think the author wanted to get across to us - which is the vagaries of historical research, and how human fallability, and human ego, especially as they are enhanced by a human life-span that has reached the 600 year range, interferes with our ability to ever accurately reconstruct the past, no matter how advanced our scientific archeological technology might progress. The story takes place in three different times, all after we have colonized Mars. The first part is the Mars rebellion of 2248, told from the point of view of a woman who ended up hijacked by a rebellious faction who were planning on going out of the solar system to escape the dreaded corporate committee that rules Mars. The second part takes place a few hundred years later, and involves the discovery of "Icehenge", a stonehenge-like construction of ice on Pluto, with a sanskrit inscription and a date of 2248. The main character of this section is an archeologist who reconstructs through "scientific" means that the group of rebels from part I made icehenge on their way out of the solar system. The third part of the story is a few hundred years after the second, and involves a main character who does a lot of research and ends up being able to go to Pluto, and then "substantively" proves that icehenge could not possibly have been built by the rebel group, since it must be relatively recently constructed. The society and culture that Robinson created in this book is very believable and interesting; his characters are fantastic - I cared for them all, whether they were jerks or good people; his writing style is readable and exciting. But still, the story just doesn't leave me thrilled to have read it. The potential was there to make a real important inquiry into the nature of historical reconstruction, and thus be a commendable treatise on our own fallability in accurately reconstructing history and our ego-stupidity in assuming that what we "discover" must be the "truth". But, unfortunately, he doesn't quite do that. But, in all respect, this is also an early work of Robinson's, before reaching maturity, so to speak, as a writer. It's definitely worth the read, absolutely. But if you are in the mood for something more meaty, then pass this one up, and head for something else. 3 stars becuase the writing style is so awesome, but the story doesn't go as far as it could have in enlightening us about the author's point of view.
Rating:
Summary: History of the Future (an oft-used, but appropriate phrase)
Review: The central premise of this book is that even though a vastly extended lifespan may be possible in the future, a person's ability to remember past events may be limited to those events that have taken place within the last century. The book is all about archaeology, both in the traditional excavative sense and in the discovery of memories hidden deep in the minds of the characters. In this future where everyone lives a long enough life to write an auto-biography, the novel is appropriatly split into three such accounts from different time periods, although it is not ever made clear whether the accounts are true or works of fiction within the novel itself. To it's credit, the novel never really resolves these issues; the sources are presented as simple evidence without comment, and it is up to the reader to draw their own conclusions, should they wish. Capable of being read as either a simple who-dunnit, or as a serious piece of fiction with well-developed characters and interesting concepts, this novel deserves to be a classic. Good science fiction should present a future that seems plausible, in Icehenge it is hard not to believe that you are reading about a past that has already taken place, although not necessarily as the accounts describe.
Rating:
Summary: An excellet book for sci-fi fans
Review: The only reason I did not give this book five stars is because his Mars Triology is better. Icehenge has the same in depth character development as the rest of KSR's work and also has an intriguing plot, although the novel slows up a little in the middle. The book is told from the point of view of three people over the course of hundreds of different years, and is an enjoyable read just for its setting, but the enigma behind the plot (which is revealed in the end) is incredible. If you like sci-fi, and especially if you're a KSR fan, this is the book for you!
Rating:
Summary: Who build Icehenge?
Review: This is a fantastic book by an excellent author. Icehenge gives you the journals of three individuals all somehow connected with a mysterious monolith on Pluto. This is a suspenceful story that keeps you asking "Who built Icehenge?" to the very last page.
Rating:
Summary: Who build Icehenge?
Review: This is a fantastic book by an excellent author. Icehenge gives you the journals of three individuals all somehow connected with a mysterious monolith on Pluto. This is a suspenceful story that keeps you asking "Who built Icehenge?" to the very last page.
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