Rating: 
Summary: Only for extreme fans of the trilogy.
Review: I read the trilogy a few years ago, and enjoyed it.This book requires total knowledge of all the characters from all the books. I didn't recognize half of them because there were hardly any introductions. And it was rather boring. I put it down and give up on it for a few weeks, and then read it again for a few days before getting sick of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Oh YES
Review: I was so thrilled when there was MORE to the Trilogy. This isn't all short stories (many countries would do well to study the Martian Constitution), but it's all written with the same attention to detail and realism that KSR brought to the Trilogy. Parts of it read almost like a historical text, and that's exactly the feeling I think you should get from it.
Rating: 
Summary: Short review of The Martians
Review: If you made your way through the 2700 plus words of the trilogy than this is worth getting. For those who haven't it will certainly confuse. The science is great and the social comments throughout are very much worth future policy makers comtemplating. It's been two years since I read the trilogy and this book has helped me to recall much of it without having to read them again. A great author who has reintroduced me to science fiction - something I gave up on as a child. Take me to Mars!
Rating:
Summary: More than slightly pointless companion to a wonderful series
Review: Kim Stanely Robinson's Mars trilogy, consisting of RED MARS, GREEN MARS, and BLUE MARS is a major acheivement of science fiction. THE MARTIANS is a companion book that contains Robinson's early short stories about Mars, alternate plotlines, and even poems and an autobiographical vignette. Although THE MARTIANS is meant to satisfy the reader's curiosity for certain aspects of the trilogy, that curiosity isn't very strong. I quickly grew bored with the stories of THE MARTIANS. In fact, some of the stories inside made me feel overloaded and less appreciative of the trilogy. THE MARTIANS isn't really worth reading unless you have read and enjoyed the trilogy several times. Even then, it's not very impressive.
Rating: 
Summary: Slightly disjointed companion to the Red Mars series.
Review: Kim Stanley Robinson's "Red Mars" series has always deserved more attention than it has gained. Huge in its scope and covering more than 200 years the colonisation and terraforming of Mars, Robinson's fantasy is so carefully researched and scientific that recent announcements regarding proposed exploration of the red planet actually seem to be paralleling his novels. That said, Robinson's newest work, "The Martians"-- a collection of background stories, alternate takes, poetry and musings all related to the series-- is not as rivetting as the earlier books owing to its lack of continuity. Reading "The Martians" I had an image of the author engaging in a little literary doodling, almost as a respite from the rigours of "serious" novel-writing, or of him emptying a box full of notes on a table and announcing, "Here's my next book". It was disappointing after all that his readers had come to expect, even as I found myself coaxed from one tale to the next. Original characters make some appearances, notably Michel and Coyote, but fans hoping for further developments with the core characters may be dissatisfied. Readers new to the series should probably save this book until after reading the original trilogy. This is one for the fans.
Rating:
Summary: More than I really wanted to know...
Review: Maybe I just didn't empathize enough with any of the characters in the Mars trilogy to care that much what happened to them or to make me want to know more about them. This is the first book in a long time that I've given up on. The first part seemed like a "Readers Digest" version of the first Mars book; what I thumbed through of the rest struck me as the writer's equivalent of an artist's sketch pad. If you're an aspiring writer, or you want to know what ideas the author toyed with before writing the books, I suppose it would be interesting. Beyond that, it did nothing for me.
Rating: 
Summary: As low as you can go
Review: Notes and outtakes from the Mars series that should have been left on the cutting room floor. It appears that Robinson and his publisher wanted to squeeze every cent out of the success of the trilogy. Actually degenerates down to pages and pages of really bad poetry. Does not deserve even one star but that's as low as you can go.
Rating:
Summary: I Want My Money Back!
Review: Notes and outtakes from the Mars series that should have been left on the cutting room floor. It appears that someone wanted to squeeze every red cent out of the success of the trilogy. Degenerates down to pages and pages of really bad poetry. Does not deserve even one star but that's as low as you can go. Terrible. Skip it.
Rating:
Summary: A mixed bag, but some worthwhile stuff inside
Review: On the odd chance that you've come here by accident, let me open up by saying that Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy (consisting of Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars) remains one of the greatest SF epics of all time, managing to combine a grand scope with highly emotional storytelling and a riveting plot, as well as a overarching concern for environmental issues. If you haven't read it, go out and buy all three books right now, because otherwise this book here will hold absolutely no interest for you at all. After he finished the trilogy Robinson apparently had some leftover thoughts and supplementary material he thought worthy of publishing and so this book is a collection of short stories and other pieces all relating to that great trilogy. The only thing is that a lot of this is hit and miss, with decent stories sitting next to somewhat useless pieces. The biggest problem here is for people like me who read the Mars trilogy years ago (about seven years ago, I think) and a lot of the better stories make references to events that happened in the novels themselves. And while this doesn't ruin the stories, the shorter stories lose some of their resonance because the reader doesn't grasp the whole context and people who have never read the novels will be totally lost. But a good majority of the meatier stories stand up quite well on their own (I like the baseball one, the original "Green Mars" story was neat, and a lot of the viginettes involving Coyote was well done) and make for quick, enjoyable reads that take the reader back to the glories of the trilogy. But a lot of the other stuff is just Robinson clearing out his notebook . . . a draft of the Martian constitution (followed by someone's notes on it), a brief piece with abstracts from Martian scientific journals, a long section with various poems of varying quality and a series of one or two page stories that just sort of sit there without really doing anything. But, as I said, the best stuff here reminds us why we loved the original trilogy in the first place (and almost made me want to go back and read it again) and you can just skim past the so-so stuff and move on. You may be doing more skimming than you might like, but there are some gems buried in here. If anything deserved a buyer beware, this would probably be it . . . the best time to read this is right after you finish the original trilogy so that most of this makes sense and you can extend the marvelous glow of the novels just a little bit longer. But for those looking for Robinson's best work, I'd go for the Orange County Trilogy and some of his other novels, that's where his genius really lies, while a book like this merely only shows you some aspects of it. I got this as a bargain book and that's probably the price you want to pay for it, anything more and you're going to feel ripped off. And I'll say this just one more time . . . go read the Mars trilogy! I can't put it any clearer than that.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific. A real pleasure to read.
Review: The author was extremely insightful
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