Rating: 
Summary: But what's the point?
Review: The Mars trilogy is one of the most divisive works in science fiction. Some people list the books as great masterpieces, while others merely find them languid and annoying. I place myself solidly in the pro camp. However, I feel that Robinson should have quit while he was ahead."The Martians" is a collection of short stories set at various stages during the overall arch of the trilogy. Robinson's main strengths are still here: scientific rigor and some excellent descriptions of the landscape of Mars both before and after terraforming. He uses different narrative styles for each story, and some work better than others. The high point is a novella-length narrative about a mountain-climbing expedition. On the other end of the scale, some shorter stories and a collection of poems at the end don't score so highly with me. But the big problem I have with this book is that it doesn't really add anything to the trilogy as a whole. "The Martians" seems more like a collection of vaguely interesting ideas that just didn't fit neatly into any of the three novels. As a separate collection, however, they don't come close to being as thought-provoking as the originals.
Rating:
Summary: But what's the point?
Review: The Mars trilogy is one of the most divisive works in science fiction. Some people list the books as great masterpieces, while others merely find them languid and annoying. I place myself solidly in the pro camp. However, I feel that Robinson should have quit while he was ahead. "The Martians" is a collection of short stories set at various stages during the overall arch of the trilogy. Robinson's main strengths are still here: scientific rigor and some excellent descriptions of the landscape of Mars both before and after terraforming. He uses different narrative styles for each story, and some work better than others. The high point is a novella-length narrative about a mountain-climbing expedition. On the other end of the scale, some shorter stories and a collection of poems at the end don't score so highly with me. But the big problem I have with this book is that it doesn't really add anything to the trilogy as a whole. "The Martians" seems more like a collection of vaguely interesting ideas that just didn't fit neatly into any of the three novels. As a separate collection, however, they don't come close to being as thought-provoking as the originals.
Rating: 
Summary: A fine memento
Review: The Martians is primarily a collection of work that Robinson produced while writing the trilogy, and the effect of this is strong--it feels fresh; a real part of the setting and story. Even when exploring alternate histories, it all seems part of the whole. And good sci-fi poetry? Surely a first.
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: Not even CLOSE to the "Mars Series"
Review: The three books in Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars Trilogy" are my absolute all-time-favorites. So, it comes as no surprise that when this book was published, I immediately snapped it up! However, I was definitely disappointed. The stories in "The Martians" are not of the same quality as the "Mars Series" and seem to be all the pieces that someone *wisely* recommended that he remove from the original stories. In fact, it didn't even seem like the same person had written "The Martians" ... but more like someone stole Kim Stanley Robinson's good name. Moral? Just because they publish it doesn't mean it's good. Pass on this one, it's not worth your money; stick to the "Mars Series" instead.
Rating:
Summary: hiking, hiking and more hiking
Review: The trick ending to the first story is cute, but that's about all that's cute here. Easily about 1/2 of the book is taken up with narrations of hiking. Perhaps accounts of getting from one base camp to another on Olympus Mons will be fascinating to terrestrial mountain climbers. But I'm not a mountain climber, and I found it hard to care one bit. Then there's the Martian Constitution in detail, with commentary... Some dreary pseudo-poems about Mars... And finally the purple-prose account of the author's family life on the day he finished the trilogy (complete with references to diaper-changing)... I found the original three books rather compelling, which is why I took the trouble to get this one, when I Iearned of its existence. But this volume is really a waste of time. I found myself skimming and skipping, in the constant vain hope that the next bit would be more interesting than the last. My hopes were not fulfilled. Don't waste your time too.
Rating:
Summary: hiking, hiking and more hiking
Review: The trick ending to the first story is cute, but that's about all that's cute here. Easily about 1/2 of the book is taken up with narrations of hiking. Perhaps accounts of getting from one base camp to another on Olympus Mons will be fascinating to terrestrial mountain climbers. But I'm not a mountain climber, and I found it hard to care one bit. Then there's the Martian Constitution in detail, with commentary... Some dreary pseudo-poems about Mars... And finally the purple-prose account of the author's family life on the day he finished the trilogy (complete with references to diaper-changing)... I found the original three books rather compelling, which is why I took the trouble to get this one, when I Iearned of its existence. But this volume is really a waste of time. I found myself skimming and skipping, in the constant vain hope that the next bit would be more interesting than the last. My hopes were not fulfilled. Don't waste your time too.
Rating:
Summary: Polychromatic Mars
Review: This book is for those who completed (and adored) Robinson's Mars trilogy. And for Nobody Else. So if you haven't read them (Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars), then "The Martians" has nothing for you - but read them, instead. Still here? Well then - Courtney said it all, but I know how confusing these reviews can be - they gave me pause too. Finally I bought the book, and vastly enjoyed revisiting this familiar world, and its remarkable characters, after a lapse of time; I wouldn't take this volume up immediately after completing the series. Robinson's main work is the Mars trilogy and the Three Californias. I'm also fond of "A Short Sharp Shock" but it is not in his usual vein. The contradictions between these stories and the Mars trilogy should really not bother readers of Robinson. After all, the Three Californias tell the story of three distinct futures all growing out of the same present and occupying the same time, with many of the same characters; Icehenge (a much weaker work) is about the unreliability of history; and the same theme, considerably tamed so as not to disrupt the narrative flow, appears distinctly in the Mars Trilogy itself. The characters are the same; the framework is the same; the facts vary. This will be made abundantly clear by the end of the first story (and other later stories continue that first one). What really put me off in the first place, and made me look into the reviews, was the reference to a "Martian constitution". This sounded deadly dull, and is - as is the fictional commentary attached to it. But these are the weakest elements of the collection. Kim Stanley Robinson's social and political theories are not complex, and by the end of the Mars trilogy they are entirely transparent in any case. None of this (or very little) is really strong work by Robinson's highest standard, but if one is attached to Maya, Sax, Hiroko, Anne, and the rest, the book is well worth having; midrange Robinson is stronger than most other authors in the genre. Though if you haven't read the "Three Californias" yet, this one can certainly wait for later on. Incidentally, readers who do not require reality to be straighforward and unambigous might also explore the work of Kazuo Ishiguro. But that's another story.
Rating:
Summary: Great for "Mars" fans, but for others . . .?
Review: This collection of short stories will have great meaning and be enjoyed by any reader who liked the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. I had the feeling that, as Mr. Robinson wrote the Mars trilogy, he occasionally jotted down a note about a side story related to one of the characters and, after he finished the trilogy, he took those notes and wrote "The Martians". Readers can tell the author loves the Mars he has created for the trilogy, and maybe was not ready to leave it behind. There is also a melancholy to some of the stories in "The Martians" that lends them poignancy. However, for readers unfamiliar with "Red Mars", "Green Mars", and "Blue Mars", they will be lost in some of the stories in "The Martians", as some depend heavily upon a knowledge of the characters' "history" in the trilogy or the culture created in the trilogy. A few stand alone as gems unto themselves, though. "Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars" can easily stand alone and actually showed up in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine before "The Martians" was (were?) released. It has a real down-to-Earth (down-to-Mars?) feel to it. Mark Twain would have loved this story. For fans of the Mars trilogy, "The Martians" is a must-read. For readers who have not read the trilogy but plan to do so, I suggest reading Stanley's "Antarctica" BEFORE reading the trilogy and reading "The Martians" afterward. That's a lot of reading, but you won't regret it. For readers who disliked the Mars trilogy, you won't like "The Martians" either (xenophobes?). However, you might still like "Antarctica".
Rating:
Summary: Hit and Miss
Review: Two things generally stand out in Kim Robinson's better work: wonderfully developed and interesting, if somewhat narrow, characters and seamlessly integrated new technologies, with a masterful understanding of how they affect a civilization. In "The Martians", you often get one or the other, but it seems hard to get both. Several of the stories feature the same characters (some of them are from the original Mars novels and others aren't). Just about all of these characters seem to embody some part of Robinson's idealized self, or collection of selfs. Which is to say, each of them does a good job of representing some idea, worldview, or professional interest in a fashion that makes it understandable to you. As a consequence, they all make a lasting impression. There are quite a few other protaganists you are never able to connect to though, and they invariably seem to appear in the most
technically interesting stories. Although, to be honest, "technically interesting" is stretching it. It is fairly clear Robinson did little original research for this collection. There is a little bit of bioinformatics and quantitative genomics, but not much, and not enough to teach you anything. This is in sharp contrast to his Mars series, where you couldn't help but learn something about geology (or areology), planetary engineering, and physics. Still, all that said, there are a few truly great stories in the collection. Stories that take you to a 22nd or 23rd century Mars, and let you, even if only for a short time, live a future you will otherwise never know. So, in the end, the Martians provides some excellent morsels, and some forgettable rmablings. Whether or not the book is worth purchasing depends on how badly you want the few exceptional stories. Just go into the book knowing that there aren't all that many of them.
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