Rating: 
Summary: Screenplay-itis
Review: This is an excellent story, as most of Niven's are, but without the help of his usual collaborators (Pournelle and Barnes) it suffers from being very badly written. Same problem he had with the Ringworld sequel, which was unreadable. He's lost something. My suspicion is that he has been caught up mentally in the screenplay syndrom, where you sit down at your PC with the plot of your book whizzing in your head visually and just type furiously without thinking of syntax or verbal description. It's like: "Ooh!" "What?" "ZAP" "Damn, they just blew up our spaceship." Who did? How? What's going on here? Books don't have special effects floating out of their pages yet, unfortunately. The writer is supposed to supply that, and Niven doesn't.Otherwise, I agree with the other review I read here. Very nice idea that time travel is really into fantasy-land, not reality as it was. That if you have to go back in (Earth) time to the era before the Industrial Revolution, when it was suspected that Mars was inhabited, not barren as the NASA expeditions have shown us -- then of course if you transport to Mars, it will be -- with four-armed Burroughsian humanoids, canals, egg-laying humans, and Wellsian Octopoids.
Rating: 
Summary: Another sad effort from Niven
Review: This is yet another in the increasingly long series of truly bad books from larry Niven. Why do I keep reading them? I'm a Niven fan from decades ago, and keep thinking that the next book will be a return to previous excellence, but this is another disappointment. The book has some typically fascinating ideas, and Niven is obviously having some fun interjecting raw fantasy and mythology into his science fiction. Unfortunately, it suffers terribly from very poor writing and development. Imagine my surprise also when I discovered the story ends at the books midpoint, and the rest is filled with short stories on the same subject. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that more people will give a good review to a bad book, than a bad review to a good book. Trust the reviews you read, you'll save money and time.
Rating: 
Summary: What's to gush about?
Review: This isn't a bad book. The original Svetz stories are buried in the back, which makes the new material disappointingly lean by comparison. Actually, I wish the space had been used to elongate the Mars story, because there are some beautiful things in here that just seem to get hurried along. Niven's "rationalization" of some of Burrough's and Bradbury's material is nifty. Sadly, I can't give this book a whole-hearted recommendation, though. If it were ONLY one or two classic Martian tales in play here, it would have been better. Instead the story gets bogged down with too many things to take care of and the beautiful ideas seem lost in it. If you're a Niven fan, as many others writing reviews here are, then you'll probably like it... but not love it.
Rating:
Summary: An OK Sci-fi/Fantasy
Review: This was my first book from this author. Rainbow Mars was a semi interesting novel about aliens and time travel. The book kept me hooked most of the way through. The introduction was short, but it didn't lose me. The ending was where it got really weird; tying in myths and doing multiple time jumps on the fast changing earth. The chapters on mars where my favorite part, with constant confrontations with the locals. This book is mainly about a large mysterious plant that can benefit the exploration of space for mankind and the connection it has with Mars and Earth. It was interesting enough for me to finish.
Rating: 
Summary: Light, fast-paced and fun -- a must-read for Niven fans.
Review: Wayback in the sixties, Niven started a series of humorous time-
travel stories: Svetz the hero-klutz is sent back from the 31st Century
to capture extinct animals, but he never quite finds the "right"
beastie.... I remembered these as throwaways, but they've aged well.
Rainbow Mars is a novel-length sequel, so you'd be well-advised to
thumb over to the reprints first, to properly set the stage for the main
event.... Which involves -- hmm, how to say this without spoiling the fun --
a *very* fast-paced visit to a Martian past that's an amalgam of
(and hommage to) Burroughs, Wells, Bradbury, Heinlein -- with
Integral Tree-style beanstalks thrown in as an illustration of Being
Careful of what you wish for. Not to mention a Princess of Mars, and
how she learned to surf. And sex in a hot-tub. And enough insider
jokes and references to challenge the memory of the best-read fan. "This is my take on Mars, and Yggdrasil, and (God help me) the space program" -- done up in a delicious hard-fantasy souffle'. Bon appetit! Niven's pretty near the top of his form here -- he obviously had great
fun writing this. I liked the "mature" tone of Destiny's Road -- but (to
quote Dave Barry), "what I look forward to, is continued immaturity
followed by death." Maybe "young Larry" is writing more good old
new stuff? Lots more? Hope, hope.... Rainbow Mars is getting mixed reviews; recursive-sf humor clearly
isn't to everyone's taste. If you haven't liked previous light Niven --
Svetz, Warlock, Fallen Angels -- this may not be for you. Rainbow
Mars may not win him many new converts, but Niven trufans -- and
readers who like a tall tale well-told -- will be well-pleased.
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