Blue Mars (Voyager Classics)
by Kim Stanley Robinson
published
2001
(first published 1995)
by Voyager
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binding
Paperback, 800 pages
literary awards
Hugo Award for Best Novel (1997); 1997 Locus Awards Winner (SF); Arthur C. Clarke Award Best Novel nominee (1997); John W Campbell Memorial Award Best Novel nominee (1997)
isbn
0007121652
(isbn13: 9780007121656)
description
The red planet is red no longer, as Mars has become a perfectly inhabitable world. But while Mars flourishes, Earth is threatened by overpopulation...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1064)
Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
Fans of Red/Green Mars
Warning: May contain spoilers from Red/Green Mars.
The final chapter in the saga of Martian colonization is by far the weakest. You'll probably want to read it if you read the first two, just to round out the story, but it's not the most exciting read, and doesn't really give the resolution you might hope for.
The book starts out near the end of the second Martial revolution. This time, the good guys won, or are about to win. The war was relatively (but not entirely) non-violent, and the M...more
The final chapter in the saga of Martian colonization is by far the weakest. You'll probably want to read it if you read the first two, just to round out the story, but it's not the most exciting read, and doesn't really give the resolution you might hope for.
The book starts out near the end of the second Martial revolution. This time, the good guys won, or are about to win. The war was relatively (but not entirely) non-violent, and the M...more
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Read in June, 2008
The last of the Mars trilogy was much of what I found in the previous two books. There are interesting parts where we get to delve into the science and technologies that are being employed throughout Mars. But in the end the story isn't cohesive enough to actually leave the reader with any idea what the point of the story was.
In book 1 we were introduced to a number of different characters which we have followed throughout the series, and we've seen how they've responded to different sit...more
In book 1 we were introduced to a number of different characters which we have followed throughout the series, and we've seen how they've responded to different sit...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
My worst enemy.
The science is great. I don't agree with all of it, but who am I to say? I would equate his use of science as a literary device to Asimov, except Robinson uses science that is reasonable within humanities grasp. The science is the real strength of this book and series. It is outstanding.
His moving from character to character throughout all three books worked well. No points lost there.
The real problem with this series and especially this book was that, even though parts of it were fas...more
His moving from character to character throughout all three books worked well. No points lost there.
The real problem with this series and especially this book was that, even though parts of it were fas...more
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
freaky geeks
How do we make a world with our words? Robinson manages to weave together the stories of many characters and still keep each one of them distinct, with their own motivations, secrets, desires, and machinations. He devotes a good portion of each book in this trilogy to the point of view of a different character, so that by the time we readers have spent some time with the narrator, we learn to recognize their turns of phrase, ideological constraints, and idiosyncratic gestures that mark their p...more
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Read in January, 2002
i remember the least about this book. it had the same strange combination of fascinating and boring. there are some interesting social changes in the second generation of martians. they are used to manipulating their world in monumental ways - creating oceans from underground frozen water, for example, or terraforming the atmosphere. preferences for sexual pleasure have taken some interesting turns, and flying is a popular sport, due in part to the lower gravity of the planet. also due to t...more
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Read in March, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in November, 2008
Generally great, I love the economic and political aspects of the book. It's really great sci-fi, his descriptions of the martian terrain are as detailed as Tolkien's. The only complaint is that he assumes that every person in the future is hypersexual, and went into a little bit too much detail once.
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Read in March, 2008
Did this book invent the term accelerando, or at least popularize it so that Charlie Stross used it for his novel?
I started reading this about a year ago, it's all very good but lacks any sense of moving towards a climax so I'd frequently lose interest and read other books before deciding I needed to finished this one.
This book mentions terraforming of planets other than Mars, moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and it seems very implausible, uneconomical and wasteful even especially where the ...more
I started reading this about a year ago, it's all very good but lacks any sense of moving towards a climax so I'd frequently lose interest and read other books before deciding I needed to finished this one.
This book mentions terraforming of planets other than Mars, moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and it seems very implausible, uneconomical and wasteful even especially where the ...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommended to Xarathustra by:
Simon, Tysonrecommends it for: anyone except those who expressly told me to never recommend books to them.
I am giving every book in this trilogy the same review because, guess what, it is a trilogy and needs to be read as such otherwise....
The series is, in short, about the construction of social order on the political, economical, environmental, and whatever other human-designed scale there might be. Robinson does a superb job of bringing up political questions, life questions, other questions and answering them just enough for the reader to ask a few more questions.
Even without the politi...more
The series is, in short, about the construction of social order on the political, economical, environmental, and whatever other human-designed scale there might be. Robinson does a superb job of bringing up political questions, life questions, other questions and answering them just enough for the reader to ask a few more questions.
Even without the politi...more
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The Mars trilogy is a must-read. Way beyond simple sci-fi, about the future of the human race.
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The best future history of the solar system ever written.
The formation of a new government, constitution, free society, and way of living.
The formation of a new government, constitution, free society, and way of living.
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Read in February, 2007
Not quite as enjoyable as the first 2 books, although still a good continuation of the practical side of colonisation, a little too much delving into introspection form the main characters for my liking - felt very much like trying to milk an idea too far, and introducing too many concepts to stretch the book out. Still a good read despite this though, just felt longer and heavier going that the other 2 in the series.
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Read in March, 2008
Somewhat more poetic and slower-paced than the previous two books in the Mars trilogy, here Robinson focuses more on his characters. Characters that are familiar to us from the first two books are delved into more deeply here. Not that they weren't real enough before, but now with less of them and as they grow older, the tone of their relationships seems to grow more sentimental even as they slow down in their lives.
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Read in January, 2005
The original Martian colonists are ageing and dying, the new Martians are making Mars into a world of its own rather than an adjunct of earth. Mars itself now has seas and forests and life. A fantastic look at a future history of Mars and the solar system. Fascinating for its discussion of political systems, economic systems and social set-ups. A wide ranging and amazing finale to this series.
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.97 (817 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.98 (51 ratings) number of reviews: 43
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"The intense desire to talk with someone, sharp as any pain; this was what people meant when they talked about love. Or rather; this was what Sax would acknowledge to be love. Just the super-heightened desire to share thoughts. That alone. "
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