I usually don't go for super hard sf, but this book totally pwned me. Red Mars is a supremely well thought out imagining of the colonization of Mars, with time and research put in to all of the scientific aspects as well as the cultural facets of transplanting human beings to a truly alien world. I found especially interesting Robinson's consideration of the question, how will Terrans become Martians? How will their minds begin to work differently? How will their metaphors, their standards of beauty change? He also gives time to the possibility that various persons and groups would see this as a tabula rasa proposition, and would have very divergent ideas about who gets to make the first mark. And like most great tales of the future, the debate over the stewardship of Mars and its resources has a lot to say about the same debate happening on our current planet.

The book is wonderfully well-modulated. The microlectures in the various disciplines that Robinson is using to extrapolate his colonists are balances by a sturdy, propulsive story. Robinson keeps the narrative rooted with well fleshed-out characters, political intrigue, and two-fisted Martian action.