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Marte rojo

(Mars Trilogy #1)

Kim Stanley Robinson

3.86 · Rating details · 68,757 ratings · 3,417 reviews

Marte rojo es la primera parte de la trilogía marciana de Kim Stanley Robinson; una novela de ciencia ficción ganadora del premio Nébula y del British Science Fiction Award, y elogiada por Arthur C. Clarke como la mejor novela sobre la colonización de Marte jamás escrita.

La novela narra la historia de los primeros 35 años de vida humana en Marte, desde 2026 hasta 2061; la ...more

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Paperback, 584 pages

Published October 28th 1998 by Minotauro (first published 1992)

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Jun 03, 2008 Matt rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

I just finished reading this for the second or third time. I wish I could bump this up to 3.5 stars, which more reflects what I feel about it.

To begin with, I should come forward with my biases. This is a book you'll either love or you will hate. For my part, I love the planet Mars. Or at least, I love the idea of the planet Mars, because I've never been there. I'd love to go though. If someone from NASA told me that I could go to Mars, and there was only a 50/50 chance I'd survive, I'd be like I just finished reading this for the second or third time. I wish I could bump this up to 3.5 stars, which more reflects what I feel about it.

To begin with, I should come forward with my biases. This is a book you'll either love or you will hate. For my part, I love the planet Mars. Or at least, I love the idea of the planet Mars, because I've never been there. I'd love to go though. If someone from NASA told me that I could go to Mars, and there was only a 50/50 chance I'd survive, I'd be like, "That good, huh? I'm sold. Let's do it. When do we leave?" My wife might talk me out of it (she hates the cold), but if I didn't have obligations to family, I'd be there in a heartbeat. I've got this big wall poster of Mars, laid out in all its plucky glory - the Tharsis bulge, the big volcanoes, the massive flood erosion systems. I want to walk on its surface under the red sky and feel the thin cold wind, and this is a book for Mars geeks by a Mars geek. Like Nadia, I want to wildly dance for joy on the Martian dust. If you don't love or can't love the idea of Mars, then all the talk of its ferrous oxides, sulfer drifts, salt pans, and garnet sands is going to bore you to tears. If you do however love Mars, reading this is something like biting into a big decadent layered fair trade organic chocalate bar with 71% dark rich Costa Rican cocoa. So that's my bias, and I think it's a good one, but if you can't entertain thoughts like that be prepared to be bored by like half this novel.

So what is this novel about? Well, obviously, it's about Mars, but more than that it is about humans on Mars and how people establish an identity and a cultural identity in particular. It is a story about the tension between existing cultural identities and ways of looking at the world, and adapting and adopting new identities. It's a story about conflicting mutually exclusive goals, and how we go about resolving - or more often than not - failing to resolve our differences. In that I think the book succeeds marvously, because the resulting Martian culture with all its disparate influences seems in many ways believable to me and even in some ways compelling so that I'm sucked into it and want to proclaim my allegiance to the Red or Green tradition, and twitter stories about Big Man and where I was when Boone died around the nuclear powered blog fire.

The best part of the story by far is that KSR doesn't attempt to tell a story as big as the colonization of Mars from the prespective a single person. Instead, the story sprawls across a huge cast of characters and expanse of time. Our viewpoint shifts from one major character to another, and people we thought we understood suddenly seem strange and different when seen from within or through someone elses eyes. Like many sci-fi authors, KSR can have his didactic moments, but unlike many his are softened by the fact that none of his characters are in and of themselves really the voice of the author. All of the characters even the most heroic turn out to have flaws of one sort or another, and so rather than being forced to read the dialogue as 'KSR believes this and is willing to hit you over the head with it', you can read the poltiics as 'John or Arkady (or Saxifrage or whoever) believes this, just as many real people do'. The politics of Mars as KSR envisions them turn out to be messy, very human, often petty, and with few simple answers and little in the way of clear answers and simple solutions. That's refreshing, even when KSR's biases are showing.

So why not more stars? Well, the book has big Martian sized problems to go along with its delights. For me, the chief of these is how easy the conquest of Mars is made to seem. It reads like the conquest of Mars as written by someone that has never even been camping, much less someone acquianted with the hardships of an outdoor life. Given the enormous challenges of living on a planet with a thin poisonous atmosphere, a surprisingly small portion of the book is devoted to the theme of 'Man vs. Nature' and most of the time when it is, the cause of the conflict is man's own efforts - as if Mars in its natural state isn't absolutely deadly to human life. I personally have a hard time imagining that something on the scale of the colonization of Mars would be safer, less arduous, and less frought with danger and hardship than say the colonization of the New World. KSR just doesn't seem particularly interested in that part of the story, which to my mind is perhaps the most critical part of the story.

Instead, all the meticulous scientific research is undermined by hand waving all the hard problems away with a wave of the techno-magic wand. The colonization of Mars begins not on a comparitive shoe string, but with an abundance of material massing at least one-hundred thousand times the mass of everything we've ever lifted into orbit. Energy sources are never scarce, and manufacturing capacity quickly soars to an unlmited degree. Technological challenges are quickly overcome by the liberal application of newfoundium and sometimes unobtainium. Almost everyone who dies dies through direct or indirect human agency. Accidents, especially serious ones, just don't seem to happen - Arkady's all to believable problem runs are confined to simulators. Thus, all the quite evident bloody striving of the author to create a believable story of planetary colonization is largely wasted and at times the story resembles just another escapist far future space opera.

But most of the rest of the novel's problems are also its strengths. It's sprawling scale is suited to the story, but makes it easy to get lost. It's changing points of view and flawed heroes means on the other hand that the book lacks a consistantly sympathetic protagonist to get behind and root for. It doesn't help the matter that many of the most likable characters end up dead.

It's not a book for everyone, but since humanity seems unlikely to grow up and start thinking about leaving the nest in my lifetime, this is probably as close to Mars as you or I will come. And, though it is a flawed story, it's still an extremely powerful and often moving one that I have little doubt will be read with interest and appreciation by anyone that actually does take up the struggle to live on and with Earth's redder sibling. ...more

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Oct 04, 2007 Jamie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Recommends it for: hardcore sci-fi heads only

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy

An extremely detailed and ridiculously well researched novel on the colonization of Mars, this book is absolutely maddening. The characters veer from believable three dimensional humans to weird caricatures and plot devices within a few pages. And the author's exploration of the political implications of a newly habitable planet filled with resources for civilization is at first fascinating and then just boring. At least five or six times someone would yell out "This isn't like the discovery of ...more

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Jun 28, 2019 Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: paperback, sci-fi, own, audio

Update: I found my copies on eBay! Now, let’s hope they get here!

Son of a damn it!!! I was surprised I loved the hell outta this book and of course I can’t find my paperback copy! I listened to this on the library’s audio and I swear it better not have ended up in the trade in box!! I want the other two books in the old cover like this one I’m supposed to own. I went to order them and they changed the damn covers. I mean the new covers are pretty. FINE! But I want the the covers like the one I ...more

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May 08, 2012 Clouds rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2012, science-fiction-series, reviewed, science-fiction, pub-1990s

Christmas 2010: I realised that I had got stuck in a rut. I was re-reading old favourites again and again, waiting for a few trusted authors to release new works. Something had to be done.

On the spur of the moment I set myself a challenge, to read every book to have won the Locus Sci-Fi award. That’s 35 books, 6 of which I’d previously read, leaving 29 titles by 14 authors who were new to me.

While working through this reading list I got married, went on my honeymoon, switched career and beca ...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, mars-is-heaven

Hard SF novel about the colonization of Mars. An initial group of 100 colonists, men and women, is shipped off from Earth to Mars to try to terraform the planet and make it a better fit for human life. Kim Stanley Robinson explores all of the science involved in doing that, as well as the political collusions and maneuvering involved, and the relationships and psyches of several of the colonists.

This is a well-known and respected SF novel: thoughtful, scientifically-minded and very detailed, if ...more

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Jun 03, 2013 Manuel Antão rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

Going into this book 20 years later, the feeling I had was one of trepidation. Would the book have stood the test of time?

And the answer is: Unfortunately no.

One of the things that I've noticed almost from the onset was a huge dissonance (I don't remember spotting it 20 years earlier, but now I did): Why plan the mission without firmly establishing at least some sort of general idea about what sort of terraforming might be done? ...more

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Jan 21, 2014 Henry Avila rated it really liked it · review of another edition

When primitive man looked up at the heavens wondering what that red light was, during the cold nights, trying to keep warm in the long dark, they told stories around the camp fires, about the mysterious object, the best liars and fables, were remembered and from generation to generation these tales were believed, until modern times. Even at the start of the twentieth century, some astronomers saw canals on the red planet. But progress continues to roll relentlessly, and science catches up and du When primitive man looked up at the heavens wondering what that red light was, during the cold nights, trying to keep warm in the long dark, they told stories around the camp fires, about the mysterious object, the best liars and fables, were remembered and from generation to generation these tales were believed, until modern times. Even at the start of the twentieth century, some astronomers saw canals on the red planet. But progress continues to roll relentlessly, and science catches up and dull reality discovered . People of Earth, will have to make that distant, hostile world livable, and forever change the beautiful rock, so the greedy and the adventurous, can live there. Finally technology arrives and spaceships are sent by the blue planet. John Boone, leads that first expedition in the year 2020, and steps down alone, becoming an icon, the man on Mars, famous everywhere back home, but radiation from the Sun, causes major damage to his body, the deadly rays will always harm humanoids, unless the 4th planet is altered. John immense prestige at the highest levels on Earth, sends a second visit to Mars, vastly more advanced, than the previous one, with a huge sophisticated spaceship, and 100 passengers inside, biologists , geologists, physicians, astronauts, physicists and builders. The colonists, will need shelter, little atmosphere breathable, in fact deadly gases there. Ares,(Greek god of War), the rocketship, blasts off on December 21st, 2026, from Earth orbit, much easier than from below, saving a lot of precious fuel, but still takes an endless, boring nine months, to get to their destination, by a slow rotation of that vessel, a gravity, one -fourth of terrestrial, is made, but the leery Russians and Americans, live separate existences on ship, they comprise 70 of the crews members, of equal numbers. The other 30 are split from different nations. After many tests, along with everyone else, John Boone, gets on board also, but so does his rival, and jealous friend Frank Chalmers, a fellow astronaut, but more a politician, with hate. Maya Toitovna, leader of the Russians, falls in love with Frank and then John, a sticky situation, causing much friction but she can't make up her mind . Landing at last, the crew scatters, to every part of the weird planet, seeking a place to live. The pink sky, the desolate surface, more orange than red, full of craters, temperatures often - 100 F, brilliant stars in the evening, the short horizons, and the small dot above, they say is Terra, it will take a while to get used to it. The building begins and very slowly the huge land starts to be modified, a little. Nadia, Russian master builder, from frozen Siberia, makes homes for the people underground, Arkady, Russian engineer, anarchist, and independence seeker, for his new world, goes up to one of the two moons, Phobos, (Deimos, is the other), it looks like a potato ... to help in communications with his former planet, but has his own ideas. Sax Russell, American physicist, who wants to transform Mars, and make it like Earth. Anne , an American geologist, she likes this sphere, as it is, and will fight for that. Hiriko Ai, Japanese biologist, and a person who can grow anything on the surface of this unfriendly place, in greenhouses, they will need her, the crops will save all, from starvation. These colonists will have cult followers, soon. The United Nations, and big corporations, who paid the bills , want the benefits returned, billions of dollars and conflicts begin immediately, between the two worlds...you may change planets, but humans never do ... ...more

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Feb 25, 2018 Michael Finocchiaro rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, series, american-20th-c, novels

In the Mars trilogy, Robinson proposes to have us imagine a Mars that is terraformed initially by the First Hundred - 50 woman and 50 men chosen after extensive training in Antarctica. The story is told via third person narratives which each chapter focusing on a particular character in more or less sequential order (with the exception of the first chapter about the events in Nicosia leading to the disaster of 2061). The author does an excellent job of making the story and the characters are rea ...more

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Sep 13, 2010 Anthony rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: arthur-c-clarke-award-nominees, hugo-nominees, sf-group-2018, series, sf, nebula-winners

I'm not always a lover of what's known as "hard" sf -- sf that's filled with lots of hard science, in this case science regarding ecology, geology, and all sorts of other brain-straining disciplines. But what's remarkable to me about this book is how complex and human Kim Stanley Robinson makes his band of scientists, and how well he demonstrates over and over again how intertwined all of us are, on a truly huge scale. This book asks a very familiar question: what would happen if we were able to I'm not always a lover of what's known as "hard" sf -- sf that's filled with lots of hard science, in this case science regarding ecology, geology, and all sorts of other brain-straining disciplines. But what's remarkable to me about this book is how complex and human Kim Stanley Robinson makes his band of scientists, and how well he demonstrates over and over again how intertwined all of us are, on a truly huge scale. This book asks a very familiar question: what would happen if we were able to go to Mars? And it provides a sprawling, fascinating, at times horrifying answer that has a lot to do with science, and even more to do with the human beings who study and implement that science. At times, the book seems to have a very grim opinion on the failure rate of human societies to work well for everyone, but there is also in this book a profound regard for our ability to survive just about anything and anywhere.

Edited on 9/25/2019 after reread to add:

I was impressed by this novel the first time I read it, but in this second reading of it, I was ultimately blown away by its scope, its depth, its depiction of the weight of history on a vividly-depicted group of brilliant, difficult, driven human beings.

This passage gives a sense of how beautifully Robinson is able to distill the individual human experience in the midst of global catastrophe:

“Late in this quiet meal Ann looked around curiously at her companions, suddenly awed by the spectacle of human adaptability. Here they were eating their dinner, talking over the low boom from the north, in a perfect illusion of dining-room conviviality; it might have been anywhere anytime, and their tired faces bright with some collective success, or merely with the pleasure of eating together—while just outside their chamber the broken world roared, and rockfall could annihilate them at any instant. And it came to her that the pleasure and stability of dining rooms had always occurred against such a backdrop, against the catastrophic background of universal chaos; such moments of calm were things as fragile and transitory as soap bubbles, destined to burst almost as soon as they blew into existence. Groups of friends, rooms, streets, years, none of them would last. The illusion of stability was created by a concerted effort to ignore the chaos they were imbedded in. And so they ate, and talked, and enjoyed each other’s company; this was the way it had been in the caves, on the savannah, in the tenements and the trenches and the cities huddling under bombardment.”

It’s truly a monumental achievement. ...more

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Mar 26, 2013 Bradley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: worldbuilding-sf, sci-fi

Re-read! With buddies!

I originally read this way back in the mid-90's and was struck by how brilliant and entertaining it was, of how wide a sweep of characters could bring Mars alive, from inception to travel to the first habitats all the way to the first revolution 30 years down the line.

What I remembered with the most love, however, wasn't the characters. It was the science and the various aspects of making Mars habitable. That, and I just geeked out. I went on to read all the slew of Mars co ...more

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Jul 30, 2009 Willray rated it did not like it · review of another edition

As an avid reader of Science Fiction, this book bored me to tears with its utterly one dimensional characters and utterly predictable plot (once one figured out, in the first 50 pages or so, that the characters were entirely linear and incapable of deviation from their preassigned courses). The "climax" is like a tiny pimple of added dimension, which Robinson apparently thinks is somehow highlighted and made more dramatic by the 500 previous pages that scream "Look, I really am this flat!". For As an avid reader of Science Fiction, this book bored me to tears with its utterly one dimensional characters and utterly predictable plot (once one figured out, in the first 50 pages or so, that the characters were entirely linear and incapable of deviation from their preassigned courses). The "climax" is like a tiny pimple of added dimension, which Robinson apparently thinks is somehow highlighted and made more dramatic by the 500 previous pages that scream "Look, I really am this flat!". For suspense, he substitutes hundreds of pages of not stating the obvious. When climactic moments finally arrive, one does not read them with surprise, appreciation or release, but only with the relief that that particular tedious episode is finally finished. As forgettable as this book is, I desperately wish I could forget more!

As a scientist, I'm bewildered by everyone's adulation of the "research" and "accuracy" that went into the book. Robinson doesn't even get the simple details right (like the color of the Martian sky), and just makes other stuff up (like suit seals that can miraculously contain a a breathing atmosphere but are somehow permeable to particles 1000s of times as large as the molecules of the gasses they do not leak, and DNA-repair anti-aging miracles which more surprisingly than their success, have no impact on any of the obvious effects of DNA damage in aging). I suspect it's because he pulls hoity-toity popular/media-press-science catchphrases out of his butt and glues them together as though they explain the effects or developments he is describing (on the biology, physics, and chemistry, let me assure you that they do not. I can't comment on the geology).

The one-dimensional characters are also bewilderingly incompetent, even along their portrayed expertises - perhaps best highlighted by the overly detailed, pages long account of the "plucky engineer" risking life and limb in a desperate move to add supplemental solar panels to add even a whisper of additional power for her electric dirigible in a wind storm -- a dirigible which is carrying a cargo of ...wait for it... windmill-powered electric generators.

I signed up for goodreads, just so that I could rate this craptacular piece of tripe. If I could give this book a negative rating, I would. ...more

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Oct 17, 2007 Paxnirvana rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: why-oh-why-did-i-read-it

Instead of re-hashing my own old review (did one at Amazon already yanno), let me offer up this BRILLIANT routine about Jaws 4: The Revenge by the late (and lamentedly so!) Mr. Richard Jeni:

"Have you ever seen a movie where they don't even try to have it make sense, they just slap you in the face with how shitty it is? You're sitting there, and you're going, "Maybe this movie isn't so bad and maybe I'm not wasting my life," and the movie slaps you in the face and goes:

Yes you are.

and you say "Ar ...more

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Oct 07, 2019 Spencer Orey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

For hard sf, there's a solid and relentless focus on politics here, which is cool. The book never quite loses track of the people doing the science.

There's a lot of drama, many long descriptions of scientific-sounding things, and some great landscape imaginaries of Mars.
...more

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Apr 17, 2011 stormin rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, gave-up-on

As a matter of principle, I try not to review books that I don't finish. After nearly 300 pages of agony, however, I've decided to make an exception to that rule. I can't finish this book, but I can warn others not to read it. It's the least I can do.

In terms of plot and story, this book isn't *that* bad, and if that's all that was wrong with it I'd give it 2-3 stars. It's the type of sci-fi story that wins awards not because the story is any good, but because of how meticulously researched it i As a matter of principle, I try not to review books that I don't finish. After nearly 300 pages of agony, however, I've decided to make an exception to that rule. I can't finish this book, but I can warn others not to read it. It's the least I can do.

In terms of plot and story, this book isn't *that* bad, and if that's all that was wrong with it I'd give it 2-3 stars. It's the type of sci-fi story that wins awards not because the story is any good, but because of how meticulously researched it is. If you want a several-hundred page treatise on colonizing Mars: this book is for you. I was impressed with the level of detail in everything from the description of the trip to Mars to the lengthy descriptions of Martian topology.

Then again, "length descriptions of Martian topology" might not sound like much fun to read. And--trust me--it's not. Interspersed among these long passages describing Martian geography, attempts to create a greenhouse effect, and so on there is a story. Kind of. It's really just a meandering series of first-person narratives that are more of a travelogue than a novel. For the most part there's really no clear objective at all--or, when there is, the characters pursue it in the most circuitous route possible so that you can get more good Martian landscape descriptions--but when the plot is front-and-center the book really tanks.

Kim Stanley Robinson is the most clueless person who has ever imposed the misfortune on others of writing about economics. I'm an econ graduate student, so this might bug me more than you. You might not mind watonly atrocious economic theorizing, in which case this will be a 2-3 star book. (You might even really want a giant technical manual describing the colonization of Mars, in which case this would be a 4-5 star book for you.) But if you care about economics at all, then this is a 1-star book only because GoodReads doesn't allow you to give negative stars.

I don't mind political sci-fi, whether I tend to agree with it (as in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress) or disagree with it (as in The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia). What I do mind it *stupid* political writing (sci-fi or not) that utterly fails to understand the rudiments of the issue at hand, presents its case with all the cheapest tricks in the book, and then basically fails to actually prop up anything resembling a coherent, workable thesis. And that, in a nutshell, describes what happens in this book. Robinson gets the most basic elements of economics laughably wrong (he has no concept of what money is for, as an example). When he wants to criticize a viewpoint he disagrees with, he just creates an obnoxious, stereotypical character to represent it. And his own idea of ecologically-based economics (which isn't remotely original) is actually *less* well articulated and defended than works less than 1/10th this length.

My copy of this book is dog-eared where I wanted to come back and catalog Robinson's low points. At first they enraged me, but after a couple of hundred pages there was nothing to do but laugh. Unfortunately, the amusing rantings aren't quite enough to give me motivation to finish this book. But they did provide me the motivation to warn everyone else: steer clear! ...more

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Mar 27, 2008 Brad rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: doing-the-dishes, why-no-movie, revolution, faves, ecological, political, the-best, sci-fi, anarchism, personal-mythology

A long time ago in a city far, far away, the end of a friendship began over a disagreement about Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. D--- was so close to the material, so desperate to relive the nostalgia of the original trilogy, so deeply invested, that when we left the theatre and I expressed not just my frustration but my rage at what I'd seen, he took it as a personal insult. A slag of his taste (or what he thought I must have been declaring was his lack thereof). A debate raged between us for ...more

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May 16, 2012 Megan Baxter rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Red Mars looks at the first waves of emigration to Mars, through the eyes of certain members of the First Hundred, the original settlers. The world Kim Stanley Robinson paints is complex, filtered through the perceptions of different people, the politics intense and contentious, even the debate over terraforming itself is depicted with lively wrangling.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the recent changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this d ...more

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Jan 04, 2009 Stephen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks, award-nominee-hugo, multiple-award-nominee, james-tiptree-award-nominee, multiple-award-winners, award-nominee-arthur-c-clarke, award-nominee-nebula, award-winner-nebula, award-nominee-locus, award-nominee-british-sf

5.0 to 5.5 stars. It has been said before but it bears repeating...this is the BEST NOVEL on the colonization of Mars that has ever been written. For all of the technical informaiton conveyed and the "hard science" employed, the book is amazingly readable and the characters are very well drawn.

Winner: Nebula Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1994)
Winner: British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel (1993)
Nominee: Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1993)
Nominee: Arthur C. Clarke Awar ...more

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Dec 27, 2020 Mark Lawrence added it · review of another edition

I gave up on this book after 100 pages or so.

It's by no means a bad book, it just wasn't a book that I was enjoying reading. I came to the conclusion that life is short and I would, instead, read a book that wouldn't let me stop turning the pages.

This is a very dry, hard science book. I was a research scientist for 20 years so it's not a question of understanding, just interest. There was half a page where a new PoV character just listed all her tools. Later there were two pages and a diagram re ...more

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Oct 14, 2016 Rachel (Kalanadi) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: years-in-reading, science-fiction, favorites, winners-nebulas

This was SO good! This is epic hard sci fi, where everything is large scale. It never lagged, I was always interested in each character and part of the story, and the final third was intense, exciting, and emotional. I can't wait for Green Mars! ...more

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Sep 15, 2019 Jemppu rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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Dec 27, 2007 Mitch rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Powell's used book buyers

Shelves: action-adventure

Some interesting plot events (the space elevator, its destruction, the interplay between Earth and its "colony", some of the practical concerns about living on Mars [but not bathrooms]) cannot paper over the enormity of this book's mediocrity. Consistently boring word choice, ideas that get argued but not connected, looong descriptions of landscape that add nothing to the story, regular use of the run-on sentence and a general use of 10 words when one will do (JK Rowlings's editor...?). Only the ...more

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Dec 22, 2020 Alex Bright rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Two words: engaging and enraging.

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May 05, 2014 David rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mars, science-fiction, hard-sf, near-space, audiobook, space

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy is well-regarded by SF fans, but it didn't really live up to the hype for me, though it's an excellent entry in the hard SF genre. Robinson's prose is not as lyrical as Ray Bradbury's, but it's not as dry as Ben Bova's either. Red Mars seems to synthesize elements from all of Robinson's predecessors — it's a Heinleinesque adventure at times, with hard SF infodumps, but actual characters, and shout-outs to every author who's ever touched Mars, including Burroug Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy is well-regarded by SF fans, but it didn't really live up to the hype for me, though it's an excellent entry in the hard SF genre. Robinson's prose is not as lyrical as Ray Bradbury's, but it's not as dry as Ben Bova's either. Red Mars seems to synthesize elements from all of Robinson's predecessors — it's a Heinleinesque adventure at times, with hard SF infodumps, but actual characters, and shout-outs to every author who's ever touched Mars, including Burroughs.

Red Mars is the tale of the first Martian colony, and covers a couple of generations of history. The "First Hundred" who established the original settlement become larger-than-life, almost mythical figures to those who follow after them, but as Mars begins to be taken over by political and economic factions bringing old issues of exploitation and oppression (followed by resistance and terrorism) from Earth, the Hundred are just as conflicted and prone to squabbling and working at cross-purposes as all the other settlers.

Early on, there is a huge debate over terraforming Mars, eventually becoming a conflict between the "Reds" and the "Greens." Eventually other cultures arrive on Mars and have their own ideas of what it means to be a Martian settler. Muslims make up a substantial segment of the population, as do Russians and other nationalities, all wanting to have an equal stake in Martian society.

The ending shows the surviving members of the Hundred witnessing what happens after decades of emigration and development on Mars, with much of what has been built up brought down by an uprising among the children of Mars.

If you are a space exploration geek, and especially if you are one of those who still dreams of a Mars expedition in our lifetime, then Red Mars may fire you up with a realistic view of what emigration to Mars might actually look like. It is almost certainly not an accurate picture of what will actually happen, should we ever get that far, but it's a realistic picture of what could happen.

I give this book 4 stars for being one of the best Mars books out there, but 3 stars for enjoyment, because the story and the characters just did not grab me enough to wonder, "What happens next?" So, a 3.5 star book. ...more

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May 02, 2014 J.L. Sutton rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Red Mars is a fantastic beginning to Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy. The book is part science, part character study and a lot of adventure as mankind colonizes (and begins to change) the red planet. But it's not just Mars which is changed. Those who colonize Mars are profoundly impacted by the new environment as are the next generation (the real Martians who might be part of mankind's future?). Red Mars is not always an easy read, but it has a big payoff for those who stick with it! And the ...more

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Oct 12, 2019 Allison Hurd rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sff-bookshelf, sff-2019-challenge, scifi, man-author

Phew! That was a long, fascinating, unpleasant journey. Which is really quite thematic if you think about it. I learned a lot and had some great conversations, but I really bounced off most of the characters and was angry at several of the assertions the author seemed to be making.

CONTENT WARNING: (just a list of topics)(view spoiler)

Things to love:

-The science. Some of it I don't think was t ...more

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Apr 24, 2018 Trish rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is one of those scifi works that almost everybody has at least heard of, if not read. In my everlasting quest to read such "classics" and spurred by having read about Elon Musk and his plans for colonizing Mars, I couldn't help but pick this up.

The book starts in the future when cities have already been erected on Mars and people are emmigrating there. There's a murder plot underfoot, the motive of which gets explained afterwards by a jump back in time to how the first 100 engineers and sci This is one of those scifi works that almost everybody has at least heard of, if not read. In my everlasting quest to read such "classics" and spurred by having read about Elon Musk and his plans for colonizing Mars, I couldn't help but pick this up.

The book starts in the future when cities have already been erected on Mars and people are emmigrating there. There's a murder plot underfoot, the motive of which gets explained afterwards by a jump back in time to how the first 100 engineers and scientists had been sent to Mars to enable colonization in the first place.
After a bit more than half the book, the story picks up after the murder and we progress forward.
You see, the problem is less getting to Mars and getting to work. It's all the consequences of conquering a new planet. Such as terraforming, moral implications and, most importantly, political / commercial problems arising. Which, of course, leads to revolution.

KSR has touched on many subjects in this book. Religious and social identity, the reality of living on a different planet (think of what happened between Great Britain and the settlers in America and now try to project that onto a planetary scale), human psychology (both on the small and large scale), corruption (financial and of one's moral compass), how we're treating Earth and where that will lead us if we continue to be so short-sighted, terraforming, ... In short: the book is dense. However, I liked the sccientific aspects and the fact that the author has spent so much time researching thoroughly. There were two things he either didn't get right or deliberately changed for the novel but other than that, the author's attention to detail was really cool.

The two details I'm talking about that were erroneous were his portrayal if Islam (not all Muslims are always united like a big happy family, not even when faced with a common enemy, history is proof of that and don't get me started on the Koran-based image of women) and the fact that except for a storm there was no problem for the first 100 to enter Mars' atmosphere when in reality that is VERY tricky and the reason we haven't tried sending humans to Mars yet.

The really big problem I had with this book, however, were the characters. Nadja was OK because she was the typical industrious all-rounder, constantly helping here and there, focusing on what they came to do. Sax Russell was OK as well because he was not only in favour of terraforming but also had good ideas about how to proceed and why. The rest (of 100, mind you!) were whining and bitching all the time or screwing around more than any prostitute, leading to love triangles (and murder!) as well as a host of other problems. And don't get me started on Hiroko, who might be a brilliant botanist, but who also (view spoiler) and who started this weird-ass cult so as to be its center/deity.
Honestly, almost all of them were completely out of their minds and you can't explain it all away by their sudden "freedom". Moreover, the selection process would have weeded out at least some of these idiots so that was very unrealistic and it also felt like the portrayal of people was not the author's strong suit. He just needed a conflict or wanted to explore a certain theme and that was the fastest way.

I wanted to read about science and exploration, political machinations and implications and as soon as all that got underway, it was really cool, but the whole human aspect was handled in a way that annoyed me severely, especially because it also made the book longer than it would have had to be.
Still, I will continue with the trilogy because now that so many are dead (blood for the blood god!), we might focus on the progression of Mars' independence, scientific discoveries and the terraforming of Mars since it obviously works! ...more

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Sep 30, 2019 Dawn C rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 6th-read-all-the-books-challenge, media-audible, group-shelf, loved

An extremely fascinating, hard science fiction book about first settlers on Mars, with a writer who stays in the background and lets the characters tell the story through debate and experience. I felt it was fast paced, in constant forward motion, with ideas and arguments propelling the plot forward. Very impressive.

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Feb 01, 2019 Otis Chandler rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Otis by: Jeff C. Kunins

Shelves: mars, sci-fi, fiction, space

What an amazing, sprawling, realistic book. If we ever do populate Mars, I think this book will feel like a realistic blueprint of how it might go, complete with technology that is applied, inter personal dynamics, politics, and more. Earth is of course over-populated, pushing over 10M people, and so the space of Mars is appealing and we send a ship to start to populate it. By the end of the book, there are many, many people on Mars, all living in bubble cities. The book moves around in who the ...more

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Nov 07, 2016 Sud666 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

Kim Stanley Robinson has written one of the best hard sci-fi books I've read in a long time. It is all about the human colonization and habitation on Mars. It is a wonderful mix of science and political science, which is a rare combination in most sci-fi books.

Red Mars is a story that takes place over several decades. It starts with the first Hundred scientists who are the first ones to land on Mars. The mix of sciences run the entire gamut. This is not a story with Star Destroyers or Vulcans or Kim Stanley Robinson has written one of the best hard sci-fi books I've read in a long time. It is all about the human colonization and habitation on Mars. It is a wonderful mix of science and political science, which is a rare combination in most sci-fi books.

Red Mars is a story that takes place over several decades. It starts with the first Hundred scientists who are the first ones to land on Mars. The mix of sciences run the entire gamut. This is not a story with Star Destroyers or Vulcans or any such thing. The vast majority of the technology already exists or will exist in the near future. No need for as yet undiscovered sources of power or highly advanced technology. From terraforming, to modern technology used in innovative ways, to biological and chemical process-everything that is described is actually very plausible. There is also a great deal of information, told in the form of conversations, about how to go about settling in a place like Mars. Many of the things mentioned in this story smack of total realism. When humanity does eventually begin the settlement process on Mars, I am sure the vast majority of the development will mirror many of the things in this book. Perhaps, that is why I liked this so much. It is technical, but not overly so, and the "conversation" form of giving the information works well, in that the other characters can often ask pertinent questions to help a readers understanding.

But, it is the politics behind all the science that really made for a wonderful tale. As soon as the International team lands, fractures begin to develop. Some are political, while others are religious or even personal. In time we begin to see divergences from the American scientists and the Russians (this book was written in 1993- slightly after the end of the Cold War); the Muslims and everyone else; the UN competing against transnational corporations and the truly powerful nations of the world. Many people have their own agendas, and much of the idiocy of Earth- communism, religion, etc is recreating itself on Mars. Some of the more forward thinking scientists try to stave this off, but it is inevitable. While the politics side has some issues, overall it is well done and does reflect the likely outcome of different peoples supported by different countries.

As far as the characters, the main ones- John Boone, Frank Chalmers, Maya, Nadia, etc...none of them are particularly likeable. Some are truly despicable, but I will allow you to figure out whom too hate. While some of the interactions are beyond bothersome, Maya and Frank in particular are awful people, it never seems to be a soap opera. But, that was the one thing-I never really liked any of the main characters. Many of the secondary characters are well done, and likeable, but my empathy with the main characters was severely lacking.

Thus, we have a wonderful sci-fi book. If you are interested in a logical and fairly realistic look at the settlement and eventual terraforming of Mars, then this is a book you will truly enjoy. The mix of politics and its effects on the scientists is well done. This is a dense and heavy book, but one well worth the work. One of the best hard sci-fi books I've read in a long time. The best part is none of the things described are all that far away-everything in this book could be done with current, or near-future, technology. A great book if you are interested in Mars and the potential to turn it into a human colony. ...more

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Jun 01, 2013 Apatt rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I have just returned from Mars.

Well, I haven't of course but it feels a little like that. I feel like I have been one of the pioneer colonists struggling to tame Mars for posterity. That is how immersive this book can be, though it is not actually quite so engrossing throughout every page but even to attain that level of engrossment at times is a significant achievement by the author.

I believe this is one of the most popular sf series ever, I have certainly seen it in many "best of" lists, each I have just returned from Mars.

Well, I haven't of course but it feels a little like that. I feel like I have been one of the pioneer colonists struggling to tame Mars for posterity. That is how immersive this book can be, though it is not actually quite so engrossing throughout every page but even to attain that level of engrossment at times is a significant achievement by the author.

I believe this is one of the most popular sf series ever, I have certainly seen it in many "best of" lists, each book in the series has awards up the wazoo. It is not Dune or Enders Game big but if those are XLs this series is definitely an L. Red Mars, the first volume of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy, falls into the subgenre of hard science fiction. It is set in the near future (2026), the science is based on and extrapolated from known science, there are no extraterrestrials, time traveling or FTL travels here.This may not appeal to scifi fans who read books to have their mind blown by bizarre goings on, but for me variety is what keeps sf from becoming stale. Another advantage of hard sf is that it requires very little in the way of suspension of disbelief.

What surprises me about this novel though is the amount of character development in this book, not a common feature of scifi in general, even less so for hard scifi. This is both a strength and weakness of the book because while it is good to be invested in the main characters the emotional scenes can descend into melodrama or even soap operatic. Interestingly considering that Red Mars is very hard sf, KSR clearly has a lot of respect to the Mars themed scifi classics like Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and Edgar Rice Burroughs's Barsoom / Mars books. Considering how much of the book seems to involve battle of the sexes I am glad he does not include any reference to that awful "Mars" book "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus".

On the world building and technological side I find it all very plausible and often vivid. One of my favorite scifi technology is the space elevator, popularized by Arthur C. Clarke's award winning The Fountains of Paradise which is due for a reread very soon. The achievements of the scientists / colonists in this book make me think of the amazing height mankind can achieve if we put our minds to it, and the almost inevitable fall from grace through our usual infighting and folly. The process of colonization, terraformation and chaos is very convincingly portrayed here. The politics and the colonists' fight for independence also bring to mind Heinlein's classic The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

I am tempted to rate Red Mars at five stars but in all honesty there are some rather dull passages or chapters in this book. Looking at some of the less than enthusiastic reviews I came across quite a few comments along the line of "boring" and "like reading a text book". I don't really get the "text book" allegation as I don't think Robinson spends that much time explaining the techs, but I certainly find some of the arduous journey parts of this book almost interminable. If there is a major flaw in this book I believe it to be the pacing, occasionally it grinds to a halt or become rather turgid. This is not actually a deal breaker though, a lot of it is fascinating and very readable, you just have to be patient and not expect the story to be a pulse pounding page turner all the time. By the time I finished the book I realized the whole of it is greater than the sum of its parts, viewed as a whole in retrospect it is a very worthwhile read.

So I think a four stars rating is fair, and I look forward to reading the other two volumes. ...more

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About Kim Stanley Robinson

Kim Stanley Robinson

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Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer, probably best known for his award-winning Mars trilogy.

His work delves into ecological and sociological themes regularly, and many of his novels appear to be the direct result of his own scientific fascinations, such as the 15 years of research and lifelong fascination with Mars which culminated in his most famous work. He has, due to his ...more