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Marte rojo
(Mars Trilogy #1)
by
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
La novela narra la historia de los primeros 35 años de vida humana en Marte, desde 2026 hasta 2061; la ...more
Paperback, 584 pages
Published
October 28th 1998
by Minotauro
(first published 1992)
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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 ...more
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 ...more

I found this book to be intensely frustrating, because I had such a love-hate relationship with it. On one hand, I was fascinated to learn all about the colonization of Mars, the various technologies used, and I really loved seeing what the scientists came up with to develop the planet. Likewise, I enjoyed reading about the experience of exploring the planet's surface and learning about it's unique geography. The landscape descriptions are breathtaking.
It's such a shame that I hated just about ...more
It's such a shame that I hated just about ...more

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
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


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 became ...more

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

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?
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?

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
...more

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

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
...more

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
...more

Mar 26, 2013
Bradley
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
sci-fi,
worldbuilding-sf
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 ...more
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 ...more

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 ...more
"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 ...more

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
...more

Mar 27, 2008
Brad
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
sci-fi,
personal-mythology,
the-best,
doing-the-dishes,
revolution,
faves,
new-novella,
political,
anarchism,
ecological
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

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 ...more
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 ...more

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 ...more
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 ...more

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 ...more
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 ...more

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!

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
...more

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

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 ...more
CONTENT WARNING: (just a list of topics)(view spoiler)
Things to love:
-The science. Some of it I don't think was ...more

Feb 01, 2019
Otis Chandler
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Otis by:
Jeff C. Kunins
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

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.

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 ...more
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 ...more

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 ...more
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 ...more

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 ...more
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 ...more

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

Jan 27, 2010
Ken-ichi
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
environmental-ethics,
escape,
science-fiction,
environmentalism,
to-reread,
mars,
terraforming,
utopia
Red Mars deserves a place in the American literary canon, and not as an exemplar of "hard SF," scifi's most pocket-protected sub-genre, but as a compelling, substantive text that has something distinctive to say about life in the present and, perhaps, about being American. Let me fail to explain:
SPECULATIVE REALISM
Much as I detest "X is the new Y" comparisons and describing anything as "like Yelp for dogs" etc, Kim Stanley Robinson might be science fiction's George Elliot. Minute in attention, ...more
SPECULATIVE REALISM
Much as I detest "X is the new Y" comparisons and describing anything as "like Yelp for dogs" etc, Kim Stanley Robinson might be science fiction's George Elliot. Minute in attention, ...more
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Beyond Reality: Red Mars (10/19): finished reading (spoilers) | 15 | 31 | Nov 01, 2019 05:25PM | |
Beyond Reality: Red Mars (10/19): roll call and first impressions (no spoilers)! | 7 | 21 | Oct 14, 2019 12:51PM | |
Play Book Tag: Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson 3 stars | 1 | 8 | Sep 30, 2019 06:47PM |
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
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
Other books in the series
Mars Trilogy
(3 books)
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“Beauty is power and elegance, right action, form fitting function, intelligence, and reasonability. And very often expressed in curves.”
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