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Book cover for Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1) Book Details

Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1)

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In his most ambitious project to date, award-winning author Kim Stanley Robinson utilizes years of research & cutting-edge science in the 1st of a trilogy chronicling the colonization of Mars: For eons, sandstorms have swept the desolateMoreIn his most ambitious project to date, award-winning author Kim Stanley Robinson utilizes years of research & cutting-edge science in the 1st of a trilogy chronicling the colonization of Mars: For eons, sandstorms have swept the desolate landscape. For centuries, Mars has beckoned humans to conquer its hostile climate. Now, in 2026, a group of 100 colonists is about to fulfill that destiny. John Boone, Maya Toitavna, Frank Chalmers & Arkady Bogdanov lead a terraforming mission. For some, Mars will become a passion driving them to daring acts of courage & madness. For others it offers an opportunity to strip the planet of its riches. For the genetic alchemists, it presents a chance to create a biomedical miracle, a breakthrough that could change all we know about life & death. The colonists orbit giant satellite mirrors to reflect light to the surface. Black dust sprinkled on the polar caps will capture warmth. Massive tunnels, kilometers deep, will be drilled into the mantle to create stupendous vents of hot gases. Against this backdrop of epic upheaval, rivalries, loves & friendships will form & fall to pieces--for there are those who will fight to the death to prevent Mars from ever being changed.
Brilliantly imagined, breathtaking in scope & ingenuity, Red Mars is an epic scientific saga, chronicling the next step in evolution, creating a world in its entirety. It shows a future, with both glory & tarnish, that awes with complexity & inspires with vision. Less

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Community Reviews

Matt

rated it liked it
over 8 years ago

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... Read full review
Cassandra

rated it it was ok
about 9 years ago

Shelves: hated-it
I found this book to be intensely frustrating, because I had such a love-hate relationship with it. At 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 deve... Read full review
Henry Avila

rated it really liked it
over 2 years ago

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 generatio... Read full review
Jamie

rated it it was ok
over 3 years ago
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... Read full review
Megan Baxter

rated it really liked it
about 3 years ago

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 conte... Read full review
Brad

rated it it was amazing
almost 6 years ago

Shelves: faves , sci-fi , anarchism , doing-the-dishes , ecological , nebula-winner , new-novella , personal-mythology , political , revolution , the-best , why-no-movie
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 the... Read full review
Paxnirvana

rated it did not like it
about 9 years ago

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... Read full review
Willray

rated it did not like it
almost 8 years ago

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 pr... Read full review

Other Books by this Author

  • Green Mars (Mars Trilogy, #2)
    Green Mars
    by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Blue Mars (Mars Trilogy, #3)
    Blue Mars
    by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Aurora
    Aurora
    by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • 2312
    2312
    by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • The Years of Rice and Salt
    The Years of Rice and Salt
    by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Forty Signs of Rain (Science in the Capital #1)
    Forty Signs of Rain
    by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • The Wild Shore (Three Californias Triptych, #1)
    The Wild Shore
    by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Antarctica
    Antarctica
    by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Shaman
    Shaman
    by Kim Stanley Robinson

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Book Details

Mass Market Paperback, 572 pages
Published October 1st 1993 by Spectra (first published 1993
ISBN
0553560735 (ISBN13: 9780553560732)
Edition Language
English
Original Title
Red Mars
Characters
John Boone, Frank Chalmers, Maya Toitovna, Sax Russell, Ann Clayborn
Literary Awards
Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Locus Award, Arthur C. Clarke Award, British Science Fiction Association Award

About this Author

1858. uy66 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...
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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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Science was many things, Nadia thought, including a weapon with which to hit other scientists.
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We were outside the world, we didn't even own things -- some clothes. . . . This arrangement resembles the prehistoric way to live, and it therefore feels right to us, because our brains recognize it from 3 millions of years practicing it. In essence our brains grew to their current configuration in response to the realities of that life. So as a result people grow powerfully attached to that kind of life, when they get the chance to live it. It allows you to concentrate your attention on the real work, which means everything that is done to stay alive, to make things, or satisfy one's curiosity, or play. That is utopia.
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