Buddy Read: Red Mars

[Jokoloyo, Waldo]

Pergunakan thread ini untuk diskusi buddy read Red Mars

Waktu dan tempat saya persilakan kepada Pak Oni sebagai moderator.

[Silvana]

Pas baca ini gue cukup menikmati karena karakter2nya people over 40. Jadi inget Old Man's War. Not that I am against young characters, tapi kebanyakan buku fantasy isinya gitu, so I want my SF to be more adult-oriented.

Banyak banget debat politiknya - which I enjoyed.
Stream of consciousness/internal monologue-nya juga menarik. So many insecurities haha
Gue suka banget sama Arkady dan Nadia.

[Oni, The Dispossessed]

Jangan2 novel ini jadi referensi yah pas eksplorasi Mars beneran.

[Oni, The Dispossessed]

Di saat kita mulai mengkoloni planet atau bulan lain kita baru akan sadar bahwa banyak sekali segi2 kehidupan kita yg dipengaruhi oleh siklus bumi, siang malam 24 jam, siklus musim, dll. Mungkin cuma para peneliti di Antartika yg mulai bisa memisahkan diri dari referensi ini. Kebayang nanti para agamawan pusing dengan segala fatwa, atau nanti jangan2 di masing2 koloni baru muncul stream agama yg unik sesuai dgn tempat tinggal mereka yg baru.

[Barry]

Baru dapat bukunya, abis selesai baca Embassytown yak baru join buddy readnya.

[ULa]

Saya juga nanti menyusul, masih baca buku lain soalnya :)

[Silvana]

Oni wrote: "Di saat kita mulai mengkoloni planet atau bulan lain kita baru akan sadar bahwa banyak sekali segi2 kehidupan kita yg dipengaruhi oleh siklus bumi, siang malam 24 jam, siklus musim, dll. Mungkin cu..."

apakah Antartika sudah pasti akan jadi tempat latihan buat ekplorasi Mars?

Oni wrote: "Jangan2 novel ini jadi referensi yah pas eksplorasi Mars beneran."

I'd like to think that.

[Barry]

50 pages in, I think I'm gonna like this book. Hopefully.

[Silvana]

Oh thank goodness. kirain cuma gue sama Oni doang yg baca. feel free to post whatever interesting along the way

[Barry]

Done. Thoughts and comments tomorrow, banyak yg mesti gue pikirin dulu abis cerita awalnya agak menipu focus bacaan gue haha.

EDIT:

Ok, my thoughts and comments:

Sorry in English, copy paste dari review.

(view spoiler)[First, let's talk about the technology. I love the technologies: the rovers, the living quarters, the greenhouse plants, the towns (some of them actually embedded into the Martian cliffs ... awesome!), the robots, the dirigibles, the airships, the space elevator (I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch of other stuff in the book). All really cool stuff. Some of them are very believable, and technically possible. Some other ... I don't know, but I don't want to be too nitpicky with it.

What I don't understand is the pace of the technological development. In order to develop those technologies, I believe the Terran governments need to send a lot of stuff into Mars. Not just essential technologies that the first hundred colonists need, but a whole lot more. That would mean there would be numerous spaceships sent every year. Given the condition on Earth in this book, would it be really possible for the various Terran governments to send all those stuffs? You'd think those governments would probably buy more guns to prepare for war or something. Maybe, I'm missing something here.

Also, I don't quite understand why the development of the anti-aging (or life expectancy extender) drug happens on Mars, rather than on Earth. You'd think, in terms of probability law, that because there are still a whole lot more scientists on Earth that it'd happen on Earth. Furthermore, I think the development of the drug should get more politicized than what's depicted in the book. I'd think the transnational corporations would definitely want to monopolize the sale of that ASAP and control emigration flow into Mars.

I also consider the complex human relationship and the corresponding political battles between the many major characters in this book to be very believable. I think that's what would happen in a colonization plan like this. The colonists would first rebel against the "ruler", which in this case is the Terran governments, UNOMA and the transnational corporations. Then, the first colonists would break up, because there would be competing factions demanding different things. I think choosing terraforming as the first fight between the colonists is spot on, because the goal of colonization is really about transforming Mars into a habitable planet. And that entails changing Mars itself. There are also a few strong characters that endear me (Nadia, especially, she rocks!).

However, I feel a bit cheated by the author, because right in the very beginning, he started the book with the death of John Boone. That made me focus on figuring out why he's killed, and the political positions that he held. That made me focus on the wrong characters. Eventually, it's revealed towards the end of the book (I think around 4/5 of the book), that the antagonist is actually the only person who's beholden to the transnational corporations. By the way, that also bothers me, because I'd expect more than one people would be enticed by the money and power that those corporations can offer. But, apparently, only one character falls for it ...

(hide spoiler)]

One last thing that kinda bothers me about this book. Somehow the story feels flat in certain parts. There are a few interesting and strong characters, but not enough to keep it interesting for the whole book. So, I struggled a little bit, especially in the middle part. Furthermore, as stated in the last paragraph, I feel that that the antagonistic characters aren't exposed or explained adequately by the author. However, it is still a solid story of a possible Mars colonization. (hide spoiler)]

Pada intinya gue merasa antagonistnya kurang di-expose. (view spoiler)[ Yang gue pikir pertama antagonist malah ternyata bukan main antagonistnya. Gue sampai sekarang juga masih belum ngerti kenapa Frank Chalmers mesti ngebunuh John Boone. Such a senseless thing to do for Frank. (hide spoiler)] Itu yang maksud gue gue ketipu ama authornya di awal2, jadi salah focus.

[Silvana]

Barry wrote: "Done. Thoughts and comments tomorrow, banyak yg mesti gue pikirin dulu abis cerita awalnya agak menipu focus bacaan gue haha.

EDIT:

Ok, my thoughts and comments:

Sorry in English, copy paste dar..."

Nice review. Kayaknya loe mesti baca juga Seveneves deh, karena isinya juga tentang Earthers cooperating to send stuff to space walau beda motivasi.

Soal Frank and John (view spoiler)[gue rasa alasannya itu panjang dan banyak, mulai dari ideologi, cara mikir, cewe, dan hal praktis spt yang dibahas Frank dan teman2 Arabnya di chapter awal. Apalagi ya, karena mereka semua umurnya (diper)panjang, gue rasa wajar orang spt Frank - yang luar biasa praktis dan hampir ga ada emosi - mau eliminasi rival utama ketika dapat kesempatan. (hide spoiler)]

Nadia memang keren ya, jadi kasian pas dia harus jd tong sampah dengerin that Russian chick complaining about men. (view spoiler)[Sedih banget pas Arkady meninggal. Dia juga menarik banget. (hide spoiler)]