Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1) in The Alternative Worlds

Mar 27, 2008 Brad rated it it was amazing

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

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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Sep 26, 2009 Kara Babcock rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, from-library, nebula-winner, hugo-nominee, postcolonial, 2015-read

Time to dig into some solar-system colonial fiction with Red Mars, the first in Kim Stanley Robinson’s trilogy about settling and terraforming our nearest planetary neighbour. First published over twenty years ago, the book holds up well despite the scientific advances two decades’ worth of rovers and satellites have provided. Robinson combines his ecologically-aware vision of the Earth’s future difficulties with a semi-realistic vision for planetary colonization. Throw in an ensemble cast of be ...more

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Jul 12, 2016 Brad rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, audio-book

Third time through Red Mars, and I think I finally know why I love Kim Stanley Robinson's classic science-fiction book so much -- it reminds me who I am whenever I need a reminder.

Who am I? Naah. That's not for this review. What's important is how Robinson captures the voices of his characters. His book begins with the first hundred people colonizing Mars, and though he adds multitudes to those first hundred, he really only focuses on a limited bunch of the first hundred. This approach sets Red ...more

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Mar 12, 2012 Simon rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

You need to know what you're getting into before you embark upon reading this novel. If you're in the mood for an in-depth and realistic chronicle of how humanity might go about the colonisation of Mars in the not to distant future, if you love hard science fiction, if seeing how huge technical problems are overcome with spectacular feats of engineering excites you, if a somewhat slow-paced and long-winded story doesn't bore you and a large cast of generally realistic but not particularly sympat ...more

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Mar 13, 2012 Suz rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobook, science-fiction, lets-go-to-mars, award-winner, trilogy-sigh

3.5, really.

This is a really solid book. Not amazing, not awesome, but in no way did I find it bad.

This novel covers the colonization of Mars, from the first landing, to a couple of waves of settlers after that. The story isn't strictly linear, starting on Mars, and then flashing-back to when the team was chosen, trained, and traveled to Mars (and subsequently settled and built). There was a significant event, with the Lost colony, running off to the "south" and disappearing until the end of th 3.5, really.

This is a really solid book. Not amazing, not awesome, but in no way did I find it bad.

This novel covers the colonization of Mars, from the first landing, to a couple of waves of settlers after that. The story isn't strictly linear, starting on Mars, and then flashing-back to when the team was chosen, trained, and traveled to Mars (and subsequently settled and built). There was a significant event, with the Lost colony, running off to the "south" and disappearing until the end of the novel. I was disappointed that they didn't cover the colony more, but I think it was just a set up for the sequel anyway.

I thought the Rebellion was interesting, especially how it was compared to rebellions that have taken place on Earth and how the Mars colonists thought they could gain the ends they sought, and I enjoyed the different tactics that various first 100 members used when they were involved with the Rebellion.

I did like the mix of story and technical information on Mars. I don't know why, but I've been reading a lot of novels set on Mars lately and it's been interesting to supplement the (usually pretty correct) details brought up in the books with non-fiction reading and learning.

I feel like there was a little bit of artistic license taken when Robinson found a way to make the first settlers live for a very long time so they could remain in the story over a longer period of time.

The characters were not one note, but they weren't terribly complex either. I didn't like anyone in the book, and I didn't find any of the characters engaging, either. None of the characters drew me in, even when they were engaged in realistic behaviors I find frustrating, I couldn't bring myself to care. Definitely a (slow) plot and politic driven novel vs anything character driven. The story was told through multiple viewpoints and covered everything from scientific disputes, to interpersonal relationships and politics.

So definitely a solid book. I wouldn't recommend it for someone unless they had a thing for Mars, but then again, I'm sure anyone with a thing for Mars would have gotten to this book before asking me anything. ...more

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Sep 23, 2016 Nils rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, weltenfluestern

Ich bin hin und her gerissen: viele sehr trockene Passagen, lange Infodumps und Figuren, zu denen ich keinen Zugang gefunden habe. Aber die Geschichte und die sozialen Dynamiken sind spot-on genau wie der technische und wissenschaftliche Hintergrund. Die Übersetzung ist allerdings wirklich katastrophal...

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Jan 04, 2016 Tatjana rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction-science-fiction

I really wanted to live this book, but maybe I'm not ready for what I can only describe as the politics of scientists. I got halfway through and stopped. Who am I fooling? But if you like David Brin you will likely love this book. God speed, friend. You're a better human than I. ...more

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