Red Mars (Mars Trilogy)

(This was my favorite book of 2022, a year when I read 100 books!)I read this book because it's the gateway to Green Mars and Blue Mars, both of which are on my to-read list as I work my way through all the novels that have won the Hugo Award. I absolutely loved it! It's much better than some other Hugo winners I've read; 1993 was apparently a competitive year, with two winners ("A Fire Upon the Deep", which I liked, and "Doomsday Book", which I haven't read yet) taking Red Mars' place. I finished this book really excited to continue on to read its Hugo-winning sequels!*BRIEF SYNOPSIS: This book delivers the quintessential sci-fi story that continues to inspire and drive humankind: what will happen when we finally manage to settle on Mars? Set in the mid-2000s (remember that the book was published in 1992), "The First Hundred" scientist colonizers emerge from a rigorous selection process and embark on the year-long voyage to the Red Planet. Comprised of 50 men and 50 women, all of them exceptional in their fields, the crew successfully lands and establishes the first permanent human Martian colony. Rifts among the First Hundred soon emerge as they plot a path forward for the planet, and as more colonists arrive each of the Hundred (now celebrities on both Earth and Mars) acquires more power and influence to push forward their various agendas. Debates rage as some want to gain corporate influence, terraform the planet, preserve Mars' natural environment, secede from Earth, establish independent cities/colonies, etc. These rifts play out over the course of decades as more and more people come to Mars, and the plot eventually culminates in a hugely destructive revolutionary war attempt, with members of The First Hundred in the leadership on both sides.*Top-Notch Tribal (then Global) Politics: While the book's Martian setting and advanced technology inherently tag it as a sci-fi novel, the underlying interpersonal and political dynamics are the beating heart of the story. It is absolutely full of internecine debates on the personal, national, and planetary scale. I knew I was going to love the book from the first chapter, when one of the characters wanders around a Martian bubble city and comments on the disagreements that have sprung up between the city's American and Saudi Arabian residents. Political intrigues on both Earth and Mars define the story, kicking off in the early chapters when readers become aware that The First Hundred were selected to represent specific member states (35 Americans, 35 Russians, and 30 from diverse nations), and that two of the main characters (Frank and Maya) respectively represent these nations.Key debates that define the story include:-The creation of a "Martian Society", including whether or not it should continue to support and rely upon corporate capitalism. It even extends to things like the architecture of Martian buildings!-Whether or not Mars should be terraformed, and how much;-The extent to which the Martian colonists should be beholden to UN directives;-Violent disagreements between North/South nations back on earth, including the preservation of Antarctica and the corporatization of Mars;-And a whole slew of complicated friendships, romantic relationships, and one-on-one personal rivalries between the members of the first hundred, including between Frank and John, between Ann and Sax, and between Arkady and Hiroko and (basically) everyone else.*Excellent Characters: Each section of the novel places a different member of The First Hundred in the first-person narrator role, so we see them play off one another in compelling ways as the story progresses. Each of them are compelling individuals that add critical insights to the unfolding story. I personally enjoyed the bits about Frank's bureaucratic wrangling with earth as the longstanding "Secretary of Mars" for the U.S., Ann's commitment to fighting terraforming efforts, Nadia's mechanical genius, and Arkady's constant societal insights.*Awesome Commentary on Humanity: The story is full of canny insights into mankind's penchant for disagreement and conflict, including/especially in crisis situations. I don't hold with the idea that "conflict forces people to work together" (I think the national and international divisions that emerged over COVID-19 are reflective of that), and Robinson seems to me to make a similar point in Red Mars. (By the way, this is also a key reason why I like Cixin Liu's Three Body Problem so much.)*Fantastic Sci-Fi Moments: The novel's greatest contribution to sci-fi, I think, is in going to such lengths to explore and describe the planet to its readers. We become more and more exposed to the entirety of Mars' surface as the story progresses, and descriptions of its canyons and glaciers and mountains are pretty profound. I loved vicariously exploring our neighbor-planet as the story unfolded. Other notable sci-fi bits included:-The biochemical terraforming of Mars;-"The Immortality Plague": a genetic engineering method that allows the First Hundred to live beyond their natural lifespan (and its attending effects on mankind's problems);-The creation of the Space Elevator (out of an asteroid that they lure into Mars' orbit as a third moon);-The saboteur-driven destruction of Phobos during the revolution.I could (obviously) rant and rave about this novel for a long time, and I'm SO curious to see what happens next. An enthusiastic five stars for great political/interpersonal intrigue and some great sci-fi.

I hate to use a word that seems like a cliché these days, but Red Mars is an epic story.The ideas in Red Mars are big, really big. Should Mars be terraformed so that it be more habitable? Should we leave it alone and frozen in time to be studied? Should the politicians on Earth be the ones to govern and rule settlements on another planet? If given a blank slate what would a new society loo like? What factors would shape it? How will people deal with an influx of new people, new cultures, and new ideas? Robinson tackles these issues by telling the colonization of Mars through several viewpoints from characters that run the full spectrum of ideas and motivations that shine a new and different perspective on the events that are shaping their world; their new Martian society. The personal struggles and political turmoil that comes with building a new world can be a little overly dramatic at times and bog the reader down. In the end though I'm glad that the characters don't take a secondary role and are in fact the main forces shaping Mars for what it will become. Without the diversity of characters and viewpoints this would have been just another fantastical sci-fi romp on another planet. Thankfully it is so much more than that.The real meat of this book, however, are the descriptions of the alien landscape and science behind making Mars a place for human habitation. The descriptions will make you believe that you are seeing the sun setting on the polar dunes and looking down from the rim of Olympus Mons on the planet far below. You can practically hear it when a huge aquifer bursts and floods Valles Marineris with a roiling sea of ice and steaming water. It truly is a magnificent world that Robinson was able to build from the ground up. The technical details of their colonization and terraforming efforts are well thought-out. Full of the small details of geology, physics, genetic engineering, mechanical engineering, ecology, robotics, and spaceflight exhibit the research and our level of knowledge of Mars at the time the book was originally published (1993) that Robinson managed to include not as after thought, but as the main course. The detail wasn't confined to the sciences of terraforming. Robinson isn't afraid to explore the softer sciences of psychology of isolation, the economics of martian derived mining, and the politics of multinational corporations. What was really impressive to me was that Robinson managed to do all this without every talking down to the reader. I appreciate it when an author allows the reader to think with them and not force feed the reader into a particular scenario the author has predetermined is the right course.Red Mars isn’t a perfect book, but there is so much in it that is great, it is certainly worth reading.

This trade paperback set was bought as a replacement set for my slowly disintegrating original "pocket" type paperbacks. The original ones survived at least 3 readings by me and a couple by others.In my opinion, one of Kim Stanley Robinson's best works. I've recommended it to dozens of people over the years because its a really great series that provides a reasonable possibility for the kinds of problems that would be encountered over decades of the colonization and eventual terraforming of Mars. Science, politics and human behavior combine to make a great story. I highly recommend giving it a read.

This is the first book in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series (sequels are Green Mars and Blue Mars). This was my book club's selection for a classic sci-fi month and I'd say it definitely met the requirements. Red Mars falls into the hard sci-fi mold with some portions of the book having big science info dumps as well as some interesting speculation about water content/aquifers, geography and shaping forces, dust storms, etc. on Mars and various engineering problems and ways to solve them.The premise of Red Mars is something you could probably guess from the title. Earth is growing ever more over-crowded and resources are nearing their finite limits, so humanity begins serious scientific exploration of Mars and sends 100 scientists there to establish a base and then more and more colonists. And the story develops from there, in somewhat unexpected ways.The first part of the book opens with scenes that will tie in much, much later in the narrative and were interesting to go back and skim through after finishing the book. When the scene opens, you're at the opening celebration of a newly constructed city on Mars and there are already many other settlements on Mars, as well as all the political and religious disagreements from Earth now carried on to Mars. From there, the scene cuts back to a more chronological development, starting with the voyage of the first 100 scientists in the expedition heading to Mars.Red Mars tackled a lot of non-science issues that would be attendant on settling Mars and mirror some of our current world debates. Politics, control of resources, environmental concerns v. progression, what is progression v. exploitation of resources, and the predictable and unpredictable nature of people and the results of actions they can take out of anger/protest/feelings of lack of control. I will say that's one of the things I really like about classic sci-fi is that there's philosophy and politics all wrapped up as part of the story because it's part of the overall picture of speculative futures.For all that, as a novel, I had a hard time relating to many of the characters and part of that may have been the nature of the two most prevalent POV characters. For the most part we're seeing out of the eyes of two white males, which is not a hard perspective to find in classic sci-fi. One of the things I struggle with in classic sci-fi is that it was more about the presentation of ideas than the writing of good characters or plot. I think this book fell into that same trap. There are a lot of interesting things going on and ideas to chew on, but no sympathetic characters to engage with, at least for me. For that reason it's a 3 star book for me and I likely won't pursue the sequels. Still, I'm happy I read it.

Possibly the best of the trilogy, which is the best concerted effort to write about the settlement of Mars. Far better than Ben Bova's trilogy. But by the 2020s it's very archaic, especially the politics. Still eminently readable.For a good companion, read The Colonisation of Mars by Larry Richardson, which holds up far better over 15 years later.Also, the Kindle version of Red Mars has missing words and misspellings, though not outright typos.

I read this book years ago and forgot a lot of it but wrote down I liked the book. Years later I bought it and read it again.Arther C Clarke the late brilliant futurist visionary and Sci Fi genius wrote Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson is the best Sci Fi book written on Mars colonization. He should know read his Garden of Mars on Mars Terra Forming.Kim Stanley Robinson is fantastic with character development, character talking and interaction. We see the gigantic ship Ares going to Mars with the first hundred colonists and experiencing a potential deadly solar flare/radiation. Later we see the landing and also part of the crew transforming the moon Phobos into a Mars shuttle/spaceport. Later we see the colonists teaming up and having romantic/sexual relations. Later large buildings,roads and all the infrastructure are put in as well as exploring the different areas of Mars. Later against some of the colonists wishes Terran Forming starts and picks up speed. Then there is a revolution against Earth control...thousands killed on Mars. Phobos crashes into Mars. The "elevator" to asteroid Clarke crashes back into Mars (kind of far fetched for me.) First man on Mars assassinated. DNA repair treatment started on Mars. Man may live to a thousand years.... maybe. Nuclear reactors sabotaged and melt downs causing gigantic floods from underground aquifers. Atmosphere getting denser and warmer...slightly. Incredible action and fast paced. A fantastic brilliant book.Only part that slowed down the book and for me detracted from the book was the small part when Kim Robinson gets carried away explaining a Mars shrink theory and plans of social interaction. I wasn't interest in the diagrams or the logic of it. To me it temporarily slowed down the book, but after getting through this the book was great again. The "elevator" from Mars to asteroid Clarke was too improbable to me.I give Red Mars a 4 1/2 stars rating because of the Mars shrink slow down and the too improbable "elevator" to asteroid Clarke but will post a 5 star as the rest of the book was spectacular. I liked the book so much I bought Green Mars and Blue Mars in the same trilogy. Kim Stanley Robinson sure can write. Great Book. If you are interested in Mars colonization and Mars Terra Forming this IS the ultimate classic book for you.

I thought RED MARS was a sensational read, stimulating, imaginative, rigorous, intelligent and sophisticated in applying contemporary science and politics to a story about the future colonization and ‘terraforming’ of the ‘red planet.’So enthusiastic am I, that I am dismayed by some of the negative notices on the first pages of this review section. I can only assume that readers who were disappointed expected something more on the order of a space opera like “Star Wars,” with it’s black hats and white hats and Ming the Merciless-style villains. I can appreciate a good space opera, it’s an old and loved SF staple, and I spent the early part of Covid lockdown compulsively reading through the eight part The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey, the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (the ninth and last book is due out in 2021, and it’s a TV series carried on Amazon Prime. The rights to dramatize Robinson’s MARS trilogy are apparently held by Spike TV). The Expanse is a space opera full of plot, violence, action, drama and incident. It’s an engine in full throttle that rarely lets up and it’s wonderful escapist reading. And I recommend it to those readers who have trashed the Mars Trilogy. It may be more like what you expected.RED MARS has all those things and much more, but done in an entirely different style. Kim Stanley Robinson is a writer of elegance, restraint, and cool observation and his vision of the colonization of Mars feels meticulous, realistic and credible, which is no easy achievement. It’s not an entertainment machine, it’s a means of thinking about the political, scientific and philosophical ramifications of space travel. He takes the crosscurrents of nationalism and volatile politics and extrapolates what those could mean to a space colonization of Mars. His vision is thoroughly believable, which is all the more remarkable since it was written during the elder Bush administration. This is not a dull book. It is full of varied characters, passion, action and violence. There is plenty of story and plot. There is also a sense of the awe-inspiring grandeur of an alien world and the deep fervor it inspires in its colonists.It is cerebral, so be prepared for a rigorous (not passively languorous) book that makes demands on readers. If traveling down various byways of science isn’t for you, stay away from RED MARS rather than criticizing a genuine achievement that happens not to be your style

I'll not mince words: Kim Robinson's books can be long slogs through dry, technical material. It's his writing style, detailed and full of depth. That's not going to fly with some people. Sometimes, even if you love it, you'll have to put the book down and walk away for awhile. But the Mars series is so powerful, so well done, and so relevant that I would classify it as one of the 'important' works that everyone needs to read.But these books have rich, complex characters who remind me of the people I've met throughout my career in science and business. They have full histories and their interactions are complex and always-evolving. The series follows the same characters over hundreds of years (their lives are extended through science!) and thus allows the reader to follow the colonization and terraforming efforts on Mars over a long course of time. The first settlers, who are our viewpoint characters, have children and fight and die and exist in a greater context of cultural tides that ebb and flow and affect how they think. You, the reader, experience these changes along with them, feeling their sorrows and their triumphs.It's a difficult journey. It feels tedious at times. But it is exceptionally realistic and well-researched. If people were to go to Mars in the next two decades, to settle there, this could be a lot of what it would look like. And interestingly, many of the cultural undercurrents are very relevant to the political discussions going on lately about just how much power and influence corporations ought to have. It's worth reading for that, if you feel you can handle the bits where Robinson waxes poetic about katabatic winds and Martian geography.Red Mars itself focuses on the initial colonization, and how the first decisions made by the settlers can have effects that last hundreds of years. It's a complicated book, full of engineering, politics, and change. I hope you enjoy it.

Amazing level of details from so many different aspects, I love it. It make me stop and wonder sometimes. Definitely worth reading.

Let's face it, we read and read and read, but most books we forget in a week or two. Not here. This is SciFi of the grant format. Characters with depth placed in a situation and timespan that gives them breathing room. And Kim Stanley Robinson is a very gifted writer, evident in his other works (2312 is another joy to read). In any genre his books would be hits. There is simply that raw talent to create sagas and tell them in a manner that capture the reader. I raced through this book and went directly to Green Mars.The story shows many parallels to our current world crisis in that prophetic manner only SciFi can offer. Essentially we are dealing with the struggle of greed against human needs through the paradigm shift of power from governments to international industry and the prize is a planet. What makes the story so wonderful to read is the detailed understanding of the environments Robinson's 100 pioneers need to come to terms with.

Gostei bastante da forma como a trama se desenrola e as características de cada personagem aparecem e evoluem ao longo da estória. Nos faz nos empolgarmos como o desfecho que dos dramas individuais de cada personagem e nos deixa com vontade de continuar lendo para sabermos mais.A forma de exploração e assentamento em Marte é bem plausível assim como as questões éticas a cerca da terraformação do planeta. O livro foi escrito há bastante tempo e embora a ciência tenha avançado bastante em alguns temas em relação à data de publicação, o livro continua atual.

There are lots of stories of meetings with strange alien creatures, and battles in space, etc.This is not one of those books.Red mars reads like high grade historic fiction, about the future.The Book is strongly character driven, and manages to surprise without ever feeling planned or contrived. The descriptions are often long and heavy on science, so if you are hoping for a light read with action scenes etc try somewher else. If you are looking for a book that weaves togeather the lives of dozens of distinct and memorable characters, showing both their strengths and weaknesses and how the two are one and the same, with an accurate depiction of physics, history, biology and trust, then this is a book worth reading.I swear the author must have had at least a dozen PhD's to write this thing.

La verdad es uno de los libros más aburridos que he leído, esperaba mucho y no lo recibí, además esta muy largo.