Mass Market Paperback, 592 pages
English language
Published Sept. 30, 1993 by Spectra.
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 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 …
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 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.
С одной стороны, твердая НФ, по-настоящему научная. С другой — левацкая агитка, приправленная беспорядочными связями. Лучше бы автор оставил свои политические и сексуальные предпочтения при себе.
This story is part murder mystery, part climate debate, part travelogue, and part hard sci-fi textbook. Told from the perspective of several characters, there is no "main" character, and the first two-thirds of the book are an extended flashback. Clearly the first of a series, it was good but not great.
There is really no mystery to the murder, and this event that leads off the story is more McGuffin than main thread. The extended flashback then covers the journey and early colonization of the red planet. What throws me here is the debate about terraforming - did these colonists have no plan or mandate beforehand? Most are scientists, but they seem to have few goals also. At times, this book feels like scattering 100 random people on a playground to watch what happens.
When the plot returns to the present day, we find out that trouble is brewing, and …
This story is part murder mystery, part climate debate, part travelogue, and part hard sci-fi textbook. Told from the perspective of several characters, there is no "main" character, and the first two-thirds of the book are an extended flashback. Clearly the first of a series, it was good but not great.
There is really no mystery to the murder, and this event that leads off the story is more McGuffin than main thread. The extended flashback then covers the journey and early colonization of the red planet. What throws me here is the debate about terraforming - did these colonists have no plan or mandate beforehand? Most are scientists, but they seem to have few goals also. At times, this book feels like scattering 100 random people on a playground to watch what happens.
When the plot returns to the present day, we find out that trouble is brewing, and shortly after, all hell breaks loose on Mars and also on Earth. This is fine, and drives the story forward nicely. My only complaint after that is the ending, which resolves little and leads to the next book.
So what was good? The several main characters are detailed and grow through the story. Robinson handles their very different motivations well. Okay, at times the drama went a little too far, but overall these are all different people, and not caricatures. Books that are similar to portions of this novel include The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, The Fountains of Paradise, and even The Martian by Andy Weir.
I read this for a 90s science fiction challenge, reading one book per year of that decade. This Nebula winner is very much a defining book for that decade, and the next year brings the sequel, Green Mars. To me, this means Robinson had both books pretty much ready to go. Readers on goodreads rated the third book the best, so I will probably read the whole series.
