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.