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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
Great work of sci-fi. I enjoyed the narrative and the uniqueness of the story line(s) and will likely continue to read the trilogy. My only frustration with the story was the seemingly un-ending list of place names, which I understand are real geographical place names, but it was hard to follow and recall the significance of each place in the story line. I struggled to believe that the terraforming of Mars could occur so quickly; I suppose it was greatly aided with the help of robots, but this angle was not explored in much detail.
I loved some parts of this book, and admire the enormous scale of time and space it takes place in.
My favourite parts focused on the building and terraforming that was taking place, and following the smaller groups as part of their adventures. Much of the book was taken up with political manipulations and that left me feeling confused. Robinson seems to know a lot about the wide variety and history of political structures around the world, and it would have been nice if he could have explained them more thoroughly, instead of showing off his knowledge while leaving the naive no better off.
I do plan to read the rest of the series, but I need a break in between.
My favourite parts focused on the building and terraforming that was taking place, and following the smaller groups as part of their adventures. Much of the book was taken up with political manipulations and that left me feeling confused. Robinson seems to know a lot about the wide variety and history of political structures around the world, and it would have been nice if he could have explained them more thoroughly, instead of showing off his knowledge while leaving the naive no better off.
I do plan to read the rest of the series, but I need a break in between.
Second read, still 3 stars.
The idea of writing a book about the successful settlement and colonization of Mars is obviously a daunting one.
In this book, there are really three narratives going on. You have the actual Mars settlement narrative. The one with all the science and challenges. This is by far the most interesting one.
Then you have the political aspect. Turns out colonizing Mars is messy and everyone has different opinions about how this should go. You have competing personal, social, cultural, corporate, and religious interests. This is also interesting, and actually elevates the settlement aspect.
Then there's the personal narrative. The relationships, friendships, cliques, and all that. And this, this is where I space out. Maia for example, features prominently in the book. She is at the top of this love triangle between the two main male protagonists: Frank and John. This love triangle and the relationships therein monopolize great swaths of the book. I was thinking this morning of how you could easily remove all this content, and the book would be better for it. You literally wouldn't miss a thing. You could simply say, Frank and Maia had an affair and then she got together with John, and there was jealousy and hurt feelings, and as a result, some bad things happen. I don't need to know the daily ins and outs of their relationship though. It's just filler; what seems like 100s of pages of it.
So, three stars. Because in this book there is actually a 4 or 4.5 star book, but the hell if I can give it that rating because of the love triangle. I mean, even a huge part of Nadia's story is occupied by Maia being difficult and emotional.
If you can't write relationships and not make the characters seem like whinging, sad little babies, then maybe just gloss over them.
The idea of writing a book about the successful settlement and colonization of Mars is obviously a daunting one.
In this book, there are really three narratives going on. You have the actual Mars settlement narrative. The one with all the science and challenges. This is by far the most interesting one.
Then you have the political aspect. Turns out colonizing Mars is messy and everyone has different opinions about how this should go. You have competing personal, social, cultural, corporate, and religious interests. This is also interesting, and actually elevates the settlement aspect.
Then there's the personal narrative. The relationships, friendships, cliques, and all that. And this, this is where I space out. Maia for example, features prominently in the book. She is at the top of this love triangle between the two main male protagonists: Frank and John. This love triangle and the relationships therein monopolize great swaths of the book. I was thinking this morning of how you could easily remove all this content, and the book would be better for it. You literally wouldn't miss a thing. You could simply say, Frank and Maia had an affair and then she got together with John, and there was jealousy and hurt feelings, and as a result, some bad things happen. I don't need to know the daily ins and outs of their relationship though. It's just filler; what seems like 100s of pages of it.
So, three stars. Because in this book there is actually a 4 or 4.5 star book, but the hell if I can give it that rating because of the love triangle. I mean, even a huge part of Nadia's story is occupied by Maia being difficult and emotional.
If you can't write relationships and not make the characters seem like whinging, sad little babies, then maybe just gloss over them.
I would not recommend this book to most people. After a while it was background noise, every once in a while something happened causing me to re-engage. Like others have pointed out there is so much detail. I was wondering if the author had hopes of turning the book into a movie, given the amount of detail. I suspect the author has a deep interest in structural engineering or geology. Sentence after sentence about the look and feel of Mars. To me most of the content was oriented towards the external and very little was oriented towards the internal. Meaning the emotion metric was very low. If you weren't paying attention you might miss two characters getting lost in a sand storm, making love and contemplating their chances to stay alive. The proportion of dialogue between characters to an individual character’s internal thoughts was unbalanced. There was some drama and no sense of humor.
Once in a while I heard something interesting causing me to consider the next book. Perhaps this book is best enjoyed in a physical form and not via audiobook. Maybe after I retire I will try again reading the text format.
Once in a while I heard something interesting causing me to consider the next book. Perhaps this book is best enjoyed in a physical form and not via audiobook. Maybe after I retire I will try again reading the text format.
My first time reading this series and, wow, it was so good. Bold font much deserved.
I loved all the infuriating characters and their single-minded passions. Nadia in particular was my favourite: middle-aged, practical, competent, but capable of losing her shit in ways no one could have predicted.
The story reminds me of all the things I loved so much about [b:Seveneves|22816087|Seveneves|Neal Stephenson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1449142000l/22816087._SY75_.jpg|42299347] by [a:Neal Stephenson|545|Neal Stephenson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1430920344p2/545.jpg], and these are the things that sometimes drive other readers crazy. The science may be rational, but the people not so much. The human side of the drive for exploration and discovery can't ever be forgotten: the excitement, the emotions, the political wrangling. This is what moves things forward, but is also at the root of the most destructive of actions.
Have we ever been so free of choices? The past is wiped out, all that matters is now. The present and the future...And, you know, you never really summon all of your strength until you know that there's no way back, no way to go but onward."
I loved all the infuriating characters and their single-minded passions. Nadia in particular was my favourite: middle-aged, practical, competent, but capable of losing her shit in ways no one could have predicted.
The story reminds me of all the things I loved so much about [b:Seveneves|22816087|Seveneves|Neal Stephenson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1449142000l/22816087._SY75_.jpg|42299347] by [a:Neal Stephenson|545|Neal Stephenson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1430920344p2/545.jpg], and these are the things that sometimes drive other readers crazy. The science may be rational, but the people not so much. The human side of the drive for exploration and discovery can't ever be forgotten: the excitement, the emotions, the political wrangling. This is what moves things forward, but is also at the root of the most destructive of actions.
Have we ever been so free of choices? The past is wiped out, all that matters is now. The present and the future...And, you know, you never really summon all of your strength until you know that there's no way back, no way to go but onward."
I was VERY disappointed in this book. It seems that Robinson had some bits of knowledge in his head that he wanted to get out, and in doing so, lost the structure and meaning of the book. Some faults:
- The science, while in places was outstanding, was conveniently forgotten in places. Worse than that, the engineering knowledge was non-existent or poor, which jarred against the very detailed technical scientific explanations. There were tent cities made out of a clear plastic that could be cut by a knife, yet these things NEVER tore, except when convenient to the author. The structures and cities involved were poorly designed and just did not make sense most of the time. Why build a city with huge transparent windows when 15 pages ago, you mentioned how deadly the radiation was??? Ugh.
- I didn't care for most of the characters. They were either boring, or 2 dimensional, or were telling a story I didn't give a crap about. The only memorable section for me was the "John" section, where there was a real story with real plot development. Other sections were SO focused on theoretical science, theoretical politics, and (bad) theoretical engineering that it was tedious.
- HUGE stretches of book with little to no dialog. Again, there was so much focus on the stuff above, it left little interaction between characters. Some people say Mars was the biggest character in the book, but it was just a sandbox for Robinson to play around in.
- The science, while in places was outstanding, was conveniently forgotten in places. Worse than that, the engineering knowledge was non-existent or poor, which jarred against the very detailed technical scientific explanations. There were tent cities made out of a clear plastic that could be cut by a knife, yet these things NEVER tore, except when convenient to the author. The structures and cities involved were poorly designed and just did not make sense most of the time. Why build a city with huge transparent windows when 15 pages ago, you mentioned how deadly the radiation was??? Ugh.
- I didn't care for most of the characters. They were either boring, or 2 dimensional, or were telling a story I didn't give a crap about. The only memorable section for me was the "John" section, where there was a real story with real plot development. Other sections were SO focused on theoretical science, theoretical politics, and (bad) theoretical engineering that it was tedious.
- HUGE stretches of book with little to no dialog. Again, there was so much focus on the stuff above, it left little interaction between characters. Some people say Mars was the biggest character in the book, but it was just a sandbox for Robinson to play around in.
I'm rounding up my 3.5 to a 4, because I think this is definitely better than a three star read for me.
While it was hard to get into initially, I really enjoyed the amount of time spent with each of the narrators, and I thought that the political aspects of the book were pretty interesting. The reason I didn't rate this book higher is because, although I enjoyed my time with it, the characters started to feel flat midway through the book.
Oh, also, my favorite bit was how the planet Mars felt like a character. It's strange, but I felt connected it throughout the book in a way that I don't normally feel connected to settings.
While it was hard to get into initially, I really enjoyed the amount of time spent with each of the narrators, and I thought that the political aspects of the book were pretty interesting. The reason I didn't rate this book higher is because, although I enjoyed my time with it, the characters started to feel flat midway through the book.
Oh, also, my favorite bit was how the planet Mars felt like a character. It's strange, but I felt connected it throughout the book in a way that I don't normally feel connected to settings.
adventurous
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Loved this series.
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated