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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
I loved this in its day, but it feels very dated now.
Red Mars gives you a view of the scientific, engineering, psychological, and political struggles that will occur with the eventual colonization of Mars. Told from the POV of several characters from the original one hundred over the course of several decades. 4.5 stars for sure.
There are some unnecessary love triangles and some hand waving of science&engineering, but all in all, an engrossing book that is sadly pretty realistic of what may occur.
There are some unnecessary love triangles and some hand waving of science&engineering, but all in all, an engrossing book that is sadly pretty realistic of what may occur.
After not having read any science fiction in a while, it was nice to come back to a book that was heavier science than fiction. But it was long and the pacing was a little off for me. I had to push through a couple times, but overall considering how much closer Mars is getting, it was a good time to read it.
A lot of this was kind of boring, so the ending snuck up on me. I had a hard time connecting to most of the characters until the very end of the book, when things ramped up considerably, and this became a much more enjoyable book. The last 100 pages bumped this book up a star and convinced me to start reading the next book immediately and maybe keep my momentum going.
This is a frustrating chimera. A 5 star book and a 2 star book occupying the same space at the same time.
The good: On the one hand, it's an uncompromisingly hard sci-fi examination of the colonizing of Mars. Much time is spent on by how many milibars of pressure each human intervention could raise the atmospheric pressure. Likewise a lot of consideration is given to the psychology and sociology of founding a new civilization. This is the content I was craving in a "The Martian but smarter" or "a more detailed prequel to the Expanse".
Now the bad: In spite the ambitious, decades spanning scope, it's a sparsely populated novel. Of 100 original colonists, only about 10 get names and roles in the story, and of those, I could only describe the personalities of 5..or fewer, depending on the situation. Characters lack consistent depth and instead serve more as avatars of colonization challenges (one scientist is relentlessly pro terraforming, another is dogmatically opposed. Nothing in their inner lives is revealed to explain these positions; they just exist because these are issues worth talking about in a Martian colonization novel). More frustrating, even once you accept these characters-as-issues, the relevant conflicting characters rarely get time together to resolve issues. There are way too many pages devoted to characters traveling Mars and describing scenery, even during the climax.
In summary, there is an exciting and awe-inspiring Martian novel in here, but also a dull sightseeing affair with paper thin cutouts. Maybe the sequels improve upon the latter, but I don't find myself compelled to find out.
The good: On the one hand, it's an uncompromisingly hard sci-fi examination of the colonizing of Mars. Much time is spent on by how many milibars of pressure each human intervention could raise the atmospheric pressure. Likewise a lot of consideration is given to the psychology and sociology of founding a new civilization. This is the content I was craving in a "The Martian but smarter" or "a more detailed prequel to the Expanse".
Now the bad: In spite the ambitious, decades spanning scope, it's a sparsely populated novel. Of 100 original colonists, only about 10 get names and roles in the story, and of those, I could only describe the personalities of 5..or fewer, depending on the situation. Characters lack consistent depth and instead serve more as avatars of colonization challenges (one scientist is relentlessly pro terraforming, another is dogmatically opposed. Nothing in their inner lives is revealed to explain these positions; they just exist because these are issues worth talking about in a Martian colonization novel). More frustrating, even once you accept these characters-as-issues, the relevant conflicting characters rarely get time together to resolve issues. There are way too many pages devoted to characters traveling Mars and describing scenery, even during the climax.
In summary, there is an exciting and awe-inspiring Martian novel in here, but also a dull sightseeing affair with paper thin cutouts. Maybe the sequels improve upon the latter, but I don't find myself compelled to find out.
There were times when I got a bit confused in the complexity of this book, especially when it came to places, but that didn’t keep me from being completed sucked into the story. As soon as I finished I put the next book in the trilogy on hold.
My goodness it has been far too long since I read some proper hard SF. I devoured this over the course of about a day, and it was awesome. Red Mars is excellently written and has some really cool ideas - it's one of those books where you can't help but think of it as history that just hasn't happened yet rather than fiction.
Also, it's the first really creative use of multiple narrators I've seen. Sure A Song of Ice and Fire does it, but switching between members of the First Hundred to show, like, the engineer's perspective and the psychologist's perspective and the politician's perspective and having them actually be different and be substantial stories and interesting characters in their own right... that's the way to do switching perspectives.
Props to Hank Green from Scishow for putting me on to this one... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnklvCDpJ0M
Also, it's the first really creative use of multiple narrators I've seen. Sure A Song of Ice and Fire does it, but switching between members of the First Hundred to show, like, the engineer's perspective and the psychologist's perspective and the politician's perspective and having them actually be different and be substantial stories and interesting characters in their own right... that's the way to do switching perspectives.
Spoiler
And did I mention it's really really great writing? You just can't help feeling this slow sadness as all these ideals which the First Hundred bring to Mars slowly get eroded away by profiteering. My goodness.Props to Hank Green from Scishow for putting me on to this one... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnklvCDpJ0M
What's up with the botched Russian patronymics and surnames? Considering the amount of research that went into the book, shouldn't he have at least checked how those worked before making them up?
That's however not the reason for only two stars. The science was interesting. But with such unlikable characters the book was a torture from beginning to end.
That's however not the reason for only two stars. The science was interesting. But with such unlikable characters the book was a torture from beginning to end.
This was a really different read for me and I really enjoyed it. It took a long time to get through simply because there's a lot of information and there's so much going on. Reading about the scientific, political and moral issues surrounding the terraforming of Mars was so interesting and if you're at all interested in that then this is the book for you.
adventurous
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No