Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by jwordsmith
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
3.0
My three-star rating is not an objective judgment of the book’s quality—it’s an important entry in the “let’s all go to Mars” genre, hard science-fiction, meticulously researched and given to characters to play with—but an subjective response to how much fun I had reading it.
I didn’t.
This was my second attempt and I stuck with it this time, switching between the paperback and the audio book (which also gets three stars. It’s an ok performance, but this guy’s not going on my list of my fave narrators).
The problem I had with this book is something I often have with hard sci-fi(and this author) which is that I don’t like or care about the characters. Sometimes the story and the science pull me along enough to shrug that off, but this one was a slog.
There was only one character that I felt had any interior life (Nadia) and one other character who was quite appealing but we didn’t get to spend much time with that one. All the other POV characters were strangely flat and largely unlikable. I never knew what they felt or what they were really trying to do, what they really wanted. Maybe it was meant as a comment on how we contain multitudes, but it didn’t work for me.
This was written in the early 1990s and to be fair, hard science-fiction fans weren’t clamoring for complex inner lives in their characters back then. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by the more recent trend to include fuller characters.
Anyhoo, I found this a slog. And I hated Part 6 with a passion that made me listen to it on 1.5 speed (something I never do with fiction) just to get through it. Yes, humans can be awful in a personal and societal level, and maybe I’m just not in the mood for wallowing in that, here in 2024, which has its own terrifying problems.
Sometimes I really like Kim Stanley Robinson’s books and sometimes they are a complete “miss” for me. (New York 2140? Fascinating romp; Ministry of the Future? Dull lecture notes, DNF; The Wild Shore? Couldn’t put it down; The Gold Coast? Couldn’t bring myself to finish.)
Having said ALL that…I started Green Mars straight away because I’m curious about what happens next.
So clearly, on many levels this book worked for me. And I wished I had cared more about some (any) of the characters. Let’s see what Book 2 brings…
I didn’t.
This was my second attempt and I stuck with it this time, switching between the paperback and the audio book (which also gets three stars. It’s an ok performance, but this guy’s not going on my list of my fave narrators).
The problem I had with this book is something I often have with hard sci-fi(and this author) which is that I don’t like or care about the characters. Sometimes the story and the science pull me along enough to shrug that off, but this one was a slog.
There was only one character that I felt had any interior life (Nadia) and one other character who was quite appealing but we didn’t get to spend much time with that one. All the other POV characters were strangely flat and largely unlikable. I never knew what they felt or what they were really trying to do, what they really wanted. Maybe it was meant as a comment on how we contain multitudes, but it didn’t work for me.
This was written in the early 1990s and to be fair, hard science-fiction fans weren’t clamoring for complex inner lives in their characters back then. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by the more recent trend to include fuller characters.
Anyhoo, I found this a slog. And I hated Part 6 with a passion that made me listen to it on 1.5 speed (something I never do with fiction) just to get through it. Yes, humans can be awful in a personal and societal level, and maybe I’m just not in the mood for wallowing in that, here in 2024, which has its own terrifying problems.
Sometimes I really like Kim Stanley Robinson’s books and sometimes they are a complete “miss” for me. (New York 2140? Fascinating romp; Ministry of the Future? Dull lecture notes, DNF; The Wild Shore? Couldn’t put it down; The Gold Coast? Couldn’t bring myself to finish.)
Having said ALL that…I started Green Mars straight away because I’m curious about what happens next.
So clearly, on many levels this book worked for me. And I wished I had cared more about some (any) of the characters. Let’s see what Book 2 brings…