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cjblandford 's review for:
Red Mars
by Kim Stanley Robinson
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a hard book to review. Its probably also a hard book to recommend, and can certainly be hard to read at times. A local science fiction book club is reading this right now (in fact, we're meeting later this day to discuss it), and I know many members have been struggling with it. The beginning of the book is very dry, with much of the focus on the environment and science of Mars, with large aspects devoted to construction techniques, geographical descriptions, politics, and interpersonal dramas. The plot reveals itself at a glacial pace, and its really not a plot at all. Its more like a legend, a saga; we're living almost the whole lives of some of these characters and witnessing the transformation of a whole planet. If you have patience, this book is sooo rewarding. There are some truly amazing scenes here, especially in the second half of the book. I have a soft spot for Arkady and love his philosophizing and haranguing of the first 100. As leftist fiction, its an interesting experiment as well. When this was written in 1992/93, the global landscape looked very different. In fact, much of this, in a similar vein as the Green Earth trilogy, is aspirational. For me, it is like a time capsule. A vision of what the future could have been if we still believed in education, science, and progress. With a statement like that, you would think that there wasn't much political turmoil or even violence in this book, and that is quite wrong. Its just that KSR didn't predict the same kind of political turmoil. Mars represents a new start, a way to shed the systems and mindsets that are almost fixed in place on Earth, and shape a different system on a different world, right from the start. But its not easy, there is revolution, there is destruction, there is death, and with all of that the crushing weight of ennui and meaninglessness that can accompany those things. In many ways, the message is similar to that of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower; change is the only constant. Trying to hold onto the past will only bring suffering. At least, that's what I took from it. And its ironic too, because now the characters are living much longer lives, so they are able to witness huge, cataclysmic changes that once they thought only future generations would see. Because it was written in 1992, many parts of this feel dated. It is a very white-person focused book. We have one Asian woman that is explicitly mentioned, and of course she exhibits almost mystical characteristics. There are very few other people of color throughout the whole thing. Instead of a joint effort between the USA/Russia, if this were written within the last 15 years, it would likely have been a joint effort between the US/China/Japan/India. So, be aware of the biases that existed when this book was written. But I still love it. Much of it is a love letter to Mars itself, but its also a vision of a future where a whole new society can be created, a new economic system, and new social system...Its full of big ideas, and those to me, are this book's biggest strengths.