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aicilalane 's review for:
Red Mars
by Kim Stanley Robinson
Red Mars is an audacious novel; Kim Stanley Robinson gives a tremendously detailed accounting of the early settlement and terraforming of Mars, followed by the sociopolitical machinations arising from and erasing that short-lived scientific "utopia". This level of detail (in my opinion) is both the best and worst part about Red Mars. A list of tools that a character carries in her tool box was at least half a page, as one example, but it is exactly this attention to the mundane (and almost all other aspects of the story) that makes it feel tangible and serves to give depth to the characters. I enjoyed the detail for the scientific endeavours of Red Mars but felt the same attention to some of the political maneuvering caused the novel to drag.
The story is told chronologically but from the points of view of many different characters with widely divergent personalities, thought processes, technical expertise, experiences... This gives you a more broad view of the events happening on Mars and a set of highly opinionated, sometimes unreliable narrators that encourage you to consider the opposing arguments to issues like terraforming Mars (yes or no? to what degree? what is terraformed "enough"?) or the development of a new Martian society (one amalgamated culture or development of Martian versions of the cultures of the different groups that came to Mars? eco-economics instead of capitalism? how much cooperation/communication with Earth?).
It is a pleasant change in science fiction to have women significantly represented as narrators and as named characters overall, and to not only be represented but to be given depth, to be allowed to have flaws and strengths and mistakes and triumphs.
I would recommend this book to those who like significant portions of a story to be devoted to both world-building and the minutia of that world, and within that group those who think science/engineering/going to &@$#@% MARS is the bee's knees (which is absolutely is). Also, these books go well with the board game Terraforming Mars and vice versa.
The story is told chronologically but from the points of view of many different characters with widely divergent personalities, thought processes, technical expertise, experiences... This gives you a more broad view of the events happening on Mars and a set of highly opinionated, sometimes unreliable narrators that encourage you to consider the opposing arguments to issues like terraforming Mars (yes or no? to what degree? what is terraformed "enough"?) or the development of a new Martian society (one amalgamated culture or development of Martian versions of the cultures of the different groups that came to Mars? eco-economics instead of capitalism? how much cooperation/communication with Earth?).
It is a pleasant change in science fiction to have women significantly represented as narrators and as named characters overall, and to not only be represented but to be given depth, to be allowed to have flaws and strengths and mistakes and triumphs.
I would recommend this book to those who like significant portions of a story to be devoted to both world-building and the minutia of that world, and within that group those who think science/engineering/going to &@$#@% MARS is the bee's knees (which is absolutely is). Also, these books go well with the board game Terraforming Mars and vice versa.