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A review by nickfourtimes
Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
5.0
1) ''The primal planet, in all its sublime glory, red and rust, still as death; dead; altered through the years only by matter's chemical permutations, the immense slow life of geophysics. It was an odd concept---abiologic life---but there it was, if one cared to see it, a kind of living, out there spinning, moving through the stars that burned, moving through the universe in its great systolic/diastolic movement, its one big breath, one might say. Sunset somehow made it easier to see that.''
2) '''My boy,' he said at last, dreamily. The whole city was quiet. Coyote muttered as if falling asleep. 'What does the hero do when the tale is over? Swim over the waterfall. Drift out on the tide.'''
3) '''Do you think this theory will be the end of physics?' he asked.
'Oh no. Although we might work out the fundamentals. You know, the basic laws. That might be possible, sure. But then every level of emergence above that creates its own problems. Taneev's work only scratches the surface there. It's like chess---we might learn all the rules, but still not be able to play very well because of the emergent properties. Like, you know, pieces are stronger if they're out in the center of the board. That's not in the rules, it's a result of all the rules put together.''
4) ''They stood there, looking back at the scattering of low hills that was Underhill.
'And here we are,' Sax said finally.
'Yes. Here we are.'''
2) '''My boy,' he said at last, dreamily. The whole city was quiet. Coyote muttered as if falling asleep. 'What does the hero do when the tale is over? Swim over the waterfall. Drift out on the tide.'''
3) '''Do you think this theory will be the end of physics?' he asked.
'Oh no. Although we might work out the fundamentals. You know, the basic laws. That might be possible, sure. But then every level of emergence above that creates its own problems. Taneev's work only scratches the surface there. It's like chess---we might learn all the rules, but still not be able to play very well because of the emergent properties. Like, you know, pieces are stronger if they're out in the center of the board. That's not in the rules, it's a result of all the rules put together.''
4) ''They stood there, looking back at the scattering of low hills that was Underhill.
'And here we are,' Sax said finally.
'Yes. Here we are.'''