Red Mars Book Review

Genre: Sci-fi

Author: Kim Stanely Robinson

Plot:

    Ever been to a truly spectacular party? One with people of all backgrounds, free flowing drinks, fascinating talk...and murder? Ever been to that party on Mars? Red Mars opens with just that sort of party in a newly inaugurated Martian bubble city. Daniel Boone, the first man to step on Mars decades earlier, and his assassin both lie dead by its end...

    Confused? No worries, the books whirls back in time to follow the adventures of the First Hundred (and one?) who build the first Martian colony. Told from the perspective of a different person of the First Hundred every chapter, the story begins with an ex-construction worker miracle worker named Nadia from Siberia. Her engineering skills on the cold, cold Martian surface help the First Hundred build their first colony Underhill (it's underground you see). The story is much more than that of colonization though - spanning decades in time, Mars becomes crowded with colonists and laborers, a new wild west where great profits can be made and murder overlooked...

Opinion:

    The heavy emphasis on technology and science in the first part of Red Mars captured my imagination - how exactly would you build a colony on Mars? As an enormous fan of the Swiss Family Robinson scenario, the attention paid to construction and survival in Red Mars makes it one of my favorites. However, I ended up liking Red Mars for an additional and unanticipated reason: the fascinating politics. Politics between individual people and also politics between factions and inevitably interworld politics. Oh, and the plot itself is an intense drama. Ever see Battlestar Galactica? That kind of intense. As Red Mars is the first in a trilogy, I have been sold on reading the next book.

Who would like it:

    People who really like thinking about the unique technical challenges of building on another planet and whom are interested in the unusual politics. If you like intense and very personal dramas then Red Mars is also right up your alley...

Buy:

Amazon Kindle
Amazon Paperback