Customer Reviews

Blue Mars

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1 star:		(15)

 

 

One of the most impressive ongoing hard science fiction epics of recent years is Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. Red Mars won the Nebula award, Green Mars and Blue Mars each won the Hugo.

Robinson has tried to portray, in considerable detail, the story of the colonization and terraforming of Mars, beginning in 2027 and continuing for some 200 years. He has worked hard to get the science right, and to this reader, it is very real-seeming, impressive and interesting. It must be admitted, though, that he made some errors. Robinson himself has admitted to fudging the time scale of terraformation (compressing maybe 1000 years of likely effort to 200 years) in order to keep the story at a human scale. In addition there were certain annoying thermodynamic errors, and some aerodynamic silliness. I also took issue with his large reliance on nearly autonomous machines; and with the somewhat handwaving and near-miraculous introduction of radical life-extension technology (this last being in part another strategy to keep the story "human-scale", as it allows him to have some characters survive the entire trilogy).)

Red Mars told the story of the initial colonization of Mars, first by the "First Hundred", a joint Russian-American expedition, then by Earth-dominated, mostly corporate-controlled colonists who followed to build on the efforts of the "First Hundred". It ended with an unsuccessful revolution against Earth's domination of Mars. The Red in its title referred to the pristine, unmodified, planet. Green Mars advanced the story of Mars' colonization, introducing many second- and third-generation characters, and ended in a generally successful revolution which established Martian independence. The Green of the title refers to the greening effects of terraformation.

The action of the book, like that of the first two, is presented in a series of novella-length parts, each somewhat independent, each from the viewpoint of a different character. Many of the First Hundred return in this book as viewpoint characters of sections, as well as some of the later generation members introduced in Green Mars, and at least one new, significant, character for this book. To me, Robinson's best work has always been at novella length, so this plays to his strengths. (For example, my favorite Mars story, not part of the official Mars trilogy, is "Green Mars", collected in The Martians.) The linked-novella form also allows significant jumps in time, important in a story which takes place over such a long time (about a century for Blue Mars, I believe). A negative effect of this structure is a certain slackening in the overall story: as I have said, Blue Mars seems mainly to be about the rapprochement of Red and Green (quite movingly symbolized on a personal level by several segments which deal with the personal rapprochement of long-time "enemies" Ann Clayborne, the leading Red, and Sax Russell, the first terraformer); but in addition it is concerned with rounding out the overall story of the colonization of Mars, and for Robinson this means considering the future of the rest of the solar system as well. Thus Blue Mars has sections set on Earth, on Mercury, and in the moons of Uranus, as well as visits to Venus, the asteroids, and the others of the Outer Planets. These sections are quite interesting, but also seem to result in a certain dilution of the overall effect.

Besides his interest in the "hard" sciences as played out in the gut-level details of the exploration and terraforming of Mars, Robinson is very interested in "softer" sciences, and much of the trilogy is concerned with politics. I found the discussions of politics quite interesting, though a bit biased (but generally a pretty fair attempt is made to show most sides of the various issues). There is not one but two extended descriptions of "constitutional conventions". Robinson also takes on the sociological effects of life-extension: and here he seems a little less sound. He tries to depict the effects of great age on people, and makes some good points, but is not quite convincing. More tellingly, I think he severely underplays the negative population effects of life-extension. Robinson is, it seems to me, an Utopian at heart, and he is a little too sanguine about people almost automatically adopting (solar-system-wide) policies such as one child per couple.

Blue Mars, by itself, is a pretty successful trilogy closer, but not quite successful as a novel. I still rank Red Mars as the best novel of the series: it had a more coherent structure, was set over a shorter time-period, and featured my favorite writing of the series: the ecstatic novella "Falling into History", its central section. Still, it is only fair, I think, to consider the Mars trilogy as a unit, and as such it is very successful, very worthwhile. Almost inevitably, there are longeurs, and the multiple viewpoint character approach sometimes blurs the impact, sometimes results in tedious chapters. (I, for one, could have done without every one of Michel Duval's sections over the three novels.) Robinson's writing is clear throughout: for the most part he seems to have purposely trimmed his prose: at times the writing becomes a bit clipped or telegraphic, and only rarely does he wax lyrical, or ecstatic.

Blue Mars is Kim Stanley Robinson's final, and lengthiest, installment that concludes the Mars terraforming adventure. The First Hundred are nearly 200 years of age (and will grow older by book's end), and Mars's surface slowly begins to bubble with liquid.

In Green Mars, Robinson took the reader back to Earth. He gave us a first-hand look at the population explosion and the rising seas, while introducing us to Art and his philosophically autocratic employer. Robinson returns to Earth in the third book, this time taking Nirgal, the super-athletic Martian, Maya, Michel, and Sax. A volcanic eruption beneath the Antarctic ice sheet melts half of the White Continent and raises the sea level by 23 feet around the entire globe. Our heroes arrive to Terra Aqua where the aboveground political activities and adventures through underwater cities create a starkly contrasting but pleasant digression from the pseudo-hygrophilous forests and dry lichens of Mars. (Unrelated, a 1955 astronomy text proves that scientists at the time thought dark patches on Mars were created by lichen growing on the surface!)

The inception of human-manipulated hydrometeorology began in Red Mars with the atmospheric collision of an ice asteroid. 1140 pages later, in Part 7 of Blue Mars, Sax, Nadia, and fellow scientists focus their cognitive energies on creating, controlling, fighting against, or sustaining what would eventually become oceans, gulfs, bays, seas and lakes, all of which are mostly located in the northern hemisphere. The disputes and ultimate agreements (reluctant acquiescence) between the environmentalists and the terraformers rivals the frustrations from the earlier two novels. So begins the hydrology, hydrobiology, eventual hydrodynamics, and everything else "hydro" that will tear apart, develop, or re-establish the friendships and relationships that make up the Mars Trilogy's realistic realm of fiction.

Some of the more fantastic journeys take place beyond Earth and Mars. As rocket propulsion technology becomes increasingly powerful (Mars to Earth in three days), so too become the terraforming efforts of nearly every planet and moon in the Solar System. "People would do anything for the sake of an idea, anything" (498). Robinson takes the reader (along with the feral Zo, Jackie's daughter) to witness the new frontiers of Mercury, whose city moves slowly on rails; Venus, whose greenhouse effects are being reversed (to be completed in the next 300 years); Ann Clayborne joins Zo to visit the terraforming of Jupiter's moons Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Io; and finally the moons of Uranus. Robinson's imagery here is reminiscent of those previously imagined worlds, deep-green skies, dark rocky landscapes, and ringed planets hovering palely over the horizon.

As our heroes grow older, they become wiser to the inevitabilities of memory-loss and death. As they (primarily Sax) struggle with antidotes and formulae to inhibit the frightening realities, the remaining of the First Hundred seem to grow calm and spiritual. Although they have literally created a new, peaceful world out of a barren rock, a sort of Walden Two of the Solar System, they soon realize that there is more to life than always fighting to survive. Even the crazed Maya slows down.

Robinson's prose is always in motion. Admittedly the political exposition is usually drier than, for instance, the poetic science of Sax's discussions and thoughts. But it is all-necessary. Once the trilogy is completed, the holistic work becomes a memory the reader has lived through and experienced. Interestingly, the completed planet is not so far removed from the reader's ability to relate to it; in fact, Mars becomes so Earth-like in Nature, I felt briefly shocked at imagining these characters in familiar surroundings. Suddenly, I understood who they were and what they had accomplished, completely.

Having thouroghly enjoyed Robinson's superb storytelling and characterisation in Red and Green Mars, I was bitterly disappointed to find that Blue Mars is at best a brave but failed experiment. With an almost total absence of plot and character interaction in such a long book, it took me great determination to finish this third and final part of the trilogy. Perhaps Robinson was attempting to convey, in the form of what almost amounts to a 'tone poem' the melancholy decline of his characters while Mars itself finally blooms into a life-filled planet. Praise is due to the author for not simply repeating a formula in any of the books and attempting to develop his characters and future world in a more complex and mature manner, but Blue Mars will stretch any reader's patience and staying power. Perhaps it is best to stop reading the saga at Green Mars triumphant and optimistic conclusion. Even Robinson's previous convincing scientific extrapolations seem both unadventurous (the prospect of possible life on Europa and Titan's promising organic atmospheric are never explored) and insufficient to support such a long novel. A beautifully written book, but with no dramatic content.

This third book of the incredibly bloated Mars Trilogy has the fascination of watching a train wreck. There is actually some suspense: how many pages will I skim before something actually happens?

I have to admire the thoroughness with which KSR created a world and made Mars real. He has described every valley, crater, canyon, caldera and dune--and invented a lot of geographical features that aren't there yet, such as rivers and oceans. He has catalogued the lichens, fir forests and alpine vegetation that will someday live on a terraformed Mars. (These details are actually interesting... to a point. But KSR went waaay beyond that point.)

Most of all, he has described the society that will live on Mars. It will be a sort of free-flowing California in which eternally young Martians will flit from tent city to underground commune to coffeehouse to free-sex bathhouse. (I'm still not sure who is paying the bills, growing the food or creating the oxygen for them to breathe. I think a planet of artificial habitats would be tightly controlled, even tyrannical.) They will discuss politics until your face turns blue. Martians will all be utopians and anarchists of various stripes. But when the subject of immigration (from Earth) comes up, watch them turn out as xenophobic as any America-Firster. (yes, there is a group called Mars First.)

Why did I read this series? There is a fascination to the topic. Imagine terraforming and colonizing another planet! I hoped I would learn something. The most interesting chapters were the ones where humans colonize Mercury, Venus, the moons of Jupiter, and even places like Uranus' moon Triton. Imagine humans growing gills and genetically modifying their eyes for the low light of the "sun-deprived moons". That's science fiction! Although I was disappointed that there is not one mention of any sort of extraterrestrial life. The moons and planets are merely real estate to be exploited--making this trilogy a platform for the hubris of mankind.

I also liked the chapters where Nirgal visits Earth. What would a Martian think of Earth? Good stuff there.

As for the rest of the chapters, the editor should have chopped them out with a big scissors. Why oh why does KSR pack hundreds of pages with self-indulgent ramblings, travelogues and descriptions of sailing, hiking, racing, parasailing...ok, KSR is living out his outdoor sports fantasies. But Please! Novels are supposed to have Stuff Happening! Lord of the Rings was the same size as the Mars trilogy... but at least that book had a plot!

Even worse are the passages about the senescence of the First Hundred (now about 220 years old). I can see that space colonization and longevity could go hand in hand. Likewise, the longevity treatment was a plot device so KSR could keep the same characters through the whole trilogy. But why bother? I'm sick of those characters. Nirgal was the only character I really liked. Maya, Ann, Sax etc. are tiresome, whiny old farts and frankly I was glad when they finally started dying off. In fact I can't buy the whole concept of a longevity serum being widely spread through overpopulated Earth. (Which then wants Mars as an immigration safety valve.) A society that would go for such a thing is so stupid, they almost deserve whatever happens to them.

After I waded through this whole mess, the ending was a fizzle. Nothing happened. You will feel as if you are aging 220 years yourself, as you read this series.

I was on such a roll from the previous two books in the series that I read this straightaway after finishing Green Mars. It was too much. I think at this point in the series the book was just getting too complicated to follow everything and remember everything going on. I'm going to have to read the series again, but pace myself.

Still, the immagery of the changes on Mars, the oceans, development of life, development of government, development of already very developed relationships was intense. I found myself longing to be there, wishing that Mars can be colonised in my lifetime.

This is something good to read if you've read the previous two books, just be prepared for some VERY involved, detailed writing.

Another note, this book is writen from a very liberal point of view.....I found the concepts of the government being put in place intriguing, and in a perfect world(maybe Mars?) it could work.

While Red Mars was a strong stand-alone novel about the first settlers of the Red Planet, Green Mars and Blue Mars really need to be read together. For example, several of the main characters who took up so much space in Green Mars without actually contributing anything finally find significance in Blue Mars. There are also strong continuities of plot and theme, especially in the way that the second half of Green flows into the first half of Blue. While Green took forever to get going, Blue starts considerably stronger before fading into Robinsons now-familiar descriptions of Martian scenery that can be described as either breath-taking or interminable depending on your point of view. In fact, the greatest weakness of Blue is that feeling that weve seen it all before. After the thousand-odd pages that make up the first two volumes, readers might be hungry for some variety, a few surprise plot twists, a technical tour-de-force of some kind, but instead its pretty much business as usual on Mars, with the same (now aged) characters often grinding the same metaphorical axes. The murder mystery and sexual tension that drove Red has completely dissipated, and Robinsons attempts along these lines in Blue seem spurious, if not downright silly. Readers who loved Green as much as Red will surely find this book rewarding enough, but those who didnt feel Green was quite up to snuff wont find anything special in Blue.

I bought and read Blue Mars because I was astonished at the results of what was obviously an incredible amount of technical research done for its predecessors, "Red Mars" & "Green Mars" - and, from a layman's point of view, the seamless integration of same with speculative science fiction, and a gripping storyline. However, while Blue Mars did not disappoint with attention to detail, the fundamental issues of focused plot and reader entertainment appeared to have been forgotten, with soap-like chronology and milling sub-plots that threaten to confuse and alienate the reader. Expecting a thrilling conclusion to an otherwise-marvellous trilogy I was disappointed with one that had instead an air of wistful melancholy. On the other hand, some fascinating insights into the future of society, especially with respect to sexual politics and the culture shock of an ever widening generation gap provide challenging food for thought

On the one hand, I love this series. Robinson's recurring characters, the survivors of the "First Hundred" and their offspring, are memorable and fascinating. Another fascinating aspect of this story is the ever-unfolding terraforming of Mars. We start from the bare-minimum survivability achieved at the end of Green Mars, and eventually move on to seeing bees, sequoia trees, and even polar bears (albeit genetically altered to survive a thinner atmosphere).

Also, we "see" (believe me, Robinson's writing can do this) the changing of Vastitas Borealis into a Northern Sea; a channel burned into the surface to release volatiles turned into an actual, open-air canal; tented cities becoming seaside resorts; and the pink and brown sky gradually shift to an actual, Earthlike "sky blue." Out beyond Mars, the asteroids and outer moons are being colonized as a means of relieving population or prison pressures on Earth. And Earth, suffering from the flooding created by the Antarctic Ice Sheet, has space elevators that are so massive they have multiple tether points on the surface. This is world-building writ large, and Robinson makes it all seem marvelous and believable.

Naturally, that's just the technological angle. Politically, Mars is in the process of creating a world constitution. (You can read the full text of this constitution in The Martians.) There are some points about the constitution I don't like, mostly its emphasis upon the judiciary--particularly the environmental and other courts--to become the primary arbiter of power. There are some good things to like in the Martian Constitution system as well (like the "Australian ballot system"), but that's a talk for another day. Suffice to say, once the constitution is formed, life on Mars goes on, in semi-peaceful, matriarchal, environmentally-sensitive fashion.

The Martian matriarchy begins to export its technological products off-world, and in the process extending its political power. Jackie Boone's daughter Zoe (or Zo) is one of the primary matriarchs, and she is completely ruthless in her tactics. The still-ancient Ann Clayborne rightly calls her a "thug." Back on Mars, Jackie has become a power.

The First Hundred themselves are getting old, old, old. They're losing their memories, facing problems not curable by their gerontological treatments, and generally becoming strange. Old Sax Russell is still on hand, however, to apply his relentless intellect to their memory problems. This is where the book starts to slow down. How much information does a reader really need about the chemical process of aging? Other passages get old fast, especially if you're not interested in or an expert on genetic engineering or rock formations.

One cute bit in Blue Mars is the story's connection to the world portrayed in Robinson's The Memory of Whiteness. Obviously, KSR is attempting to make many or all of his stories into one comprehensive narrative. There are some continuity gaps, but you get the picture. Blue Mars completes the cycle of the series, and probably had to be written. However, the first two books make the best points and are much more fun to read.

It is a little bit difficult to qualify this novel in an isolated way since the plot and characters were long ago set up in the prior two novels: Red Mars and Green Mars. Anyway Blue Mars is a memorable novel in itself and the series it closes is one of the better if not the best hard SF series ever written. KSR depicts in a colourful and extraordinary full of detail text the economic, political, social, scientifical and moral transformations that the terraforming and colonization of Mars involves as a new fresh start for Mankind. The result is nearly encyclopedical. You can even learn something reading this series of books on topics as diverse as psicology, memory, botanics, geology, astronomy as well as economics and politics and and and... They are not however gripping books in the sense that you cannot read them in a night. No, on the contrary the depth of their pages obligues you to put some distance to the text and invites to several time outs during its reading. One might say that the series could even suffer from overachievement in its tremendous degree of detail, making it a no easy reading for all publics.

First, the faults: As other reviewers note, this book needed a better editor. As with the first two books of the series, there are commas in sentences that they don't belong in, and this can get frustrating. There are also some sections in which Robinson goes into vast detail about a specific technology that after 2 books and hundreds of pages into the 3rd - just kill the pacing. After so long a time, being so deep into a story, the characters and plot need to be focused on more than the scientific breakthroughs. Also, as others have noted, Robinson starts to really push our suspension of disbelief: the colonization of other planets and asteroids kind of pushes it.

On to the good stuff: Robinson really knows his stuff, and part of the appeal of this series is how very dense it is, packed with the kind of details that make you believe in the world you're reading about. From science to politics to philosophy to human interactions, the world(s) Robinson creates really feel fully developed.

The best part of this book, for me, is when the story's focus shifts to its final act. Instead of asking, "what would the science, culture, and politics of a colonized mars be like?", the story asks: "What happens when you've lived for 230 years?" The troubles of the first hundred, now considered "superelderly," is described in a fascinating way.

Some reviewers feel the plot-line of Hiroko is dropped. Actually, this is a great part of Blue Mars, because it's not about Hiroko, but the perception of Hiroko. The question for the reader is not, "Is she alive or not?" The question is, "Why do some think she's alive and some not? What are their reasons? What does the 'myth' of Hiroko mean to them?"

Not every loose end is tied up (after all, in life, this can never happen), yet the overall story is brought to a satisfying conclusion. The Mars Trilogy is the tale of the First Hundred, ultimately, and we get a very good picture of what becomes of them.

After almost 2000 pages, I found following their journeys was a very, very worthwhile experience, and I recommend it with no reservations.