Customer Reviews

Martian Rainbow

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The books foundation lies in the similarities and differences of the two main characters, Alex the General und Gus the Scientist. The other point to start from is the effort to make Mars a planet to live on. Both plots are being treated too black and white (the schism between Alex and Gus and how they are drifting more and more apart is not handled well) or solved with a deus-ex-machina solution. The plot itself could have been made into a complete trilogy (Step 1: Conquer Mars, Step 2: Build Mars, Step 3: Save Earth...) with enough emphasis on the different characters.

On the positive side: I was captured by the principles of making Mars a habitable planet. This kind of situation suits well with Robert Forward, only his characters are not believable, and therefore not interesting enough to bring life into this book.

This book was good but not great. The Mars angle is very interesting and his science is terrific as always. His characterization and plotting were on the thin side. If you like Forward's other books you will like this one, although Dragon's Egg/Starquake and the Rocheworld series are more interesting in terms of both their science and plot/character development in my opinion. Maybe that's because the other books include alien races, which Forward seems to do better than human characters.

. . .really I am -- but in this book, Forward concentrates almost exclusively on what is the weakest element of his writing -- character development -- and neglects the strongest element of his writing -- serious "hard-science" fiction.

I've admitted in other reviews (see "Saturn Rukh") that I don't read Forward for character development or depth. Good thing too! The by-play between the twin brothers in this novel is unbelievable at best; the transformation from General to religious dictator is ridiculous; and the alien robots which suddenly turn up to save the day? Come on, guys!

Dr. Forward -- PLEASE keep writing your "hard science". It's wonderful and thought-provoking in its own right. But forgive me for negative rating here. The downsides of "Martian Rainbow" far outweighed the upside.