Red Mars (Mars Trilogy)

for anyone who ever wondered what space sex is like.

It's a book about colonizing Mars. Yep, it sure is.

What would your first words be on Mars? "Well, here we are."

Written just before the internet took off, there's a dated Asimov-quality to the writing. Still, a very interesting examination of nationalism and how humans will always find dividing lines and exploit them. I'm reading the rest of the trilogy soon.

Excellent Read!!! I read this when it first came out and again just recently. Even with current events, the book is still very timely. Robinson makes you feel as if you are actually there. Much more then just Sci-Fi "candy" this book explores and develops the depths of each character and the character of an evolving society on another world.

Very very detailed and engrossing

This book starts off with a bang -- an assassination scene. However, it was there for no good reason that I could see, except to grab the reader's attention. Bad idea! Because this scene appears up front, half of this thick novel is flashback. By the time I finished the flashback, I had to go back to the beginning and re-read that scene (and wonder again why it was there). On the good side,...more

This book starts off with a bang -- an assassination scene. However, it was there for no good reason that I could see, except to grab the reader's attention. Bad idea! Because this scene appears up front, half of this thick novel is flashback. By the time I finished the flashback, I had to go back to the beginning and re-read that scene (and wonder again why it was there). On the good side, the author has created some interesting characters. He has also done a great deal of research on Mars, space travel, biology, physics, psychology, sociology, geology, history, and more; but on the negative side, I had to plow through far too many details on all those subjects (and more), which made the book a tedious read. The book is far too long, with many excruciatingly detailed passages, and much description that feels repetitious. My interest flagged around the halfway point. Many devices seemed pointless additions to the story: the assassination; the "cure" for old age (which seems thrown in merely so the author can use the same characters); and the repetitive, tiresome quarrelling and dramatics involving a romantic triangle (John/Maya/Frank). For me, the tenor of the whole novel was summed up in the last chapter: Several people make an epic (read: overlong and drawn out) journey by rover car across Mars. I fell asleep over this book many times. I was happy just to finish it (an epic achievement in itself). I doubt that I'll bother to read the other books in this series.   hide

I struggled through this one. Even though I was very interested during the initial colonization phase of the novel, I got bored with the drawn out descriptions during middle part of the story. Development of the political and socioeconomic structure which led to the more engaging ending of the book just bored me. I also found the genetic "cure" for aging a bit contrived. It seemed like...more

I struggled through this one. Even though I was very interested during the initial colonization phase of the novel, I got bored with the drawn out descriptions during middle part of the story. Development of the political and socioeconomic structure which led to the more engaging ending of the book just bored me. I also found the genetic "cure" for aging a bit contrived. It seemed like a convenient mechanism just to keep the same characters around for the extended terraforming and colonization period.   hide

Jesus Christ this book was boring