My copy is a little worse for wear after an airplane beverage incident.
Author: Kim Stanley Robinson
Publication: 1993
Genre: Science Fiction
Let’s start off. Green Mars is the second book in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy. I’d never read any of them before last year, despite making a joke with the titles in my winning submission to a Science as Art competition in grad school. I picked up the first book, Red Mars, last year on a whim and rather enjoyed it. It’s been slow going, since all three paperbacks weigh in at 500+ pages. But it’s well worth it.
Summary: The First Hundred Martian colonists are now mostly in hiding after the failed revolution of 2051. They’re ridiculously old as the result of some fancy-dancy anti-aging treatments and have several generations of descendants born on Mars. The planet is in the control of powerful enormous corporations, which are also consolidating power on a struggling Earth. Martian terraforming has accelerated and adapted life forms are spreading. The First Hundred, younger generations born on Mars, and newer immigrants all have different opinions on how (or if) developing the planet should proceed. They have to figure out how to work together to decide what a free Mars would look like and how to achieve it.
My take: This book was some work to get through, in large part because I enjoy some narrators much more than others. I love the sections focused on the workings of people, particularly the ones focused on Nadia. I cannot stand Sax. I took multiple breaks from reading because I got so bogged down in the hundred-page section where he goes on and on about lichen and baby bonsai trees. Spare me.
As a planetary scientist, the geographic content is really interesting to me. Robinson was writing these books in the early 90s before most of the modern orbital cameras had arrived at Mars. Most of the non-human-constructed locations in the book are very large features. Major sections of the book takes place in Isidis, and yet there’s no mention of the yet-to-be-named Jezero Crater! Regardless, I will admit I learned a little geography following along.
Some miscellaneous complaints: These characters were clearly conceived of in a much earlier era. The author isn’t *fantastic* at character development across the board, but he’s way worse at writing believable women. He’s hardened each of the major female characters in the First Hundred into stereotypes, many of them unflattering. In particular, the Maya/Jackie characterization and dynamic is cringey. Tell me again about the beautiful crazy women everyone can’t help falling in love with, yeah, sure. And Robinson could really lay off the overdetailed color descriptions. If I had a penny for every time he took a full paragraph to describe the sky….
However, the world he builds is fascinating enough to put up with all that. It’s fun to think about the ways that we could transform another planet, and what colonizing one would mean for our own. Robinson does a great job linking the each individual character to the overall social and physical issues facing Mars. I see why this is a classic. The last hundred pages were beautiful, and I’m looking forward to seeing where these characters go next.