Curt's Read-Bag: Blue Mars
Title: Blue Mars
By: Kim Stanley Robinson(Bantam/Spectra, 761 pp.)
Concerning: This is the final volume of Robinson’s mammoth trilogy on the colonization and terraforming of Mars, following Red Mars and Green Mars. The “First Hundred” of original Martian colonists as well as some of their descendants serve as prime movers and eyewitnesses to a Martian’s successful bid for independence from Earth, establishment of an independent government and, as the decades pass, emergence as an influential power during the colonization of the rest of the solar system. But at the dawn of the 23rd century, the “longevity treatment” proves to have its limits.
Quote: “Jump dispersal, spread dispersal, stream dispersal: all three were common on Mars. Mosses and bacteria were spread-dispersing; hydrophilic plants were stream-dispersing along the sides of glaciers, and the new coast-lines; and lichen and any number of other plants were jump-dispersing on the strong winds. Human dispersion showed all three patterns, Yoshi remarked as they wandered over the basin discussing the concept - spreading through Europe and Asia and Africa, streaming down the Americas and along the Australian coasts, jumping out to the Pacific Islands (or to Mars). It was common to see all three methods used by highly adaptable species.”
Verdict: Whew! Robinson’s Mars trilogy may be the most impressive collective work of 'hard' science fiction I’ve ever read. In its scientific accuracy (or at least sci-fi plausibility), its attention to geological and meteorological detail, its depth and long-term development of character, it’s really in class by itself. At something like 1,700 pages across three books, it requires some serious dedication, though, especially because of the level of detail in its descriptive prose and its often deliberate pace. I had trouble with the first book when I read it 10 years ago or so, but with Green Mars and this one, something clicked and I realized that often the minutia of detail about the Martian landscape served as subtle windows to the characters’ personalities. It struck me as similar to reading the seemingly treatises on whaling in Moby Dick, which prove rife with metaphors. While I admire it enormously, I must admit that once the interstellar drama of Martian independence and self-governance gets resolved (more or less) in Blue Mars, some of the urgency leaves the narrative, but it’s still nearly half over. When one of the latter sections delves endlessly into the neurology and memory science, it really started testing my patience. Overall, it’s a great series with a remarkable breadth of knowledge about scientific disciplines and an infectious love of the scientific process as a hallmark of humanity.
Plus: I read Green Mars earlier this summer when we were in Alabama (I read-bagged it here), and appreciated reading the book while on vacation, with fewer demands on my attention. I deliberately bought a used copy of Blue Mars to read on our vacation in Florida, and it worked out similarly well. It’s not something you can just pick up when you’re sleepy or easily distracted.
By: Kim Stanley Robinson(Bantam/Spectra, 761 pp.)
Concerning: This is the final volume of Robinson’s mammoth trilogy on the colonization and terraforming of Mars, following Red Mars and Green Mars. The “First Hundred” of original Martian colonists as well as some of their descendants serve as prime movers and eyewitnesses to a Martian’s successful bid for independence from Earth, establishment of an independent government and, as the decades pass, emergence as an influential power during the colonization of the rest of the solar system. But at the dawn of the 23rd century, the “longevity treatment” proves to have its limits.
Quote: “Jump dispersal, spread dispersal, stream dispersal: all three were common on Mars. Mosses and bacteria were spread-dispersing; hydrophilic plants were stream-dispersing along the sides of glaciers, and the new coast-lines; and lichen and any number of other plants were jump-dispersing on the strong winds. Human dispersion showed all three patterns, Yoshi remarked as they wandered over the basin discussing the concept - spreading through Europe and Asia and Africa, streaming down the Americas and along the Australian coasts, jumping out to the Pacific Islands (or to Mars). It was common to see all three methods used by highly adaptable species.”
Verdict: Whew! Robinson’s Mars trilogy may be the most impressive collective work of 'hard' science fiction I’ve ever read. In its scientific accuracy (or at least sci-fi plausibility), its attention to geological and meteorological detail, its depth and long-term development of character, it’s really in class by itself. At something like 1,700 pages across three books, it requires some serious dedication, though, especially because of the level of detail in its descriptive prose and its often deliberate pace. I had trouble with the first book when I read it 10 years ago or so, but with Green Mars and this one, something clicked and I realized that often the minutia of detail about the Martian landscape served as subtle windows to the characters’ personalities. It struck me as similar to reading the seemingly treatises on whaling in Moby Dick, which prove rife with metaphors. While I admire it enormously, I must admit that once the interstellar drama of Martian independence and self-governance gets resolved (more or less) in Blue Mars, some of the urgency leaves the narrative, but it’s still nearly half over. When one of the latter sections delves endlessly into the neurology and memory science, it really started testing my patience. Overall, it’s a great series with a remarkable breadth of knowledge about scientific disciplines and an infectious love of the scientific process as a hallmark of humanity.
Plus: I read Green Mars earlier this summer when we were in Alabama (I read-bagged it here), and appreciated reading the book while on vacation, with fewer demands on my attention. I deliberately bought a used copy of Blue Mars to read on our vacation in Florida, and it worked out similarly well. It’s not something you can just pick up when you’re sleepy or easily distracted.