Green Mars

[rhetoretician]

I have this terrible habit of reading series in the wrong order.

It started with Robertson Davies. I picked up a copy of The Lyre of Orpheus and was halfway through it before I understood that there were earlier books. So I read the trilogy backwards, moving next to What's Bred in the Bone and finally to The Rebel Angels.

The interesting thing is

Comments

[madderbrad]

My gosh, when did I read the Mars trilogy? A fair while ago ... I've sadly forgotten much of it. I remember being sometimes almost overcome by, not the *technology* part of the science - I love that stuff - but the amount of time he'd spend describing the geology of the planet ('areolgy'?).

I've been reading an interesting HP fanfic-in-progress that's based on the Mars trilogy; it's 'Magical Mars', here.

[rhetoretician]

Hi Brad. Not sure I want to read a Rowling-Robinson crossover, but thanks for the ref!

[girlspell]

I try to avoid hard science fiction writers. For the ones I've read, I guess Heinlein is about as close to that in my view. I guess I like the HP Lovecraft school of of it. Probably the one reason Fritz Leiber is my favorite. . How many writers do you know have the hero as a cat with an IQ of 160?

I think hard science stifles Sci Fi sometimes. The little thing call the laws of Physics. Sci Fi is for the imagination. You need the Science to be believable. That recent story you did about getting help for a doomed planet via email was.

I've read books out of order , but not in the Sci Fi genre. In fact, one book I enjoyed immensley was a "bridge" novel. The middle book of 3 volume set with an intricate plot told from several points of view.

[rhetoretician]

Hi Rachel. I think hard SF can be really good, so long as the author keeps in check his/her desire to blather on about it. Make the scientific projection you need to tell the story, then tell it!