Red Mars

By: Kim Stanley Robinson

Narrated by: Richard Ferrone

Length: 23 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel, Red Mars is the first book in Kim Stanley Robinson's best-selling trilogy. Red Mars is praised by scientists for its detailed visions of future technology. It is also hailed by authors and critics for its vivid characters and dramatic conflicts.

For centuries, the red planet has enticed the people of Earth. Now an international group of scientists has colonized Mars. Leaving Earth forever, these 100 people have traveled nine months to reach their new home. This is the remarkable story of the world they create - and the hidden power struggles of those who want to control it.

Although it is fiction, Red Mars is based on years of research. As living spaces and greenhouses multiply, an astonishing panorama of our galactic future rises from the red dust. Through Richard Ferrone's narration, each scene is energized with the designs and dreams of the extraordinary pioneers.

©1993 Kim Stanley Robinson (P)2000 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

• Nebula Award, Best Novel, 1993

"Generously blending hard science with canny insight into human strengths and weaknesses, this suspenseful sf saga should appeal to a wide range of readers." (Library Journal)
"The ultimate in future history." (Daily Mail)

Not my speed

I truly tried to get into this story but I just never could really get interested.

amazing work

I have recently started reading and listening to Robinson's books and can't believe I ever hesitated.
A realistic, thrilling story, with great characters and an inspiring and exciting plot.

Couldn't Finish

Loved the idea, but part way through it went in an unexpected direction and parts became awfully crude.

Wish I hadn't bought the second book at the same time, I can't return it.

Personal

Some science. A lot of politics. Dragged at the end.
Will not go onto the next book in the series

Fascinating but Very Long In Parts

Great story - we get to Mars but can't help but repeat the same mistakes we made on Earth. Very scientific - a manual for colonizing mars. But some of the science slows the story down just too much. The human story is the most interesting (in my opinion) and it was difficult to wait through long passages about how to mine water on Mars (for example).

zzzzz

Slow going story bla bla bla. Book needs an editor to fix the story and make it readable.

bit verbose for me but I managed

good story, lots of unusual words, going to read books 2 & 3 just because I want to know what happens

first part boring

Crisis after crisis after crisis in the first part but very little story line.

After that it gets much better.

A difficult start...

I love space, science, and stories about Mars. This was my "Free" choice on an Audible promotion. That's what got me through this book. It occurred to me several times to just return it, but it was free, and it's Mars.
The author is obviously intelligent and had done the research into the technical aspects of colonizing Mars.
The action only picked up about two-thirds through. The characters seemed thin, and often their reactions seemed contrived. A murder occurs, and the murder is unaffected, yet there's no indication this person might be a sociopath. In the end, destination achieved, I'm not inclined to continue to the second book.
It might be best to approach this story keeping in mind that the main character is Mars itself.

Excellent sci-fi

Any additional comments?

I loved the book and won't go into a lot of the stuff that other reviewers have already said. I'm only chiming in to add some very specific critical reflections about it as food for thought about some issues I don't think get very much attention, but that I nevertheless feel are important.

My criticism is about the book's understanding and presentation of the social sciences. The first colony takes off with 100 scientists of all matter of specializations, yet there isn't a single social scientist among them. No Lawyer, economist, administrator or accountant etc. Not one specialist in human organization, government and the structures that make modern society and economies function, although the expedition is meant to found a permanent colony, not just a scientific base of operations.

As if these questions were something the other, "proper" scientists could just solve as amateurs, not complex problems that require specialization, rational thought and creative application to real life not unlike what engineers do in the nature sciences. Not to speak of having an actual trained civil servant to organize and supervise in loco the colonization plans established on earth before take off, which in itself is pretty unrealistic.

I found this treatment of the subject matter quite strange precisely because of the otherwise very deep and realistic understanding of the book of the miriad of issues that the colonization of mars raises, from all the hard sciences as well as psychology and human interaction and group dynamics. Everything matters except socioeconomic and political-juridical organization of the colonization process? In fact, these questions are constantly being debated in the book, but they are not part of scientific mission itself and only concretely appear later in the form ot stereotypical american cliché of powerhungry and useless "bureucrats", not in terms of "bureaucracy" in its technical sense. Not one of the major characters comes from this areas of study and brings this unique way of thinking to the book, in contrast to all the other deep discussions presented.

Sadly, this attitude is very disappointing, as this layer (government, law, economic production etc.) of an international mars colony project would be actually as challenging and interesting as the technological problems of survival and terraforming and hence, as deserving of a scientific approach as the ones related to the natural sciences. I'm definitely going to read the whole series and still liked the book very much though. Just wanted to raise this point as something to be discussed as an important aspect of any science fiction and even more so for the speculation about a possible real life mars project.