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Blue Mars  By  cover art

Blue Mars

By: Kim Stanley Robinson
Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
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Publisher's summary

Acclaimed visionary author Kim Stanley Robinson is a Hugo and Nebula Award-winner. Blue Mars is the final volume in Robinson's seminal science-fiction trilogy, which began with Red Mars and continues with Green Mars.

The once red and barren terrain of Mars is now green and rich with life - plant, animal, and human. But idyllic Mars is in a state of political upheaval, plagued by violent conflict between those who would keep the planet green and those who want to return it to a desert world.

Meanwhile, across the void of space, old, tired Earth spins on its decaying axis. A natural disaster threatens to drown the already far too polluted and overcrowded planet. The people of Earth are getting desperate. Maybe desperate enough to wage interplanetary war for the chance to begin again.

Blue Mars is a complex and completely enthralling saga - as convincing and lushly imagined a future as anyone has ever dreamed. Richard Ferrone narrates this sweeping epic with engaging personality and finesse.

©1996 Kim Stanley Robinson (P)2002 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

  • Hugo Award, Best Novel, 1997

"Robinson's achievement here is on a par with Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and Herbert's Dune." (Publishers Weekly)
"A well-written, thoughtful conclusion to the trilogy." (Library Journal)

What listeners say about Blue Mars

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

You read Red and Green finish with Blue

I wanted to see this series to the end, the book is not a short story but does a lot to finish some story lines and give new opportunities to other story lines. The political parts of the books were not my as much my style but I really enjoyed the world building with the trip the book took to earth and the outer planets.

I did up the reading speed on this one, normally I listen at 1x

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great end to trilogy.

A little long winded at times, but overall an enjoyable end to the three book series.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

fantastic conclusion to an amazing trilogy

Highly intelligent hard sci fi. A dazzlying and optimistic vision of a potential interplanetary future for humanity. The Mars trilogy was hands down the most enjoyable science fiction I'v ever read.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Masterful

just finished Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy. I am in total awe at how incredible his science fiction writing is. His entire series was brilliantly written, throughly researched and outstandingly thought provoking. You’ll ride a wave of emotions as he forces you to ask questions and think deeply about life and death, relationships, the climate, politics, family, science, mathematics and so many other topics. I can’t recommend the Red Mars trilogy enough. Even if you aren’t fascinated by space and science, I promise you’ll laugh, cry, cringe while reading. Blue Mars, however is, in my opinion, the greatest of the three. Incredibly captivating. Very very good.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

An ideological shift

I have struggled with this book. Long story short, I could not help but notice a communistic utopia that seemed to spring up in this book vs the great other 2.

Also it was weird how every women was essentially worshipped by their male counterparts, except for 1, and even he had a female muse. It just made for a boring predictable interactions that I just could not square with.

I feel that the author took an odd turn with this book.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Loved the whole series

I never knew how much I needed science fiction about elder care in my life until this book. This series is really lovely and each one is worth the work necessary to get through them all.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Why was this so praised?

This is by far the best book in the series, but I still don't understand the critical acclaim for it. The parts that took place on earth were very interesting. Over all it was still an annoying soap opera that was hard to understand the scope of since everyone lived so long. I was also really annoyed about the sexualization of a tickle fight between a 150+ year old and a 5 year old. Why couldn't that be left to childhood fun? Why did a grownup perspective have to be put on it? There were a lot of things that I wondered why they were put in or done a certain way with this series, that was just the last.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Good Series

Thought the third book was the weakest of the series. Good have been a better ending.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A wonderful conclusion

What a nice vision of humanities first major step into the Expanse. Now we have a roadmap.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A pathbreaking series

In these mindblowing books, KSR resurrects the human imagination for space. really really good.

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