Blue Mars [Paperback]

What distinguishes Kim Stanley Robinson's work is his great focus on the socio-economic issues of the future: The power of Mega-corporations vs. civil rights and democracy, healthy environmental concern vs. radical militant "ecoterrorism", longevity-treatments vs. natural lifespans and so on. In Blue Mars these conflicts are in particularly seen in the context of how they're solved in both the Martian and the Terrestrial societies.

Personally I'm very fond of Kim Stanley Robinson's thought provoking style and I often find myself spending loads of time rethinking the "what-ifs" the book deal with. Blue Mars is my favourite in the trilogy - mostly because it has the longest horizons and deals with the entire humanity and so it feels more like a future vision that affects me - but you should give the entire trilogy a chance - It raises such an amazing array of questions that you just can't help thinking of a lot of issues in the context of the book. As it says on the cover of the book "it should be mandatory reading for the Martian settlers of the next century", but nevertheless everyone planning to stay down here ought to examine it as well.

"Blue Mars" as the title suggests is set on a fully terraformed Mars. The atmosphere has thickened and heated up and the ice seas have melted and created a hydrosphere similar to Earth. The masks and walkers have now been disposed of. The scientific substance of the book now concentrates on developing the longevity treatment, ecopoesis and the psychological difficulties of coping with living for 200 years plus.

I didn't find "Blue Mars" to be as fascinating and exciting as the first two books of the trilogy and was a bit overlong. Perhaps that was due to over familiarity with the setting and characters and it was only when Nirgal and Zo featured heavily that "Blue Mars" had a character of its own and came to life , but unfortunately most of the book concentrated on the First Hundred whose lifes work was more or less complete by the end of "Green Mars". I would have liked to have read more about "The Accelerando" instead. I also didn't like the prolonged ending to "Blue Mars"; I thought it was lacking in impact somewhat and didn't bring the Trilogy to the spectacular end it deserved.

However "Blue Mars" is still a wonderful book, full of impressive and credible scientific detail, and if Mars is to be colonised then this trilogy is a perfect guidebook for its terraformation. However the timeframe for the colonisation set out by Robinson is slightly over-optimistic I think ; maybe by a hundred years or so. I cant see antelope roaming the forests of Mars until the 23rd Century at least ! Although technology is advancing all the time.

As I read through the Mars Trilogy, I couldnt help but think that science, in its entirety, the geology,biology,physics,chemistry and all its subdivisions , is nothing more than Man progressively trying to get into the mind of God, to be God. They are a very humanist and rationalist series of novels, however they promote a form of intellectual elitism. Science is worshipped,science can provide the answers to everything and highly intelligent elitists know best. There is no room for religion or the supernatural in this vision.

"Blue Mars" is a must read for those who have read the first two books, it would be incomprehensible if you haven't. It is a fitting conclusion to a remarkable series of novels. It is also easy to read ; I raced through its 800 pages in 9 days, so theres no excuse for not reading the whole series now !

Once you read Blue Mars, and complete the trilogy, you'll find how brilliant Kim Stanley Robinson is. OK, maybe he does carry on a bit unnecessarily about some parts, but once it's all done, I am really glad I read this trilogy.