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Amazon.co.uk Review
When it's at its best, this collection presents stand-alone stories of life, love and work on our celestial neighbour, ranging from the tale of an expedition seeking to conquer Olympus Monsin in "Green Mars" to a folksy story of friendship and baseball in "Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars". Unfortunately, some of the material here can be tough going for those unfamiliar with Robinson's Mars milieu. For instance, the ending piece, "Purple Mars", is apparently an autobiographical snippet about the day Robinson finished writing the final novel. That's great stuff for someone who has been following the entire Mars saga from beginning to end, but newcomers will probably not know what to make of it.
Still, there is enough material here to interest anyone on the lookout for some good Mars stories. Although Robinson has made his name by writing fat novels that span dozens of generations and characters, in The Martians he proves that he is also adept at shorter pieces. It's a fine if somewhat uneven collection that serves to round off the Mars universe while providing some excellent reading. --Craig E. Engler
Review
Praise for Kim Stanley Robinson:
‘The ultimate in future history’
Daily Mail
‘One of the finest works of American SF’
The Times
‘Essential reading for the colonists of the next century’
Arthur C. Clarke
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fitting Climax to an Epic...,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Martians (Hardcover)
Okay, yes, I'll admit it - it was hard not to feel sad while reading this book, knowing that it was almost certainly the last time I'd be "on" Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars... like many fans of the epic trilogy of future martian colonisation and terraformation I've lost count of the number of tims I've read the books, they've become a very big and important part of my life, something I've grown up with in a way. So, when I opened the pages of THE MARTIANS for the first time it was with a mixture of excitement and fear, kind of the way you feel when you sit down to finally see a film you've been looking forwards to for sooooo long, wondering if it will live up to the hype or leave you disappointed...I needn't have worried. THE MARTIANS is a fine climax to the series, and provides followers of the saga with a wonderfully moving "goodbye" to the Mars we've come to love so much. This is a collection of short stories, essays, fictional documents and poems designed to both tie up loose ends and provide startling, intriguing glimpses into possible alternative KSR martian timelines... reading some of the stories offers tantalising glimpses of "What Might Have Been". Reading other parts of the book you learn about events from already-established Red Mars characters pasts' which have, until then, either only been hinted at or kept completely hidden. Other stories explore the physical and political landscapes of KSR's Mars through the eyes of new, original characters, or characters from previously-published - but hard to find - short stories set on KSR's Mars. The most common reactions I experienced while reading the book were: "Aaah, NOW I see..!" or "What?! I had no idea!" or even "You know, I actually wondered about that myself..." As for the poems, they show the depth of Kim's love affair with Mars, and provide yet more background detail to the struggles of the colonists and terraformers. There's something for everyone in here: frustrated reds, impatient Greens, whatever your colour you're represented in the poetry. I can definitely recommend THE MARTIANS to anyone already in love with KSR's Mars and its characters. Newcomers to the series definitely shouldn't start here however. I didn't cry when I finished the book, just after midnight on the day I bought it, but probably only because of the clever way Robinson wraps the whole thing up in such a magically personal way. Instead I walked out into my yard and looked up at Mars itself, shining like a garnet above the trees, and wished it goodbye. For now. He'll be back, he won't be able to help himself. The guy's in love... :-)
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting and worthy addition to the Mars trilogy.,
By ianwhitmore@lineone.net (Preston, Lancs) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Martians (Paperback)
The Martians offers some unusual and intriguing extrapolations from the Mars trilogy. Robinson tempts the reader with glimpses of some of the characters and events from R/G/B Mars, sometimes enlightening, sometimes puzzling. There are also some alternative histories, which still sit well with the those more conventional items which attempt to fill in a few gaps from the original books.I usually find short story Sci Fi quite dissatisfying, as if the author is presenting discarded ideas or plot strands didn't quite work out. In this degree, Robinson has done pretty well, and most of the collection left me content on such bite-sized morsels. For once, the whole exceeded the sum of the parts. However, this is not for readers who have not enjoyed the preceeding volumes. For me, Robinson succeeds best in his wonderful landscape imagery, and the book continues to show you around the planet as looking through a lens. The Martians furthers the conviction that if you found yourself on Mars in a few years time, you would recognise it instantly - no guide book required.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant, but only for the fans,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Martians (Hardcover)
Robinson revisits home territory in this book, adding some depth and width to what's essentially already in the "old" Mars trilogy. There's no point in reading this one unless you've already read (and enjoyed) Red, Green and Blue. That said, it's a great read for those who did get through the earlier books. This one is short on action, but full of descriptions of Martian scenery (lots of rocks, as per usual...) and contains some gripping stories. It's also (unusally for SF) more concerned with people and politics than with shiny rockets. It makes for quality reading, and as always it's great to come across SF written for grown-ups - this book makes you think and even feel a bit. Hey, it even contains a constitution... Let's hope Robinson finds a topic for his future books that fascinates him as much as Mars must have done. It's caused some great stuff to be published.
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