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Red Mars (Mars trilogy) (Paperback)

by Kim Stanley Robinson (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Red Mars (Mars trilogy) + Blue Mars (Mars Trilogy) + Green Mars (Mars trilogy)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Collins; New edition edition (18 Oct 1999)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0586213899
  • ISBN-13: 978-0586213896
  • Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 11 x 4.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 10,370 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #1 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > R > Robinson, Kim Stanley

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Product Description

Review
'Red Mars is the ultimate in future history' Daily Mail 'One of the finest works of American sf' Times Literary Supplement 'Absorbing, impressive, fascinating... Utterly plausible' Financial Times 'Red Mars may simply be the best novel ever written about Mars' Interzone 'A staggering book. The best novel on the colonization of Mars that has ever been written.' Arthur C Clarke

First of a projected trilogy about the near-future colonization of Mars, from the author of Pacific Edge, Escape from Kathmandu, etc. Robinson's Mars is realistically cold, arid, and lifeless; and even before they reach the planet, his first hundred scientist-colonists are hotly debating how Mars should be terraformed. Each phase of the latter process is told from a different character's point of view, and thus Robinson constructs an intricate and fascinating mosaic of science and politics, love and betrayal, survival and discovery, murder and revolution. Among further complications: practical immortality, discovered by Martian scientists; the building of a space elevator; ice asteroids to pound the Martian crust, bringing water and thickening the atmosphere; vast Moholes excavated to tap vital heat from the core; and the ingenious creation of life forms genetically engineered to survive the harsh conditions. Yet the constantly intensifying struggle between Mars's idealists and Earth's transnational corporate exploiters makes revolution inevitable; and a handful of First Hundred survivors flee into the Martian wilderness, where other idealists have secretly prepared hidden sanctuaries. Despite the imposing density of the narrative, a novel of splendid characters in a brilliantly realized and utterly convincing setting. A pity about the overfamiliar colonization-exploitation-revolution plot cycle; still, for power, scope, depth, and detail, no other Martian epic comes close. (Kirkus Reviews)

Product Description
The first novel in Kim Stanley Robinson's massively successful and lavishly praised Mars trilogy. Mars -- the barren, forbidding planet that epitomises mankind's dreams of space conquest. From the first pioneers who looked back at Earth and saw a small blue star, to the first colonists -- hand-picked scientists with the skills necessary to create life from cold desert -- Red Mars is the story of a new genesis. It is also the story of how Man must struggle against his own self-destructive mechanisms to achieve his dreams: before he even sets foot on the red planet, factions are forming, tensions are rising and violence is brewing...for civilization can be very uncivilized.

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Red Mars (Mars trilogy)
88% buy the item featured on this page:
Red Mars (Mars trilogy) 3.9 out of 5 stars (43)
£5.99
Blue Mars (Mars Trilogy)
4% buy
Blue Mars (Mars Trilogy) 3.6 out of 5 stars (20)
£5.99
Green Mars (Mars trilogy)
4% buy
Green Mars (Mars trilogy) 3.7 out of 5 stars (7)
£8.09
The Years of Rice and Salt
2% buy
The Years of Rice and Salt 3.3 out of 5 stars (18)
£6.99
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Customer Reviews

43 Reviews
5 star:
 (22)
4 star:
 (7)
3 star:
 (5)
2 star:
 (4)
1 star:
 (5)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (43 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Best book(s) EVER... end of., 20 Dec 2005
"Red Mars" in particular, and the remainder of the trilogy as a whole are quite simply the best novels I have ever read. Ever. And I have read quite a few, s/f or otherwise. I recommend this to everybody, whether they like science-fiction or not.

It starts out, as an epic soap-opera - for want of a better description - about a group of 100 carefully chosen scientists, sent on their way to establish the first permanent colony on another planet, and all their curious personal interactions. Halfway there, they decide - as one might expect to happen - if they are to start a completely new civilisation, why should they be controlled from another planet, and do everything in accordance with NASA protocol. There begins the rebellion, which - a couple of tens of thousands of new colonists later - develops into a guerilla war for the control and sovereignty of our second home.

Kim Stanley Robinson likes to set up interesting little philosophical arguments between the main characters (as in "The Years of Rice & Salt", also an excellent book), and thus we see the continual disagreement between those who believe we have a duty as intelligent space-faring beings to spread life wherever there is none, and those who believe there is intrinsic value in a barren but untouched landscape, and that it should be left well alone.

All the characters are very well thought-out and developed (Sax being my favourite), and with a few notably exceptions, all of the technology the author proposes is very "near-future".

I have no idea what was going through the minds of the people who gave this book "1 Star". They should probably tackle something less challenging first, like one of Enid Blyton's epics. This book is unashamedly big and long, but it is so, because it covers an important and epic story.

Some day we will do this for real, assuming we haven't already killed ourselves off - which is a distinct possibility.

Read it, and take it for what it is: an incredibly well-constructed epic story about the human condition, transplanted to another planet. I find this book truly inspiring, and it is one of the only few I re-read at least once every two years.

The second book is about 85% as good as the first one, and strongly recommended also. The third one mainly really ties up loose ends, and is definitely worth a read if you liked the other two, but is certainly nowhere near as groundbreaking.

READ IT. READ IT. READ IT. (Then read the other two).

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the classics, 24 Aug 2002
By ANDREW DAY (Hedge End, Hampshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This is one of the classics of modern SF. Strangely, though, there's very little literal science fiction in there. Apart from one gimmick later on, almost all of the science in this book we could do today. And therefore the story ends up being much more about the people and the politics. When I put it down, I was struck by two thoughts. Firstly that it's very easy to forget that Robinson has never actually been to Mars to research it, since the detail is so great. And second, that when we colonise Mars, this is exactly how we'll mess it up.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Magnificent Epic, 15 Aug 2002
By Mr. Russell Newton "rusnewton" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Red Mars (Voyager Classics) (Paperback)
The first volume of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy is absolutely magnificent. This is a book for non-SciFi readers, as well as SciFi fans: the subject matter is wide-ranging and the book kept my interest throughout.

In some ways it struck me as a 21st Century version of what it must have been like for the early colonisers in the United States.

The book is beautifully written, a pleasure to read, and manages to get inside the heads of the main characters without falling into the Dickensian trap of too much description and not enough action.

I read it cover to cover in under a week and had to buy the second book the day I finished the first one.

I would put this in my list of all-time best reads, and for me that is saying something!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Mars could be the sort of place to raise your kids
Mars is the new frontier. Trillions of dollars will be needed. Hundreds of years will pass. And it'll take 2000 pages to get there, but one day we will make Mars habitable... Read more
Published 14 days ago by Blackhorse47

5.0 out of 5 stars The reverse of "dumbing down".
The three volumes of the Mars Trilogy (Red, Green, Blue) total over 2000 dense pages of relentlessly serious and intelligent science, engineering, politics and future history. Read more
Published 2 months ago by J. Hind

1.0 out of 5 stars Waste of time and money
Boring to read. Uninteresting characters. Not very good language. Too long. Very unlikely that we will send 100 scientist to Mars, at an enormous cost, without a really good way... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Captain Nemo

5.0 out of 5 stars It actually rates 6 stars!!!
Perhaps THE finest science fiction book I have ever read, and believe me I have read a lot of them. I am an avid sci-fi reader, having read anything from Star Trek & Star Wars to... Read more
Published 24 months ago by ANNA OIKONOMAKI

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the finest and best books on Mars
Incredible...after discovering this trilogy 10 years ago...I still feel the need to read and reread it. Read more
Published on 23 Mar 2007 by Orval

4.0 out of 5 stars Epic novel of colonisation
`Red Mars' is the first in Kim Stanley Robinson's massive trilogy of Martian colonisation, with this novel taking the story from the first one hundred colonists as they travel to... Read more
Published on 31 Oct 2006 by dogbarkssome

4.0 out of 5 stars hard science fiction with drama
This is a science fiction in the literal sense of the term. The author speculates on the colonisation of Mars, how, why, when, who can do it. Read more
Published on 1 May 2006 by RAMON

2.0 out of 5 stars Slow and dissappointing
I know that a large number of people think this is a great book but I didn't see it myself. I prefer something with more energy but this rarely got above walking pace... Read more
Published on 21 Jan 2006 by M. Bryant

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Science Fiction novel
"Red Mars" is so realistic that it almost reads like a work of narrative history documenting events that have taken place many years ago. Read more
Published on 30 Aug 2005 by L. Davidson

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book I have read (just not the other two)
I could never get into Green Mars so I stopped reading the trilogy there but Red Mars was the first (and only) book I read twice! Absolutely bloody fantastic in every way. Read more
Published on 14 Dec 2004 by Johan De-silva

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