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Review Features
S - Science Fiction
F - Fantasy
H - Horror
Complete Listing
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Adams, Douglas (S)
Asher, Neal (S)
Aylett, Steve (S)
Banks, Iain M (S)
Barclay, James (F)
Barker, Clive (H)
Baxter, Stephen (S)
Brin, David (S)
Bury, Stephen (S)
Card, Orson Scott (S)
Cherryh, CJ (S/F)
Clute, John (S)
Cockayne, Steve (F)
Cook, Glen (F)
Danielewski, Mark (H)
Dick, Philip K (S)
Egan, Greg (S)
Feist, Raymond (F)
Gaiman, Neil (F)
Gibson, William (S)
Goodkind, Terry (F)
Grimwood, Jon C (S)
Hamilton, Peter (S)
Jeter, K.W. (S)
Jordan, Robert (F)
Lethem, Jonathan (S)
McAuley, Paul (S)
MacLeod, Ken (S)
Martin, George RR (F)
McMullen, Sean (S)
Miéville, China (S)
Moran, Daniel K (S)
Morgan, Richard K (S)
Nagata, Linda (S)
Niven, Larry (S)
Noon, Jeff (S)
Robinson, Kim S. (S)
Rucker, Rudy (S)
Simmons, Dan (S)
Smith, Michael Marshall (S)
Stephenson, Neal (S)
Sterling, Bruce (S)
Vinge, Vernor (S)
Westerfeld, Scott (S)
Williams, Sean (S)
Williams, Tad (S/F)
Collections (S/F)
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| The Classics |
Bradbury, Ray (S/H)
Burgess, Anthony (S)
Tolkien, JRR (F) |
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| Kim Stanley Robinson |
| Author Information |
Reviewed Books |
Other Books |
Notes: (M) - Mars Trilogy
Notes: (O) - Orange Country Trilogy Series |
Red Mars
(M) |
The Wild Shore (O)
The Memory of Whiteness
The Gold Coast (O)
Pacific Edge (O)
A Short, Sharp Shock
Green Mars (M)
Blue Mars (M)
Antartica |
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 Our
Ranking I picked up Red Mars after hearing a
few reviews and also having won the Nebula Award, I figured it had to be good.
The concept is fascinating enough. The first book of the series is about the beginning
of the colonization of Mars. It starts with the first colony of scientists who
land on Mars and their struggle to not only colonize it, but once it is colonized
to try and develop some form of economy/political system on Mars. The actual science
behind how Mars could be made habitable is amazing. Robison does a terrific job
theorizing how Mars could be colonized from the actual landing and setup of the
first colony to how the planet itself could eventually be transformed into not
only a planet that is more human friendly but also into a planet that can return
economic results. This alone kept me reading the first book. However where I felt
he fell short was with the characters and to a lesser extent the plot. I felt
that Robison was way too predictable with his character development. He set up
the very obvious politics that you would expect from a colony. People who want
to keep the planet the same versus people who want to change it. The problem was
the characters just seemed to extreme and zealous with their beliefs. Granted
this was supposed to be a colony of brilliant individuals so their would be some
obvious friction, but I just found myself thinking their positions and actions
to defend these positions were very unrealistic. I just didn't believe in any
of the characters. Once there, the plot suffered as a result since most of the
plot was driven by these characters actions. In all honesty, this is worth the
read just to see how Mars might actually be colonized. However, I never read beyond
this book and really there was nothing in the book compelling enough to make me
want to. |
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