Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson are incredibly detailed books that dive into the colonization and terraforming of Mars and the technology that could make it possible.
Published from 1992-1996; collectively won 2 Hugos, 1 Nebula, and 2 Locus awards.
Brent: 3 stars. Red Mars has a compelling plot, incredible technical details, and some interesting characters. Unfortunately the series declines as it goes on, with steadily less sense of purpose. 4 stars Red Mars, 3 stars Green Mars, 1 star Blue Mars.
Cody: 4 stars. A difficult and rare accomplishment in middle-future sci-fi full of compelling characters, and packed dense with hard sci-fi detail. Red 4.5 - Green 3.5 - Blue Mars 3.5
Here's the setup:
Red Mars takes place in the year 2027, as humanity is colonizing Mars. We follow ten of the first hundred colonists and see the first forty years of life on Mars through their eyes. They use automated construction equipment to build towns and cities, seed the planet with heat-producing windmills and genetically modified lichen that can survive the harsh environment, dig kilometer-wide moholes to release the heat of the planet's interior into the atmosphere, become self-sustaining, and are joined by tens of thousands of additional immigrants from Earth.
Green Mars similarly takes place over the next several decades, and resolves the conflict over the future of Mars and its relationship with Earth.
Blue Mars follows those same characters after the events of Green Mars, and is largely a description of how they choose to spend the end of their lives.
Each sequel is about 20% longer than the previous book in the series. The sequels are far more concerned with politics and society building, and we also get to see more of a climate ravaged planet Earth.
Hugonauts' Thoughts:
The Mars books. Really nothing else like them! So much focus on the technology and what could be possible in the middle future. Let’s be honest, these are dense, dense novels, filled with scientific and soft scientific details and philosophy. Do you want to learn about the possibilities for automated construction equipment, heat-producing windmills, genetically modified lichen that can survive the harsh environment, creating enormous films to tent and pressurize entire cities, digging kilometer-wide moholes to release the heat of the planet's interior into the atmosphere, giant lenses in space that increase solar radiation to the planet, and building space elevator? That’s just a start. Oh, and how about attending academic conferences and Constitution-creating government assemblies in almost real time? All this and more can be yours if you read The Mars Trilogy.
Joking aside, learning all of these things was very interesting, and KSR’s characters are fun to follow. Each section closely follows a portion of the life of one of the central characters. With so many events and so much prose, it is impossible not to become attached to each of them as their lives ebb and flow, and their allegiances and values shift in their long lives.
Unfortunately, it does feel like each successive book in the trilogy is worse than the one before. Each one gets longer (748 pages for book three) and there is less central conflict in each successive book. The narrative techniques used to keep Red Mars feeling exciting (foreshadowing a very important murder, flashbacks, etc.) are all abandoned in favor of straight linear description of the timeline in the successive books.
This said, following the characters to the end of their paths is still an emotionally satisfying journey, and KSR’s depiction of what a human diaspora might actually look like in the near future is a compelling and believable vision.
Related Books
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Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
A bizarre cylindrical object is hurtling through the Solar System in the not-so-distant future. We follow a crew sent to explore and report on the giant object, and see what wonders it holds inside.
The Martian - Andy Weir
This straight-ahead thriller follows the journey of one man's mission to survive and return to Earth after a series of disasters strand him alone on Mars.
The Expanse Series - James S.A. Corey
A massive and realistic feeling series about humanity's diaspora through the solar system, with one of the most fleshed-out fictional universes that scifi has ever seen.
Watch or listen to the full Mars Trilogy discussion:
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