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Blue Mars

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Blue Mars

Written by: Kim Stanley Robinson
Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
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Acclaimed visionary author Kim Stanley Robinson is a Hugo and Nebula Award-winner. Blue Mars is the final volume in Robinson's seminal science-fiction trilogy, which began with Red Mars and continues with Green Mars.

The once red and barren terrain of Mars is now green and rich with life - plant, animal, and human. But idyllic Mars is in a state of political upheaval, plagued by violent conflict between those who would keep the planet green and those who want to return it to a desert world.

Meanwhile, across the void of space, old, tired Earth spins on its decaying axis. A natural disaster threatens to drown the already far too polluted and overcrowded planet. The people of Earth are getting desperate. Maybe desperate enough to wage interplanetary war for the chance to begin again.

Blue Mars is a complex and completely enthralling saga - as convincing and lushly imagined a future as anyone has ever dreamed. Richard Ferrone narrates this sweeping epic with engaging personality and finesse.

©1996 Kim Stanley Robinson (P)2002 Recorded Books Fantasy Fiction Science Fiction Solar System Mars Socialism
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What the critics say

  • Hugo Award, Best Novel, 1997

"Robinson's achievement here is on a par with Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and Herbert's Dune." (Publishers Weekly)
"A well-written, thoughtful conclusion to the trilogy." (Library Journal)
All stars
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I liked Red mars but as he progesses to blue mars he loses me. Some people may like but in the end it seemed tedious

Kinda of wanders

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Its hard to imagine anyone who loves Mars more than this author. He enters the world with such a deep dive that he creates a true sense of being there through every step of the terraforming story, a vast and diverse set of characters, economy, philosophy, and vision for the future. Sometimes challenging in its detail, its science and depth are astounding. I felt like I was there with the First 100.

Amazing trilogy

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Overall, the trilogy feels quite dated. I have no doubts that the writers of the Expanse had read this and used inspiration for their novels. But somehow it's obvious that Robinson was following tightly in his mentor's (Le Guin) footsteps, three decades late.
Red Mars felt right for telling the colonisation of Mars. But the descriptions and speech didn't feel right. There was no telling one character's speech from another, and it shows through the narrator because he shows range for background characters, but especially those of the 100 sound samish and there are times when the wrong character says another's line or the emotion used doesn't make sense.
Dryness in descriptions go on for entire chapters. Robinson will describe several landscapes and just throw at you every basic primary colour (mostly red, purple, and black), and then use technical terms so specific, like Areological terms and describe entire scientific processes in jargon, which he might've gotten directly from an expert in the field or may have made it up. It makes it feel so dated to try and make such specific predictions.
And finally Blue in particular had some of the most pornographic depictions of sex in any sci-fi novel. I can't believe there's any reason why he couldn't just gloss over "tabling" in one short sentence.
I think he got too carried away with descriptions.

Too many details and not much in them

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spent way too much time telling Ann story. most of the individual backstories for characters just took way too long and board the hell out of me. the sex at the very end was terrible

Boring and overly sexualized

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Great trilogy with an (IMO) fairly realistic look at how settling and terraforming Mars would work out. Lots of politics so if that's not your thing then these books might not be for you, and the story can be a bit dry at times but the character development and detailed descriptions of the politics and science of terraforming Mars are absolutely amazing. Some of the characters annoyed me at certain parts throughout the trilogy only to turn out even better later on in the trilogy. Amazing character development. The narrator is also absolutely amazing IMO, it took a while for me to appreciate him but the more characters that get introduced just makes him even better. I can tell which character is speaking just based off how the narrator is speaking, it's quite impressive. It's a shame the narrator for this trilogy didn't do more of KSR's work.

Great trilogy with an amazing narrator

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