Kim Stanley Robinson: Red, Green, and Blue Mars

Morning All,

Jackson here. I'm a real sucker for space exploration/terraforming novels, and Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars trilogy may be one of my favorites.

These great, sprawling books begin on Earth with the selection of the second team to head to Mars, (the first team was on a temporary exploratory mission), this time with the intention of staying.

During the long journey from Earth to Mars, the crew get into a heated discussion as to their duty to begin terraforming (making more Earth-like) the planet, ostensibly to pave to way for further waves of colonists.

This proposed terraforming inspires heated and passionate debates, with scientists closing ranks around the two polar viewpoints: One being, "our presence on this planet is a form of terraforming anyway, so why not just continue it?" And the second being: "What right do we have to destroy the natural systems of an entire planet, corrupt it with our Earthly designs, when we don't know anything about the planets' past, including whether or not it ever harbored life, and can we as scientists even take that risk?"

Of course, a third viewpoint springs up between the two extremes that merely says: "Everything will change. Mars. Us. Everything. This change will be something completely new, neither Martian nor Earthling. Life will always find a way to replicate itself. We must simply accept that this will be so."

This immense debate happens amid a flurry of activity on the colonizing ship, and only gets more heated once the colonists actually touch down on the Red Planet and set to work building the first permanent settlement on Mars. And that's just the first few chapters of book one.

A great read, full of interesting and conflicting viewpoints. The Red Mars trilogy also serves as a pretty effective (and plausible) primer on the difficulties of space travel, human group dynamics, Machiavellian politics, closed-system agriculture, solar flares, revolution, and the inevitability of a colony eventually freeing itself from the yoke of its colonial masters.

Along with Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" "Red Mars" is a must read for lovers of planetary exploration/colonization sci-fi.

Here's the Red Mars wiki.
Here's the Red Mars trilogy on Amazon.
And even better, here's the Red Mars Kindle version.


Red Mars, Red Mars, here we come. Right back where we started from...


Love,

-Jackson