Green Mars and Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars.

The Short of It

Plot: The ongoing evolution of Mars following its colonization. 

Page Count: 

Green Mars: 650

Blue Mars: 780

Award: 

Green Mars: 1994 Hugo, 1994 Locus SF

Blue Mars: 1997 Hugo, 1997 Locus SF

Worth a read: Nope (Directed by Jordan Peele)
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: Pass
Technobabble: Make it stop.
Review: Written in response to somebody who said, "Mr. Robinson, I enjoyed Red Mars, but it was just too exciting." This might be the dullest trilogy known to humankind. A massive spread of different topics and world building come into play, once again immaculately detailed. It is just impossible to care because it is impossible to be engaged in any part of this book. A lot of important plot and character moments are built upon an assumed connection between the reader and the First Hundred, which is simply not there. These books are just so ungodly boring.

The Medium of It

Spoiler Free!

And then, in the shelter of some huge boulders, he came upon an amphitheater of fellfieid, dotted with flowers like flecks of paint; and at the bottom of the field was a little alpine meadow, south-facing and shockingly green, the mats of grass and sedge all cut with ice-coated watercourses. And around the edges of the amphitheater, sheltered in cracks and under rocks, hunched a number of dwarf trees.

It was krummholz, then, which in the evolution of mountain landscapes was the next stage after alpine meadows. The dwarf trees he had spotted were actually members of ordinary species, mostly white spruce, Picea glauca, which in these harsh conditions miniaturized on their own, contouring into the protected spaces they sprouted in. Or had been planted in, more likely. Sax saw some lodgepole pine, Pinus contorta, joining the more numerous white spruce. These were the most cold-tolerant trees on Earth, and apparently the Biotique team had added salt tolerance from trees like the tamarisks. All kinds of engineering had been done to aid them, and yet still the extreme conditions stunted their growth, until trees that might have grown thirty meters high crouched in little knee-high pockets of protection, sheered off by winds and winter snowpacks as if by hedge clippers. Thus the name krummholz, German for “crooked wood” or perhaps “elfin wood”—the zone where trees first managed to take advantage of the soil-building work of fellfields and alpine meadows. Treelimit.

So. Boring.

The Long of It

Spoilers Ahead!

If I were feeling more inspired I would produce a rant of some kind about the ceaseless tedium that is the Mars Trilogy. What else is there to say? My issues with these books are about my dislike of the very core of what they are. It's the hardest of science fiction at the cost of story, characters, and enjoyability.

Lots of series cultivate our goodwill towards characters in early books, so that later ones can focus more on other elements. The Dresden Files relies heavily upon this, to the degree that we tend to forgive Harry for being a monster every now and again. The Vorkosigan Saga does the same with some characters. The distinction is that both authors are correct - I care about those characters, and when bad things happen to them, I'm invested. 

Much of both Green Mars and Blue Mars involve clashes between the old guard and the new. We are meant to understand that the old guard, the First Hundred, are usually in the right. We are supposed to know that they are right because we trust them. But that trust between character and reader was never sufficiently developed, and instead we are simply thrust into arguments in which we have no stake. 

I can gripe about lots of other things - the bizarrely written sex scenes that come out of nowhere, the way happenstance often comes into play, the inhuman way that many characters speak and interact. Ultimately, none of that matters. I've read and reviewed plenty of books that were clunky, plenty chock full of coincidences, and sex scenes in science fiction... well, those don't tend to be an author's strongest work. The simple fact remains that these books are just an absolute snooze to read. Every page drags. Every chapter is a chore.

I guess we should leave Mars alone for now, Stranger.

And don't forget to read a book!