Green Mars (1993)

This was stronger than Red Mars. Red Mars could introduce all the technology, so Green Mars could mostly just use all that to focus more on the people. Green Mars builds very much on Red Mars - it hardly stands on its own. And it hardly ends either. It's got a dynamic end that points ahead... well, I plan to read Blue Mars anyway! ( )

6

Good, but long with virtually no action. Only recommend if you get super nerded out on Mars terraforming ( )

It's interesting how much I remember about these books, almost 20 years after having first read them, but even more interesting how much I didn't remember. I didn't remember any of the political stuff. I'm guessing it wasn't as interesting to me then as it is now.

There are some anachronisms in this book, which makes sense as it was written in the 90's. Faxes, tape recordings... but even so, the author pretty much gets smart watches and smart phones (wrist pads), tablets (lecterns), and has somewhat conceived of "the nets," although this vision of the future does not include social media. (I could happily live with that future!) But I think the larger anachronisms are in thinking that there would be so many metanats in the future, and that when they take over each other they become weaker rather than stronger.

One last thing rubbing me the wrong way, although really it does not detract from how much I'm enjoying re-reading this trilogy. Sax claims that the scariest thing for governments is massive protests out on the streets. I say that the scariest thing for governments are free and fair elections. Perhaps if this book were written in 2021 and not 1994, Sax would be a little more jaded about these things. ( )

This is a very memorable book - IMO the most memorable one in the entire series. The synopsis doesn't quite do it justice though. It's not a space opera, and you'll be disappointed if you're expecting one. This series is mostly a somewhat subversive, story-driven critique of corporatism and statism which is written in an engaging (and fun) way.

What sets this book apart is that the colonization of Mars isn't presented as some uplifting tech-driven hopium-fuelled process. This here is a grim, gruelling, conflict-laden intergenerational project where scientific idealism gets crushed under the massive weight of politics and economic realities. In fact, it's interesting to observe the genre shift throughout the series: The technical/ethical debates seen in the first book are at this point somewhat diminished and are increasingly replaced by political/economic bargaining and scheming. And of course, it's not just about Mars - about 1/3 of the book (and the plot) is about climate-change-wracked "malthusian age" Earth and its ripple effects on Mars. ( )