Rating: 
Summary: The Color Blue: Not Quite the Sum of Red and Green
Review: In Blue Mars, Robinson maintains the same pace-setting standards of large concepts and extraordinary detail found in the earlier two volumes, Red Mars and Green Mars. The only missing ingredient is an underlying compelling plot, which is why I do not rate it as high as the first two books. Red Mars built up slowly to the first (failed) revolution. Green Mars built up just as slowly to a successful struggle for political independence. Maybe it is unfair to ask for a third-time-around plot device similar to that found in Red/Green, but its lack does make Blue a more difficult -- yet still rewarding and always thought-provoking -- read. One side of my brain says to rate it lower because it gives so much less in the way of short-term reading enjoyment. The other side of my brain says to rate it higher because it maintains the same high level of world-building and pre-conceived concept shattering. So I think I will stick right here at "8" and feel less than satisfied with this rating from both directions
Rating: 
Summary: The "Mars Series" is great for the teenage male in your life
Review: The three books in Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars Trilogy" are my absolute all-time-favorites. He is truly gifted at writing about advanced science and technology and equally adept at creating "real" characters, because he understands psychology. This is a rare talent: to be scientifically knowledgable and a master at creating believable characters. The books are part action, part scientific explanation (like Michael Crichton of Jurassic Park fame), and part character development. In "Red Mars" (the first in the series) Robinson paints a totally believable picture of what our future might be like as we get ready to explore and colonize Mars. Mega-corporations, earthly power struggles, and the selection process for determining who might get to be the first to go to Mars, are all very possible and Robinson crafts a story around these topics with ease. In the second book, "Green Mars," Robinson portrays the struggle to get vegetation growing and to create a breathable atmosphere. He also describes more political struggles between those on Earth and those on Mars. This was probably my favorite of the three, but mainly because I am more interested in the science that would be needed in this phase of colonization. In the third book, "Blue Mars," the planet become more Earth-like. The atmosphere is more developed, water travel becomes possible, and more. (I don't want to give it all away!) The books can be kind of scholarly at times, but I was so impressed with these books that I gave them to my teenage brother. He was so impressed with them, that he gave them to one of his very best pals. And we all had a blast discussing them together. If there is a teenage male in your life -- or if you love sci-fi and have always wondered what it might be like to go to Mars -- then this trilogy is definitely for you. Very highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Should have been a 10
Review: I hate to give a book by the brilliant Kim Stanley Robinson a mere 7, but this one--in fact the wholehuge trilogy--could have used another revision (a task I wouldn't wish on anyone). The grammar is shaky at points and a lot of the sentences could be clearer--not what you'd expect from Robinson's lapidary short stories and earlier novels. There are enough scientific bobbles to suggest that Robinson didn't always understand what he was writing about, and he could have taken out a TAD of the areology. I would have liked a harder look at Robinson's usual socialist/anarchist politics. Who gives the scientists at Da Vinci food? What happens to people who don't feel like working? How did Nadia handle her departure from power? But it's a tribute to Robinson's incredible achievement that I must imagine any reader of these books has a vivid picture of Nadia, and Maya and John and Frank and Sax (the most successfully drawn character) and Ann and Jackie and.... Surely any reader knows just what I mean when I wish we had seen more of Nirgal, and experiences a pleasure of familiarity on reading such phrases as "long run-out", "ecopoet", "Dorsa Brevia", and "the four great volcanoes". Though things get a little mechanical at times, Robinson made Mars real and his characters real to me. Too bad his incredible achievement was a really good trilogy, not an incredible trilogy like his Three Californias books.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful hymn to space exploration
Review: Blue Mars, while in some ways better than Red Mars, will not have the same effect on the genre. As we stated before, no imaginative work-and probably few real efforts-regarding Mars colonization will be undertaken without feeling the influence of Red Mars. Blue reads more like a poem-a work to affect the conscience and the soul. It lingers in the mind almost as a paean to the Red Mars and the struggles that allowed humans to attain the promise that we now see in them.
WHO SHOULD READ:
People who doubted Robinson after Green Mars should not pass this opportunity. It is nearly required reading for anyone who has started the series to end it here. It is not a quick read and will require the reader to constantly pause and mull over issues. But it is well worth the investment. Such a beautiful love poem to space exploration should be missed by no one who is even casually interested in NASA's efforts.
WHO SHOULD PASS:
This is most definitely not a novel that can stand on its own. It can only be read with the background of Red Mars behind it. Of course, there are elements of Green as well and-while we wish it were otherwise-it's probably necessary to go ahead and read Green first. Green is essential at least for the development of Sax Russell. People who are disturbed by free love, Socialism, and Nietzsche-esque disdain for the common folk have long since abandoned the series and will not be inspired to pick up this book.
READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW AT INCHOATUS.COM
Rating: 
Summary: Red Great, Green Good, Blue Bad
Review: Maybe it's because the first two were so very good, but Blue Mars will leave you blue in the face at its unfulfilled potential. I constantly found myself skimming boring sections re-hashed from the previous two novels, the characters lacked development in any significant way, and the storyline went virtually nowhere. Unfortunately for its readers, you have to finish Blue Mars to get closure. I bought the entire trilogy at a going-out-of-business sale for 50% off, so I can justify the money -- just not the time wasted on this final book of the series.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Conclusion to a Great Trilogy
Review: After reading "Blue Mars", I can safely conclude that Kim Stanley Robinson's trilogy is in fact one of the most ambitious projects ever attempted in science fiction. There are, of course, countless projects that tried to tell the entire story of human history and feature huge plot events where the fate of entire planets hangs in the balance. But nobody, to my knowledge, has ever done so with the same incredible level of detail that Robinson gives us. "Blue Mars" begins just minutes after where "Green Mars" ended, as various factions fight against UNTA and each other in the ongoing outburst of violence. The battles only take up about fifty pages at the start of the book, and that's followed by a segment devoted to the survivors attempting to establish a system of government on Mars. But while "Green Mars" focused almost entirely on the underground movements and the preparations for the climactic revolt, "Blue Mars" tells a more freewheeling story. As the author frequently reminds us, Mars is a big place, with space for a huge number of communities and individuals to explore and develop. The story told in this book, simply put, is huge. It goes all over the solar system and beyond, looking at how life changes in the future for a gigantic cast of characters. Some of it may seem far-fetched, but all of it is well-written and exciting. There are, as in the previous two books, a lot of passages of descriptive writing, as Robinson tries to help you visualize what he has in mind in terms of setting. In my humble opinion, these passages are the master stroke. They draw the reader into the world that the author creates, making it more real than any other science fiction novel that I can think of. "Blue Mars" is a masterpiece, and a vast improvement over the slower-paced "Green Mars".
Rating:
Summary: Great Finish
Review: Blue Mars provides a superb end to a great Trilogy. More than a century after the First Hundred colonized Mars millions of people now live on her surface. In Blue Mars Robinson speculates not only on what the future of the Fourth Planet may be like decades after colonization, but also delves into the future of intra-Solar System space flight, the future of medicine, as well as a whole host of other probable technologies. The only draw back is that this novel can, at times, mire itself in politics and seemingly forget that Mars is really big and has a lot more to offer than seemingly endless governmental meetings. This slight drawback (and it really is slight) does not however overcome the grandeur and scope of Robinson's final book in the Trilogy.
Rating:
Summary: Unconvincing end
Review: Robinson's Mars Trilogy begins as admirably written hard science fiction, based for the most part on physics and geology. As the story progresses, the plot is based more and more upon Robinson's previous suppositions than on fact - in short, he begins to extrapolate. By the last page of the last book, we're asked to believe that human beings can postpone death almost indefinitely, have solved the problem of war, and are ready to colonize space, all in about three hundred years. My willing suspension of disbelief wore out about two-thirds of the way through the last book.
|
