| Red Mars | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Kim Stanley Robinson |
| Cover artist | Don Dixon |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Mars Trilogy |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Spectra/Bantam Dell/Random House |
| Publication date | January 1, 1993 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 519 pp. (hardcover) |
| ISBN | 0-553-09204-9 |
| OCLC Number | 26054317 |
| Dewey Decimal | 813/.54 20 |
| LC Classification | PS3568.O2893 R44 1993 |
| Preceded by | none |
| Followed by | Green Mars |
| Green Mars | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Kim Stanley Robinson |
| Cover artist | Don Dixon |
| Country | UniteAnnd States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Mars Trilogy |
| Genre(s) | Science Fiction |
| Publisher | Spectra/Bantam Dell/Random House |
| Publication date | March 1, 1994 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 535 pp. (hardcover) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-553-09640-0 |
| Preceded by | Red Mars |
| Followed by | Blue Mars |
| Blue Mars | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Kim Stanley Robinson |
| Cover artist | Don Dixon |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Mars Trilogy |
| Genre(s) | Science Fiction |
| Publisher | Spectra/Bantam Dell/Random House |
| Publication date | June 1, 1996 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 609 pp. (hardcover) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-553-10144-7 |
| Preceded by | Green Mars |
| Followed by | none |
| The Martians | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Kim Stanley Robinson |
| Cover artist | Don Dixon |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Mars Trilogy |
| Genre(s) | Science Fiction |
| Publisher | Spectra/Bantam Dell/Random House |
| Publication date | September 1, 1999 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 352 pp (Hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-553-80117-1 |
The Mars trilogy is a series of award-winning science fiction novels by Kim Stanley Robinson that chronicles the settlement and terraforming of the planet Mars through the intensely personal and detailed viewpoints of a wide variety of characters spanning almost two centuries. Ultimately more utopian than dystopian, the story focuses on egalitarian, sociological, and scientific advances made on Mars, while Earth suffers from overpopulation and ecological disaster.
The three novels are Red Mars (1992), Green Mars (1993), and Blue Mars (1996). The Martians (1999) is a collection of short stories set in the same fictional universe. The main trilogy won a number of prestigious awards. Icehenge (1984), Robinson's first novel about Mars, is not set in this universe but deals with similar themes and plot elements.
Contents |
Red Mars starts in 2026 with the first colonial voyage to Mars aboard the Ares, the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever built (interestingly, from space shuttle external fuel tanks which, instead of incinerating in the atmosphere, have been boosted into orbit until enough had been amassed to build a ship) and home to a crew who are to be the first hundred Martian colonists. The mission is a joint Russian-American undertaking, and the First Hundred are mostly drawn from these countries (excepting one Michel Duval, a French psychologist assigned to observe their behavior). The book details the trip out, construction of the first settlement on Mars (eventually called Underhill) by Nadia Chernyshevski, debates among the colonists regarding both the terraforming of the planet and its future relationship to Earth. The two extreme views on terraforming are personified by Saxifrage "Sax" Russell, who believes their very presence on the planet means some level of terraforming has already begun, and Ann Clayborne, who stakes out the position that humankind does not have the right to change entire planets at their will.
Russell's view is initially purely scientific but in time comes to blend with the views of Hiroko Ai, the chief of the Agricultural Team who assembles a new belief system (the "Areophany") devoted to the appreciation and furthering of life ("viriditas"); these views are collectively known as the "Green" position, while Clayborne's naturalist stance comes to be known as "Red." The actual decision is left to the United Nations Organization Mars Authority (UNOMA), which greenlights terraforming, and a series of actions get underway, including the drilling of "moholes" to release subsurface heat; thickening of the atmosphere according to a complicated formula that comes to be known as the "Russell cocktail" after Sax Russell; and the detonation of nuclear explosions deep in the permafrost. Additional steps are taken to connect Mars more closely with Earth, including the insertion of a geosynchronous asteroid "Clarke" to which a space elevator cable is tethered.
Against the backdrop of this development is another debate, one whose principal instigator is Arkady Bogdanov of the Russian contingent (possibly named in homage to the Russian polymath and science fiction writer Alexander Bogdanov). Bogdanov argues that Mars need not and should not be subject to Earth traditions, limitations, or authority. He is to some extent joined in this position by John Boone, famous as the "First Man on Mars" from a preceding expedition and rival to Frank Chalmers, the technical leader of the American contingent. Their rivalry is further exacerbated by competing romantic interest in Maya Katarina Toitovna, the leader of the Russian contingent. (In the opening of the book, Chalmers instigates a sequence of events that leads to Boone being killed; much of what follows is a retrospective examination of what got things to that point.)
Earth meanwhile increasingly falls under the control of transnational corporations (TransNats) that come to dominate its governments, particularly smaller nations adopted as "flags of convenience." As UNOMA's power erodes, the Mars treaty is renegotiated in a move led by Frank Chalmers; the outcome is impressive but proves short-lived as the nations of Earth clash over limited resources, expanding debt, and population growth as well as restrictions on access to a new longevity treatment developed by Martian science -- one that holds the promise of lifespans into the hundreds of years. In 2061, with Boone dead and exploding immigration threatening the fabric of Martian society, Bogdanov launches a revolution against what many now view as occupying TransNat troops operating only loosely under an UNOMA rubber-stamp approval. Initially successful, the revolution proves infeasible on the basis of both a greater-than-expected willingness of the Earth troops to use violence and the extreme vulnerability of life on a planet without a habitable atmosphere. A series of exchanges sees the cutting of the space elevator, bombardment of several Martian cities (including the city where Bogdanov is himself organizing the rebellion; he is killed), the destruction of Phobos and its military complex, and the unleashing of great flood of torrential groundwater freed by nuclear means.
By the end, most of the First Hundred are dead, and virtually all who remain have fled to a refuge established years earlier by Ai and her followers. (One exception is Phyllis Boyle, who has allied herself with the TransNats; she is on Clarke when the space elevator cable is cut and sent flying out of orbit to a fate unknown by the conclusion of the book.) The revolution dies and life on Mars returns to a sense of stability under heavy TransNat control. War breaks out on Earth but cease-fire arrangements are reached when the TransNats flee to the safety of the developed nations, which use their huge armies to restore order. But a new generation of humans born on Mars holds the promise of change. In the meantime, the remaining First Hundred -- including Russell, Clayborne and Chernyshevski -- settle into life in Zygote, hidden under the South Polar ice.
Green Mars takes its title from the stage of terraforming that has allowed plants to grow. It picks up the story from Red Mars, following the lives of the remaining First Hundred and their children and grandchildren. Hiroko Ai's base under the south pole is attacked by UN Transitional Authority (UNTA) forces, and the survivors are forced to escape into a (less literal) underground organization known as the Demimonde. Among the expanded group are the First Hundred's children, the Nisei, a number of whom live in Hiroko's second secret base, Zygote.
As unrest in the multinational control over Mars' affairs grow, various groups start to form with different aims and methods. Watching these groups evolve from Earth, the CEO of the Praxis Corporation sends a representative, Arthur Randolph, to organize the resistance movements. This culminates into the Dorsa Brevia agreement, in which nearly all the underground factions take part. Preparations are made for a second revolution beginning in the 2120s.
The book follows the characters across the martian landscape, which is explained in detail. As Russell's character infiltrates the transnat terraforming project, the newly evolving martian biosphere is described at great length. A mainstay of the novel is a detailed analysis of philosophical, political, personal, economical, and geological experiences of the characters. The story weaves back and forth from character to character, providing a picture of Mars as seen by them.
One major event is a sudden, catastrophic rise in Earth's global sea levels, which is caused not primarily by any greenhouse effect but by the eruption of a chain of volcanoes underneath the ice of west Antarctica, disintegrating the ice sheet and displacing the fragments into the ocean.
Blue Mars takes its title from the stage of terraforming that has allowed atmospheric pressure and temperature to increase so that liquid water can exist on the planet's surface, forming rivers and seas. It follows from the end of Green Mars and has a much wider scope than the previous two books, covering an entire century after the second revolution. As Earth is heavily flooded by the sudden melting of the Antarctic ice cap, the once mighty Metanats are brought to their knees; as the Praxis Corporation paves a new way of "democratic businesses". Mars becomes the "Head" of the system, giving universal healthcare, free education, and an abundance of food. However, this sparks illegal immigration from Earth, so to ease the population strain on the Blue Planet, Martian scientists and engineers are soon put to the task of creating asteroid cities; where small planetoids of the Belt are hollowed out, given a spin to produce gravity, and a mini-sun is created to produce light and heat.
With a vast increase in sciences, technologies, and spacecraft manufacturing, this begins the "Accelerando"; where humankind spreads its civilization throughout the Solar System, and eventually beyond. As Venus, the Jovian moons, the Saturnian moons, and eventually Triton are colonized and terraformed in some way, Jackie Boone (the granddaughter of John Boone, the first man to walk on Mars from the first book) takes an interstellar vessel (made out of an asteroid) to another star system twenty light-years away, where they will start to terraform the planets and moons found there.
The Martians is a collection of short stories that takes place over the timespan of the original trilogy of novels, as well as some stories that take place in an alternate version of the novels where the First Hundred's mission was one of exploration rather than colonization. Buried in the stories are several hints about the eventual fate of the Martian terraforming program.
Trans-national Corporations, nicknamed "Transnats", are extremely powerful multinational corporations that first emerge in the mid-21st century. Robinson tracks the evolution of the transnats into what he terms "Metanats" (metanational). These multinational corporations have grown so large as a result of globalization that they have sufficient economic power to take over or strongly manipulate national governments, initially only relatively small third-world governments, but later, larger developed governments too, effectively running whole countries. In Robinson's future history, the metanational corporations become similar to nation-states in some respects, while continually attempting to take over competitors in order to become the sole controller of the interplanetary market. As the Mars trilogy draws to a close in the mid-22nd century, the metanational corporations are forced by a global catastrophe to concede more democratic powers to their workforces.
Although there are many transnational and metanational corporations mentioned, two play an active role in the development of the plotline. Praxis, a largely benevolent and relatively democratic firm, and Subarashī, which plays a large role in the maltreatment of the citizens of Mars.
Genetic engineering is first mentioned in Red Mars; it takes off when Sax creates an alga to withstand the harsh Martian temperature and convert its atmosphere into breathable air. Eventually this is done on a massive scale, with thousands of types of GE algae, lichen and bacteria being created to terraform the planet. In Green Mars, GE animals began to be created to withstand the thin Martian atmosphere, and to produce a working planetary-biosphere. By Blue Mars, GE is commonly being done on humans, willingly, to help them better adapt to the new worlds; to breathe thinner air (e.g. Russell), or to see better in the dimmer light of the outer planets.
The books also speculate on the colonization of other planets and moons in the solar system, and include descriptions of settlements or terraforming efforts on Callisto, Mercury, Titania, Miranda and Venus. Toward the end of the last novel, humans are taking sub-light colony ships to other stars, taking advantage of the longevity treatments to survive the trip to their destinations.
A great portion of Blue Mars is concerned with the effects of extreme longevity on its protagonists, most of whom have lived over two hundred years as a result of repeated longevity treatments. In particular, Robinson speculates on the psychological effects of ultra-longevity including memory loss, personality change, mental instability, and existential boredom.
The initial colonists from the Ares who established a permanent colony. Many of them later become leaders or exemplary figures in the transformation of Mars or its new society. The "First Hundred" actually consisted of 101, with Coyote being smuggled aboard the Ares by Hiroko
An American astronaut, and the first man on Mars, he returns a public hero and uses his considerable influence to lobby for a second mission, this time one of colonization. Boone received a large amount of radiation on his first trip to Mars, more than the recommended dosage according to medical regulations. However, his celebrity status allows him to skirt this. On the second voyage, Boone is one of the "First Hundred" colonists sent to permanently colonize Mars. His accomplishments and natural charm yield him an informal leadership role. In the first chapter of Red Mars, John Boone is assassinated in a plot instigated by Frank Chalmers. The narrative then steps back to the First Hundred's voyage to Mars aboard the spaceship Ares. His ideas continue as a point of reference for the remainder of the trilogy. Boone's character portrayal is complex; in one light, Boone is a stereotypically simple, heroic figure, an everyman hero: his first words on his first trip to Mars are "Well, here we are." He is almost uniformly cheerful and good-natured, and approaches everything he undertakes with hale bonhomie. But later in Red Mars, Robinson switches to Boone's point of view, and it is in this section that it is revealed that late in life, Boone is addicted to omegendorph, a fictional drug that is based on endorphins in the human brain. In addition, it reveals that at least some of his seeming simplicity might simply be an act designed to further his political goals. Overall, Boone is presented as larger-than-life.
Head of the American contingent, he is Machiavellian in his use of power. However, his cynicism is later shown to be a form of self-defense; Chalmers is at least partly driven by a hidden idealistic side. Early in the voyage to Mars, he becomes romantically involved with Maya Toitovna, the leader of the Russian contingent of the mission. During the second-half of the voyage, Toitovna becomes involved with Boone. Already bitter that Boone was allowed to join the colonization mission despite his manipulations, Chalmers further despises Boone because of Toitovna's affection. His dislike culminates in his involvement in a plot to assassinate Boone, which ultimately succeeds. In the final chapters of Red Mars, Chalmers flees with Toitovna and other members of the First Hundred to join the hidden colonists at the polar ice cap but dies along the way when he is caught outside their vehicle during an aquifer flood.
An emotional woman who is at the center of a love triangle between Boone and Chalmers, she begins as head of the Russian contingent. The novels hint that she used both wit and seduction to rise through the ranks of the Russian space agency to become the leader of the first colonization mission. After the first revolution, she flees with other members of the First Hundred to the hidden colony in the pole. She becomes a school teacher of the children of the hidden colonists but later becomes a powerful political force. After the deaths of Chalmers and Boone, she falls in love with Michel Duval. She suffers heavily from bipolar disorder and from memory-related psychological disorders with growing age.
A Russian engineer who started out building nuclear reactors in Siberia, during the voyage and initial exploration of Mars, she does her best to avoid the squabbles of the other members of the First Hundred. Instead, she busies herself by building the first permanent habitation of Mars, Underhill, using programmed automated robots. She also helps to construct a new and larger habitat, and research facility in a nearby canyon. In the later books, she becomes a reluctant politician. Chernyshevski is in love with Bogdanov and is devastated when he is killed in an attack by anti-revolutionary forces associated with UNOMA, the transnationals and Phyllis Boyle during the first Martian revolution. In retaliation for Bogdanov's murder, she activates his hidden weapon system, built into Phobos, which causes the entire moon (a UNOMA/transnational military base) to decelerate in orbit and destructively aerobrake in Mars' atmosphere, utterly destroying it. In Green Mars, she falls in love with Art Randolph, with whom she eventually starts a family. After Martian independence, she grudgingly becomes the first president of Mars.
An engineer with anarchist leanings, possibly based on Russian futurists, Alexander Bogdanov (the character's ancestor) and Arkady Strugatsky, he is regarded by many other members of the First Hundred, particularly Boyle, as a troublemaker. He leads the team which establishes an outpost on the moon Phobos, and leads an uprising against the transnational corporation towards the end of first novel. Like Boone, his political ideas (later known as Bogdanovism) weigh heavily on characters later in the series. In love with Nadia Chernyshevski, he is killed during the first Martian revolution in 2061.
An American physicist, he is a brilliant and creative scientist, and is greatly respected for his intellectual gifts. However, he is socially awkward and often finds it difficult to understand and relate to other people. Russell is a leader of the Green movement, the goal of which is to terraform Mars. During Green Mars, Sax suffers a stroke while being tortured by government security forces and fellow member of the First Hundred, Phyllis Boyle. He subsequently suffers from Broca's aphasia and has to relearn how to speak. Originally apolitical, this event and a growing attachment to Mars itself leads Russell to become the physical architect of the second revolution. He is also secretly in love with Ann Clayborne, who cannot stand him at first but, after decades on Mars, eventually reconciles. Saxifrage means "stonebreaker" and is the name for an Alpine plant that grows between stones.
Clayborne is an American geologist, one of the first areologists, and the original Red. She believes that Mars should be preserved in its pristine state. She becomes a leader of the Red movement, which is dedicated to the goal of preserving Mars as it was before human colonization. She is frequently seen as bitter and prefers to live in solitude on extensive trips while exploring Mars. She has a hate-love relationship with Saxifrage "Sax" Russell, an American physicist and leader of the Green Mars movement, which wants to terraform Mars. After she shows signs of aging and her death seems imminent, Russell has the longevity treatment administered to her while she is comatose. She develops a more complex personality afterward — sometimes remaining close to her isolationist position, and at other times appreciating the treatment and Mars in its terraformed state.
A Japanese expert on biology, agriculture, and ecological systems, it was Ai who smuggled Desmond "Coyote" Hawkins onto the Ares (the two were friends and lovers as students in London). She is the charismatic leader of the farm team, one of the important work groups and cliques among the First Hundred. She thus becomes the focus of many of the trilogy's central themes. Most importantly, she teaches the importance of maintaining a respectful relation with one's planet. On Mars, this is called the Areophany. In the secret colony Zygote, which Hiroko established, the first generation of children of the First Hundred, the ectogenes, are all the product of artificial insemination outside of any human body. Hiroko uses the ova of the female members of the First Hundred as the female genetic material and uses the sperm of the male members of the First Hundred to fertilize the ova. Although Hiroko is seldom at the center of the narrative, her influence is pervasive. She disappears for the final time in Green Mars. Her ultimate fate is left unresolved. In Japanese, ai means love.
A French psychologist assigned to monitor the psychological welfare of the First Hundred, first in Antarctica and later on Mars, he is often treated as an observer rather than as a member of the group. His aloof personality enforces this ostracism and also subverts his relationships with others. During the first disappearance of the farm team, he is invited by Hiroko to flee with the farm team and establish Zygote, the first hidden colony. He desperately wants to return to Provence as he remembers it, although after visiting as a part of the Martian diplomatic mission to Earth, he becomes even more homesick. Duval falls in love with Maya Toitovna and dies after she displays signs of very heavy temporary memory loss.
A Russian biological scientist, nearly sixty when arriving on Mars, he is the oldest of the First Hundred. Taneev is the head of all medical treatment and research projects on Mars. He became famous as the creator of the gerontological treatment to stave off death. He lived in Acheron on the Great Escarpment in the north of Mars before fleeing to the hidden colony after the First Revolution. He lived in a ménage à trois with Ursula and Marina, the exact nature of which is never resolved.
A Christian-American geologist who favors corporate control of Mars, her harsh personality does not win her many friends among the First Hundred. She eventually sides against most of the First Hundred with the increasingly authoritarian United Nations Office of Mars Affairs (UNOMA), its successor - the corporate/quasi-fascist United Nations Transitional Authority (UNTA), and the transnational corporations. She was in charge of Clarke, an artificially captured asteroid that was the counterweight of the First Space Elevator until members of the first revolution in 2061 sent it spinning off into the outer Solar System. She survived and was able to bring the crew of the station back to the inner systems. She engaged in a brief sexual relationship with Saxifrage Russell, who despised her, while he was living under an assumed identity. Boyle is killed by Maya Toitovna during the rescue of Russell from Kasei Vallis after Maya discovered that Phyllis was torturing Sax. Later, it is revealed by Russell that, immediately prior to her death, Boyle had been opposed to his torture and demanded that he be released.
A Trinidadian stowaway, he is a friend and supporter of Hiroko, and a fervent anarchist communist. Present in Red Mars only as a shadowy figure who blends effortlessly into the Martian background, he is not even identified as anything more than the Coyote until the beginning of Green Mars. He becomes a leading figure in the underground and an unofficial coordinator of a developing gift economy.
Since the trilogy covers over 200 years of human history, later immigrants and the children and grandchildren of the First Hundred eventually become important characters in their own right.
The Martians use the same terminology for different generations as Japanese Americans. People who immigrated from Earth are called issei, the first generation born on Mars are nisei, and the second-generation Martians are sansei.
The Mars trilogy rights were at one point held by James Cameron,[6] who planned a five-hour miniseries to be directed by Martha Coolidge,[7] but he passed on the option. Later Gale Ann Hurd planned a similar mini-series for the Sci-Fi Channel, which also remained unproduced.[8] Then, in October 2008, it was reported that AMC and Jonathan Hensleigh had teamed up and were planning to develop a television mini-series based on Red Mars.[9]
The content of Green Mars and the cover artwork for Red Mars are included on the Phoenix DVD, carried onboard Phoenix, a NASA lander that successfully touched down on Mars in May 2008. The First Interplanetary Library is intended to be a sort of time capsule for future Mars explorers and colonists.[10]
The Red Faction series bears remarkable similarity to the Mars trilogy, with a similar overarching storyline (the martian revolution) and many of the same techniques were used to change the surface.
The trilogy has been translated into Spanish, French, German, Polish, Hebrew, Japanese, and Romanian, among others.
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