space

Using the last 200 years of American history as his template for Martian history, Robinson projects his tale of Mars’s colonization from the 21st century, in which settlers successfully revolt against Earth, into the next century, when various interests on Mars work out their differences on issues ranging from government to the terraforming of the planet and immigration. Sax Russell, Maya Toitovna and others reprise their roles from the first two novels, but the dominant “personality” is the planet itself, which Robinson describes in exhaustive naturalistic detail. Characters look repeatedly for sermons in its stones and are nearly overwhelmed by textbook abstracts on the biological and geological minutiae of their environment. Not until the closing chapters, when they begin confronting their mortality, does the human dimension of the story balance out its awesome ecological extrapolations.

Last week I finally finished “Blue Mars,” the final book of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy. It picks up immediately after the end of “Green Mars” and spans another 100 (Earth) years on the colonized (and now terraformed) planet.

The first portion of the novel covers the aftermath of the second revolution and the formation of the new Martian government, free of Earth/United Nations Transitional Authority control and complete with its own court system and political parties (the old revolutionary branches like the Reds, Greens, MarsFirsters, Free Mars, etc. etc.).

The terraforming effort continues throughout the book: the sea of shattered ice wrapping around the northern hemisphere of the planet has started to melt into the great Northern Sea. Eventually there are islands, boats, canals, sea life, even coastal towns.

In the middle portion, we are finally taken back to see the situation on Earth first-hand. Nirgal, the Martian native and son of Coyote, visits the “home” planet for the first time along with Maya, Sax, and Michel in an show-of-goodwill ambassadorial mission. They want to be able to help Earth with the overpopulation issue (made critical by the rising sea levels) without flooding Mars with immigrants and making the political, social, and environmental issues there any worse. It was cool to “see” Earth through Nirgal’s eyes (so much water, so much sun, so HOT!).

It’s evident to everyone that Mars is not the ultimate solution to Earth’s population problems. Continued advances in technology allow the human race to explore out even further in the solar system (which Robinson calls “the Accelerando”). One chapter takes place on Miranda, a moon of Uranus, where Ann tries to escape to the primal beauty of a landscape (as of yet) untouched by human endeavors.

Finally, the remaining First Hundred are now over 200 years old, thanks to the longevity treatments. But old age is finally starting to catch up with them and there are a few quick deaths in succession. Facing their own mortality, Sax is determined to find a cure for the “quick decline” which plays out across a few chapters on memory and brain research.

As with the prior two books, Robinson tells each part of the story from a single character’s point of view and uses the quick introductory text of each portion to move the story along (sometimes by a few weeks, sometimes by decades), which is necessary when telling a story that covers more than 100 years. I found it difficult sometimes to remember what (Earth) year it was in relation to the other books, trying to grapple with just how much time had passed. Having three or four generations’ worth of characters didn’t help either, but the breadth of detail Robinson has created was just amazing and fascinating . Overall, I really enjoyed this series start to finish, and will probably read “The Martians” just to be complete. When you consider the fact that I started “Red Mars” last August, I’ve been immersed in Robinson’s world and characters for the last 8 months!

Next, though, I’m about 30 pages into Neal Stephenson’s 1008-page “Anathem.” It’s going to be another long ride …

The sequel to Red Mars details an early 22nd-century Mars controlled by Earth’s metanationals, gigantic corporations intent on exploiting Mars. Debate among the settlers–some native-born, some the surviving members of the First Hundred–is divided between the minimalist areoformists, who have come to love Mars in all its harshness, and the terraformists, who want to replicate Earth. As the surface of Mars warms and is seeded with genetically altered plants, the settlers await Earth’s self-destruction, which they hope will give them a chance to claim their independence.

It took almost two months since finishing the prior book (I haven’t had a lot of free reading time lately) but I just finished “Green Mars,” the second installment of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy.

“Green” starts roughly 14 (Earth) years after the end of “Red.” To the new generation of native-born children, Mars is the only home they’ve known, and due to the effects of growing up in the lower gravity of Mars, they’ll never be able to go there. But they don’t care about Earth … these children (the ectogenes) are splintering off into more semi-political groups like the Reds or Marsfirsters as the planet continues to struggle with the metanational corporations back home. Meanwhile, the terraforming efforts continue to change the face of the red planet: algaes, lichen, and moss are being joined by stunted trees, shrubs, and flowering plants. The surface temperature, atmospheric pressure, and oxygen levels are slowly rising, as the CO2 levels are getting lower. Pumps all over the planet continue to fill the lower basins with water from below the surface. It’s all broken ice now, but eventually it will melt and become the new Martian seas.

Jumping forward about 50 years, the majority of the book takes place in the early 2120s, and the reader is reunited with several of the First Hundred who originally landed on Mars nearly 100 years earlier. The space elevator is back, and the latest massive construction project is the soletta: a 10,000 kilometer wide “magnifying glass” orbiting halfway between the sun and Mars, intensifying the sun’s rays providing more light and heat.

Some things never change, though. The remaining members of the First Hundred are still in hiding, as fugutives since the first attempt at revolution. Political and cultural pressures continue to pull everyone in different directions. Will the future see an independent Mars? Or will history repeat itself with another deadly revolution like ’61? Read the wiki article for a better summary. 😉

Robinson’s writing is incredibly detailed, both at the scientific, cultural, and political levels. Just like in the first book, each major part of the story is seen from a particular character’s point of view. Even though I read these two books back-to-back, it was like being reunited with old lost friends from the first novel: Maya, Nadia, Sax, or Ann. I’m looking forward to starting the final book, “Blue Mars” over the upcoming holiday.

For eons, sandstorms have swept the barren desolate landscape of the red planet. For centuries, Mars has beckoned to mankind to come and conquer its hostile climate. Now, in the year 2026, a group of one hundred colonists is about to fulfill that destiny.

John Boone, Maya Toitavna, Frank Chalmers, and Arkady Bogdanov lead a mission whose ultimate goal is the terraforming of Mars. For some, Mars will become a passion driving them to daring acts of courage and madness; for others it offers and opportunity to strip the planet of its riches. And for the genetic “alchemists, ” Mars presents a chance to create a biomedical miracle, a breakthrough that could change all we know about life…and death.

While traveling last weekend I finally finished “Red Mars,” the first book in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy. While first and foremost an SF novel (it is about Mars colonization after all, and even includes an incredible space elevator) it broaches some interesting scientific, technological, environmental, cultural, and political subjects. The novel follows the first colonists on Mars and over a span of 40 years tells the story of how the small scientific expedition becomes embroiled in a miasma of issues they did not expect.

The problems begin shortly after The First Hundred arrive on the red planet. It becomes quickly apparent that everyone did and said what they had to in order to pass through the rigorous process back on Earth to get selected for the expedition to Mars. Three different factions begin to emerge: those who think Mars should be left in its pristine state for study and research (the Reds), the terraformers who want to start transforming Mars into a human-habitable planet as quickly as possible (without regard for the current environment), and the “new Martians” who believe that a new culture, religion, and way of living in harmony with the planet needs to be established.

As the years pass, more and more people start arriving on the planet as conditions back on Earth continue to worsen. Most are sent by the huge transnational corporations back on Earth who want to exploit the planet (in blatant disregard of the international treaty set by the United Nations) for its wealth of natural resources that are running out back home. Mars becomes the new frontier with towns and cities being established all over, but due to the environmental constraints of having to live inside domes and tents, they quickly become overcrowded and start to exhibit the same problems as Terran cities. Shortly, whole groups of people start disappearing, supposedly joining a faction of the First Hundred known as the Areophany that are living somewhere in a hidden colony.

Will human history repeat itself on Mars, or can the First Hundred manage to keep the peace on their new home? Can a middle ground be found for all interests involved, or will revolution and war consume the red planet?

I really enjoyed this first book of the trilogy and have already started the second book, “Green Mars.”

25 years have passed since humanity quarantined the mysterious aliens known as Moties within the confines of their own solar system. They have spent a quarter century analyzing and agonizing over the deadly threat posed by the only aliens mankind has ever encountered, doomed by millions of years of evolution to an inescapable fate. For the Moties must breed– or die. And now the fragile wall separating them and the galaxy beyond is beginning to crumble.

On my flight to Phoenix last week I finally polished off the last hundred pages of Larry Niven’s and Jerry Pournelle’s “The Gripping Hand.” Written about 20 years after “The Mote in God’s Eye,” the sequel picks up the story of Kevin Renner, Horace Bury, Rod and Sally Blaine, and, of course, the Moties.

It’s been 25 years since the Empire established the Crazy Eddie blockade fleet to prevent the Moties from escaping out of their home system. The aliens have tried different methods of getting through the blockade, but none have succeeded. Bury and Renner, who have been working as undercover agents for Naval Intelligence, think they’ve discovered evidence that the Moties might have found a way out. Bury, who is frightened of Moties and what they represent (due to his experience in the first book), demands to survey the Crazy Eddie fleet to ensure it continues to be effective. What if the Moties have found another way out of their system? Can the Empire possibly hope to contain them?

The first half of the book goes very fast, and since I had just finished the first novel a few months ago, it was easy for me to slip back into that universe of characters and locations. It’s a, pardon the pun, gripping first half of the story. Once the characters (and I don’t think this is a spoiler) get back into the Mote system, however, it becomes a confusing mess of names, characters, and factions: Medina, East India, Crimean Tartars, the Khanate … the list goes on. Whereas the first book dealt only with the Moties on Mote Prime (the main planet), “Gripping Hand” involves all of the different asteroid civilizations … and there are a lot of them to keep straight.

Overall I enjoyed the book mainly because I liked being back with the characters from the first novel and seeing what they were like 25 years after their first expedition to the Mote. But like “Publishers Weekly” said, “Gripping Hand” is an “adequate but inconsequential sequel.”

Phssthpok the Pak had been traveling for most of his thirty-two thousand years. His mission: save, develop, and protect the group of Pak breeders sent out into space some two and a half million years before …

Brennan was a Belter, the product of a fiercely independent, somewhat anarchic society living in, on, and around an outer asteroid belt. The Belters were rebels, one and all, and Brennan was a smuggler. The Belt worlds had been tracking the Pak ship for days – Brennan figured to meet that ship first …

He was never seen again — at least not by those alive at the time.

While flying to LA and back for Christmas, I finished Larry Niven’s “Protector.” This Known Space novel was a quick, easy, and enjoyable read at just over 200 pages.

“Protector” introduces us to the Pak, a long-lived species with three distinct phases: Child, Breeder, and Protector. The Tree-of-Life plant controls the transformation of Breeders into Protectors, whose sole purpose is to protect its descendants. If a Protector becomes childless, it loses the will to continue eating Tree-of-Life and eventually dies unless it can find a cause to keep it going.

In the first half of the book, Phssthpok, a childless Protector, has been travelling for some 33,000 years in search of a colony of Pak who set out on their own over 2.5 million years previously. He enters the Sol system and encounters Jack Brennan, a Belter who accidentally eats Tree-of-Life and turns into a Protector (as you can guess, humans are the descendants of the original Pak colony that settled on Earth millions of years ago).

The second half of the novel takes place some 220 years later. Brennan the Protector has learned of a Pak fleet on its way to Earth and is determined to protect his “descendants” (i.e., the human race) from possible extinction.

As with the other Niven novels I’ve read so far (i.e., the “Ringworld” series), the scale of time and distance takes some getting used to. I mean, we’re talking about events crossing millions of years (time) and light years (space). This book takes place a long time before the Ringworld books as well so there is no faster-than-light (i.e., hyperspace) travel … it takes a loooong time to get from place to place (like, years). The hard science is sometimes hard to follow as well, but that’s what I like about Niven’s stuff … it seems practical the way he describes it in such detail.

I’ve got one more Niven book on my schedule to read. For Christmas I got “The Gripping Hand” which is a sequel to “The Mote in God’s Eye” (written with Jerry Pournelle). First, though, I’ve got to brush up on my zombie war history. More on that later …