Blue Mars (Mars Trilogy)

This entire trilogy suffers from the same issue. The subject of terraforming Mars and the political issues surrounding that effort is interesting; the characters, however, are uninteresting and often unlikeable. It feels like they are just vehicles for the scientific and political commentary, but as compelling as that commentary might be, it's hard to read because I simply don't care about the characters delivering it.

I thought it was interesting and maybe funny that 1t0 years in the future the scientist were still trying to prove string theor in this novel. Although the book had a tendency to go way to far into detail I still like the book very much.

In a word: stultifying. Shame on everyone who let this one go as was. I stopped caring about any of the characters somewhere around 30%. It's the first time I had to go Evelyn Wood on a work of science fiction. If I wanted an over-sized dissertation on extraterrestrial geology, I'd buy one. They have them at the Caltech bookstore...and there would at least be real photos!

It just goes on, nothing changes but the inflated ego of writer and his characters. I so much wanted to like this book but in the end it's just all Regolith. He needs an editor to point out that all the characters do not need to have to go walkabout on their own to discover whatever it is that they hope to discover.
Blue Mars is like a Campus Symposium, held in a cellar, with a buffet of rubber chicken.
Great moments are like finding one sandwich has not curled up with overexposure to the dry air of academics whose idea of fun is sitting watching a powerpoint.
A waste of money.

With the scientific/technological savvy of an Asimov, the social-political critique of a Heinlein, the relational sensitivity of a Le Guin, and the post-human musings of Dick, the Mars Trilogy has impressed me as the most literary, researched and visionary science fiction in English of the 20th century.

It just goes on, nothing changes but the inflated ego of writer and his characters. I so much wanted to like this book but in the end it's just all Regolith. He needs an editor to point out that all the characters do not need to have to go walkabout on their own to discover whatever it is that they hope to discover.
Blue Mars is like a Campus Symposium, held in a cellar, with a buffet of rubber chicken.
Great moments are like finding one sandwich has not curled up with overexposure to the dry air of academics whose idea of fun is sitting watching a powerpoint.
A waste of money.

With the scientific/technological savvy of an Asimov, the social-political critique of a Heinlein, the relational sensitivity of a Le Guin, and the post-human musings of Dick, the Mars Trilogy has impressed me as the most literary, researched and visionary science fiction in English of the 20th century.

Robinson's book Blue Mars is definately the weakest of the three novels. There is no central theme tying the book together, not too mention the typically intro, problem, climax, conclusion that most novels follow. For example in Red Mars it was the Voyage and the building of the first colonies. In Green Mars it was the struggle for independence. For Blue Mars it's well, pretty dull. Its just more of Robinson's characters droning on about the landscape and the beauty blah blah. The characters have gotten bland and no new significant characters are introduced.

The best Trilogies get better with each book. This one sadly underwhelms. It only redeeming quality is that as with the other books the science is well thought out and presented. But the line is blurred between real science and Robinson's Technobabble. So as a reader, I can't really give what he writes about too much credit.

I do realize that most people like me will probably end up reading this novel just because the read the first two and therein lies the problem..

Exceedingly verbose! Lacking in action! This author is in love with long winded screeds about all kinds of philosophical things. In addition, the author never fails to use 20 words to describe something when 5 would work. All three books in this trilogy exhibit these failings.

I've received yesterday the kindle version of this title I already own in paperback.
I hoped it would be a way for me, as a non English speaker, to use the included dictionary.
But, I've been surprise to see a lot of spelling mistakes. Not being sure at first, I checked my paperback version, and found the kindle one full of mistakes.

I'm really begining to wonder my I should pay more a digital version full of mistakes than a paperback version...

Of course, I remain a great admirer of Robinson Saga

Let’s start by conceding that, yes, Kim Stanley Robinson’s ‘Red Mars-Green Mars-Blue Mars’ Trilogy is a Herculean effort possessed of many abiding strengths, and it deserves to be explored by all serious science fiction aficionados.

We can further agree that there are at least some very good parts in all three books, even this final, excruciatingly long-winded third volume. For example:

When Sax is rescued from a close brush with untimely death by...Hiroko?

When Ann encounters - and is nearly eaten by - a Martian Polar Bear.

The evilness - and ultimate futility of- the fulfillment of megalomaniacal ambitions for political and sexual domination, as illustrated by the story arc of Jackie Boone.

Ann and Sax’s very exciting reconciliation second date.

But these entertaining vignettes can only go so far towards redeeming this third installment of a saga which compulsively drones on...and on...and on!... with half-baked and crack-potted political, economic, and social theories of which the author is simply much too fond for his, let alone his audience’s, own good . The selective reader will definitely want to give themselves license to liberally skim through pages and even whole chapters when they start veering off in less than thrilling directions.

But if you have already gone through Red Mars and Green Mars, this review does not exculpate you from your self-imposed obligation to finish up this final installment of the life and times of the First Hundred.

Go forth, and read on...

'Blue Mars' continues immediately after 'Green Mars' leaves off, so soon after that I would recommend reading them in quick succession if you have the time. The philosophical and societal questions of the second book have been answered, but the ramifications of the answers are still sinking in. This third book moves further into the unknown: Where do we go from here?

Where the last book had many new characters, this book has many new settings. Humanity is expanding throughout the solar system, both toward the sun and further away, all while trying to figure out how best to live on flooded Earth and newly-habitable Mars. There are sections exploring the ways in which the new natives live on Mars, which were to me some of the least enjoyable of the entire series. Both in these and in the sections exploring human colonization, the book takes a turn toward fantasy that unravels a great deal of what came before.

Having said that, at the heart of the book are the original characters. Now very old, they are beginning to realize the limits of what they can achieve. All of them, in their own ways, do their best to come to terms with this limitation. These sections are the most enjoyable parts of the book, and what kept me reading through the parts I didn't like. The final sections begin focusing in on them, and conclude with an ultimate section that is idyllic, uplifting, bittersweet, and satisfying in a way I almost didn't think possible.

The only consistent feature of Blue Mars is its inconsistency regarding issues of believability, plausibility and common sense.

Take for example the way the book starts. There is a "soletta" around Mars, a work of unprecedented cosmic engineering. Then, the main hero of Blue Mars, a mad scientist, looks into the eyes of the other mad scientist (whom he is secretly in love with) and accepts her mad wish to move away the space mirrors. The megaproject, obligingly, is gone with a puff, sending Mars into an ice age again. Just like this. I have a harder time winning in solitaire by cheating.

More unbalance to follow later. There is almost post singularity technology (immortality, interstellar travel) with pre singularity mentality and there is a torrent of uninteresting stories of uninteresting characters in uninteresting Martian landscapes, to the point that when one of the characters dies in an accident, the reader does not give a dime, or even cheers happily.

Finally, a few words for the trilogy. It is tempting for a reviewer to become ironic towards insert color Mars, but it is not the fault of the reviewer. By extending the Aristotelian definition of tragedy to other literary works, when one reads a book, any book, one should undergo a catharsis process, the purgation of pity or fear raised in one by the novel. After 2.000 pages in the trilogy, not only one feels no catharsis whatsoever, but on the contrary has the sensation that the trilogy feels like the Young and the Restless of Mars, about to go on pointlessly for 200.000 episodes.

No catharsis and no satisfaction in one of the most overrated SF trilogies of all times.

2127. The Ross ice shelf has shattered due to volcanic activity and much of Antarctica's ice has fallen into the sea, raising global sea levels by seven metres. Three billion people - a fifth of the human race - have been displaced, triggering the greatest economic and humanitarian crisis in history. With Earth's governments and metanational corporations distracted, the colonists on Mars have launched their second revolution.

The surviving remnants of the First Hundred - whose lives have been extended vastly by genetic treatments - are spearheading the revolution. Their hope is to forge a new relationship with Earth based on mutual respect and understanding, but to the teeming billions of Earth Mars is an escape route, a place to begin again. In the aftermath of revolution, a new way of existence has to be found if the human race is to prosper.

Blue Mars is the third and concluding volume in Kim Stanley Robinson's epic Mars Trilogy, his account of the colonisation and terraforming of Mars extending across almost two centuries of human history. It opens with the Second Martian Revolution in full swing, picking up from the cliffhanger ending of Green Mars. The city of Burroughs has been flooded and most of the UN and metanat forces have been forced to pull back to the city of Sheffield atop Pavonis Mons, where a space elevator links Mars to space. The opening sequence of the book depicts the battle for Sheffield, which is followed by politicking as different factions from both Earth and Mars try to create a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

Blue Mars is similar in general style to the first two books in the sequence, with atmospheric passages on the terraforming of Mars and descriptions of the ever-shifting environment coexisting with lengthy political musings and notable scenes of character development. Robinson focuses the somewhat rambling nature of Green Mars by presenting much of the third book through the viewpoints of two of the First Hundred: Sax Russell, the scientist-genius who made most of the terraforming possible and has been the leading advocate of the 'Green' position (the total terraforming of Mars); and Ann Claybourne, the geologist who has never believed that terraforming was moral and is the leading exponent of the 'Red' viewpoint. By the time of Blue Mars, with the planet's atmosphere mostly breathable and liquid oceans appearing in the north and in the vast Hellas Basin, it appears that Sax has won the argument by default, but Robinson challenges this by showing Sax's dissatisfaction with the process and his growing realisation that something special has been lost with the destruction of the 'old' Mars. Simultaneously, Claybourne realises - belatedly - the value of being able to experience Mars first-hand without the need for spacesuits.

The two viewpoints and their newfound convergence stands as a metaphor for the entire novel. The Martian position that immigration from Earth should be banned before it overwhelms their still-fragile biosphere, and the Terran position that their planet is choking to death on people and as many as possible need to be dumped off-world, likewise need to find common ground to the benefit of all, as do the tendencies of corporate-driven right-wing politics and those of the liberal left. If Blue Mars has a theme it is that compromise, if often unsatisfactory to everyone, is the only way that society can function and move forwards.

This may be stating the obvious, but Robinson nevertheless explores the theme in tremendous depth. The political bias which infested Red Mars is much more moderate here, with Robinson showing that the huge corporations do have some positive roles to play in the future affairs of both planets, although some traces of naivete remain, particularly when a right-on member of the First Hundred wins a debate by making some pithy remarks, awing his political opponents. Those who despise politics may find the novel a little dry for their tastes, but may also enjoy the growing cynicism of the First Hundred, whose lengthy lifespans have allowed them to see the cyclical nature of politics and social movements and grow bored with them.

It's arguable from the second volume that Robinson made a mistake in killing off his most dynamic POV characters in the first novel, with the surviving members of the First Hundred being a little too passive to embrace fully as protagonists. These lingering doubts are removed in this book, with Nadia, Maya, Michel and particularly Sax and Ann working well as our principal characters (with second-generation Nirgal and Art, a liaison with an Earth metanat, also putting in good work as viewpoint characters). Their extended lifespans, which could easily be dismissed as a convenient plot device to save Robinson the complexities of writing a multi-generational storyline, have come at a cost, one that Blue Mars dedicates a lot of its closing chapters to exploring. These long lives also give them a unique perspective on events, ranging from tried cynicism to delight at seeing new generations coming into the world, which Robinson enjoys exploring.

Like its predecessors, Blue Mars is as much a social textbook and a scientific treatise and thought-experiment as it is a novel. There are some dynamic action scenes earlier in the novel, but for most of the book events are slow-paced and descriptive. Robinson is describing the social, scientific, economic, philosophical and even military implications of the terraforming of Mars on a broad base. For those interesting in such matters, Blue Mars is as easy to recommend as its two predecessors. For those interested in a more straightforward, plotted novel with a much tighter focus across a smaller passage of time, Blue Mars is as likely to disappoint as Green Mars before it.

For myself, Blue Mars (****) is an effective conclusion to one of the most ambitious SF projects of all time. Robinson's writing is at its strongest in this novel, as he attempts to fuse hard SF with real literary ambition and comes close to succeeding. The concluding chapters in particular deliver a terrific emotional charge as, after two thousand pages, the story of these flawed people and the world they have transformed finally ends.

Following the more exciting and intriguing volumes RED MARS and GREEN MARS, the less eventful and slightly more plodding BLUE MARS brings Kim Stanley Robinson's great trilogy to a close. It was instantly declared a classic -- probably the most recently composed piece of SF fiction to have achieved that status. It has been declared as the work most crucial in bringing back hard SF to the marketplace (after several decades of either metaphysical SF in the mode of Philip K. Dick, who for record is my favorite SF writer, or one multi-volume space opera or fantasy disguised as SF). What is most overwhelming about Robinson's Mars Trilogy is the minute and meticulous detail in which he discusses precisely how the surface of Mars could (and would during the course of the books) be transformed to accomodate human living.

The book is likewise dominated by politics, and this on two levels. First, he imagines separating factions based on the varying ways Mars' inhabitants would prefer to form society in order to relate to the planet. Second, and very interestingly, all of these political parties are post-Marxist. Though none are explicitly Marxist in either their rhetoric or in their self-identification, all are in that they are post-capitalist (something that Marx predicted would be the material outcome of history). So the book functions as an imagining of how life after capitalism could exist. For instance, under capitalism men and women who are not the owners of capital are forced to sell their labor for wages. This is the universal condition in a Capitalist society as described by Marx. Because the labor is expended on things not directly required by the worker, the condition is described as alienated. But if you notice in Robinson's Mars, there are no salaries and people are allowed to work directly on the projects that they choose. Whether it is workable is not my concern. I merely find it interesting that this is one of the very, very few attempts in literature to describe a post-capitalist society. (Though Robinson also did this in one of the books in the California trilogy.)

Another word on this. Most Americans have a very confused and wildly inaccurate understanding of Marxism. They crudely conflate it with Communism as practiced in Russia, China, and Cuba, something that would have horrified Marx, not least because he was a passionate democrat (indeed, far more than Adam Smith, who was not a supporter of universal suffrage -- actually, neither was Marx, who while he felt that all men, regardless of their status as landowners, should be allowed to vote, was doubtful of the wisdom of allowing women to do so -- still, Marx's vision of enfranchisement were far more embracive than Smith's). Robinson is a Marxist, but he is clearly a Western Marxist, attached to thinkers like Gregor Luckacs, Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse, Theodore Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Ernst Bloch. While most of these writers held more or less negative views about modern culture, Bloch was, like contemporary Marxist literary critic Fredric Jameson, far more positive about the literary and artistic products. Robinson clearly has a great deal in common with Bloch and Jameson than with the more dour Marxist theorists. It isn't an accident that Bloch's most famous is the massive (in English translation, 3 large volumes) THE PRINCIPLE OF HOPE [Hoffnung] (a work that subsequently inspired Jürgen Moltman in writing THE THEOLOGY OF HOPE, which in turn was the major inspiration on the Catholic theologians putting forth Liberation Theology), appears obliquely but unmistakably in the Mars Trilogy. One of the landmarks on Robinson's Mars is known as Blochs Hoffnung.

I go into the Trilogy as a Late Marxist or post-Capitalism trilogy because I'm not sure that many have picked up on it. But it is sufficient to proclaim this one of the finest Marxist literary works ever written. It is also fascinating in that it reveals a political future in which the totalitarianism that many ascribe to Marx's ideas is not present, but instead only the democracy of which he was a passionate partisan.

Plotwise BLUE MARS is easily the least exciting of the three books. In fact, it is often merely plodding, tracing the ongoing shifts and changes in the flora and fauna of the rapidly developing planet. Robinson is also unceasing in imagining the subcultures that might develop on this new world, some of them not terribly appealing and some not unpleasant at all. And his constantly asking "What next?" leads us to visits to other planets and other moons in the solar systems, and although we do not follow them there, we even see some departing to other solar systems. Robinson's imagination knows few limits, simultaneously questioning where technology, politics, social mores and norms, economics, religion, and culture would go under these new conditions. The overall effect is breathtaking. No other writer in the history of SF has so comprehensively a future world might develop out of our own.

My lone complaint with the book is that this third volume tends to drift a bit. The point seems more to witness how the world might continue to change. There certainly is little in the way of a dominant narrative and even the arcs for the main characters feel more like add ons. Saxifrage Russell remains as fascinating as he was in GREEN MARS (he was something of a major secondary character in RED MARS). I always enjoy any bit where the book focuses on him. I never was able to warm up to Nirgal and never found Jackie to be the tiniest bit likable. Nadia and Art were less important; Michel slight more important while Maya remained herself. And it was a delight to see Ann rejoin the fold. But the main reason the book plods somewhat compared to the earlier volumes is the ongoing lack of any major conflict. It was like Robinson wanted to see how the attempt to terraform and cultivate Mars was going to go, but couldn't come up with a dominant story arc around which to display that.

Not that this is in any way a bad book. It simply isn't the exhilarating read that the first two books were. Mainly, the novel is an excuse to spend more time with characters we've gotten to known and love, or at least like. It doesn't add a great deal to GREEN MARS. No one loving those two books should avoid reading this one. But one should also not expect this one to be a game-changer like those two were.

Still, sitting back and looking at the three books as a total, this has to stand as one of the great works in SF history. These books have no competitors in describing a future world in such great and plausible detail. There have been other long sagas, like the Dune novels, but those were barely SF and perhaps should be considered fantasy. While the Mars Trilogy is also a political fantasy, it is more than anything the great work of hard science fiction. The third novel is a mild disappointment, but all in all this trilogy is unrivaled in the depiction of hard SF.

Following the more exciting and intriguing volumes RED MARS and GREEN MARS, the less eventful and slightly more plodding BLUE MARS brings Kim Stanley Robinson's great trilogy to a close. It was instantly declared a classic -- probably the most recently composed piece of SF fiction to have achieved that status. It has been declared as the work most crucial in bringing back hard SF to the marketplace (after several decades of either metaphysical SF in the mode of Philip K. Dick, who for record is my favorite SF writer, or one multi-volume space opera or fantasy disguised as SF). What is most overwhelming about Robinson's Mars Trilogy is the minute and meticulous detail in which he discusses precisely how the surface of Mars could (and would during the course of the books) be transformed to accomodate human living.

The book is likewise dominated by politics, and this on two levels. First, he imagines separating factions based on the varying ways Mars' inhabitants would prefer to form society in order to relate to the planet. Second, and very interestingly, all of these political parties are post-Marxist. Though none are explicitly Marxist in either their rhetoric or in their self-identification, all are in that they are post-capitalist (something that Marx predicted would be the material outcome of history). So the book functions as an imagining of how life after capitalism could exist. For instance, under capitalism men and women who are not the owners of capital are forced to sell their labor for wages. This is the universal condition in a Capitalist society as described by Marx. Because the labor is expended on things not directly required by the worker, the condition is described as alienated. But if you notice in Robinson's Mars, there are no salaries and people are allowed to work directly on the projects that they choose. Whether it is workable is not my concern. I merely find it interesting that this is one of the very, very few attempts in literature to describe a post-capitalist society. (Though Robinson also did this in one of the books in the California trilogy.)

Another word on this. Most Americans have a very confused and wildly inaccurate understanding of Marxism. They crudely conflate it with Communism as practiced in Russia, China, and Cuba, something that would have horrified Marx, not least because he was a passionate democrat (indeed, far more than Adam Smith, who was not a supporter of universal suffrage -- actually, neither was Marx, who while he felt that all men, regardless of their status as landowners, should be allowed to vote, was doubtful of the wisdom of allowing women to do so -- still, Marx's vision of enfranchisement were far more embracive than Smith's). Robinson is a Marxist, but he is clearly a Western Marxist, attached to thinkers like Gregor Luckacs, Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse, Theodore Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Ernst Bloch. While most of these writers held more or less negative views about modern culture, Bloch was, like contemporary Marxist literary critic Fredric Jameson, far more positive about the literary and artistic products. Robinson clearly has a great deal in common with Bloch and Jameson than with the more dour Marxist theorists. It isn't an accident that Bloch's most famous is the massive (in English translation, 3 large volumes) THE PRINCIPLE OF HOPE [Hoffnung] (a work that subsequently inspired Jürgen Moltman in writing THE THEOLOGY OF HOPE, which in turn was the major inspiration on the Catholic theologians putting forth Liberation Theology), appears obliquely but unmistakably in the Mars Trilogy. One of the landmarks on Robinson's Mars is known as Blochs Hoffnung.

I go into the Trilogy as a Late Marxist or post-Capitalism trilogy because I'm not sure that many have picked up on it. But it is sufficient to proclaim this one of the finest Marxist literary works ever written. It is also fascinating in that it reveals a political future in which the totalitarianism that many ascribe to Marx's ideas is not present, but instead only the democracy of which he was a passionate partisan.

Plotwise BLUE MARS is easily the least exciting of the three books. In fact, it is often merely plodding, tracing the ongoing shifts and changes in the flora and fauna of the rapidly developing planet. Robinson is also unceasing in imagining the subcultures that might develop on this new world, some of them not terribly appealing and some not unpleasant at all. And his constantly asking "What next?" leads us to visits to other planets and other moons in the solar systems, and although we do not follow them there, we even see some departing to other solar systems. Robinson's imagination knows few limits, simultaneously questioning where technology, politics, social mores and norms, economics, religion, and culture would go under these new conditions. The overall effect is breathtaking. No other writer in the history of SF has so comprehensively a future world might develop out of our own.

My lone complaint with the book is that this third volume tends to drift a bit. The point seems more to witness how the world might continue to change. There certainly is little in the way of a dominant narrative and even the arcs for the main characters feel more like add ons. Saxifrage Russell remains as fascinating as he was in GREEN MARS (he was something of a major secondary character in RED MARS). I always enjoy any bit where the book focuses on him. I never was able to warm up to Nirgal and never found Jackie to be the tiniest bit likable. Nadia and Art were less important; Michel slight more important while Maya remained herself. And it was a delight to see Ann rejoin the fold. But the main reason the book plods somewhat compared to the earlier volumes is the ongoing lack of any major conflict. It was like Robinson wanted to see how the attempt to terraform and cultivate Mars was going to go, but couldn't come up with a dominant story arc around which to display that.

Not that this is in any way a bad book. It simply isn't the exhilarating read that the first two books were. Mainly, the novel is an excuse to spend more time with characters we've gotten to known and love, or at least like. It doesn't add a great deal to GREEN MARS. No one loving those two books should avoid reading this one. But one should also not expect this one to be a game-changer like those two were.

Still, sitting back and looking at the three books as a total, this has to stand as one of the great works in SF history. These books have no competitors in describing a future world in such great and plausible detail. There have been other long sagas, like the Dune novels, but those were barely SF and perhaps should be considered fantasy. While the Mars Trilogy is also a political fantasy, it is more than anything the great work of hard science fiction. The third novel is a mild disappointment, but all in all this trilogy is unrivaled in the depiction of hard SF.

Blue Mars is Kim Stanley Robinson's final, and lengthiest, installment that concludes the Mars terraforming adventure. The First Hundred are nearly 200 years of age (and will grow older by book's end), and Mars's surface slowly begins to bubble with liquid.

In Green Mars, Robinson took the reader back to Earth. He gave us a first-hand look at the population explosion and the rising seas, while introducing us to Art and his philosophically autocratic employer. Robinson returns to Earth in the third book, this time taking Nirgal, the super-athletic Martian, Maya, Michel, and Sax. A volcanic eruption beneath the Antarctic ice sheet melts half of the White Continent and raises the sea level by 23 feet around the entire globe. Our heroes arrive to Terra Aqua where the aboveground political activities and adventures through underwater cities create a starkly contrasting but pleasant digression from the pseudo-hygrophilous forests and dry lichens of Mars. (Unrelated, a 1955 astronomy text proves that scientists at the time thought dark patches on Mars were created by lichen growing on the surface!)

The inception of human-manipulated hydrometeorology began in Red Mars with the atmospheric collision of an ice asteroid. 1140 pages later, in Part 7 of Blue Mars, Sax, Nadia, and fellow scientists focus their cognitive energies on creating, controlling, fighting against, or sustaining what would eventually become oceans, gulfs, bays, seas and lakes, all of which are mostly located in the northern hemisphere. The disputes and ultimate agreements (reluctant acquiescence) between the environmentalists and the terraformers rivals the frustrations from the earlier two novels. So begins the hydrology, hydrobiology, eventual hydrodynamics, and everything else "hydro" that will tear apart, develop, or re-establish the friendships and relationships that make up the Mars Trilogy's realistic realm of fiction.

Some of the more fantastic journeys take place beyond Earth and Mars. As rocket propulsion technology becomes increasingly powerful (Mars to Earth in three days), so too become the terraforming efforts of nearly every planet and moon in the Solar System. "People would do anything for the sake of an idea, anything" (498). Robinson takes the reader (along with the feral Zo, Jackie's daughter) to witness the new frontiers of Mercury, whose city moves slowly on rails; Venus, whose greenhouse effects are being reversed (to be completed in the next 300 years); Ann Clayborne joins Zo to visit the terraforming of Jupiter's moons Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Io; and finally the moons of Uranus. Robinson's imagery here is reminiscent of those previously imagined worlds, deep-green skies, dark rocky landscapes, and ringed planets hovering palely over the horizon.

As our heroes grow older, they become wiser to the inevitabilities of memory-loss and death. As they (primarily Sax) struggle with antidotes and formulae to inhibit the frightening realities, the remaining of the First Hundred seem to grow calm and spiritual. Although they have literally created a new, peaceful world out of a barren rock, a sort of Walden Two of the Solar System, they soon realize that there is more to life than always fighting to survive. Even the crazed Maya slows down.

Robinson's prose is always in motion. Admittedly the political exposition is usually drier than, for instance, the poetic science of Sax's discussions and thoughts. But it is all-necessary. Once the trilogy is completed, the holistic work becomes a memory the reader has lived through and experienced. Interestingly, the completed planet is not so far removed from the reader's ability to relate to it; in fact, Mars becomes so Earth-like in Nature, I felt briefly shocked at imagining these characters in familiar surroundings. Suddenly, I understood who they were and what they had accomplished, completely.

I certainly have mixed feelings about the final volume of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy. "Blue Mars" goes well beyond the terraforming of Mars; indeed, by the time we are half way through this novel humanity has established colonies of different sorts from the planet Mercury top the distant moon Miranda, with colony ships leaving the solar system for distant worlds. The political debates that were so often at the heart of the previous two volumes have become somewhat moot at this point in the proceedings. Even though this technological musings are well beyond my extremely sparse scientific knowledge, I still found them fascinating and having them jettisoned this way was somewhat disappointing. However, when the focus shifts to questions of memory and the problems presented by the longevity treatments, my interest was revived. Even though we end up with less than a dozen of the First Hundred, it does become interesting to see which of the many characters we have followed throughout the trilogy are going to get the final word as to what has happened on Mars.
To be fair, I am not sure how this trilogy "should" have ended. There is a memorable moment that symbolizes the point at which Mars has truly become "blue" (in the "Earth" sense of the term), but it does not constitute a traditional climax. But this epic story coming down to a romance between two characters who have been at odds for several hundred pages just rings somewhat hollow, especially since other characters who I expected to take the lead in the politics of Mars never really emerge to that position. Still, the Mars Trilogy is certainly a more interesting way of learning about the scientific dreams for transforming the Red Planet into a habitable world than reading article in scientific journals.

Loved "Red" and "Green"! So much that I looked up other
books and read several by the same author. Didn't like
any of his others as well as the Mars books. In fact,
the writing style seemed quite different. Still, I was
so impressed with Red and green, I was really looking
forward to "Blue".

Unfortunately, I did not like it as much as the previous
two books. As I found in my experience with his others,
the writing style seems different. In short - less lucid.
I am impressed with his technical discussions on a variety
of issues: biology, psychology, politics to name a few, but
pursuit of technical discussion has far overshadowed the
interesting character interaction present in the first two
books.

I rarely "skim-read" and was most depressed to find myself
doing it during Blue. It felt as though I was saying "yeah,
yeah, yeah" during what should have been a much more
satisfying read.

Even so, I still give Blue a 6. The subject is so
interesting and Robinson puts much detail and thought
into it. Take out about 20% of the technobabble and you've
got a 10!

One of the most impressive ongoing hard science fiction epics of recent years is Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. Red Mars won the Nebula award, Green Mars and Blue Mars each won the Hugo.
Robinson has tried to portray, in considerable detail, the story of the colonization and terraforming of Mars, beginning in 2027 and continuing for some 200 years. He has worked hard to get the science right, and to this reader, it is very real-seeming, impressive and interesting. It must be admitted, though, that he made some errors. Robinson himself has admitted to fudging the time scale of terraformation (compressing maybe 1000 years of likely effort to 200 years) in order to keep the story at a human scale. In addition there were certain annoying thermodynamic errors, and some aerodynamic silliness. I also took issue with his large reliance on nearly autonomous machines; and with the somewhat handwaving and near-miraculous introduction of radical life-extension technology (this last being in part another strategy to keep the story "human-scale", as it allows him to have some characters survive the entire trilogy).)
Red Mars told the story of the initial colonization of Mars, first by the "First Hundred", a joint Russian-American expedition, then by Earth-dominated, mostly corporate-controlled colonists who followed to build on the efforts of the "First Hundred". It ended with an unsuccessful revolution against Earth's domination of Mars. The Red in its title referred to the pristine, unmodified, planet. Green Mars advanced the story of Mars' colonization, introducing many second- and third-generation characters, and ended in a generally successful revolution which established Martian independence. The Green of the title refers to the greening effects of terraformation.
The action of the book, like that of the first two, is presented in a series of novella-length parts, each somewhat independent, each from the viewpoint of a different character. Many of the First Hundred return in this book as viewpoint characters of sections, as well as some of the later generation members introduced in Green Mars, and at least one new, significant, character for this book. To me, Robinson's best work has always been at novella length, so this plays to his strengths. (For example, my favorite Mars story, not part of the official Mars trilogy, is "Green Mars", collected in The Martians.) The linked-novella form also allows significant jumps in time, important in a story which takes place over such a long time (about a century for Blue Mars, I believe). A negative effect of this structure is a certain slackening in the overall story: as I have said, Blue Mars seems mainly to be about the rapprochement of Red and Green (quite movingly symbolized on a personal level by several segments which deal with the personal rapprochement of long-time "enemies" Ann Clayborne, the leading Red, and Sax Russell, the first terraformer); but in addition it is concerned with rounding out the overall story of the colonization of Mars, and for Robinson this means considering the future of the rest of the solar system as well. Thus Blue Mars has sections set on Earth, on Mercury, and in the moons of Uranus, as well as visits to Venus, the asteroids, and the others of the Outer Planets. These sections are quite interesting, but also seem to result in a certain dilution of the overall effect.
Besides his interest in the "hard" sciences as played out in the gut-level details of the exploration and terraforming of Mars, Robinson is very interested in "softer" sciences, and much of the trilogy is concerned with politics. I found the discussions of politics quite interesting, though a bit biased (but generally a pretty fair attempt is made to show most sides of the various issues). There is not one but two extended descriptions of "constitutional conventions". Robinson also takes on the sociological effects of life-extension: and here he seems a little less sound. He tries to depict the effects of great age on people, and makes some good points, but is not quite convincing. More tellingly, I think he severely underplays the negative population effects of life-extension. Robinson is, it seems to me, an Utopian at heart, and he is a little too sanguine about people almost automatically adopting (solar-system-wide) policies such as one child per couple.
Blue Mars, by itself, is a pretty successful trilogy closer, but not quite successful as a novel. I still rank Red Mars as the best novel of the series: it had a more coherent structure, was set over a shorter time-period, and featured my favorite writing of the series: the ecstatic novella "Falling into History", its central section. Still, it is only fair, I think, to consider the Mars trilogy as a unit, and as such it is very successful, very worthwhile. Almost inevitably, there are longeurs, and the multiple viewpoint character approach sometimes blurs the impact, sometimes results in tedious chapters. (I, for one, could have done without every one of Michel Duval's sections over the three novels.) Robinson's writing is clear throughout: for the most part he seems to have purposely trimmed his prose: at times the writing becomes a bit clipped or telegraphic, and only rarely does he wax lyrical, or ecstatic.

Remember back to the scenes in RED MARS; the struggles to maintain a habitat at minimum for human survival. Here in BLUE MARS, we wind up maintaining old Mars ecology in domes. The world has come to Mars, Mars has become the world. The never ending pot of politics and greed is as strong as ever. The sabotage and intrigue among the competing groups of the First Hundred and Their offspring and followers is unflagging.The difference here is in the way we see the landscape of this emerging work of man-which in truth has always been the star of the show. From the great manmade scars of the cablefall to the emerging grasslands and seas, the freezings and the floods. These books are about a far away planet that captures our imagination like no other. There is very little we can do to convince ouselves that WE will change, but that is not the issue. Its interesting to see how little we do change; Robinson tells it like it is. The imagery of the changing of another world at the hands of our species is what we all want to peek in on. I enjoyed all the Mars books. I can say "Read Them ALL" Thanks KSR, good work.

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!

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".

I just finished this book today, thus completing my reading of the whole trilogy.

Let me get something out of the way: I completely understand why so many negative reviews of the Mars Trilogy exist. You need to have a certain personality type to get something out of this sort of writing:
- first, many negative reviews are due to differences with the political views expressed in the novels, which become most explicit in Blue Mars. If you do not align with KSR's views, you must take the occasional pinch of salt.
- second, many reviews seem to be from people who appreciate hard science, but who do not appear to appreciate human geography or history. If you are a scientist, then rejoice, for this is the hardest sci-fi I have ever read. However, you're more likely to appreciate this kind of book if you are ALSO the kind of person that likes to read a lot of history texts and/or have an interest in human societies.
- finally, there is justifiable complaint about the emphasis on locations rather than characters; sometimes this goes overboard, but less so in Blue Mars, in my opinion.

Blue Mars, I think, is the best of the Mars Trilogy. Many people seem to think it is the worst; but maybe they are looking for something that isn't here. The novels seem to get better with each sequel. It is as if KSR received some negative feedback from Red Mars, amended his Green Mars manuscript, and then got negative feedback from Green Mars and amended the last book also.

I have stated elsewhere that Red Mars has an insane amount of tedium, odd characterisation, confusing plot points and other issues especially in its second half. Green Mars has a more tight plot. Although Blue Mars is the loosest of all three, plotwise, the prose is also much easier to get into. The first chapter eases the reader into the story a lot better than the previous two books. There is continuous interest in the story, leading clear to the end.

The essential arc of the storyline is the creation of a new Martian state after the Second Revolution at the end of Green Mars. Earth is now hideously overpopulated because the longevity treatment (which seemed like a deus ex machina in the first book) has been universally applied and the old no longer die. Parallel to this is the completion of terraforming: Mars now has oceans. Over the course of the book, the oceans evolve from frozen lakes with occasional patches of blue, right up to full-on warm salty oceans with sailing-ships and fish and gulls.

The First Hundred, however, are running down and dying even as technology reaches its zenith. Almost everyone has severe memory problems. In the book's (and the trilogy's) emotional climax, the remaining 14 of the First Hundred file into the now ancient remains of Underhill and the trailer park, barely able to remember their past. Sax injects them with a new drug, and they are overwhelmed by the restoration of all their old memories, right back to Earth.

I found this aspect of the novel to be very moving; the 200 year old First Hundred seeming to be on the verge of collapse, without even the memory of the events we have been reading about - and then all of a sudden they get back all their memories in a flood and they realise what an epic they have lived. By the end of the novel, the First Hundred live in a neo-Hellenistic civilisation around the Hellas Basin (now a warm tropical sea) eating ice creams, attending neo-Olympic games and watching Greek tragedies.

I also liked the descriptions of Earth 200 years in the future, the visits to Miranda (moon of Uranus) and Mercury...Technology has progressed through the three novels so now many planets have been colonised and the Martians begin sending star ships out to colonise other solar systems. Human beings begin to use unthinkable technologies to give themselves light sensitive eyes and gills so they can live on the watery moons of the gas giants.

Overall the novel was, to me, much more of a page turner than the previous two. I thought characterisation had actually improved since the first two novels. It is true, the politics is much more heavy handed here than in Red Mars; but then, there is far worse preaching in other sci-fi novels! The last novel also, in a sense, gives more meaning to the events in the first two novels. The whole thing has been an epic about the glories of human progress and what it might achieve off Earth; KSR's view of science is ultimately optimistic, and when he gives glimpses of his hard-science based extrapolation of what people might achieve, it is quite uplifting.

This highly acclaimed, Hugo winning series is truly epic. It spans three books: Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars; in that order. The story spans a couple hundred years of the terraforming of Mars. It is intricate, with strong social relationships, sociology, economics and politics. The author creates a world in which the science and technology make the colonization of another world seem well within our reach. I recently completed the last of the 750 pages of the last book, Blue Mars; and I can tell you that, with the exception of about 100 pages through all three books, the pace is consistent with terraforming. Now, having completed the series, I feel much like the aging Sax Russell (one of the main characters). I look back on reading these books as a life-long achievement. It feels like it's been 200 years since I started the series, and I don't remember much of what happened in the first one. The series artfully conveys the sense of passing ages to the reader. While in reading the work I was sometimes bored out of my mind, I now feel like I've lived through the decades of red, green and blue Mars. It's strange, but, if this is what the author intended, it is pure genius. If you're looking for a series that will make your heart race and keep you up late into the evening, devouring page after page, then I'd recommend looking elsewhere. If you'd enjoy watching a glacier for days only to capture the moment that one large chunk sheers away and falls into the sea, then this series may be just the experience that you've been looking for.

I bought and read Blue Mars because I was astonished at the results of what was obviously an incredible amount of technical research done for its predecessors, "Red Mars" & "Green Mars" - and, from a layman's point of view, the seamless integration of same with speculative science fiction, and a gripping storyline. However, while Blue Mars did not disappoint with attention to detail, the fundamental issues of focused plot and reader entertainment appeared to have been forgotten, with soap-like chronology and milling sub-plots that threaten to confuse and alienate the reader. Expecting a thrilling conclusion to an otherwise-marvellous trilogy I was disappointed with one that had instead an air of wistful melancholy.
On the other hand, some fascinating insights into the future of society, especially with respect to sexual politics and the culture shock of an ever widening generation gap provide challenging food for thought

My final impression of the Mars trilogy is that Robinson could have used a harsher editor. There is a lot of extra stuff in all three books, and the third is no exception. This 760 page future history could have been cut by at least 30%.

That said, this has the thoroughness of Melville's Moby Dick. You finish this series and you feel like you have visited the Mars personally. You have a complete knowledge of its history, its people, and its politics. Unfortunately Robinson's politics are naive and simplistic - no one ever mistreats women on Mars for example - as if sociopathic behavior could be fixed simply by being transplanted.

Robinson has such a long list of characters it is hard to get inside each of them and truly care for them. The most interesting characters are sometimes not really explored sufficiently. Jackie Boone to me is perhaps the most interesting character of the whole trilogy, but her end is handled rather rapidly and almost completely off stage. Some of the least most interesting characters - in particular Coyote and Art - are given far too much voice and time as if they are interesting - without having been adequately developed to actually be interesting.

Robinson skips about from one scientific fact to another - which is at once interesting and distracting. Hard to decide on that. Clearly a lot of research has gone into this series and he has read widely (if shallowly) in many areas.

The love story of Ann and Sax is a nice way to end the story. Unfortunately it isn't strong enough to hold this third of the series together. There is very little tension in this last book - similar to the latest 3 Star Wars movies. Michel and Maya's story has a little more tension, but even there it is not fully explored. At one point where Maya is attracted to another man, I thought maybe Robinson was ready to really give us something human, but in the end it is his simplicity and naivety that wins out.

Unfortunately I don't recommend the last two books of this series. The first was well done and had potential, but the series doesn't quite fulfill its promise.

The final instalment of the Mars Trilogy, Blue Mars, takes a larger view of the solar system. While two-thirds of the book takes place on Mars, the tale also takes the various main protagonists to Earth, and the new human colonies on Mercury, and the moons of the outer planets. Blue Mars spends more time than the previous two books elucidating how mankind deals with the repercussions of the technology we create, both for the positive and the negative.
This is a review for the whole series.

Just like the previous two in the series, Robinson spends a lot of time creating a clear picture of the technology and scientific advancement of this narrative. The book takes place 200 years in the future, and the science does take things from current science, which I liked. All the hard sci-fi withstanding, the character development is still a major focus of the mars trilogy. A good thing. The discussion of politics and broad themes also melded into the story well.

A really great hard sci-fi read.

Kim Stanely Robinson's BLUE MARS is the third book in his epic Mars trilogy, and it follows well the grand scope of the first two books. Here Robinson takes us over almost a hundred years, from the end of the second revolution to the inhabitibility of the Red Mars. Each section of the work is more than ten years apart, and the reader can feel the tide of history and the weariness of the First Hundred as they deal with senescence. It is like those lines of Montale, "There's no inheritance, no good luck charm that can ward off the monsoon's impact on the gossamer of memory."
The sole problem, however, is that this work was not edited well. Ann's section doesn't even seem to fit with the sections it is between. Also, some of the other sections seem unorganized.
Nonetheless, BLUE MARS is a masterwork of science fiction, and it deserved the Hugo Award. It is a fitting end to the Mars trilogy.

I really enjoyed this book, however I was really annoyed that the cover was not matching with the other books in the trilogy. I think it would of been so much better if the cover was blue like the tittle was. I really enjoyed reading the book but I do like matching covers when dealing with multiple books in a series.

I know some people aren’t this way but I am, it did not derive my enjoyment of th book I just like presenting my collection and how they all go together.

I bought and read Blue Mars because I was astonished at the results of what was obviously an incredible amount of technical research done for its predecessors, "Red Mars" & "Green Mars" - and, from a layman's point of view, the seamless integration of same with speculative science fiction, and a gripping storyline. However, while Blue Mars did not disappoint with attention to detail, the fundamental issues of focused plot and reader entertainment appeared to have been forgotten, with soap-like chronology and milling sub-plots that threaten to confuse and alienate the reader. Expecting a thrilling conclusion to an otherwise-marvellous trilogy I was disappointed with one that had instead an air of wistful melancholy.
On the other hand, some fascinating insights into the future of society, especially with respect to sexual politics and the culture shock of an ever widening generation gap provide challenging food for thought

My final impression of the Mars trilogy is that Robinson could have used a harsher editor. There is a lot of extra stuff in all three books, and the third is no exception. This 760 page future history could have been cut by at least 30%.

That said, this has the thoroughness of Melville's Moby Dick. You finish this series and you feel like you have visited the Mars personally. You have a complete knowledge of its history, its people, and its politics. Unfortunately Robinson's politics are naive and simplistic - no one ever mistreats women on Mars for example - as if sociopathic behavior could be fixed simply by being transplanted.

Robinson has such a long list of characters it is hard to get inside each of them and truly care for them. The most interesting characters are sometimes not really explored sufficiently. Jackie Boone to me is perhaps the most interesting character of the whole trilogy, but her end is handled rather rapidly and almost completely off stage. Some of the least most interesting characters - in particular Coyote and Art - are given far too much voice and time as if they are interesting - without having been adequately developed to actually be interesting.

Robinson skips about from one scientific fact to another - which is at once interesting and distracting. Hard to decide on that. Clearly a lot of research has gone into this series and he has read widely (if shallowly) in many areas.

The love story of Ann and Sax is a nice way to end the story. Unfortunately it isn't strong enough to hold this third of the series together. There is very little tension in this last book - similar to the latest 3 Star Wars movies. Michel and Maya's story has a little more tension, but even there it is not fully explored. At one point where Maya is attracted to another man, I thought maybe Robinson was ready to really give us something human, but in the end it is his simplicity and naivety that wins out.

Unfortunately I don't recommend the last two books of this series. The first was well done and had potential, but the series doesn't quite fulfill its promise.

The final instalment of the Mars Trilogy, Blue Mars, takes a larger view of the solar system. While two-thirds of the book takes place on Mars, the tale also takes the various main protagonists to Earth, and the new human colonies on Mercury, and the moons of the outer planets. Blue Mars spends more time than the previous two books elucidating how mankind deals with the repercussions of the technology we create, both for the positive and the negative.
This is a review for the whole series.

Just like the previous two in the series, Robinson spends a lot of time creating a clear picture of the technology and scientific advancement of this narrative. The book takes place 200 years in the future, and the science does take things from current science, which I liked. All the hard sci-fi withstanding, the character development is still a major focus of the mars trilogy. A good thing. The discussion of politics and broad themes also melded into the story well.

A really great hard sci-fi read.

Kim Stanely Robinson's BLUE MARS is the third book in his epic Mars trilogy, and it follows well the grand scope of the first two books. Here Robinson takes us over almost a hundred years, from the end of the second revolution to the inhabitibility of the Red Mars. Each section of the work is more than ten years apart, and the reader can feel the tide of history and the weariness of the First Hundred as they deal with senescence. It is like those lines of Montale, "There's no inheritance, no good luck charm that can ward off the monsoon's impact on the gossamer of memory."
The sole problem, however, is that this work was not edited well. Ann's section doesn't even seem to fit with the sections it is between. Also, some of the other sections seem unorganized.
Nonetheless, BLUE MARS is a masterwork of science fiction, and it deserved the Hugo Award. It is a fitting end to the Mars trilogy.

I really enjoyed this book, however I was really annoyed that the cover was not matching with the other books in the trilogy. I think it would of been so much better if the cover was blue like the tittle was. I really enjoyed reading the book but I do like matching covers when dealing with multiple books in a series.

I know some people aren’t this way but I am, it did not derive my enjoyment of th book I just like presenting my collection and how they all go together.

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.

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

Some good elements, but mostly you can feel how the material is being milked to death. I have not read the two earlier books of the trilogy, but the references to them still managed to make them sound more interesting than this book. It's a big book, but it gets to dragging quite quickly. Somewhere around page 700 or so there is an interesting section about the memory refesh technique, but by that point it was pretty hard to care much about any of the surviving characters.
In terms of the writing craft, the author is pretty good. This one uses the multiple viewpoint technique and mostly uses it pretty effectively. But overall, it felt like hack writing for pay. There was a good idea back there somewhere, but this was at least one sequel too many. Probably some of the established author effect, too, where the earlier works got better editing because the author didn't have a big name yet. Reviewing his books suggests that he was a minor author for many years, but the first book in this series was a big success.

This book was a tedious read. I wasn't captivated by the multiple detailed descriptions of the chemical content of the soil and atmosphere on Mars. Also, I found the descriptions of the "most current" theories of physics in the 23rd century to be really short sighted, because they were clearly based on the physics of the late 20th/early 21st century. Robinson failed to acknowledge that the landscape of physics will have changed dramatically in the course of 200+ years.

Blue Mars is not action-packed, and I didn't think it was really philosophically thought-provoking. But, if you enjoy science fiction that explores what-if scenarios of the future in a very realistic (sometimes laboriously so) way, you would probably enjoy the entire Mars trilogy.

I am glad I read Blue Mars to finish out the trilogy. Some character tension that carried through from the beginning of Red Mars was resolved in the end, and that really tied up the series. I can't recommend this book without significant reservations, though, because it was ultimately too verbose and too focused on very specific details of terraforming and Martian legislation for my taste.

There are many who thought that "Blue Mars" failed because it didn't have plot, character development, or action. And to this I laugh. Loud and long.
First, plot. The second attempt to destroy the socket is a major event that catalyzes the beginning of a Martian government. Ann's health and Sax's subsequent intervention lead four of the Martians to a return home. Nirgal tries for the simple life and learns firsthand how terraforming affects day to day life on Mars. Advanced fusion allows settlements on Mercury, the moons of the outer planets, and a starship to Alpha Centauri. And the book closes with a reconcilliation between two characters who have always had their differences. Trying to compare the action and plot in Blue Mars to its two predeccesors is difficult, mostly because those two have <so> much happening there is almost too much action. Think back to Red Mars, if you've read it, and try to summerize everything that happened. It's tough. Blue Mars is a different book, it is more philosophical, more contemplative. Rather than holding these qualities against it, we should commend Robinson for not sticking with the exact same format, and try something different.
As far as the characters go, Sax Russell is the most changed. His relationship with Ann, and all they go through in this book, really cement his status as My Favorite Character. The fact that he changes his whole ideology and practice just to appeal to one person makes him that much more endearing as a character. Ann's thoughts near the end about being several different people makes sense when you think about the journey her character has taken throughout her life. Nadia and Art made the section about the constitution (which I will admit got a little tedious) much more bearable. And Nirgal remained Nirgal throughout, a piece of much-needed stability.
This book is great. Not as great as Red Mars, but that's like comparing The Godfather to The Godfather Part II. I mean, Part II was so immensely good, so beyond good, that trying to compare even a really great movie to it just shows how great it is. So let's dispense with the injustice of consantly comparing Blue Mars to Red Mars.
Read this book. Don't listen to all those reviews that say you'll fall asleep or throw it across the room. Read this book. You will have to pay attention, but if you consider "reading" flipping through the pages until you see something interesting, then you have problems. Read this book. You will be rewarded.

When I finished reading this novel, I couldn't get myself to read anything else for days. It was partly grief because the series was over and it was partly reflection about the 2200+ page trilogy.
I'm not going to summarize the plot here, and if you've read the previous two novels (which you must have to even be considering this one) then you know how Robinson writes.
What I'm going to add is that this novel is a lot more fast paced at times. The character development reaches its maximum only at the end of the novels and you truly feel attached to them. If you can get yourself to put the book down within the last 300 pages then you're either dead-tired or HAVE to go somewhere, it's that good. I have friends that even put it above Red Mars, and I just might be one of them (but they're both so good that I'd just be splitting hairs).
If you like Robinson and have read the first two books, then you HAVE to read this book. Hell, even if you didn't LIKE the first two, you'd like this one.

Many of the characters in Blue Mars are geriatric survivors from Red Mars, and Robinson is apparently intent on making us feel what it must be like to be pushing 200 years old. It is a stinging indictment of any book this long that, when main characters die, you just don't care. Too many of the series' characters are one-dimensional, and the book-long evolution of Ann and Sax is neither believable nor particularly compelling. Robinson's record on projecting logical consequences seems to be hit and miss. The great flood, which struck me as a bit of a deus ex machina in Green Mars, seems to result in serious consequences only when convenient for the plot. His treatment of economics and politics is just too glib. The gift economy he introduced in Red Mars and periodically trots out is never explained, except in the vaguest terms. The scientific collectives on Mars are free from the necessity of performing market-driven research. Hooray! But who, exactly, is going to buy that new mass spectrometer the lab needs? We know that the workers control the means of production now, but where (external to the collective) is the money (resources, whatever) coming from? As far as the hard science goes, I get the feeling that Robinson can't even keep himself interested. What began in Red Mars as painstaking incremental changes that would take centuries to become noticeable, has become by Blue Mars a sort of magic wand. Gross ecological and geological changes are accomplished with a rapidity that starts to break down the willing suspension of disbelief. It took two books to get enough air on the planet that exposure wouldn't mean instant death; by the middle of Blue Mars, characters are running around naked living off of wild animals, hang gliding, and sailing enormous seas. The Terran subplots seem largely pointless and unconvincing; the only one that contributed significantly was Michel's stunning discovery that you can't go home again. Michael Moorcock's Cornelius Chronicles used the fascinating device of mirroring the societal and physical entropy occuring within the story in its very construction, with events occurring out of sequence and chapters progressively fragmenting. Robinson has succeeded on the same level, making the reader feel as if he is actually experiencing the fatigue of extreme old age...