Lately it seems as if I’m returning to my teenage reading years with epic sci-fi future histories, which are involving for both the emotions and intellect. To carry the reader along for 600 pages or more, the writer has to craft a vivid and distinctive world then fill it with careful plotting and interesting characters. The examples I’ve read this year are Cixin Liu’s [b:Remembrance of Earth's Past|36520192|Remembrance of Earth's Past (The Three-Body Problem)|Liu Cixin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1509603033s/36520192.jpg|58251384] trilogy, Ada Palmer’s 'Terra Ignota' series ([b:Too Like the Lightning|26114545|Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota, #1)|Ada Palmer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1443106959s/26114545.jpg|46061374] et al), potentially James S.A. Corey’s 'Expanse' series ([b:Leviathan Wakes|8855321|Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1)|James S.A. Corey|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1411013134s/8855321.jpg|13730452] et al), and now Kim Stanley Robinson’s [b:Mars Trilogy|1655299|Mars Trilogy|Kim Stanley Robinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456997462s/1655299.jpg|1649931]. What I find fascinating is the variation in underlying philosophy that these series exhibit when laying out their future world. [b:Too Like the Lightning|26114545|Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota, #1)|Ada Palmer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1443106959s/26114545.jpg|46061374] et al are dense with abstract philosophy, so cannot be readily reduced to a single ethos - at least not one that I’ve yet discerned. I’ve only read one book of Corey's 'Expanse' and that was plot-heavy, so will need to go further into the series before speculating. [b:Remembrance of Earth's Past|36520192|Remembrance of Earth's Past (The Three-Body Problem)|Liu Cixin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1509603033s/36520192.jpg|58251384] and the [b:Mars Trilogy|1655299|Mars Trilogy|Kim Stanley Robinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456997462s/1655299.jpg|1649931] make for a fascinating contrast, though.

[a:Cixin Liu|18455699|Cixin Liu|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]’s universe is one of conflict and zero-sum decisions. Not in a reductive or simplistic way, but he takes a fundamentally pessimistic approach to the potential for cooperation, resource-sharing, and communication between groups and species. His trilogy reads as an absorbing yet dispiriting thought experiment. [a:Kim Stanley Robinson|1858|Kim Stanley Robinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1376955089p2/1858.jpg], however, is one of the most hopeful writers I’ve ever come across. His work dwells on minutiae of incremental change for the better, the work of collaboration, and the potential for technology to offer liberation rather than just threats. Both series take the well-established approach of using several key figures as narrators of a period in which tumultuous interplanetary change takes place. In Cixin Liu’s books, these figures are generally, though not always, selected to make major decisions by a faceless state power. In Kim Stanley Robinson’s, their decisions are generally made in opposition to faceless state power, attempting to assert independence within a complex environment. In both cases, the narrators dwell on the validity of their decisions throughout their long lives. In the [b:Mars Trilogy|1655299|Mars Trilogy|Kim Stanley Robinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456997462s/1655299.jpg|1649931], though, the characters have much greater agency in their narratives. There is very little of Cixin Liu’s carefully articulated fatalism. Both writers offer thought-provoking visions of the future with considerable conviction.

I also enjoyed ‘Green Mars’ as a novel in its own right, of course. It has been almost exactly two years since I read [b:Red Mars|77507|Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1)|Kim Stanley Robinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1440699787s/77507.jpg|40712], so I couldn’t remember prior events with total clarity. This did not prove to be a problem, though, as such events were often referred to and rehashed, such that I could keep up. Indeed, ‘Green Mars’ has a much slower-paced plot than its predecessor, as the dramatic happenings of previous years have left the remaining members of the First Hundred on Mars fragmented and wary of further conflict. During ‘Green Mars’, they process what happened in 2061, withdraw from politics to pursue personal projects, and slowly encourage a new revolutionary movement to gather momentum. As a consequence, there are long stretches of the novel in which relatively little actually occurs. Stanley Robinson is such a great writer that they do not pall; his descriptions of lichen on the surface of Mars are absolutely beguiling. Nonetheless, I’m deducting one star because the dramatic events of the final hundred pages are hard-won for both the characters and the reader. During the lull, there are some outstanding descriptive passages and set pieces, in particular the constitutional convention of Mars. While not downplaying the intense difficulty of achieving political consensus, this sequence shows how common ground can be found and the immense importance that this has.

The first two books of the [b:Mars Trilogy|1655299|Mars Trilogy|Kim Stanley Robinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456997462s/1655299.jpg|1649931] have aged well - they’re more than twenty years old. Everyone has a tablet/laptop called a lectern (a much better name than ‘laptop’, surely); communication is usually by smartwatch or teleconference. The takeover of Earth by vast corporations that privatise whole countries, and want to privatise Mars, certainly hasn’t lost plausibility. Actually, the one thing I’ve noticed improving in Stanley Robinson’s more recent work, like [b:New York 2140|29570143|New York 2140|Kim Stanley Robinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1471618737s/29570143.jpg|49898123], is that his female characters aren’t all jealous of one another anymore. Maya and Nadia provide the point of view for much of ‘Green Mars’, which I thoroughly appreciated with the exception of when, for example, Maya got into a slap-fight with another woman and called her a slut. I found Maya and Nadia only jarred as characters when they slipped into this weird jealousy of other women. Otherwise the characterisation is varied, nuanced, and interesting. Sax’s mad scientist perspective is very compelling and Maya’s body dysmorphia and deja vu as a result of old age are depicted with subtlety. The novel also has much to say about Mars’ multicultural society and how new cultures can be built from old traditions, new ideas, and cross-fertilisation between groups. Again, this is wonderfully hopeful and carefully argued. I am of course now eager to read [b:Blue Mars|77504|Blue Mars (Mars Trilogy, #3)|Kim Stanley Robinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1429497319s/77504.jpg|40711]. ( )

I enjoyed this a lot more than the previous entry, Red Mars. I think KSR's writing style may just be too technical for me to ever FULLY appreciate, as there were long sections of discussions of geology and tectonics and the like that I ended up just sort of glazing over. But KSR does a fantastic job at envisioning alternative ways to live, to govern, and to develop culture.

I'll be finishing the series for certain, but I'll probably do several less dense books before then. ( )

indipendenza di marte ( )

I'm still digging this portrayal of humanity's fledgling expansion beyond Earth: the various terraforming efforts driven and sabotaged by the competing, world-conquering corporations and the many nuanced groups/individuals who have embraced Mars as their home -- especially the generations of those born on the red planet, evolving into a new species! Curious to see what a "free" Mars coalesces into -- can capitalism really be escaped; are pharonic projects still feasible; should humans (of whatever flavor) dream and mold on a cosmic scale? ( )

Although the story meandered around quite a bit, sometimes seemingly without purpose, the pay off in the end was worth it. A great followup to Red Mars that continues to fuel my imagination. I look forward to reading Blue Mars. ( )