Friday, October 20, 2000
Title: Green Mars
Author: Kim Stanley Robinson
Publisher: Voyager
A team of 100 settlers has been sent to Mars to live, explore and experiment. From their first steps others have set up base there, until there are a series of tented communities. As the political situation on Earth has become increasingly unstable so has that on Mars, leading to the war of 2061. This is all in the past for Green Mars, the second in Kim Stanley Robinson's trilogy. >From here the "first hundred" are wanted criminals for their part in the uprising and they are living as part of the Martian underground. Meanwhile the Metanationals on Earth have become the real power as they consume countries for their resources and replace governments. With special medical procedures life expectancy can be extended, seemingly to an unlimited extent. Though this is reserved for the rich. The power struggles and the creation of a new gap between rich and poor are causing tensions to rise once more. However the increasingly unbearable environmental impact of the human race on Earth is likely to be the big trigger. Which leave Mars as a resource to be consumed, or an escape route for the rich. Or perhaps a power in it own right and a free planet, if the Martians have anything to do with it.
Kim Stanley Robinson presents a strong suggestion of settlement on another planet. Dealing with the transformation of the planet in steps s that it is increasingly habitable. With this he demonstrates the various techniques that could be used, and contrasts them with the arguments of the pros and cons of these. This terraforming also splits the Martian settlers, creating the Reds and Greens. Reds believing the planet should be left in its natural state, uncorrupted by the touch of humanity. While the Greens of course are pushing for the full terraformed environment. With extremists on both sides there is also of course the spectrum in between. This creates a society where people don't agree. Added to that is the increasing presence of metanational forces and the already diverse population. Increasing of the awareness of the ties between the two planets and the fact that this relationship has to be dealt with. Again leading to the extremists of Marsfirst, struggling against those who survived the last, failed revolution and believe it must be done differently.
The story builds as do the struggles of each of the forces from the underground to a subversive integration and ultimate flash point. Following the surviving members of the first hundred, now reduced to a count of 39. Each of them over 100 years old and pushing the limits of the treatments. While they raise a fourth generation of settlers - now entirely Martian, mutated so they can never return to Earth. Coming close to 800 pages Green Mars is packed full of detail, successfully integrating science and politics to create a believable extrapolation from our current state. As the book is split into parts we follow a range of characters allowing us to see the different levels of the work. Following children, scientists, politicians, diplomats, revolutionaries - key figures and driving forces to the dynamic of Green Mars. There are minor flaws in Robinson's writing, with one or two sections being overly dry. But in the end those do not detract from this compelling work, and I will certainly be looking to read the other parts in this series.
RVWR: PTR
October 2000
