Why did I love this book?
Hard SF writers need to build believable worlds as seen from a variety of character perspectives. These stories require a ton of research to create the details about how technologies may develop and how cultures might respond to those changes to make the story world credible. When I was researching other hard SF novels written about Mars in the early 1990s, Red Mars was at the top of my list because of its high level of detail and character perspectives. I worked for NASA and am picky about technology projections. Although the technologies have continued to change, the novel (published in 1992 with the story starting in 2026) still holds up well in terms of colonization strategies and in terms of the overpopulation and environmental destruction issues as drivers for migration to Mars.
11 authors picked Red Mars as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
The first novel in Kim Stanley Robinson's massively successful and lavishly praised Mars trilogy. 'The ultimate in future history' Daily Mail
Mars - the barren, forbidding planet that epitomises mankind's dreams of space conquest.
From the first pioneers who looked back at Earth and saw a small blue star, to the first colonists - hand-picked scientists with the skills necessary to create life from cold desert - Red Mars is the story of a new genesis.
It is also the story of how Man must struggle against his own self-destructive mechanisms to achieve his dreams: before he even sets foot…