Blue Mars

Starred review from June 3, 1996
Red Mars, the kickoff to Robinson's epic Mars trilogy, won the Nebula for best SF novel of 1992; its follow-up, Green Mars, won the parallel Hugo for 1994. The conclusion to the saga is not unlike the terrain of Robinson's Red Planet: fertile and fully developed in some spots, vast and arid in others--but, ultimately, it's an impressive achievement. 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. Robinson's achievement here is on a par with Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and Herbert's Dune, even if his clinical detachment may leave some readers wondering whether there really is life on Mars. Author tour.

Last in a trilogy about Mars, this novel represents a significant commitment of time and attention. In a time when Mars is being colonized from Earth, both planets face ecological destruction. This saga of human evolution offers a complex plot, most every aspect of which will provide food for rumination. Richard Ferrone maintains his interest in the story he tells up to the last, which will help the listener to do the same, as this is a book that relies heavily on the narrative voice. He never allows himself to fall into monotony, even when presented with lists of place or person names or long explicative passages. His timing and sense of plot keep the book from bogging down. J.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine