Red Mars
Despite being published 20 years prior to the ministry of the future, I can see the same sort of approach to narrative, to world-building, in red mars. The book follows a few different third person focused narrators of the original first 100 to Mars, and it is mostly a slow burn until the last 50 or so pages, when nearly everything falls apart. robinson seeds future plot points early, only for them to pay off in the final chapters. I wouldn’t say his strength is narrative – action happens almost indirectly. but robinson has built an amazingly convincing world of mars, one that is mostly believable. one of the things I keep coming back to while reading this, especially after reading how the world really works is the impossible cost of energy that all this martian civilization would require. the energy infrastructure alone is staggering, and in this book you have these atom reclaimers that literally pull molecules from the sky to build other molecules. the energy cost of that sounds like it would be astonishing.
this does come close to scratching that same sort of itch that Cixin Liu’s series has, a science fiction novel that is alive with ideas. I would think this is more speculative fiction than strictly science fiction, but they both go to the same parties and have mostly the same friends.
I really liked the space elevator, although I still can’t really wrap my head around how it works. Also, any future space that doesn’t have corporations (in this book called transnationals) taking over things is delusional. Also the gene therapy that might make people live forever is fun. Playing with the cultural connotations is a good time, and what else would result but a fierce increase of the schism between rich and poor, between mortal and immortal, and thus lead to chaos?
this book is one of dichotomies, between the fundamental duality of creation and destruction that humanity can summon, between green earth and red mars, terran and areolian. everywhere man goes, they make in their own image, including turning red mars into blue mars.
the book ends with a ragtag contingent of the original 100, numbers severely diminished, joining their long lost sister Hiroko, who left Underhill, the first civilization, several decades prior. There is a promise of starting a new martian civilization in the wake of all the carnage. Frank Chalmers and John Boone and Arkady Bogdanovich are dead, many of the other first 100 are dead, but those that remain might be virtually immortal. looking forward to green mars and then blue mars.
Green Mars
Narratively, Green Mars is pretty straight ahead. In the wreckage left by the last book, the “revolutionary” contingent of Martian factions have been scattered to the wind and are mostly underground, although they are increasingly laissez-faire about hiding. The novel starts with Hiroko’s settlement, Zygote, and one of her many children, Nirgal. These children are the first true descendants of Mars, born and raised and ideologically forged in its red fines and increasingly molten surface. The volcanoes are a by-product of trying to introduce more oxygen into the atmosphere, to make Mars livable on the surface without protection, as part of a move for viriditas, or making Mars green.
Meanwhile back on Earth the transnational corporations have coalesced with countries in a non-hostile takeover and now rule the roost. It is a dystopian view claiming the inevitable trajectory of firms and countries is that firms will overpower countries and say what you want about nationalism, it is often more unifying and less dehumanizing than the relentless pursuit of profit.
Stylistically, green mars follows a similar approach as red mars; chapters in third person limited POV and following either one of Hiroko’s children, or one of the few remaining first 100, e.g., Sax, Anne, Nadia, Maya, Michel, etc.
The book explores themes of recursion and recurrence. Many of the characters in the book are likened to now dead first 100s – Nirgal as John Boone, Jackie as Maya, Art, the offworlder from the Praxis corporation sent to foment a free Mars as Frank Chalmers. There is a constant referral to the revolt of ‘61 and it’s disastrous consequences.
Mars occupies an interesting place in the human psyche, especially in the second half of the 20th century and onwards. The frontier is always expanding – humankind has been bent on attaining the unknown, fingers grasping at the horizon. Mars might be the last great frontier until we can leave the solar system, and in it is offered a reflection of the beholder. To some, it is a pristine Eden for humans to live in harmonious neutrality on. For others, it is a second chance, to take what we have learned and build something great without the scar tissue of a thousand years of mistakes. For others it is the next step and there is nothing more natural than walking inexorably towards it. And still for others, it is base camp for the inevitable human diaspora to distant lands beyond. And in that first single step all others are foretold.