Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There is an element of this book that is fantastic, the journey over Mars. Robinson writes so concretely and minutely of the travels of the First Hundred colonists – a select few of them, of course – that the planet becomes tangible. It is a remarkable achievement to make such an alien voyage into a palpable experience. The writing pours forward, discussing the names of places, the geological features, the elevations, the rocks, the dust (called fines), all this while moving the characters and the story, the whole process so effortless on the page. Yet it is certain that this feat cost time and effort and study, since none of this information could be described as intuitive. The same applies to the journey to Mars in the colony ship and the establishment of the colony. One of the best passages of the book introduces us to Nadia, who is the passionate builder and implementer of the colony, easily the most vivid of the characters in my opinion. This is what the book gets right, and it’s transcendent. But the people in the book are generally dull or typical or both, and attempts to draw someone more vividly, like Maya, the head of the Russian colonists, descend into questionable stuff. Robinson is not very good with character. He is good enough with it that the people are differentiated, but his description of their selves, their depths, is so clinical that it grays out their features. He is devoted to scientists and has little interest in anyone else. Business people get short shrift and art is depicted as something that scientists are occasionally very good at. This is entirely fair as a choice, but it dulls the world and the work considerably. Nevertheless, this is a monumental work. It is also one of the most readable books I have encountered in some time.