Reviews

Il blu di Marte by Kim Stanley Robinson

alreadyemily's review against another edition

4.0

A review of the last book of the trilogy inevitably is also a review of the trilogy itself, now complete. The gaps between what I enjoyed immensely and what bored me in the first book got smaller as time went on and in this book I enjoyed nearly everything immensely - the sociology and culture, changes in thoughts and priorities from generation to generation, what happens when some start living to 200 or more; the politics, end-stage capitalism, and the building of what one hopes is a truly true democracy; the psychology, the nature of memory and relationships, and the tension between the individual and the community identity; the geology, biology, terraforming, and changing ecosystems; the past and the present, the old and the new.

Dense and very detailed - many paragraphs extend for nearly 2 pages - the world and it's people are engrossing. I don't think it's too much of a push to describe Blue Mars as a magnum opus. It has received a number of awards and is very deserving of them.

Overall, this vision of a possible future for humankind felt very real, very possible. And, ultimately, despite all of humanity's baggage, very positive. Which is nice, after all.

ineffablebob's review against another edition

adventurous emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Blue Mars picks up immediately after Green Mars ends, with the newly independent Martians figuring out what's next. The first part of the story consists of a lot of wrangling over how they'll rule themselves, which I found fairly interesting for the political and economic ideas. Then there's a trip back to Earth for some of the characters, which gives the reader a bit of a view into what's been happening there. I mostly liked the parts of that involving Nirgal, but there's also long stretches of Michel feeling sorry for himself that were incredibly boring. Eventually the story does come back around to the terraforming on Mars, which has advanced to polar-climate animal food chains. And then it expands even more, to other planets, moons, asteroids...by the second half of the book it feels very much like a prequel to The Expanse (which I suppose it kinda is, from a impact-on-authors perspective). All this is presented largely as background, as the lives of the remaining early Mars inhabitants (and some of the their descendants) continue. If you're looking for big action or heavy intrigue, this isn't the book (or series) for you. It has interesting ideas on extrapolating some key technological advances into human expansion across the solar system, just be warned that it's a very slow burn.

lightiron's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

compostbin's review against another edition

🥹definitely my favorite book of the trilogy. Was so hopeful and the character growth was so lovely. I want to live in this world, and I feel like KSR has charted a path toward it. The people felt so real and I was rooting for them so hard, even in their imperfections. Still not the biggest fan of how women are written? Or at least how they’re written some of the time? I think in general, there was just such a gendered way of being, though maybe that was intentional re: the conversation between michel and maya about the seemingly androgynous nature of most young natives. Not all of it was self aware though lol, the Zo-Sax sex scene? TRULY bizarre. I can’t wait to reread and in the meantime continue percolating on all the themes in the book. Sooo good. 

lioriptor33's review against another edition

slow-paced

4.5

summerofsolitude's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

4.5

kelshef's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

rhoelle's review against another edition

5.0

Kim plays thee games in this one: (1) teasing us with is Hiroko Ai still alive or not? (2) who is the father of Zo? (finally revealed only in The Martians) (3) sending characters out into harm's way until we get scared they're going to die, but invariably bringing them home safe again. After reading this and knowing Kim a little bit, I believe Sax Russell is his favorite character to write about as well as the character who is most like Kim.

hjswinford's review against another edition

2.0

Boy, there's a lot of science in here. But like...where's the novel??

I have to admire how ambitious this series was and I really did enjoy the first two books. By about halfway through this one, though, I was just ready for it to be over. It wasn't interesting anymore to me and packing in as much science as one possibly can doesn't make for a good novel and that's what I wanted here.

1 star for enjoyment, 1 star for sciencey effort.

klhitt's review against another edition

3.0

Much less action than the first two. Dragged for much, final section wrapped it up nicely.