A review by regalalgorithm
The Martians, by Kim Stanley Robinson
5.0
A surprisingly essential addendum to the already exquisite Mars trilogy.
In using short disconnected stories to revisit this world that was built over a series of books and dozens of characters and hundreds of years, Robinson takes apart and individually explores the plethora of themes and emotions that were at the core of the trilogy: humanity's relation to place and earth and planet, technological ingenuity and catastrophe, political progress and compromise, the oddness of living as one human being as part of the flow of history of humanity and ecology, and above all the dynamics between individual people as they deal with all these other aspects of life. And what's so great is that these stories really are short: there are dozens peppered through the book, with only a few lasting more than a dozen pages. So, each one is a zoomed in glimpse of this whole wide world, in a way that was never possible in the sprawling epic that was the trilogy that traced the entire history of humanity's first few centuries on Mars. And in many cases each boils down to one idea or feeling, and in so doing highlights clearly another piece of what the original trilogy was about.
Not all the stories were thrilling or essential; for example, one is literally the first constitution of Mars, followed by an political retrospective analysis of said constitution -- not exactly high drama. But that's the beauty of it: these stories get their power from being set in this world that was already built by the trilogy, and in briefly hinting at the vastness and depth of it. Alltogether, these stories made me appreciate the underlying themes of the trilogy much more, and for that I think this collection is an utter success.
In using short disconnected stories to revisit this world that was built over a series of books and dozens of characters and hundreds of years, Robinson takes apart and individually explores the plethora of themes and emotions that were at the core of the trilogy: humanity's relation to place and earth and planet, technological ingenuity and catastrophe, political progress and compromise, the oddness of living as one human being as part of the flow of history of humanity and ecology, and above all the dynamics between individual people as they deal with all these other aspects of life. And what's so great is that these stories really are short: there are dozens peppered through the book, with only a few lasting more than a dozen pages. So, each one is a zoomed in glimpse of this whole wide world, in a way that was never possible in the sprawling epic that was the trilogy that traced the entire history of humanity's first few centuries on Mars. And in many cases each boils down to one idea or feeling, and in so doing highlights clearly another piece of what the original trilogy was about.
Not all the stories were thrilling or essential; for example, one is literally the first constitution of Mars, followed by an political retrospective analysis of said constitution -- not exactly high drama. But that's the beauty of it: these stories get their power from being set in this world that was already built by the trilogy, and in briefly hinting at the vastness and depth of it. Alltogether, these stories made me appreciate the underlying themes of the trilogy much more, and for that I think this collection is an utter success.