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A review by zmorris1923
Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
4.0
I think I need to give this one a 4. There was so much to love throughout this book and throughout this series, but I think this one made me recognize some faults with the writing and characterization within.
But let's start with the good stuff. As per usual, I found the style to be wonderful, the tone and setting is fascinating and the amount of work put into it is astounding, I truly can't imagine the amount of research that must have been done for every single page, let alone, chapter, part, and book as a whole. There's so much to be said about politics, science, life, love, revolution, etc.
One character who I saw myself in was Nirgal in some ways, during this book he moves away from politics and towards self care and realization. His story in this book made me wonder about revolution and how it's portrayed post-revolution, and how in literature revenge is written. Your whole world is set to change something, and when you finish that change... you're lost, what do you do? In this case, Nirgal goes and enjoys his life, very fully. There's not much of a transition, not a lot of that indecision which we initially saw.
Generally, this book lacked the transitional space that the other books in the series were given. We see years pass with the passing of a page--and as time goes on, history takes longer to happen perhaps; where the original story was about terraforming and the creation of a new world government, once those things are done... what happens, where does the author go? Inevitably, I think KSR lost his way and kind of worked the latter half of this book into a quick ending, instead of deeply caring for every tiny change as he had earlier. This book was already incredibly long, but it wasn't enough, which I found disappointing. There were births and deaths (and whole lifes!) glossed over with a sentence that was hardly enough for me on that front. A major character died and I felt nothing because that death was poorly written and attended to!
I did like some new characterizations to come with this novel--like Maya beginning work with a theatre troupe. I didn't see that coming at all, but it was a nice change of course. Other things like Sax moving on to different types of science was very on brand for him, leading to a lovely ending about memory and how the characters have changed over the years. But other characterizations became more apparent to me. The women in this series are often characterized in very similar ways. A strong female character is written so similarly to one another, just with different ideals that push them against each other. Also, all the characters you're meant to hate are women. I feel sad reading this final book because it simply did not meet my expectations. The first half was great, but as time went on I became more upset with how things were turning out.
But let's start with the good stuff. As per usual, I found the style to be wonderful, the tone and setting is fascinating and the amount of work put into it is astounding, I truly can't imagine the amount of research that must have been done for every single page, let alone, chapter, part, and book as a whole. There's so much to be said about politics, science, life, love, revolution, etc.
One character who I saw myself in was Nirgal in some ways, during this book he moves away from politics and towards self care and realization. His story in this book made me wonder about revolution and how it's portrayed post-revolution, and how in literature revenge is written. Your whole world is set to change something, and when you finish that change... you're lost, what do you do? In this case, Nirgal goes and enjoys his life, very fully. There's not much of a transition, not a lot of that indecision which we initially saw.
Generally, this book lacked the transitional space that the other books in the series were given. We see years pass with the passing of a page--and as time goes on, history takes longer to happen perhaps; where the original story was about terraforming and the creation of a new world government, once those things are done... what happens, where does the author go? Inevitably, I think KSR lost his way and kind of worked the latter half of this book into a quick ending, instead of deeply caring for every tiny change as he had earlier. This book was already incredibly long, but it wasn't enough, which I found disappointing. There were births and deaths (and whole lifes!) glossed over with a sentence that was hardly enough for me on that front. A major character died and I felt nothing because that death was poorly written and attended to!
I did like some new characterizations to come with this novel--like Maya beginning work with a theatre troupe. I didn't see that coming at all, but it was a nice change of course. Other things like Sax moving on to different types of science was very on brand for him, leading to a lovely ending about memory and how the characters have changed over the years. But other characterizations became more apparent to me. The women in this series are often characterized in very similar ways. A strong female character is written so similarly to one another, just with different ideals that push them against each other. Also, all the characters you're meant to hate are women. I feel sad reading this final book because it simply did not meet my expectations. The first half was great, but as time went on I became more upset with how things were turning out.