A review by christophevdp
Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
1.0
Put it away and read 3 better, shorter books in stead.
I read Red Mars and thought it was interesting, but boring.
I struggled through Green Mars and told myself I would never read anything as boring as that again.
Now - years later - Against my better judgement I started in Blue Mars and yeah...
DNF.
It's not that KSR is a bad writer. It's that he has the tendency to start and finish his books (in all three on display here) with something interesting. Action. Science. Politics. Nicely balanced, but in between those two extremities in his novels, he makes your eyes bleed from boredom.
I kinda forgot that that was what annoyed me so much about Green Mars. And when I started Blue, I was briefly fooled again! I thought "hey, this isn't as bad as I remember. Why did I instate that KSR moratorium?". And then after the first couple of chapters I realized I was reading about rocks. And moss. And a character driving around for pages and pages and pages, having an internal dialog about rocks. And moss. And the occasional crater. Which can best be described as a localized absence of rocks.
So I bailed on it. I gave three stars to Red. Two stars to Green. And this one gets one. Because that's my DNF rating. I rarely put books away unfinished. But I can read 3 other books by the time I struggle through another one of these. So that is what I will do.
I read Red Mars and thought it was interesting, but boring.
I struggled through Green Mars and told myself I would never read anything as boring as that again.
Now - years later - Against my better judgement I started in Blue Mars and yeah...
DNF.
It's not that KSR is a bad writer. It's that he has the tendency to start and finish his books (in all three on display here) with something interesting. Action. Science. Politics. Nicely balanced, but in between those two extremities in his novels, he makes your eyes bleed from boredom.
I kinda forgot that that was what annoyed me so much about Green Mars. And when I started Blue, I was briefly fooled again! I thought "hey, this isn't as bad as I remember. Why did I instate that KSR moratorium?". And then after the first couple of chapters I realized I was reading about rocks. And moss. And a character driving around for pages and pages and pages, having an internal dialog about rocks. And moss. And the occasional crater. Which can best be described as a localized absence of rocks.
So I bailed on it. I gave three stars to Red. Two stars to Green. And this one gets one. Because that's my DNF rating. I rarely put books away unfinished. But I can read 3 other books by the time I struggle through another one of these. So that is what I will do.