Red Mars

It took me 19 days to read Red Mars' 566 pages, including two days when I found an excuse not to read. Most of it was a dull, dry, slog. Kim Stanley Robinson is longwinded, using a lot of words to tell his story. This novel has an ensemble cast. There is no protagonist. We think maybe John Boone is it. He was the first man to set foot on Mars and has the prestige of John Glenn or Neil Armstrong. He is a charismatic leader among the one hundred scientists and engineers who go to Mars as its first colonists. They have a long long voyage, arrive, explore, build a community, and eventually are joined by more colonists, thousands more. Years pass. There are political factions and political friction. More years pass. On page 380, a chapter begins with the revelation that John Boone has been assassinated. That's the last we ever hear about John. We never even learn the circumstances of the assassination, not an iota. John's friend Frank Chalmers thinks to himself "I killed John" a couple times. but we never know if that is just feelings of guilt for not being there when john needed him, or if he actually murdered him.

There is unrest and war on overcrowded earth and there is unrest on Mars that leads to a revolt that becomes a nasty devastating war. It's easy to destroy a tent domed city - just blow a hole in the tent. The book reaches it's calamitous climax at about page 500. Suddenly things are happening, it's no longer the drudgery we've been dragging ourselves through, page after page after page. So, despite its long long slow start, it does have a strong finish.

This is the first Kim Stanly Robinson I've read. I've no inclination to read more. For anyone starting to read Red Mars, my advice is start on page 380. The back story isn't worth the effort.