Red Mars

Red Mars is a big book in many ways. The first of a trilogy it imagines the first few decades of colonisation of Mars. It's a well thought out book taking into account the complexity of politics and religions that shape our life on Earth and how these divisions in human society will also affect life on Mars. Can I also whisper that I also found it just a little bit boring and slow in places. Not because of the detail that Robinson goes into describing the colonisation process, the geography and landscapes of Mars or the details of the science involved in terraforming but because the style of the writing is just a bit flat and perfunctory. A lot happened in this book but the highs and lows are dampened. Which is odd, because the author choose to start the book with a major incident that occurs in the middle of the story when really there seems no rhyme or reason for it to be there out of context.Parts of the story are told from the POV of different characters and while this makes it more interesting, the tone is exactly the same, flat and slightly dry.

I was also a little disappointed that the first challenges of settling on Mars were somewhat glossed over. A hundred scientists and engineers were selected to form the first colony. They rapidly establish air-filled habitats, wear special skin suits to go out and explore Mars and quickly develop huge gardens of plants and trees. In some ways this book is the antithesis of The Martian by Andt Weir, which in comparison to this was perhaps a little over-exuberant in tone, but dealt with important issues like generating oxygen and water, getting plants to grow in Martian soil, managing human waste and recycling.

Nevertheless, the scope of the book is impressive. I loved the details about the Mars landscape and the types of settlements that could be built there and the types of activities that could be undertaken to terraform the land. The tensions between the 'Reds', those who want to keep Mars as it is and stop the multinationals grabbing all its minerals and sending them back to a mineral-hungry Earth and the 'Greens', those who want to turn it into a version of Earth, highlighted the dilemma we will face if man ever does leave Earth to colonise another planet. How will we manage to organise a new society without taking our racial and religious tensions with us and how can we prevent the multinationals from taking control when so much money will be needed for such an enterprise?