Green Mars

Yo. Sometimes it feels like reading KSR is like listening to an opera by Philip Glass. That is: richly pleasurable, challenging, kinda boring, repetitive, opaque, humanistic, godless (heh), inspiring, exciting, confusing and smart. SMART! I want to put that in all caps. This man (KSR) is some sort of genius-type person who seems to have a deep (amateur, I guess) passion for geology, engineering and other hard sciences, as well as an equal talent for political science, political history, economics and sociology. It's incredible what that man's brain can hold and convey. I find myself also admiring his writing, especially the way he weaves in personality and mundanity into these crazy characters and their crazy lives.

The Glass-KSR parallel was made doubly cool when, in KSR's other gigantic solar system opus (2312), Philip Glass's Satyagraha was the elevator music. Space elevator music. Because - of course it would be!

Anyway. Green Mars. We pick up 50 years after the eventful events of 2061, which finished off the first book (Red Mars, A+++). 2061 was when an awful third world war consumed Earth and Mars caught fire (figuratively and, in some brain-boggling moments, literally). This cataclysmic craziness has driven most of the surviving First Hundred (the first hundred scientists who were sent to establish a Mars colony) underground (again, figuratively and literally). It has also given up the red planet to corporate interests, who are promptly following their profit motive and raping the hell out of it. This book is about the First Hundred and their as-ever conflicting visions for the future of Mars, now also conflicting with the second- and third-generation colonists who are all super-tall sexy Amazon types with weird social mores. Basically, hippie commune types, raised on tons of milk.

This is a long, dense, challenging read, divided into sections dedicated to various protagonists. It feels a bit like Dr. Zhivago at times, in terms of its scope (and, OK, the presence of Russian characters). It also feels like a geology textbook, or something by John Muir. As in Battlestar Galactica, or other long-form stories, characters' narrative arcs wax and wane in ways that are unexpected but - oh jeez - compelling. Vast, even! EPIC. I speak especially of Sax. Much like my feelings for Colonel Tigh in BSG, I was neutral/uninterested in Sax/Tigh in the beginning, until their story went so completely bonkers insane that I could not look away. And then: oh man is Sax my favorite character. (It used to be Arkady and Nadia in Red Mars.) Oh man is Sax now the BEST. Look what he did to Deimos!! Who does that!?! God, he's so great. Great!

Is this book for everyone? Or every self-described SF/F fan? Probably not. I feel like most people - if they're going to be turned off - are going to be turned off by the ultra-dense technical writing interspersed with slyly radical leftist ideals (“Red” Mars indeed, ho ho). i.e. Some people might find it boring and kinda offensive/eye-rolly, if they're not into anarcho-commune stuff. This is definitely NOT space opera in the usual kind, it is definitely subliminally left-wing (whereas much mainstream SF feels sub right-wing) nor is it mind-bogglingly weird the way some (great) sci-fi can be. Instead, it's one of those “we use SF to put the lens on ourselves”, in that - reading this - you understand things like the Russian revolution a lot better. And colonialism!

Anyway. If this sounds vaguely up your alley (tech porn + history porn + long, dense reading + anarchist undercurrents + a crazy scientist + in space), then OH WOW will you be rewarded. I feel almost that I trivialize it by making jokes in my review. But this really is an astounding epic, a feat that should be lauded for a long long time. I definitely count this in my top 10.