Robinson, Kim Stanley Books

Red Mars (Mars Trilogy)

Kim Stanley Robinson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 363 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In his most ambitious project to date, award-winning author Kim Stanley Robinson utilizes years of research and cutting-edge science in the first of three novels that will chronicle the colonization of Mars.

For eons, sandstorms have swept the barren desolate landscape of the red planet. For centuries, Mars has beckoned to mankind to come and conquer its hostile climate. Now, in the year 2026, a group of one hundred colonists is about to fulfill that destiny.

John Boone, Maya Toitavna, Frank Chalmers, and Arkady Bogdanov lead a mission whose ultimate goal is the terraforming of Mars. For some, Mars will become a passion driving them to daring acts of courage and madness; for others it offers and opportunity to strip the planet of its riches. And for the genetic "alchemists, " Mars presents a chance to create a biomedical miracle, a breakthrough that could change all we know about life...and death.

The colonists place giant satellite mirrors in Martian orbit to reflect light to the planets surface. Black dust sprinkled on the polar caps will capture warmth and melt the ice. And massive tunnels, kilometers in depth, will be drilled into the Martian mantle to create stupendous vents of hot gases. Against this backdrop of epic upheaval, rivalries, loves, and friendships will form and fall to pieces--for there are those who will fight to the death to prevent Mars from ever being changed.

Brilliantly imagined, breathtaking in scope and ingenuity, Red Mars is an epic scientific saga, chronicling the next step in human evolution and creating a world in its entirety. Red Mars shows us a future, with both glory and tarnish, that awes with complexity and inspires with vision.

Blue Mars (Mars Trilogy)

Kim Stanley Robinson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 111 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A satisfying conclusion 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

First, the faults: As other reviewers note, this book needed a better editor. As with the first two books of the series, there are commas in sentences that they don't belong in, and this can get frustrating. There are also some sections in which Robinson goes into vast detail about a specific technology that after 2 books and hundreds of pages into the 3rd - just kill the pacing. After so long a time, being so deep into a story, the characters and plot need to be focused on more than the scientific breakthroughs. Also, as others have noted, Robinson starts to really push our suspension of disbelief: the colonization of other planets and asteroids kind of pushes it.

On to the good stuff: Robinson really knows his stuff, and part of the appeal of this series is how very dense it is, packed with the kind of details that make you believe in the world you're reading about. From science to politics to philosophy to human interactions, the world(s) Robinson creates really feel fully developed.

The best part of this book, for me, is when the story's focus shifts to its final act. Instead of asking, "what would the science, culture, and politics of a colonized mars be like?", the story asks: "What happens when you've lived for 230 years?" The troubles of the first hundred, now considered "superelderly," is described in a fascinating way.

Some reviewers feel the plot-line of Hiroko is dropped. Actually, this is a great part of Blue Mars, because it's not about Hiroko, but the perception of Hiroko. The question for the reader is not, "Is she alive or not?" The question is, "Why do some think she's alive and some not? What are their reasons? What does the 'myth' of Hiroko mean to them?"

Not every loose end is tied up (after all, in life, this can never happen), yet the overall story is brought to a satisfying conclusion. The Mars Trilogy is the tale of the First Hundred, ultimately, and we get a very good picture of what becomes of them.

After almost 2000 pages, I found following their journeys was a very, very worthwhile experience, and I recommend it with no reservations.

Editorial Review:

The red planet is red no longer, as Mars has become a perfectly inhabitable world. But while Mars flourishes, Earth is threatened by overpopulation and ecological disaster. Soon people look to Mars as a refuge, initiating a possible interplanetary conflict, as well as political strife between the Reds, who wish to preserve the planet in its desert state, and the Green "terraformers". The ultimate fate of Earth, as well as the possibility of new explorations into the solar system, stand in the balance.

Green Mars (Mars Trilogy)

Kim Stanley Robinson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 80 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Another classic 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I'm not sure I liked it quite as much as Red Mars, but it's still amazing. It's just a totally immersive, thought-provoking work of tremendous detail. It's definitely not escapist or super-being type of sf. I enjoy those two, but this isn't it. It's unsettling, brutal... it's a very 'hard sf' kind of book.

Allow me to address the complaints with this book:

1) Too long/boring: This is ridiculous. Every page contributes to the book. The pacing is rapid compared to what the characters experience. If you find yourself bored, or that it's going on too long, consider the characters. Perhaps Robinson wanted you to feel a little of their conflict. Personally, I was riveted, even at the parts with less action and more dialogue. See, I like books. I enjoy reading. 600 pages weren't a chore, they were a treat. I think people making this complaint would be better served reading novelizations of Star Wars or other action-packed space opera tripe. This one is for serious readers. Don't order espresso if what you really wanted was weak tea.

2) Political propoganda: This one actually cracks me up. See, whatever your political viewpoint, there are characters in the book who would sympathize with you. Unfortunately for our more myopic critics here, that means there will also be characters who disagree with you. They disagree with each other, too. See, it's like real life, with many different people and viewpoints. If you want your literature scubbed clean and sanitized of characters who might not vote the way you do, you are a sad, sad person and I feel sorry for you. The fact is, the characters in this book are trying to come up with a new way for human economics, politics, and even social structures to function. Because, like it or not, humans have not yet found a perfect method. Even capitalism has serious flaws, though I, personally, would tend toward it as a general rule. That's just me though. Are some of their ideas socialist? Yup. ARe some capitalist? You bet. Are ANY of their ideas original in the history of human administration? I didn't think so, but that's one of the themes throughout this whole series: can humans do anything original, or are they doomed to repeat themselves in perpetuity? And yes, a theme can be a question, the best ones are. It's not a love letter to either Adam Smith OR Karl Marx. It's just exploring the grey areas with some very well-developed characters and well-researcged fiction.

The only legitimate complaint I can think of is the prose, which, like Red Mars, was a bit stiff. A lot of sf writers appear to be scientists or researchers first, poets second. Fans of the genre don't expect Faulknerian prose (though Delany and some others are fine). The plot, characterization, themes, subtext, even the much-beleaguered pacing are masterful. not to mention the unbelievable research. I read a lot of sf, so the less-than-poetic prose didn't hinder my enjoyment.

To summarize, this book is for serious readers of sf, not Saturday Matinee junkies. It is also not for myopic goose-steppers of any ideology.

Editorial Review:

In the Nebula Award winning Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson began his critically acclaimed epic saga of the colonization of Mars, Now the Hugo Award winning Green Mars continues the thrilling and timeless tale of humanity's struggle to survive at its farthest frontier.

Nearly a generation has passed since the first pioneers landed, but the transformation of Mars to an Earthlike planet has just begun The plan is opposed by those determined to preserve the planets hostile, barren beauty. Led by rebels like Peter Clayborne, these young people are the first generation of children born on Mars. They will be joined by original settlers Maya Toitovna, Simon Frasier, and Sax Russell. Against this cosmic backdrop, passions, rivalries, and friendships explode in a story as spectacular as the planet itself.

The Years of Rice and Salt

Kim Stanley Robinson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 148 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

With the incomparable vision and breathtaking detail that brought his now-classic Mars trilogy to vivid life, bestselling author KIM STANLEY ROBINSON boldly imagines an alternate history of the last seven hundred years. In his grandest work yet, the acclaimed storyteller constructs a world vastly different from the one we know....

The Years of Rice and Salt

It is the fourteenth century and one of the most apocalyptic events in human history is set to occur–the coming of the Black Death. History teaches us that a third of Europe’s population was destroyed. But what if? What if the plague killed 99 percent of the population instead? How would the world have changed? This is a look at the history that could have been–a history that stretches across centuries, a history that sees dynasties and nations rise and crumble, a history that spans horrible famine and magnificent innovation. These are the years of rice and salt.

This is a universe where the first ship to reach the New World travels across the Pacific Ocean from China and colonization spreads from west to east. This is a universe where the Industrial Revolution is triggered by the world’s greatest scientific minds–in India. This is a universe where Buddhism and Islam are the most influential and practiced religions and Christianity is merely a historical footnote.

Through the eyes of soldiers and kings, explorers and philosophers, slaves and scholars, Robinson renders an immensely rich tapestry. Rewriting history and probing the most profound questions as only he can, Robinson shines his extraordinary light on the place of religion, culture, power, and even love on such an Earth. From the steppes of Asia to the shores of the Western Hemisphere, from the age of Akbar to the present and beyond, here is the stunning story of the creation of a new world.


From the Hardcover edition.

Sixty Days and Counting

Kim Stanley Robinson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

By the time Phil Chase is elected president, the world’s climate is far on its way to irreversible change. Food scarcity, housing shortages, diminishing medical care, and vanishing species are just some of the consequences. The erratic winter the Washington, D.C., area is experiencing is another grim reminder of a global weather pattern gone haywire: bone-chilling cold one day, balmy weather the next.

But the president-elect remains optimistic and doesn’t intend to give up without a fight. A maverick in every sense of the word, Chase starts organizing the most ambitious plan to save the world from disaster since FDR–and assembling a team of top scientists and advisers to implement it.

For Charlie Quibler, this means reentering the political fray full-time and giving up full-time care of his young son, Joe. For Frank Vanderwal, hampered by a brain injury, it means trying to protect the woman he loves from a vengeful ex and a rogue “black ops” agency not even the president can control–a task for which neither Frank’s work at the National Science Foundation nor his study of Tibetan Buddhism can prepare him.

In a world where time is running out as quickly as its natural resources, where surveillance is almost total and freedom nearly nonexistent, the forecast for the Chase administration looks darker each passing day. For as the last–and most terrible–of natural disasters looms on the horizon, it will take a miracle to stop the clock . . . the kind of miracle that only dedicated men and women can bring about.


From the Hardcover edition.

Forty Signs of Rain

Kim Stanley Robinson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 64 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The bestselling author of the classic Mars trilogy and The Years of Rice and Salt returns with a riveting new trilogy of cutting-edge science, international politics, and the real-life ramifications of global warming as they are played out in our nation’s capital—and in the daily lives of those at the center of the action. Hauntingly realistic, here is a novel of the near future that is inspired by scientific facts already making headlines.

When the Arctic ice pack was first measured in the 1950s, it averaged thirty feet thick in midwinter. By the end of the century it was down to fifteen. One August the ice broke. The next year the breakup started in July. The third year it began in May. That was last year.

It’s an increasingly steamy summer in the nation’s capital as Senate environmental staffer Charlie Quibler cares for his young son and deals with the frustrating politics of global warming. Charlie must find a way to get a skeptical administration to act before it’s too late—and his progeny find themselves living in Swamp World. But the political climate poses almost as great a challenge as the environmental crisis when it comes to putting the public good ahead of private gain.

While Charlie struggles to play politics, his wife, Anna, takes a more rational approach to the looming crisis in her work at the National Science Foundation. There a proposal has come in for a revolutionary process that could solve the problem of global warming—if it can be recognized in time. But when a race to control the budding technology begins, the stakes only get higher. As these everyday heroes fight to align the awesome forces of nature with the extraordinary march of modern science, they are unaware that fate is about to put an unusual twist on their work—one that will place them at the heart of an unavoidable storm.

With style, wit, and rare insight into our past, present, and possible future, this captivating novel propels us into a world on the verge of unprecedented change—in a time quite like our own. Here is Kim Stanley Robinson at his visionary best, offering a gripping cautionary tale of progress—and its price—as only he can tell it.


From the Hardcover edition.

Fifty Degrees Below

Kim Stanley Robinson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Bestselling, award-winning, author Kim Stanley Robinson continues his groundbreaking trilogy of eco-thrillers–and propels us deeper into the awesome whirlwind of climatic change. Set in our nation’s capital, here is a chillingly realistic tale of people caught in the collision of science, technology, and the consequences of global warming–which could trigger another phenomenon: abrupt climate change, resulting in temperatures...

When the storm got bad, scientist Frank Vanderwal was at work, formalizing his return to the National Science Foundation for another year. He’d left the building just in time to help sandbag at Arlington Cemetery. Now that the torrent was over, large chunks of San Diego had eroded into the sea, and D.C. was underwater.

Shallow lakes occupied the most famous parts of the city. Reagan Airport was awash and the Potomac had spilled beyond its banks. Rescue boats dotted the saturated cityscape. Everything Frank and his colleagues in the halls of science and politics feared had culminated in this massive disaster. And now the world looked to them to fix it.

Whatever Frank can do, now that he is homeless, he’ll have to do from his car. He’s not averse to sleeping outdoors. Years of research have made him hyperaware of his status as just another primate. That plus his encounter with a Tibetan Buddhist has left him resolved to live a more authentic life.

Hopefully, this will prepare him for whatever is to come....

For even as D.C. bails out from the flood, a more extreme climate change looms. With the melting of the polar ice caps shutting down the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, another Ice Age could be imminent. The last time it happened, eleven thousand years ago, it took just three years to start.

Once again Kim Stanley Robinson uses his remarkable vision, trademark wry wit, and extraordinary insight into the complexity between man and nature to take us to the brink of disaster–and slightly beyond.


From the Hardcover edition.

The Martians

Kim Stanley Robinson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy is one of science fiction's most honored series, with Red Mars winning the distinguished Nebula Award, and both Green Mars and Blue Mars honored with the Hugo. A modern-day classic of the genre, this epic saga deftly portrays the human stories behind Earth's most ambitious project yet: the terraforming of Mars.

Now, following the publication of his acclaimed adventure novel, Antarctica, Robinson returns to the realm he has made his own, in a work that brilliantly weaves together a futuristic setting with a poetic vision of the human spirit engaged in a drama as ancient as mankind itself.

From a training mission in Antarctica to blistering sandstorms sweeping through labyrinths of barren canyons, the interwoven stories of The Martians set in motion a sprawling cast of characters upon the surface of Mars. As the planet is transformed from an unexplored and forbidding terrain to a troubled image of a re-created Earth, we meet men and women who are bound together by their experiences on Mars and with each other.

Among them are Michel, a French psychologist dazzled by the beauty around him; Maya, a woman whose ill-fated love affairs lead to her first voyage to Mars; and Roger, a tall Martian-born guide who lacks social skills but has the courage to survive on the planet's dangerous yet strangely compelling surface.

Beginning with the First Hundred explorers, generations of friends, enemies, and lovers are swept up in the drama that is Earth's tenuous toehold on Mars. International exploration turns into world building; world building degenerates into political conflict, revolution, and war.

Following the strands of these lives and events, in an age when human life has been extended for decades, The Martians becomes the story of generations lived on the edge of the ultimate frontier, in a landscape of constant man-made and natural transformation.

This new masterpiece by Kim Stanley Robinson is a story of hope and disappointment, of fierce physical and psychological struggles. Both deeply human and scientifically cutting edge, The Martians is the epic chronicle of a planet that represents one of humanity's most glorious possibilities.


A Letter from Kim Stanley Robinson:

"When I finished Blue Mars, I realized I wasn't done with Mars yet. There were things I still wanted to say about the place, and about my characters from the trilogy, and there were a number of sidebar stories and characters that had found no place in the trilogy's structure. I also had a couple of precursor Mars stories that did not fit the trilogy's history--'Exploring Fossil Canyon' and 'Green Mars'--and I had held these out of my earlier story collections thinking they belonged with the Mars group."

So all this material was there, and as I wrote Antarctica, I found myself drawn back into the matter of Mars repeatedly, by the discovery of possible life in meteorite AHL8004 and by the Pathfinder landing. I decided to make a collection of Martian tales, and as I put them in roughly chronological order, I saw that they seemed to be adding up to their own larger story, functioning as the trilogy's 'unconscious' or 'secret history'. Using all kinds of modes, from folk tales to scientific articles, from personal accounts to the full text of a constitution, I arranged things so that the book altogether tells the story of an underground and hard-to-see resistance to the terraforming described in the trilogy proper. I had a great time doing these stories, and hope they add up to my own version of a Martian Chronicles."

The Wild Shore: Three Californias (Wild Shore Triptych)

Kim Stanley Robinson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Dreaming of a Post-Apocalyptic California? 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Being a California Native and a lover of post-apocalyptical fiction this book should have been a slam-dunk for me and in some ways it was.

Robinson got two things right -
First, he realistically portrays the life of a primitive, struggling, post-nuclear attack community along a wild and rugged California coast. They fish, hunt, sow and trade for their survival. Many want to forget their past in order to brighten their future while others are obsessed with their once powerful history and take great risks to reassert their independence. That is exactly what one would expect from a post-apocalyptical American society.
Second, the survivors would flounder under the burdens of lack of communication, lack of central government and the frustration of walking among the rubble of technology you know would be helpful but that no one alive has more than rudimentary understanding of. The geo-political situation would be not only misunderstood, but in many ways unknown and perhaps even irrelevant to survivors in such circumstances. The bits and pieces of the world situation that these people do happen upon are unvalidated and confused.

This realism, and the thought and consideration behind it, are impressive. It's very in tune with Robinson's detail-oriented style.

But that detail-heavy writing style is the thing that most turned me off of this book. The superfluous descriptions of the natural scenery was overwhelming and literally boring. I understand that Robinson is trying to imply a tie to nature that these post-war people would have that we can barely imagine in this day and age - yet pages and pages of scenic detail are unnecessary. I found myself literally skipping pages ahead to avoid having to read yet another description of the sea-cliff or the redwood grove. Not even an uber-naturalist would be interested in this much information. And it takes away from an otherwise fascinating and well-flowing narrative of a young boys life in the turbulent times Robinson has created.

While I'll probably finish this series, I'd only recommend it to those with a particular interest in California or post-apocalyptical writing. Or if you have trouble falling asleep.

Editorial Review:

2047: For the small Pacific Coast community of San Onofre, life in the aftermath of a devastating nuclear attack is a matter of survival, a day-to-day struggle to stay alive. But young Hank Fletcher dreams of the world that might have been, and might yet be--and dreams of playing a crucial role in America's rebirth.

Antarctica

Kim Stanley Robinson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 69 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

From the award-winning author of the Mars Trilogy comes a thrilling new novel....

Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the Hugo and Nebula award-winning Mars trilogy, is one of the most original and visionary writers of fiction today. Now, in his latest novel, he takes us to a harsh, alien landscape covered by a sheet of ice two miles deep. This is no distant planet--it is the last pure wilderness on earth.

A stark and inhospitable place, its landscape poses a challenge to survival; yet its strange, silent beauty has long fascinated scientists and adventurers. Now Antarctica faces an uncertain future. The international treaty that protects the continent is about to dissolve, clearing the way for Antarctica's resources and eerie beauty to be plundered. As politicians and corporations move to determine its fate from half a world away, radical environmentalists carry out a covert campaign of sabotage to reclaim the land. The winner of this critical battle will determine the future for this last great wilderness....