Green Mars is a test, sort of like Atlas Shrugged. If you can get through the whole book without skimming every once in a while, then you're either a groupie or so opposed to the author's philosophical musings that you want to be able to refute them point by point in subsequent arguments. Note that I'm not advocating skimming KSR. Ever, for any reason. But I can see why you might; he's a bit of an acquired taste. ( )

ZB5

First of all this Green Mars is the 2nd book of the trilogy not as I expected the third. Red, Blue, Green, just seemed more sensible to me, especially with red being the dry mars, and hence Blue wuld be the wet mars, followed by Green the living mars. Not so. Red to Green and Blue last. Not sure why this is called Green mars, very little vegitation is surviving - although some does and the surface is now distinctly not red in many places. Perhaps it is in reference to the two factions within the natives - the Reds are fundamentalist no-terraformists while the Greens are more moderate terraformist supporters of various kinds. Given the ending in Red Mars it is now clear that the Surface of Mars has been altered forever.

The story continues in the same style as previously - sections are devoted to a specific character and told in a fairly tight third person - although not quite as tightly as in Red Mars, there are a few disconnects with other characters jumping in.

I gave up trying to keep track of exactly when events happened, but Green Mars starts quite a bit after the end of Red - the 'war' in '61. Which didn't turn out quite as well as it seemed, the First 100 are down to 39, and still bitterly divided about the fate or Mars. However the old Transnational companies have now become Metanationals - shortened to Metanats, which I always read as Mentants as in Dune, very annoying - and in a very convenient and not quite belivable plot twist, one sympathises with the Martian 'natives', so that as the conflict over the ownership of Mars escalates and the conditions on Earth deteriorate there is more information around and the natives can be better prepared - if only they can agree in which direction they wish to be prepared!

Hiroko is still an enigma, and although we gain a bit more detail about Coyote he too is still much of a mystery figure. However we do get a lot more information about the new youngsters on Mars, 2nd thrid and even fourth generation children, who naturally enough don't quite see eye to eye with the elders.

Much less science in this book compared to the last - although there is still some especially early on. The background now is more about rebellion and discussion. How would you go about taking over a planet? How do you as an anarchist copmrimise enough to form a government? How do discussion work and where does agrement come from. Again the tight third person narrative gives a good view on the different sides of the matter. There is also some wonderful commentary on getting old, and the problems a healthy and long lived population have to come to terms with. I wasn't completely convinced that a 120yr old martian would be able to be accepted as a immigrant from earth without any questions being asked! And there is still way too much water being found compared to the infromation that we now know. The Metanats are otherwise remote and not quite convincing either.

Overall it's still a cracking good read though, and the many problems of Mars and it's people are captivating - not just as a story but as all good SF should be, also as commentary on the problems we as society may face. Much of the discussion dialog you can see repeated in internet forums every day - iconoclasts who don't/won't or can't see anothers opints of view; or even that there are two or more equally but contradictory right answers to a given problem. Is going it alone the right thing to do?

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Lord this book was long and technical and had some weird tangents in it that started out well but didn’t go anywhere…I guess that’s why they’re tangents.

Anyway, some of the first hundred are still alive thanks to the anti-aging treatment and they are still fighting the same battles. This time, the newer generations are taking up the “free Mars” chant and don’t want to learn from their elder’s mistakes (what else is new?). Many of the first hundred have had to go underground after the first revolution attempt. Some have had their identities changed and have undergone plastic surgery. Sacks Russel is one of them from the first book and Phyllis, who is also still alive and is in a position of great power, eventually finds him out. She threatens to expose him and then eventually arrests him and he’s tortured so that he might reveal the secret location of Hiroko’s “tribe”. A rescue is launched and they grab him but it results in serious brain damage for Sacks.

The transnationals have joined to form metanationals and one is Praxis. Praxis wants to build a foundation on mars by cultivating and investing in bio-assets. People and other biological and ecological foundations. They send someone up to work with the underground to establish a foothold on the side that Praxis thinks will win the inevitable second revolution attempt.

The second of the trilogy sees Mars having moved on and th First One Hundred become reverred but not always at the cutting edge of what is happening.

The Greens and the Reds are now the largest groups on Mars both wanting to stop it from being taken over by Earth. But there wishes for Mars differ - is terraforming a good idea?

Praxis, one of the MetaNats on Earth, want to help with their rise and to form independance. So they send a secret "ambassador" to Mars to contact the First One Hundred. All of which leads to again the break from Earth - though with infighting that shows the growth of any civilisation.

The second book is just as good as the first especially as the groundwork on the characters was done earlier. This is now following them in their life. ( )