Superbly complex. Science fiction at its best, telling a gripping story but also blending in predictions about the future of mankind and the effect technology can have on society whilst also casting a sly glance at how we live today and the assumption of what we take to be normal.

Although it feels like the middle of a trilogy this is actually the first in the series - and I'm not sure the rest can possibly be as good. Divided up into sections, each of which is devoted to the POV of a single character, this is a very neat way of writing that explores multiple views of the same situation - although they are generally (with the very annoying exception of the prologue) sequential in time - it avoids the disruption to the reader that shorter intervals produces, whilst still giving the work a huge scope. The characters chosen are a few leading figures in the first 100 people sent as a scientific exploration team to Mars. The First Person on Mars John Boone has rejoined them - and the importance of his original journey - that we only hear about in passing reference, makes this feel like the middle of the trilogy. The tight focus of each section really allows the reader to emphasize with the thoughts behind the different characters and their positions on both sides and those of the moderates - the only one I struggled to comprehend was Michael.

Essentially a US/Russian operation additional funding from other countries enables a few members from elsewhere to join the team, but even on the 9month journey out other factions start forming within the team itself. Once on Mars itself the very act of forming a BaseCamp to work from splits the opinions - divisions which become ever more polarised. The basic issue is over impact - the balance between the 'Reds' who see mars as an unspoilt heritage to be carefully studied without contamination, and the others, who see it as a dead world of copious resources for the benefit of all mankind, the only question being over what timescale to extract them. The Martian years roll past, and the Treaty guiding the exploration is up for renewal, multi-nationals have become Transnationals with vast fortunes at stake. But even the 100 can't agree on the right course of action to take, some disappearing to avoid the compromises the rest may take, not in their name. And then the immigration begins, bringing tensions rocketing even higher.

Written in '93 we now know a lot more about Mars than we did, and some of the postulates - thick ice caps and under surface aquifers - seem a lot less likely. But as a metaphor for the Antarctic whose own Treaty is due for renewal in only a few more years - it has a lot to say. There are also wide ranging discussions over how society can and maybe should be shaped. Who makes the decisions that effect the lives of countless billions?

The couple of other points that grate; the Prologue that is set along way away from the start fo the story, so that it is hard to remember the details when it does appear. And KSR's dislike of characters called Frank. He's somewhat inexplicably weird in both this and KSRs other trilogy the Science in the Capitol series, hence even though they are worlds apart it is somewhat difficult to keep the two identically named characters seperate.

It is a very wide ranging book covering a huge array of themes very well. Gripping and insightful, full of meaning and thought. I received this as a free ebook from Tor. Their cunning plan has already succeeded; I've bought the other two, and will buy the rest of KSRs works. Go out and read it now.

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This was and somehow was not the novel I was expecting. I was expecting more of a close-quartered, infighting over basic resources and petty jealousies. What I got was a political novel that took place over many decades. It was interesting to see the different factions fighting for space and dominance. It turns out that the entity with the most power is as usual, the one with the most money. In this case, large trans-national corporations that have taken over commerce are the ones who have the most power.

A major theme is how Mars should be populated and run. It is treated like Antarctica is currently treated on earth. As property of no one, as a free resource to be accessed by all who want to and can afford to send expeditions to it. Unfortunately, this uncovers a greater problem. The northern hemisphere is the side with all the money. The southern hemisphere, has much less money and technology. The southern hemisphere has the population problems though. So the group with the money and technology to send people to Mars thinks they by rights, should control it and decide how it gets run and who gets to go. The southern hemisphere says that the population of Mars should follow the lines of greatest need, therefore they should get to send people by the millions. The problem there is that the people they would send would be among the least qualified to contribute in any real way, to the terraformation and settling of Mars.

But the transnationals control so much money that they can override much of what the individual countries want. The end up sending their own people up there and declaring themselves in charge of certain things. The big thing is transportation of minerals off of mars and its moon from there to earth. The problem is that shipping costs more than the value of the cargo. As soon as they find a way to make this cheaper, the transnationals take it over and then ask for huge tolls to use the mechanism.
They make huge demands on workers that basically amount to slavery.

The workers become angry and revolt. They strike, but it doesn’t do much good. So they begin to destroy equipment and whole stations. Eventually they destroy the transport system that makes mars profitable.

Another issue is over a new medical treatment that can slow aging. It addresses the cellular replication problem that advances as we age. Like a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy, our cells are less and less precise in their replication as we age. It is actually this problem that causes aging and many other associated symptoms. The treatment allows your 60 year old body to reproduce cells as perfect as they were when you were 10. They don’t know how long the effect will last, but many of the first 100 take the treatment and expect to live many more decades than everyone else. The treatment begins on Mars but soon, earth knows about it and everyone is clamoring for the treatment. Governments are clamoring for new laws (such as when you get to be over 100, you are automatically shipped to Mars). Individuals are clamoring for the treatment. It’s chaos.

In the end, the problems of the earth are repeating themselves on mars. It seems that no matter how far we progress, we still can’t stop being destructive, deceitful, cruel and violent.

The major interests are represented by the following characters:

Arkady – workers of the world unite, he believes each group of workers should stake their own claim and make their own money

Ann – leave the planet alone, we need to study it and not mess it up

Phyllis – big money, let’s get as much industry going as soon as possible and make as much profit as we can

John – law and order, wants to please everyone and peacefully coexist.

Hiroko – earth mother, wants to found a new eden on mars and populate it with her own children

Frank – major politico. Plays one faction off another in an effort to pursue his own agenda.

They all fight for their causes.

I have this little self-imposed rule that I'm not allowed to use any of the words in a book's title (including sub-) as its tag. It can make things difficult if, say, I have a book about Mars titled Red Mars. Or a book about zombies and survival titled The Zombie Survival Guide. But shikata ga nai. Luckily this book touched on oodles of different subjects so I wasn't in any danger of running out of tag words.

I really liked how the POV changed among the characters in each chapter so you saw things in a somewhat different light, particularly with regard to Frank and John. John's chapter even read at times like a detective story, which brought a nice change of pace. The other characters were interesting and nicely distinct as well, although they didn't act their age. Even in the beginning of the book, before the longevity treatments, when they were in their 40s and 50s, most of them seemed at least twenty years younger—bickering and moody. Not to mention in the end when some of them were closer to ninety. But that's not a bad thing necessarily, being full of life and spunk. Otherwise it was very believable (apart also maybe from the ridiculous idea of warming the atmosphere with thousands of little wind-powered heaters), too believable some might even say. To documentary-like. Not me, but I must admit that sometimes the exhaustive explanations bordered on exhausting indeed.

So it was a great book, not too slow going notwithstanding the occasional lengthy landscape description, which I sometimes had difficulty imagining because of the vastness of it all ("the chasm was 25 kilometers across", "river with a flux of a hundred Amazons") and had to dash to my computer to look at closeups of Mars. I can't give it five stars, but it was easily good enough to make me want to read the next part of the trilogy. ( )

If one pretended that humans really did settle on Mars, this book is like a Discovery Channel/PBS dramatized info-documentary on the process of settling Mars. We read about the lives of the people and their squabbles, plus all the details of building a habitat and society in a new land.

It's not bad, but it's not terribly interesting either.

There is some plot but it's buried under tons of the (very creative) details about settling Mars. This doesn't make it bad, it just makes it... err... unsuspenseful. If you would like detailed descriptions of how a Mars survival suit, space ship or habitat would work, or how a new society would work out their political differences, this is a great book. If you like a mystery or action or wondering "what will happen next" in a story, you probably will be bored with this.

I can't bring myself to spend any more time finishing this book. ( )

I'm very rarely disappointed by science fiction books about Mars -- there's just something compelling about the red planet -- and this one was certainly no exception. I flew through my first reading and am looking forward to a second read-through, to see how my views and opinions have changed as I've learned more about the characters and seen how things progressed.

This story of the first hundred colonists on Mars accomplishes a very difficult task: Not only are there seven or eight main characters, but it swaps viewpoints between them, allowing you to see what Frank, Nadia, Maya and Michel think of John before you see John's own viewpoint, for example. I think the characterization is one of the best strengths of this book, how you see how characters are, at the core, consistent, but the different interpretations and different aspects of them you see in the eyes of these others. Each has their own story, encapsulated in the greater story of the colonization of Mars.

Because of the disparate viewpoints and stories, the main narrative thread of the book can flag periodically. As one other reviewer mentions, at times it seems like all the characters do is drive or fly around Mars. But I was still definitely engrossed by the book, compelled to keep turning pages to find out more about the characters and how their lives and viewpoints intertwined.

Fortunately, while the characters are spending their time driving and flying around Mars, the descriptions are vivid and rich, allowing the reader to easily imagine the colors of a Martian sunrise, the dark swirl of a global dust storm, the cracking ice floes choked with rusty dust and fines. Honestly, in my opinion, the book is worth the read just for the imagery alone.

As is customary with books about Mars or colonizing a new planet, there is definitely a social and political aspect to the book, enjoyable and thought-provoking, but, in my opinion, secondary to the characterization and rich description.

Now I really want to go to Mars. How about it, folks? Can we start working on that one? ( )