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#1 2004-04-24 23:29:01

rstones8
Banned
From: Orlando, FL
Registered: 2004-03-21
Posts: 37

Re: Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars - K.S.R.'s novels....Sci-Fi or reality?

I just wanted to see what those of you who have read Kim Stanley Robinson's trilogy think of his books. Do you think they are realistic or just good Sci-Fi novels? Right now I am about half way through Green Mars, and personally I think his novels are proablby very close to what will happen with Martian colonization, with the transnational corporations controlling everything, Earth in shambles, and the revolution at the end of Red Mars. Comments?


"here are we, on this starry night staring into space, and I must say, I feel as small as dust, lying down here"-dmb

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#2 2004-04-25 00:40:39

Rxke
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2003-11-03
Posts: 3,669

Re: Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars - K.S.R.'s novels....Sci-Fi or reality?

Hmmm.... Tough.

I'm a huge fan of RGB-Mars, but to be honest, while it is *very* convincingly written on the level of psychological interactions and politics, as you point out, the tech seems more and more shake every year passes.

- The cable's model is outdated,
- 100 men on the *second* mission? Yeah, sure!
- Blue Mars: some 'wilder' tech ideas get introduced in a fairly rapid fashion, and it's sometimes hard to stay with that feeling of "very convincing future's descruption..."

But all in all it is a Must-read, to be sure. Even if you keep re-reading parts or whole books, every time you find something new, KSR did a mighty fine job!

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#3 2004-04-25 03:29:12

Mark Friedenbach
Member
From: Mountain View, CA
Registered: 2003-01-31
Posts: 325

Re: Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars - K.S.R.'s novels....Sci-Fi or reality?

(already been discussed before http://www.newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=208]here)

Rxke hits it dead on, KSR did a wonderful job with the characters and internal politics, but the economics, earth politics, timeline, technology, engineering, motivations all lie on very shaky ground.  They're wonderful books, but be sure to keep in mind that they are fiction in every sense of the word.

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