Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson [291]
— The New York Times Book Review
“Robinson provides enough ‘sense of wonder’ for any dozen SF novels, introduces and juggles a mammoth cast of characters and provides intrigue, mystery, murder and political maneuvering, as well as a nuts-and-bolts account of how human technology would tame a wild planet.”
— The Orlando Sentinel
“The best pure science fiction novel I have read in years, a book so full of credible human drama, technological savvy, breathtaking planetary scope, stunning historical sweep, and hard-nosed spiritual uplift that I regard it as the prologue of a brand-new Martian Chronicles.”
— Michael Bishop, Science Fiction Age
“If Red Mars were a movie, it would feature a cast of charismatic stars . . . big special effects and set-pieces, and a literate script full of intrigue, romance, and high adventure . . . Fortunately, it is a novel, and as fully-imagined a science fiction novel as any I can think of.”
— Locus
“This epic tale of colonization, settlement, and revolution on Mars is a people story despite lots of technical detail: it is impossible to stop reading.”
— The Philadelphia Press
“Splendid characters in a brilliantly realized and utterly convincing setting . . . For power, scope, depth, and detail, no other Martian epic comes close. . . . An intricate and fascinating mosaic of science and politics, love and betrayal, survival and discovery, murder and revolution.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“Robinson’s prose is as good as usual, his scientific homework impeccable, and his handling of a large cast a model to many avowed saga mongers.”
— Booklist
“A lyrical, beautiful, accurate legend of the future by one of the best writers of our time.”
— David Brin
“Red Mars is a huge, engaging novel that provides a provocative and compelling vision of a very plausible scenario for Martian colonization. . . . A fascinating story of the early days of human existence on an alien world.”
— Gentry Lee, director of mission planning for Viking mission to Mars and co-author of The Garden of Rama
“If you’re looking for a scientifically sophisticated story, deftly told with enormity and grace, here it is.”
— Gregory Benford
“An expansive widescreen epic of the settlement of Mars, the kind of sweeping narrative that could be called ‘old fashioned’ save that few science-fiction writers, old or new, have ever done a job so well. Beautifully detailed and vividly realized, Robinson’s novel dramatizes the transformation of Mars. . . . Not only the best SF novel about Mars ever written, but one of the best novels of political science fiction yet published in English. Readers across a broad spectrum of literary tastes should enjoy it.”
— New York Newsday
“An enthralling work, as vast and colorful as its namesake subject . . . Red Mars is a ‘real’ science fiction novel that is beautifully written, and an epic in the classical sense— a narrative of heroic scope peopled with heroic characters. Robinson is a literary landscape artist, creating breath-taking vistas. . . . Red Mars is so full of fascinating and elegantly written speculation on the future . . . a wonderful book . . . Its last chapters fly past, until we reach those final stunning pages.”
— The Detroit Metro Times
“A splendid book. The scientific background and technological details are utterly convincing, the people come alive, and as the story comes to its catastrophic climax it gives a sense of time passing and history happening such as is rare in world literature.”
— Poul Anderson
“Amazingly and refreshingly, here is a book about Mars that has no native Martians, green, bug-eyed or otherwise; no Schwarzenegger slashing at villains. . . . For sci-fi fans who crave hard science, Robinson has crammed all they could