Red Mars

Red Mars, written in 1992 by Kim Stanley Robinson, is a science-fiction novel about the settlement and terraformation of Mars by the human race. It is the first volume of a trilogy - the other two novels are Green Mars (1993) and Blue Mars (1996). Red Mars won the SFWA's Nebula Award in 1993.

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

Plot

The events behind the story start in 2027 with the first manned voyage to Mars. Later, "the first hundred" colonists (comprised -for the most part- of Russians and Americans) establish the first settlement on Mars (called "Underhill") and lay the groundwork for more scientists and engineers to follow. However, due to the greed of the transnational corporations, which dominate and control the Nation States of Earth, the new Martian towns become overcrowded and undermaintained. Several cases of sabotage of terraformation infrastructure occur, blamed on anti-terraforming forces. The situation results in a revolution in 2061, in which many of first hundred are killed and much of Mars's buildings, notably the space elevator are destroyed. The surviving first hundred are forced into hiding.

The paperback has ISBN 0553560735.

Characters

• John Boone, an American astronaut. He was "the first man on Mars". His accomplishments and natural charm yield him an informal leadership role. John Boone is assassinated in the first chapter of Red Mars. The narrative then stepped back to the first hundred's voyage to Mars aboard the spaceship, Ares. Afterwards, his ideas continued as a point of reference for the remainder of the trilogy.

• Frank Chalmers, head of the American contingent. He is Machiavellian in his use of power.
• Maya Toitovona, an emotional woman who is at the centre of a love triangle between Boone and Chalmers. Head of the Russian contingent.
• Nadia Chernyshevski, a Russian engineer. She builds the first permanent habitation of Mars.
• Arkady Bogdanov, Russian. An engineer with anarchist/Marxist leanings.
• Sax Russell, American physicist. Russell is a leader of the Green movement (a movement whose goal is to terraform Mars) and also a brilliant and creative scientist.
• Ann Clayborne, American geologist, who wants Mars preserved in its pristine state.
• Hiroko Ai, is an expert on biology, agriculture, and ecological systems. She is also the charismatic Japanese leader of "the farm team," one of the important work groups and cliques among the First Hundred. Hiroko Ai is the focus of many of the trilogy's central themes. Most importantly, she teaches the importance of maintaining a respectful relation to one's home world planet. On Mars, this is called the Areophany. The influence of Hiroko, who is seldom at the center of the narrative, is pervasive. As an absent central character, her role is akin to that of John Galt in Atlas Shrugged or Harry Lime in The Third Man.

• Michel Duval, French psychologist.
• Vlad Taneev, Russian biological scientist. He is the head of all medical treatment and research projects on Mars. He creates a gerontological treatment to stave off old age.
• Phyllis Boyle, a Christian geologist, who favors corporate exploitation of Mars. She eventually sides against most of the First 100.
• Desmond Hawkins|Desmond "the Coyote" Hawkins, the stowaway from Trinidad. He is a friend and supporter of Hiroko, in addition to being a fervent anarchist.

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See also: Exploration of Mars