Blue Mars

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Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

1997 Hugo Award Winner

Narrated by Richard Ferrone

Got it from: Public Library

31h 52m

Blue Mars is the inevitable conclusion of the Mars Trilogy.  In Blue Mars the First Hundred have been whittled away.  Humanities problems have outgrown Mars.  Terraforming takes on real nuance.  Politics remains deadly.  To read Blue Mars without reading the rest of the series is impossible.  To talk about Blue Mars without talking about the rest of the series, would be distressingly inadequate.

History’s Epilogue

As one begins the Mars Trilogy, one is struck by size of the solar system, Kim Stanley Robinson’s imaginative muscle, and the sheer and utter coolness of the planet Mars.  Very quickly one realizes that while KSR may have given us some of the most complex and memorable characters in all of SF, and while Mars may be the character, in fact the Mars Trilogy is the story of the evolution of humanity.  I know… Sax would try to tell me “it’s just phenotypes,” but I’m telling you, in these books…Mars is really just a tool.  Mars.  Doesn’t.  Matter.

Don’t kill me yet, hear me out.

I realize this is probably one of the top 5 most sacrilegious SF statements I could ever make, and if each Red, Green and Blue Mars were taken as stand-alone novels, I’d not say the same thing, but Blue Mars makes it clear that KSR always intended that (while Mars is a super-ultra-cool part of the books) Mars would play a supplementary role.  In Blue Mars, we begin to see that the relatively tiny carrying capacity of Mars will limit its ability to remain relevant in the ongoing political turmoil on Earth, but you see…Mars was also never meant to be the destination.  In Blue Mars we’ve gone beyond those Martians who no longer care about Earth; now Uranians have stopped caring about Mars.

In Blue Mars we’ve also witnessed the near complete triumph of human technology over billions of years of Martian history, over the entire notion of the “natural world”, and of human evolution.

Gene therapy can have you purring like a cat if you want.  Literally.

And that’s how we knew that Sax was wrong, it wasn’t just phenotypes.  In Blue Mars…humans are undeniably different, and genetic differences are just the beginning.

In the late-80’s to early 90’s, around the time of the end of the Cold War, Francis Fukuyama (and the rest of academia – whether they agreed or not) started talking about “The End of History”.  “History” hadn’t stopped, but he argued the realm of socio-political progress had reached its conclusion.  The Western Ideals of Capitalism and Democracy, while not yet perfect, represented the final frontier of political philosophy.  The Socialist Vision and Communism had been physically, philosophically, fundamentally overcome.  Though not without its detractors, The End of History became a popular idea that influenced both right and left thinkers.  I haven’t read it in some time but I remember the essay being at once philosophically stimulating and horrifying.  Not entirely unlike any of the Mars Trilogy in fact.

At this same time, as the academic world was caught in the whirlwind of History’s End and debates about socialism’s ability to continue to exist as a political/philosophical possibility, Kim Stanley Robinson won 2 Hugo Awards, 1 Nebula Award, 3 Locus SF Awards, 1 BFSA Award, and countless nominations with a trilogy built on the very idea that the socialist vision has not only survived the cold war, but represents the inevitable result of humanity’s expansion to the rest of the solar system, that patriarchy is a serious impediment to democracy, and that the entire democratic process has been hijacked by privatization.

I wrote in my review of Green Mars, about some of the transformational aspects of the novel, how they made the book great.  In Blue Mars, the transformational potential of the series is finally and fully realized and it makes the series practically transcendental.

If one never makes it to the conclusion of this trilogy, Red and Green Mars may very well seem to exist entirely within Fukayama’s worldview, where Western democracy and capitalism seem to be, if clearly flawed, so ingrained and insurmountable that even striking out to colonize Mars won’t break us free of their grasp.  And while KSR does begin to dismantle this idea in Green Mars, it isn’t until Blue Mars, the dissolution of patriarchy and the money economy, and the “accelerando” that it becomes absolutely clear his vision of what I suppose in light of Fukuyama’s essay, one might call, “history’s epilogue”.

Just about everyone talks about how immersive and lived-in and realistic these books are.  The perceived realness of this trilogy is always front and center in any online discussion and in light of the fact that KSR does not tread lightly when he comes to the socio-politico-philosophical debates -- one cannot enjoy these books without enjoying these debates -- I have to believe this is an indication that the SF community still recognizes a valuable dialogue taking place and believes the dialectic has not in fact reached its inevitable conclusion.

But there IS still Mars…

Well, obviously Mars still matters…I won’t completely rule it out.  Mars is still the revolutionary hot plate.  Mars and Martians, are still developing.  And the sunsets so are beautiful.  

The same kind of thing continues.  This time, Ann’s character was absorbing in that transformative way that approaches Sax’s metamorphosis in Green Mars.  But in Blue Mars, and throughout the trilogy, characters like Ann Clayborne, Arkady Bogdanov, John Boone, Nadia of the Nine Fingers, Hiroko Ai, Sax Russell are convincing and memorable enough to take home the Hugo.  And though I downplay it here, Robinson’s treatment of Mars deserves its own Hugo award.  Every.  Time.

Recommendation

Blue Mars is the piece of the trilogy for which I feel least enthusiasm.  Obviously, if you haven’t read Red or Green Mars, you should not read this book.  While I may have been biased, I thought that Green Mars deserved the Hugo in its own right.  I’m not sure I can say the same about Blue Mars, though the weightiness of the political outcomes and the continued growth of some seriously deep rooted characters makes hard not to.  All that being said, Blue Mars was as immersive and mind-numbing as any other SF in existence.

HEP SCORE

Universe 5/5

Social/Political Climate 4/5

Dialogue 5/5

Scientific Wonders 4/5

Characters 5/5

Overall 23/25

This week I'm working on The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, my very last Hugo from the 1990's!

The First Hundred

They rushed to the man on the gurney.  It was Sax, although Michel recognized him by his body rather than his face, which was a deathmask apparition, with two blackened eyes, and a mashed nose between them.  He appeared unconscious at best.  They worked to detach him from body restraints.  There were electrodes stuck to several places on his shaved head, and Michel winced as Maya simply tore them all away.  Michel pulled a thin emergency suit from his thigh pocket, and set about pulling it up over Sax’s inert legs and torso, manhandling him in his haste; but Sax didn’t even groan.  Maya came back and took an emergency fabric headpiece and small tank out of Michel’s backpack, and they hooked them to Sax’s suit, and turned the suit on.

Maya’s hand was clutching Michel’s wrist so hard that he feared the bones would crack.  She plugged her phone line back into his wrist.  “Is he alive?”

“I think so.  Let’s get him out of here, we can find out later.”

“Look what they’ve done to his face, those fascist murderers.”

The person on the floor, a woman, was stirring, and Maya stalked over and kicked her hard in the gut.  She leaned over and looked in the faceplate, cursed in a surprised voice.  “It’s Phyllis.”

Michel pulled Sax out of the room and down the hall.  Maya caught up with them.  Someone appeared before them and Maya aimed her gun, but Michel knocked her hand aside-it was Spencer Jackson, he recognized him by the eyes.  Spencer spoke, but with their helmets on they couldn’t hear him.  He saw that, and shouted: “Thank God you came!  They were done with him-they were going to kill him!”

Maya said something in Russian and ran back to the room and threw something inside, then ran back toward them.  An explosion shot smoke and debris out of the room, peppering the wall opposite the door.

“No!” Spencer cried.  “That was Phyllis!”

“I know,” Maya shouted viciously; but Spencer couldn’t hear her.

I’m not going to say this was the most exciting or even heartbreaking moment so far but damn, when the first hundred start killing each other, shit gets real.  In Red Mars, the no one from the first hundred dies until near the end.  Now I’m not even 300 pages in and Maya is hardcore, talking about murder.  I’ll say it already: The Mars Trilogy is going to turn out to be three of my favorite books OF ALL TIME!

Holy cow, it has been about a month since I posted a review.  Not because I haven’t been reading.  In fact, I’m actually caught up!  I can’t really believe it actually.  I thought I would never be able to get back on schedule.  But the little time I’ve saved by moving directly on to the next book has been catching up with me.  Now I’ve got four books waiting for reviews.  I started Snow Queen last night and I hope to finish that and Uplift War within the next week.  Then it’s all my thoughts about the 80’s and however many books from the 90’s I’ve finished by then.  Hopefully we’re in for a series of rapid-fire reviews.

Oh and somewhere in there I'm supposed to be running a marathon or some such nonsense!

Running on Mars!

I was finally able to run for the first time in quite a few weeks tonight (yesterday by the time you read this).  Poor respiratory health has tried to keep me from my marathon training, I’m finally back and although my body really tried to make me think I didn’t want to run, it felt great once I did.  Boy was it NOT like riding a bike though.

You all know my issue with GEAR.  It has been so long since I ran last that I actually some entirely new gear this time and all the excitement began with me filling my Camelbak and promptly dumping it all down the front of the refrigerator.  Naturally, my response was to stand there with a limp sack in my hands babbling like an idiot until my wife told me to get a towel.

Long story short, I had to retie my shoes a few times because my new insoles felt funny, couldn’t remember how to use my watch (finished my run in 00:00:00 – not bad!) and fumbled with my headphones for at least the first ¼ mile.  At least I’m healthy enough to run again.

Now I have to backtrack a little.  For the past couple weeks, I’ve been reading/listening to Red Mars in preparation for Kim Stanley Robinson’s Hugo Winner Green Mars which is the second book in the Mars Trilogy.  It has been an AMAZING book, but juggling between the HEP books and other challenges/reading whims have me pausing and restarting and generally taking forever to read an already massive book.

I think the only reason I’ve been able to jump back and forth is because Red Mars is so good.  It doesn’t feel like someone imagined the colonization of Mars the way they’d like it to be, but the way that it inevitably must be.  The characters are compelling, convincing, terribly and realistically flawed and the dialogue (and sometimes monologues) just feels right.  And the Science.  Oh god, the Science…

So, it is taking quite a long time to get through but it is always in the forefront of my mind, even as I switch back and forth with other great books like The Lies of Locke Lamora.  So much so that when I came within 30 mins of finishing part 2 of the audiobook this weekend, I decided to finish it during my run last night.

About the time that I was half-way through my run, I had reached the climactic scene when everyone had gathered to witness the icy asteroid burn up in the Martian atmosphere.  I started to get a sensation that I was running down a darkening tunnel when Hiroko approached John Boone and called for a speech.  The tingly burst that hit my spine harder than any 2^nd wind came on right when everyone started chanting BOONE!  BOONE!  BOONE!

I was running pretty slowly since I hadn’t run in a while, so I know it wasn’t my endorphins.  But I swear if I had jumped, I would have flown.  The combination of running again and listening to Boone’s speech was a feeling unlike anything else and that same tingle kept hitting me over and over throughout his speech to the crowd of “Martians”.

Another part of the experience was John Boone’s ability to speak and inspire off-the-cuff.  I have occasion to speak publicly every-so-often and dang-it do I wish I could talk to a group of people like that.  It really was an inspiration.  Mentally, physically, I felt like I could do ANYTHING!  I could have run a marathon right then while convincing the world of anything I wanted.  Don’t question me on it!

So, to actually make a long story short, while Red Mars it isn’t for everyone by a long shot, as Emmeline likes to say “guac-a-moly-moly” (holy guacamole) do I not want it to end.

Why Me?

One night as they were falling asleep Nadia said curiously, “Why me?”

“Huhn?” He had been almost asleep.

“I said, why me? I mean, Arkady Nikelyovich, you could have loved any of the women here, and they would have loved you back.  You could have had Maya if you wanted.”

He snorted.  “I could have had Maya!  Oh my!  I could have had the joy of Maya Katarina!  Just like Frank and John!”  He snorted, and they both laughed out loud.  “How could I have passed on such joy!  Silly me!”  He giggled until she punched him.

“All right, all right.  One of the others then, the beautiful ones, Janet or Ursula or Samantha.”

“Come on,” he said.  He propped himself up on an elbow to look at her.  “You really don’t know what beauty is, do you?”

“I certainly do,” Nadia said mulishly.

Arkady ignored her and said, “Beauty is power and elegance, right action, form fitting function, intelligence, and reasonability.  And very often,” he grinned and pushed at her belly, “expressed in curves.”

“Curves I’ve got,” Nadia said, pushing his hand away.

He leaned forward and tried to bite her breast, but she dodged him.

“Beauty is what you are, Nadezhda Francine.  By these criteria you are queen of Mars.”

“Princess of Mars,” she corrected absently, thinking it over.

“Yes that’s right.  Nadezhda Francine Cherneshevsky, the nine-fingered Princess of Mars.”

“You’re not a conventional man.”

“No!” He hooted.  “I never claimed to be!  Except before certain selection committees of course.  A conventional man!  Ah, ha ha ha ha ha!—the conventional men get Maya.  That is their reward.”  And he laughed like a wild man.

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson, Pg 168

I’m nowhere near finishing this book yet and there has already been many Epic Quotes, but I thought this one was most fitting for both its reference to Edgar Rice Burrows’ A Princess of Mars and because it shows a warmer side of Science Fiction which Stumbling has apparently not seen enough of.

Red Mars has been really dense and really good.  It’s too bad I won’t be writing a review for it because it really deserves it.  It is the story of the colonization of Mars.  It has all the good, the bad, the technical, the harrowing and the heart-warming aspects of the task.  Check this one out!