Mars trilogy

The Mars trilogy is a series of three science fiction novels by Kim Stanley Robinson, chronicling the settlement and terraforming of the planet Mars. The novels are Red Mars (1992), Green Mars (1993) and Blue Mars (1996). An additional collection of short stories was published as The Martians (1999).

Awards

Red Mars won the BSFA Award in 1992 and the SFWA's Nebula Award in 1993.
Green Mars won the Hugo Award in 1994.
Blue Mars won the Hugo Award in 1997.

Plot

Red Mars starts in 2026 with the first colonial voyage to Mars. Later, "the First Hundred" colonists (composed — 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 violent revolution in 2061, in which many of the First Hundred are killed, and much of Mars' infrastructure, notably the space elevator, is destroyed. Most of the surviving members of the First Hundred are forced into hiding in the "underground".

Green Mars takes its title from the stage of terraforming that has taken place allowing plants to grow. It picks up the story from Red Mars, following the lives of the remaining First Hundred (and their children and grandchildren). The "underground" starts to develop ideas of a new type of society, an anti-thesis of the metanational order at that time. This culminates into the Dorsa Brevia agreement, in which nearly all the "underground" factions take part. Preparations are made for second revolution begins in the 2120s.

Blue Mars takes its title from the stage of terraforming that has taken place allowing atmospheric pressure and temperature to increase so that liquid water can exist on the planet's surface, forming rivers and seas. It follows on from the end of Green Mars and has a much wider scope than the previous two books, covering an entire century after the second revolution and showing the spread of human settlements across the solar system—a process Robinson terms the Accelerando. One major event is a sudden, catastrophic rise in global sea levels caused not by any greenhouse effect, but by the eruption of a chain of volcanoes underneath the ice of west Antarctica, melting it all away.

The Martians is a collection of short stories that takes place over the timespan of the original trilogy of novels, as well as some stories that take place in an alternate version of the novels where the First Hundred's mission was one of exploration rather than colonization. Buried in the stories are several hints about the eventual fate of the Martian terraforming program.

The books also speculate on the colonization of other planets and moons in the solar system, and include descriptions of cities on Callisto, Mercury, Titania, and Venus.

A great portion of Blue Mars is concerned with the effects of extreme longevity on its fictional protagonists, most of whom have lived over two hundred years as a result of repeated longevity treatments. In particular, Robinson speculates on the psychological effects of ultra-longevity including memory loss, personality change, mental instability and boredom.

Corporations

Metanational corporations, nicknamed "metanats", are extremely powerful transnational corporations that first emerge in the mid-21st Century. These multinational corporations have grown so large as a result of globalisation that they have sufficient economic power to take over or strongly manipulate national governments, initially only relatively small Third World governments, but later larger developed governments too. In Robinson's future history, the metanational corporation hence becomes the inheritor to the nation-state, with the giant corporations continuing to attempt takeovers of competitors in order to become the sole controller of the interplanetary market. As the Mars trilogy draws to a close, in the mid 22nd Century, the metanational corporations are forced by a global catastrophe to concede more democratic powers to their workforces.

The metanational corporations include Praxis, a largely benevolent and relatively democratic firm, and Subarashii, which plays a large role in the maltreatment of the denizens of Mars.

Characters

John Boone

An American astronaut, and the first man on Mars. He returns from Mars a public hero, and uses his considerable influence to lobby for a second mission, this time one of colonization. Boone received too much radiation on his first trip to make the second one, according to medical regulations; however, his celebrity status allows him to skirt this. On the second voyage, Boone is one of the 'First Hundred' colonists sent to permanently colonize Mars. His accomplishments and natural charm yield him an informal leadership role. In the first chapter of Red Mars, John Boone is assassinated by fundamentalists. The narrative then steps back to the First Hundred's voyage to Mars aboard the spaceship Ares. His ideas continue as a point of reference for the remainder of the trilogy. Boone's character is complex. In one light, Boone is a stereotypically simple, heroic figure, an everyman hero: his first words on his first trip to Mars are "Well, here we are". He is almost uniformly cheerful and good-natured, and approaches everything he undertakes with hale bonhomie. But later in Red Mars, Robinson switches to Boone's point of view, rather than showing him through others' eyes. This section reveals that late in life, Boone is addicted to omegendorph, a fictional drug that is based on endorphins in the human brain. In addition, it reveals that at least some of his seeming simplicity might simply be an act designed to further his political goals. Overall, Boone is presented as larger-than-life — his flaws as well as his virtues.

Frank Chalmers

Head of the American contingent. He is machiavellian in his use of power. However, his cynicism is later shown to be a form of self-defense; Chalmers is at least partly driven by a hidden idealistic side. Dies in a flooding catastrophe.

Maya Toitovna

An emotional woman who is at the centre of a love triangle between Boone and Chalmers. Head of the Russian contingent. Toitovna begins as one of the Russian leaders, and becomes a powerful political force later on. After the deaths of Chalmers and Boone, she falls in love with Michel Duval. Suffers heavily from amnesia and a bi-polar disorder with growing age.

Nadia Chernyshevski

A Russian engineer. She builds the first permanent habitation of Mars. In the later books she becomes a reluctant politician. Nadia is in love with Arkady Bogdanov. In Green Mars she falls in love with Art Randolph, with whom she eventually starts a family. After Martian independence, she becomes the first "President" of Mars.

Arkady Bogdanov

An engineer with anarchist/Marxist leanings, possibly based on Russian futurists Alexander Bogdanov and Arkady Strugatsky. He is seen by many other members of the First Hundred, particular Boyle, as a troublemaker. He leads the team which establishes an outpost on the moon Phobos and leads an uprising against the transnational corporation towards the end of first book. Like Boone's, his political ideas (known as "Bogdanovism") weigh heavily on characters later in the book. In love with Nadia Chernyshevski, he is killed during the first revolution of 2061.

Saxifrage "Sax" Russell

American physicist. He is a brilliant and creative scientist and is greatly respected for his intellectual gifts. However, he is lacking in social skills and often finds it difficult to understand and relate to other people. Russell is a leader of the Green movement (a movement whose goal is to terraform Mars). During Green Mars, Sax suffers aphasia (likely Broca's aphasia) after suffering a stroke while being brutally tortured by government security forces in Green Mars. Secretly in love with Ann Clayborne. Saxifrage means "Stonebreaker" (Russell is a terraformer) and is the name for a plant that grows between stones.

Ann Clayborne

American geologist, who wants Mars preserved in its pristine state. She becomes a leader of the Red movement which is dedicated to this goal. She is frequently seen as bitter. She has a hate-love relationship with Saxifrage Russell, an American physicist and leader of the Green Mars movement that wants to terraform Mars. Develops a split personality and modest appreciation for the "blue" Mars.

Hiroko Ai

A Japanese expert on biology, agriculture, and ecological systems. It was Hiroko who smuggled Desmond 'Coyote' Hawkins onto the Ares (the two were friends and lovers as students in London). She is the charismatic leader of the "farm team", one of the important work groups and cliques among the first hundred. She thus becomes the focus of many of the trilogy's central themes. Most importantly, she teaches the importance of maintaining a respectful relation to one's planet. On Mars, this is called the Areophany. In the secret colony, Zygote, which Hiroko established, the first generation of children, the 'ectogenes', are all the product of artificial insemination outside of any human body; Hiroko uses her own ova as the female genetic material, and uses (often oblivious) male members of the first hundred to fertilize these eggs. She is seldom at the center of the narrative, but her influence is pervasive. Her profound absence is on the scale of John Galt in Atlas Shrugged or Harry Lime in The Third Man. After her final disappearance several characters believe that she is merely in hiding once more, and look for her to no avail.

Michel Duval

a French psychologist, assigned to monitor the psychological welfare of the First Hundred first in Antarctica and then was later sent to Mars. He desperately wants to go back to Provence as he knew it, although after visiting as a part of the Diplomatic Mission to Earth he became even more homesick. Falls in love with Maya Toitovna and dies after she displays signs of very heavy amnesia.

Vlad Taneev

Russian biological scientist. He is the head of all medical treatment and research projects on Mars. He became famous as the createor of a gerontological treatment to stave off old age, and for consistently bringing out improvements to the Treatments. He lived in Archaron in the North of Mars before fleeing to the Underground after the First (failed) Revolution. He lived in a Ménage à trois with Ursula and Marina.

Phyllis Boyle

American Christian geologist, who favors corporate control of Mars. She eventually sides against most of the first hundred with the UN Mars Agency. She ruled Mars from the Clark Space Elevator with an iron fist until the first, failed revolution sent it spinning off into the outer Solar System. She survived and was able to bring the station back to the inner systems. Boyle is killed by Maya Toitovna during the rescue of Saxifrage Russel from Kasei Vallis.

Desmond "the Coyote" Hawkins

the Trinidadian stowaway. He is a friend and supporter of Hiroko, in addition to being a fervent anarchist. Present in Red Mars only as a shadowy figure who blends effortlessly into the Martian background, he isn't even identified as anything more than "the Coyote" until the beginning of Green Mars. He becomes a leading figure in the "underground," and an unofficial coordinator of a developing gift economy.

Children of the First Hundred

Since the trilogy covers over 200 years of human history, later immigrants and the children and grandchildren of the first hundred eventually become important characters in their own rights.

Nirgal

The son of Hiroko and the Coyote is raised communally by Hiroko and her followers in Zygote. He is a good-natured wanderer who eventually becomes a political leader advocating ties with Earth. He is famous for his running technique that allows him to run all day for days on end. Nirgal was part of a mission that was sent to Earth where he almost died.

Jackie Boone

the granddaughter of Hiroko and John Boone (raised with Nirgal), emerges as an isolationist leader, presented as manipulative.

Peter Clayborne

Peter is the first of the new generation of children born on Mars. He is also Ann's son. Being that of the first child born on Mars, Peter holds a position of older brother to all the following first generation. Many revolutionary and later political decisions of the MarsFirst are influenced by his opions and judgement. Part time he works as an engineer and a "green."

Arthur "Art" Randolph

a representative of the Praxis corporation sent to contact the Martian underground movement on a quasi-diplomatic mission. The Praxis Corporation is an attempt to create a system of "ecological capitalism" based on democratic corporations; like the other "metanationals," it takes on intensive economic and political ties with governments, but Praxis aims for partnerships, rather than exploitative relationships.

Other characters

Kasei, son of Hiroko and John Boone, father of Jackie Boone
Zeyk Tuqa and his wife Nazik, Muslim nomads
William Fort, founder of Praxis
Zoya "Zo" Boone, daughter of Jackie, has feline traits (purring) inserted into her genome via the gerontological longevity treatment
Nikki, daughter of Nadia and Art

Quotes

Zoya Boone: "It's like a rainbow. Without an observer at a twenty-three-degree angle to the light reflecting off a cloud of spherical droplets, there is no rainbow. The whole universe is like that. Our spirits stand at a twenty-three-degree angle to the universe. There is some new thing created at the contact of photon and retina, some space between rock and mind."

Hiroko Ai: "This is home. This is where we start again."

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