Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson

[What's his face]

Hi everyone

I've been listening to the unabridged audiobook version of the trilogy on my iPod at work for the last few weeks. Right now, I'm just starting Green Mars, the 2nd book.

I'm really enjoying this trilogy. Robinson is an excellent writer and has created an expansive, fully developed and believable universe on Mars. If I close my eyes, I can see the characters like John Boone, Arkady and Hiroko and I feel like I know them like I know real people. I can visualize what the towns/cities like Underhill, Zygote and Sheffield look like in my mind. I also really like how the political, social and economic parts of Mars are explained in detail, without distracting from the overall story.

The audiobooks are long; it takes more than 24 hours straight just to finish one book, but I plan to stick to it to the end.

Have any of you read it? What are your thoughts of the series? Please use spoiler tags when needed because I'm not done yet!

 

[Holdfast]

First book - awesome
Second book - mostly awesomeness
Third book - awesome... erm WTF? Really? Not politically likely...

I still like the series a lot. The socioeconomic stuff just gets a trifle unlikely for me in the third book; seems more like wishful thinking on the part of the author. But I won't say more and it's still a great read.

 

[ConRefit79]

I've read the 1st two books. They are long. Sometimes it is hard to get through parts of those books. That is why I stopped the 1st book the first time. A year or so later I started again and finished it.

I have the last one, but have not started it because it will require a major commitment to see it though.

Spoiler: Space Elevator

The damage caused by the falling space elevator cable make me question if we should try one on Earth.

 

[Christopher]

Spoiler: Space Elevator

The damage caused by the falling space elevator cable make me question if we should try one on Earth.

Not a problem.

Spoiler: Ditto

It would burn up in our atmosphere, or else just break up and gently waft to the ground, because it would have to be very light. Mars had hardly any atmosphere at that point in the book, so it wasn't protected as Earth would be.

 

[What's his face]

I've read the 1st two books. They are long. Sometimes it is hard to get through parts of those books. That is why I stopped the 1st book the first time. A year or so later I started again and finished it.

I have the last one, but have not started it because it will require a major commitment to see it though.

Spoiler: Space Elevator

The damage caused by the falling space elevator cable make me question if we should try one on Earth.

Spoiler: About that part of the book

The description of the destruction caused by the cable really gives you a sense of the scale of the disaster. I was completely engulfed in the moment and wasn't paying attention to work at that time!

 

[ConRefit79]

Spoiler: Space Elevator

The damage caused by the falling space elevator cable make me question if we should try one on Earth.

Not a problem.

Spoiler: Ditto

It would burn up in our atmosphere, or else just break up and gently waft to the ground, because it would have to be very light. Mars had hardly any atmosphere at that point in the book, so it wasn't protected as Earth would be.

Spoiler: Carbon Nano-Tubes

I did not think about that. I figured being made of Carbon Nano tubes would protect it from burning up.

Where do you think would be an ideal spot to anchor a cable on Earth? It was Olympus Mon's on Mars. I don't think we would want one on Everest.. What effect would the orbiting asteroid in GeoSynch orbit have on Earth?

 

[What's his face]

Actually the cable (and Sheffield) was on the western ridge of Valles Marineris. The cable would have to be on the equator, so that the rotation of the planet kept the cable taut.

As for where on Earth it would be, it's have to be on the Equator, in a politically stable and readily accessible area. My guess would be the east coast of Brazil, right on the mouth of the Amazon River.

 

[N-121973]

I read the three of them back-to back just recently, well over a four month period that straddled New Year, reading in my evenings, lunch hours and early morning lie-ins in bed on weekends and holidays. I enjoyed the books and rerally got into the story. For instance I was very much opposed to the group that wanted to preserve Mars as it presently is and tried to scupper or restrain terra forming.
I'd really like to see a faithful screen adaption of the entire trilogy be it TV or Cinema, just as long as its faithful to the source material and has decent production values.

 

[What's his face]

I read the three of them back-to back just recently, well over a four month period that straddled New Year, reading in my evenings, lunch hours and early morning lie-ins in bed on weekends and holidays. I enjoyed the books and rerally got into the story. For instance I was very much opposed to the group that wanted to preserve Mars as it presently is and tried to scupper or restrain terra forming.
I'd really like to see a faithful screen adaption of the entire trilogy be it TV or Cinema, just as long as its faithful to the source material and has decent production values.

I was thinking the same thing, but it'd have to be a large miniseries or even a multi-series TV show. There's just too much ground to cover for a film adaptation.

 

[ConRefit79]

I read the three of them back-to back just recently, well over a four month period that straddled New Year, reading in my evenings, lunch hours and early morning lie-ins in bed on weekends and holidays. I enjoyed the books and rerally got into the story. For instance I was very much opposed to the group that wanted to preserve Mars as it presently is and tried to scupper or restrain terra forming.
I'd really like to see a faithful screen adaption of the entire trilogy be it TV or Cinema, just as long as its faithful to the source material and has decent production values.

I don't know if I would want to see what a studio would do to the series. Their Mars story track record is very poor. But if they would produce a faithful mini-series that was well acted and had descent visual effects, I would watch it.

 

[Christopher]

Where do you think would be an ideal spot to anchor a cable on Earth? It was Olympus Mon's on Mars. I don't think we would want one on Everest..

As stated above, it would have to be on the equator. A mountain on the equator would be good, but there's nothing that quite exactly fits. Cayambe, a dormant volcano in Ecuador, is very near the equator but not exactly on it. Same with Mt. Kenya, which is sacred to the locals, so it wouldn't be right to build one there anyway. In one of my (unpublished) works of fiction I put a space elevator in Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo).

What effect would the orbiting asteroid in GeoSynch orbit have on Earth?

Nothing significant, since it would be comparatively teensy in mass. It would probably have less effect on the Earth's rotation than we've already had by building so many dams and redistributing huge volumes of water.

 

[Canadave]

Actually the cable (and Sheffield) was on the western ridge of Valles Marineris. The cable would have to be on the equator, so that the rotation of the planet kept the cable taut.

Actually, wasn't it built on the rim of the caldera of Pavonis Mons? Owing to it being the highest equatorial point on Mars?

I love the books, myself... it's probably one of my favourite science fiction epics. I, too, would love to see a proper adaptation, but it would likely need to be a long-form miniseries or something to work properly.

 

[Colonel Midnight]

It was a pretty good series, I'll admit, but dear Gods... talk about an author who likes to drone on and on and on and on and on. *oy*

Cheers,
-CM-

 

[What's his face]

Actually the cable (and Sheffield) was on the western ridge of Valles Marineris. The cable would have to be on the equator, so that the rotation of the planet kept the cable taut.

Actually, wasn't it built on the rim of the caldera of Pavonis Mons? Owing to it being the highest equatorial point on Mars?

I love the books, myself... it's probably one of my favourite science fiction epics. I, too, would love to see a proper adaptation, but it would likely need to be a long-form miniseries or something to work properly.

You're right, Pavonis Mons. My mistake

 

[Reverend]

It was a pretty good series, I'll admit, but dear Gods... talk about an author who likes to drone on and on and on and on and on. *oy*

Mate, I had to read Thomas Hardy in school. KSR is terse by comparison so I didn't find it a problem.

It a good solid series, though I admit to being a little weirded out by some of the stuff with the crazy Japanese woman and all those kids. Plus I suppose the idea that anyone could possibly stow away on a mission like that feels highly implausible.

As far as adaptations go; I doubt it'll ever be do right, though I'd probably a bad Skiffy low budget, straight to DVD/movie of the week PoS if only they did a good job with the tether scene. That alone would be worth it.

 

[FluffyUnbound]

The stowaway story is probably really implausible, but it was well-told in the book so it was easy to suspend disbelief.

If you're moving 100 people and enough equipment to start a self-sustaining colony, it's at least possible. I think it wildly underestimates the amount of surveillance that would be taking place, but it was written before ubiquitous surveillance became the issue it is today.

My big problem with the trilogy was the narrative choice Robinson made to extend the characters' lives and keep them involved as major figures in ongoing events. I was really, really sick of reading about Maya by the time the third book was done. In a series that tried to tackle political, economic and sociological issues seriously, that was a big hole to me. Why is Maya important? "She was in the first 100!" Yeah, well that and a buck-fifty will get you a cup of coffee.

 

[Christopher]

I had trouble with the stowaway idea too, but what helps justify it is that the people keeping him secret were in charge of those sections of the ship, so they could fudge the records to write off his mass as some kind of supplies, tweak the environmental reports to disguise the amount of air and water he was consuming and the waste heat he was putting out, etc. It's a stretch, and it would require a pretty big and elaborate conspiracy, but at least it's not completely impossible.

Anyway, it kinda worked on a narrative/mythic level. Robinson did a lot with the idea of the development of a new Martian folklore and cultural mythos -- all the tall tales about the tiny indigenous Martians and Paul Bunyan and so forth -- and Coyote, as his nickname suggests, served as something of an archetypal trickster figure.

 

[FluffyUnbound]

I had trouble with the stowaway idea too, but what helps justify it is that the people keeping him secret were in charge of those sections of the ship, so they could fudge the records to write off his mass as some kind of supplies, tweak the environmental reports to disguise the amount of air and water he was consuming and the waste heat he was putting out, etc. It's a stretch, and it would require a pretty big and elaborate conspiracy, but at least it's not completely impossible.

Anyway, it kinda worked on a narrative/mythic level. Robinson did a lot with the idea of the development of a new Martian folklore and cultural mythos -- all the tall tales about the tiny indigenous Martians and Paul Bunyan and so forth -- and Coyote, as his nickname suggests, served as something of an archetypal trickster figure.

Absolutely, I agree. "In story" it was handled very well.

It's only when I really scrutinize it and think to myself, "Every inch of that ship would be under constant camera observation" and similar thoughts that it seems less plausible.

I think there is a mythic element to it that works, as you say. The mythic element also helped me to suspend disbelief. The "secret traveller" story is pretty well rooted in many legends. Look at the mileage Dan Brown got out of it.

 

[Christopher]

Look at the mileage Dan Brown got out of it.

Do I have to?

 

[Reverend]

I suppose my main problem with Coyote stowing away isn't so much about the logistics of hiding his presence from the others (which would be considerably difficult in a closed system) so much as the purpose of bringing him at all. I mean, why go to all that trouble?

More to the point, just how bad was the security on the mission that he was able to get on the ship in the first instance? I think even today you'd have to try VERY hard to even get anywhere near a launchpad unless you're supposed to be there and it wasn't as if this was just some routine mission, it was very high profile.