This book has been my companion on audio for countless runs and bikes rides over the past few months. It is perfect for that, because it's a long, winThis book has been my companion on audio for countless runs and bikes rides over the past few months. It is perfect for that, because it's a long, winding story that is easy to pick back up anytime and get back into.
It is a few things, but a large part of it is a story about what happens when aging is prolonged such that people live to 200, 300, 400 years old - something that I believe will start to happen in my natural lifetime (though I could be off by 50 years). First, there is a massive population explosion that will last for hundreds of years, and cause all kinds of problems. This has a lot of consequences, including overcrowding and immigration issues to all countries and planets that have space. Making Mars "blue" - or having a atmosphere we can breathe in - is thus not a bad idea (I guess I'm not a Red!).
I liked how the book jumps around to tell the stories of different characters - Nirgal, Sax, Maya, Ann, even Zo. Hard to keep peace after a revolution! (view spoiler)[Not sure I bought that Sax and Ann loved each other all along, I don't think there were any signs of that in this series, but it was kind of cute. (hide spoiler)]...more
A great continuation of Red Mars, which continues to build on the world, giving you a really deep sense of what Mars is like, and the politics it's unA great continuation of Red Mars, which continues to build on the world, giving you a really deep sense of what Mars is like, and the politics it's undergoing. Long, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Tons of science to be enjoyed. There was also a lot of descriptions of how people were figuring out how to survive and thrive on Mars, and I loved the science of all the attempts to terraform, mostly by our scientific hero, Sax. But I think my favorite were the space elevator and its construction, and the soletta - I mean what an amazing, big thinking idea to heat a planet using a giant magnifying glass in space?
I also loved the descriptions of the politics on Earth, especially around Praxis and it's dynamic founder, William Fort, and how the interests of all the transnats (trans nationals) resulted in what was happening on Mars. Because it does seem we are headed that way, with a few corporations that will dominate and get larger and larger because in am era of software-has-eaten-the-world, and we-are-running-out-of-natural-resources-on-earth, these companies can and will simply dominate entire spaces, and eventually surpass governments as the dominant centers of power. However to keep growing revenues as we hit tipping point of running out of natural resources, human resources and non-natural (produced) resources - is a bigger and bigger challenge, especially as numbers get larger. So you have to think on truly terrifying large scales - and thus an opportunity like Mars seems very appealing. Anyways, this seems (to me) like the path we are on, so it was interesting to see how Robinson was describing it and playing it out. But as William Fort put it:
Mark Watney is a steely-eyed missile man. A man's man. A badass mechanical engineer botanist astronaut who is stranded on Mars during a Nasa mission gMark Watney is a steely-eyed missile man. A man's man. A badass mechanical engineer botanist astronaut who is stranded on Mars during a Nasa mission gone wrong, and left to fend for himself. I listened to this on audio on a roadtrip, and it flew by - what a fun story. Not surprised at all it's being made into a movie directed by Ridley Scott starring Matt Damon. Also pretty amazing is that it was self-published.
There were two great things about this book: the humor and the science. The science appealed to the mechanical engineer in me - Watney is a bit like McGyver except he knows a lot more about chemistry and botany. I didn't double-check all the science, but loved the descriptions of all the math: calorie calculations, creating water, etc. Just fun stuff.
But the humor was top notch. Weir does a great job portraying a stranded man trying to remain upbeat by talking to himself in log entries. And the excellent audio narrator only made it better.
In the end, a well told story of survival against the odds. And one of belief - I liked the CNN Mark Watney watch - you could totally imagine how into this story the media would get. We humans love a good surviving against the odds story. ...more
What an amazing, sprawling, realistic book. If we ever do populate Mars, I think this book will feel like a realistic blueprint of how it might go, coWhat an amazing, sprawling, realistic book. If we ever do populate Mars, I think this book will feel like a realistic blueprint of how it might go, complete with technology that is applied, inter personal dynamics, politics, and more. Earth is of course over-populated, pushing over 10M people, and so the space of Mars is appealing and we send a ship to start to populate it. By the end of the book, there are many, many people on Mars, all living in bubble cities. The book moves around in who the main character is, across probably half a dozen protagonists. At first I was annoyed by this, but it was well done and I think I liked it by the end.
(view spoiler)[The first great debate that polarizes the first 100 settlers is whether or not to terraform Mars. There are "purists", largely the scientists who want to keep it as is, and then there are those who want to make it inhabitable, even if it takes a long time. The latter group eventually wins given the economic pressure from earth, but not easily. Speaking of economic pressure, this eventually causes an immigration spike, and then the creation of a lot of mining groups, and even a "space elevator" that is basically a cable that can lift large payloads off the planet and easily hurl them towards Earth.
The original settlers of Mars are very idealistic, looking to escape and reset what matters. They aren't from a single country, and strive to create a system where there is no economy and instead people are rewarded by their contribution to the system. This kind of thing doesn't scale of course as more people immigrate and economic pressures grow.
A fascinating development in the book is the invention of a treatment that enables significant life longevity. This is something I fully expect will happen at some point as there is no law of physics we are aware of that would prevent it. The interesting thing about this, is it will have all kinds of side affects on our society - the obvious one will be a population explosion. But the first generation that has it will be a kind of adam and eve as they will live a very long time and have the opportunity to control and own a lot. You can also afford to take a longer term view, for instance embarking on projects that might take 30 years.
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