GREEN MARS (Paperback)

KSR really did his homework in studying the social scientific aspects of his novel (as he did with the rest). The metanational and transnational corporations are a believable outgrowth of current economic trends and their reactions toward Mars and its denizens in GM logically follows their development in the novel. KSR also did a better job of staking out the various issues and ideologies involved in terraforming, giving the policy and political middle-ground between the Reds and the policy of the Transnational Authorities (which is terraforming as quickly as possible moving toward a viable atmosphere on Mars).

The Part entitled "What is to be Done" was excellently written and extremely realistic (even if I have trouble believing that with all the political elements represented that some didn't opt out because of ideological extremism). That the group left without any real political action plans made the section even more convincing. The culture of the youth born on Mars seen through the eyes of members of the First Hundred shows a wonderful sense of cultural development with all the elements it entails including genetics, the Martian environment, and how they were raised (interacting with the first two). KSR does not do quite as well at developing individual characters in GM but his characterization does lend itself to understanding the motivations of individuals and empathy

The long descriptions of the Martian landscape is at times hard to appreciate given that I have never been to Mars and have never studied photos of Mars' surface and landscape. I like the two places where there were small maps of Mars in the text. The development of large, complex living environments with the limited resources of those outside "the net" or the umbrella of the metanational corporations that control most of Mars is hard to perceive too. But this is easily overlooked at the sake of the larger picture that GM paints.

That being said... it is absolutely a masterpiece. The characters are deep, the science is dead-on and the story is a broad, grand arc encompassing many small events in an overall future history. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it's my favorite of the trilogy.

Just be ready to take your time.