Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
After the events of 'Red Mars' the majority of the surviving members of the first one hundred Martian colonists are forced underground, either literally to a hidden base under the southern polar ice cap or figuratively into the demi-monde of disparate settlements and townships scattered across the face of Mars. The first one hundred, their lives now extended by anti-aging treatments are joined by their children and grand children, each with their own ideas and aims for a truly Martian society independent of an Earth that is spiralling into chaos and environmental collapse.

This book continues the theme of teraforming, with the science behind the manipulation of the Martian atmosphere to a breathable form and the creation of seas to flood the empty lowlands paralleling the ecological disasters occuring on Earth. The social and political themes are also explored from different perspectives with the struggle for independence from the conglomaration of Earth based multi-national corporations leading to inevitable conflict. If the first book in the trilogy was the pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock, this book is the events of the war of 1776 explored on an inter-planetary scale.

Excellent hard science fiction with a very human perspective.

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