Up next...
...will be Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain (1969). Shelved in fiction and classified as a "techno-thriller", it's solidly science fiction. That meeting's June 18.
The reaction to April's pick, Red Mars, was largely indifference, with it rating a 6 out of 10 in the group's voting. Few, if any, of the characters were seen as sympathetic making the book's long technical passages more difficult to endure. As one of Robinson's characters points out, most of the first hundred colonists did everything they could to get on the mission, even lie. Perhaps it's no surprise then so many of them proved to be unlikable as their personal agendas and flaws Balkanize the group, drive them into destructive conflicts with one another. Still, it's an interesting read and I would recommend it though it left me with little desire to read the remaining books in the trilogy, Green Mars and Blue Mars.
The reaction to April's pick, Red Mars, was largely indifference, with it rating a 6 out of 10 in the group's voting. Few, if any, of the characters were seen as sympathetic making the book's long technical passages more difficult to endure. As one of Robinson's characters points out, most of the first hundred colonists did everything they could to get on the mission, even lie. Perhaps it's no surprise then so many of them proved to be unlikable as their personal agendas and flaws Balkanize the group, drive them into destructive conflicts with one another. Still, it's an interesting read and I would recommend it though it left me with little desire to read the remaining books in the trilogy, Green Mars and Blue Mars.
Just a test to see how things are working. "Good Smeagol always helps."
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Character motivation was not explained to my satisfaction. Why does Frank want power? Why do Ann and Phyllis see Mars completely differently? Apparently they just do. Maybe some of this will be explored later in the trilogy. Until then we can see what the characters want, but not why.
I think there are, arguably, some minor technical issues in the text, one of which I brought up at the meeting. But the author's version of Mars goes pretty well with what was known about the planet when the book was written in the early 90s. He did his homework.
I gave the book a much higher rating than the group average.
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There were a few issues with KSR's Mars, but it's wrong to condemn him for portraying such a dead Mars when we're looking at the real possibility of a living Mars. That did color my reading though. The head of the Phoenix mission said recently he expects us to find life in the Solar System in the next ten years. If he's making that prediction, he's making it about Mars as no other mission capable of making the discovery will be at its target in that time frame besides those, specifically MSL, going to Mars.
I think Frank has some deep-seated insecurities which fuel his desire to control his environment. Look at his relationship with Maya. He couldn't let her go and his behavior was adolescent--want her, tired of her, won't let someone else have her. I think Ann is, certainly at first, motivated by scientific factors, then, as she laments wallowing on the rover floor, that she'd come to love it. As for Phyliss... power-mad? She survives and is in later books, but based on what I read, she remains a loathsome figure. Perhaps KSR reveals more about her motivations, but I doubt he humanizes her much.
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