Deborah
ENGL 3850-02N
Sci-Fi Lit
Dr. Coats
6 May, 1997
Red Mars
The immense size of Red Mars threw me at first. I stared at it, dumbfounded and bewildered. I tried to read the first chapter and failed miserably. But Sunday came and I steeled my resolve. I got comfortable on my bed and began again. I woke myself up twenty minutes later after reading the same sentence over and over. My brain was numb and I was freezing. I looked out the window and saw the inviting sun. In a flash I grabbed my book, my walkman and sunglasses and ran for the open air. Within an hour I had read the first 364 pages of Kim Stanley Robinson's novel. I also discovered that I had a horrible sunburn on my legs. Oh, well! That's the price we pay for engrossing literature.
I found that, once I got past the introductory chapters, I was entrapped by the social and political problems with the colonization of Mars. The characters were real to me, as if I were watching them through empathic surveillance cameras. The intrigue of Maya playing political power games with the two American men was an interesting spin on an old subject. When the story changed its POV to Nadia, I made the switch easily. I saw Maya's pathetic games for what they were. I understood Nadia's work ethic and felt stirred when she saw the vast wilderness of Mars. Every time the novel changed its POV, I accepted the switch.
Once again, there are no Martians on Mars save those who mold themselves into Martians. The desolate landscape has a terrible beauty about it, bringing qualities-- whether good or bad-- out of people who have previously considered themselves controlled. The group Hiroko led out into the wilderness accepted the constraints the Martian landscape put upon them. Ann tried to preserve the way Mars was when they found it, but to no avail. It seemed that Terrans came to Mars to make it a mini-Earth, not to live and experience something new. Then all their hard work is destroyed by the influx of the military into Mars. Chaos and insanity destroy what little order Mars had.
I enjoyed seeing the many points of view from which the story is told. Any historian will tell you that history is told by the winner's point of view. But this history is told from many different points of view; those of the winners and those of the losers. The shift in the balance of power is portrayed well. This is a character-driven book, and the characters do know how to drive. But I think I liked Nadia the best. She changes so much from the launch from Earth to her heart-breaking experiences on Mars. Arkady puts it best: "By these criteria you are queen of Mars...Yes, that's right. Nadezhda Francine Cherneshevsky, the nine-fingered Princess of Mars."