The Martians

Kim Stanley Robinson

May 2003 · Sold by Spectra

About this ebook

Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy is one of science fiction’s most honored stories, with Red Mars winning the distinguished Nebula Award, and both Green Mars and Blue Mars honored with the Hugo. Now Robinson returns to the realm he has made his own—the planet Mars—in a brilliantly imagined drama with a searing poetic vision.

From a training mission in Antarctica to blistering sandstorms sweeping through labyrinths of barren canyons, the interwoven stories of The Martians set in motion a sprawling cast of characters upon the surface of Mars. As the planet is transformed from an unexplored and forbidding terrain to a troubled image of a re-created Earth, we meet the First Hundred explorers—men and women who are bound together by Earth’s tenuous toehold on Mars. Presenting unforgettable stories of hope and disappointment, of fierce physical and psychological struggles, The Martians is an epic chronicle of a planet that represents one of humanity’s most glorious possibilities.

Praise for The Martians

“A uniquely rewarding experience of state-of-the-art science fiction.”—The New York Times Book Review

“No one familiar with Robinson’s trilogy can read through these final, valedictory stories without feeling moved.”—The Washington Post

“The stories are beautifully written, the characters are well developed and the author’s passion for ecology manifests itself on every page.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Ratings and reviews

Reading this in ebook format and frankly am pleased I didn't fork out for the physical book. A few of the stories are good - those of Maya, Michel and Roger in particular, but the rest feel like material left out of the 3 main books and for good reason. The baseball one lost me within the first page - too much reliance on interest and knowledge of the sport. The surfing one the same. The constitutional document and it's review were more dry than mars when the first 100 arrived.

Firstly, I absolutely loved this authors Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy. I have read the whole trilogy twice and when I found this book, which is a spinoff of that trilogy, I had to check it out. I was quite disappointed. It's not like it wasn't well written, but it didn't really give me what I was looking for (continuation of storylineand/or events leading up to the trilogy and/or filling in some blanks...questions the author left unanswered in the trilogy. You get SOME of that, but the book is very short, about half of one of the trilogy books, and a fairly sizeable chunk of it is devoted to strange alternate reality stories. This could be fine except both basically asked the question "What if they didn't go to Mars?" This seems silly as it's a trilogy about going to Mars after all. Also, it's in no way clear that you are even reading an alternate universe chapter as you read. KSR I love your Mars trilogy. This book felt phoned in or like a payday rather than labor of love.

About the author

Kim Stanley Robinson is the author of the Nebula and Hugo Award-winning Mars trilogy--Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars--as well as Antarctica, The Wild Shore, The Gold Coast, Pacific Edge, A Short, Sharp Shock, and other novels. He lives in Davis, California.