The novel “Red Mars” by Kim Stanley Robinson was published for the first time in 1992. It won the Nebula and BSFA awards. It’s the first novel in the Mars trilogy.

In 2026 the Ares expedition is launched to Mars with a hundred pioneers to create an outpost in preparation for a future colonization. The mission is mainly supported by the USA and Russia and the pioneers are supposed to proceed with the operations following the directives that come from the Earth but even before reaching the red planet disagreements and differences of opinion begin.

The main reasons for discussion come from one of the key decisions for the future of Mars: its terraforming. Some believe that the planet should be kept as it is, others think it’s fair to transform it to make colonization easier. Things get complicated when new settlers start arriving.

In a now very near future, an expedition leaves for Mars in the first phase of the most ambitious space program in history. The “First Hundred”, as members of the the spaceship Ares crew are called, have the goal to begin the colonization of the red planet.

There are many technological and scientific challenges but “Red Mars” is much more of the story of the pioneers who have to solve the problems they find on another planet. Sometimes, those elements are used primarily to highlight the differences of opinion that exist among the crew members.

During the journey to Mars, soon among the crew discussions begin about terraforming the red planet, the relationship with the Earth and how to develop the new colony. Opinions are different and Kim Stanley Robinson presents the various arguments by the various characters that support them. This allows the reader to understand the various positions and the author to also provide a range of information about Mars and the sciences and technologies of 2026.

In “Red Mars” Kim Stanley Robinson tells the first decades of colonization of Mars focusing on the most important periods and leaping forward in time. The novel begins with a hundred characters so the author focuses on some of them representing the various positions in the discussions about the planet’s future.

You could say that in fact the protagonist is Mars because the whole trilogy concerns not only its colonization but also the changes occurring there. Kim Stanley Robinson devotes many pages to geography, geology, ecology, and other information about the red planet. In the end, there are many more insights about Mars that about the human characters.

This choice, together with others about the technological and scientific elements of “Red Mars”, can make the novel complex to read. The hard science fiction component is certainly important and it’s a work written in the early ’90s, when at least part of the information about Mars was available only to those who had an encyclopedia that included astronomical topics.

Today Kim Stanley Robinson could just provide basic references because the readers interested in details could find a lot of information on the Internet. For instance, on Wikipedia there are pages containing information, photos taken by space probes and links to other resources about the various areas of Mars.

If Kim Stanley Robinson wrote “Red Mars” today, he could devote more time to the development of the novel’s social and political themes. At least initially, the discussions among the First Hundred remain at a civil level but the situation becomes more complex in the years following the creation of the first settlement with the arrival of thousands of more colonists.

For the First Hundred creating a colony on Mars is a way to start a new life, different from that on Earth, overcrowded and increasingly dominated by transnationals, the powerful multinational corporations that have a greater and greater influence on national governments. The new settlers don’t always see things the same way.

Already during the journey, the First Hundred begin to eliminate national divisions. On the contrary, some groups of colonists carry on Mars tribalisms and old divisions from Earth. They’re only interested in continuing their old life on a new planet and moved to Mars because on Earth it had become difficult to maintain their identity.

These issues, together with the complex relationship with the Earth and in particular the transnationals, which have their own economic interests, make the situation on Mars increasingly complex. It’s not a story about heroes because the characters are human with strengths and weaknesses that sometimes can be serious so they make mistakes that have consequences.

In the end, “Red Mars” is the story of a future that is born in pain so certain ideals are in danger of being buried by the clashes between the many factions that at one point are present on Mars. It’s the search for utopia, although different people have different ideas about how it should be and also for this reason it’s ambiguous.

The many themes developed by Kim Stanley Robinson make “Red Mars” a novel complex and not easy to read, also for its often slow pace. It’s very ambitious, perhaps even too much because sometimes a single subject ends up not being developed enough. Overall, however, I think that the result is at a very high level so if you’re looking for a novel with a lot of food for thought I recommend reading it.