Red Mars

But things change as time passes; nothing lasts, not even stone, not even happiness.

 This book came highly recommended. At Thanksgiving a few years ago, a friend mentioned really liking it, which put in on my radar. Later, someone else said it was one of their favorites, which always pushes something higher up my to-read list. And then I discovered that the board game Terraforming Mars was based on this trilogy, and I knew I had to read it.

I'm not sure I'd call this book a favorite, though it was interesting. Sending people to Mars, establishing a colony, eventually transforming it to support life is an incredibly exciting and compelling idea. And these books do it well. The science is in depth, though outdated, and the challenges humanity faces are real and hard. This is a very interesting book.

But it's also a very dense and occasionally dry book. It took me a really long time to get through, and I had to skim a few passages that I found too boring. Then again, sometimes Robinson would come out with a line like the one above that just worked it's way into my soul.

This also isn't just science. Robinson is clearly a pretty progressive person and willing to take a long hard look at how those ideals clash with reality, at what it takes to make an egalitarian society, to dismantle patriarchy and capitalism and what achieving those goals would mean for humanity.

I'm glad I read this book, even if it took a while. It gave me a lot to think about.