I picked this up on a whim and I am glad I listened to myself. I always wanted to be an astronaut, space is fascinating for me and the thought of exploring it is always going to be an intrigue.
Red Mars begins in 2026 as people are beginning the first human led explorations to the Red Planet. They travel aboard the Ares which is the largest ship ever built to explore the inner planets. These humans will become the first to attempt to settle on Mars, this mission one that hopes to succeed is a joint effort between the U.S.A and Russian, with seventy of the one hundred people on board hailing from either the U.S.A or Russia. Most are chosen for their profession, a psychologist to examine the behaviour of each individual, a doctor, an engineer and those who were drawn in by the simple chance to begin terraforming Mars.
We read about the trip to Mars which comes with its own sets of issues. We then learn about the first settlement built on the planet which engineer, Nadia, calls Underhill. We have extreme views from each settler but none more extreme than Sax Russell who believes that since human life is so precarious, it’s our job to spread existence to the far flung reaches of the galaxy and Anne Clayborne who is of the position that humans do not have the right to take what isn’t theirs and suit it to their needs.
Sax’s view starts out as definitely scientific but eventually decides to align himself with a member of the agricultural team who tries to assemble a new belief system with the settlers. Desperately trying to make people understand that life is the most important thing they call it the “GREEN” position. While opposition holder, Clayborne, becomes known as the RED position.
Against this is the development of the moon, Phobos, opposite views that Mars should not be developed at all, Earth destabilizing under the control of a system that seeks to dominate governments all over the world, revolutions and the release of radioactive ground water that threatens to destroy earth.
The ending to this was fantastic and made me want to pick the other books up in the series right away.
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