I enjoyed this book quite a bit, although the beginning was a little slow going for me. Where Red Mars started well and then slowed down at the end, this book was the other way around. I have found in this series, the less time the characters spend in some kind of vehicle traveling across Mars, the more I enjoyed the story. Those parts get bogged down with too much detail.If you read the description on the back cover of the book and think that you are going to see lots of POVs from the next generation of Martians, you will be disappointed. Like Red Mars, this book is broken up into 10 different parts that each follow a single POV (one part does follow 3 characters, but the POV only changes the character it follows after the 3 characters have come back together and then gone off in different directions again). Only one part of the book follows one of the next generation of Martians. The others either follow members of the First Hundred or a new character that arrives from Earth. Although Peter Clayborne is specifically mentioned in the book description, he never has a POV and has a pretty small part in the book. I had looked forward to reading about some new characters so was a little disappointed by this. I did enjoy KSR giving us some more of Frank Chalmers backstory.I think that this book would stand on its own fairly well if you had not read Red Mars. KSR does tell the reader enough to be able to understand what is going on.

Even more technical than the previous part, this second one focuses more on ecology, economics and politics. Lead by those remained from the First Hundred, ~ 50 yrs after the events in Red Mars, the Martians (4 generations by now) try to gain independence while Earth is in chaos. Second revolution is in progress and old fears surface once again.The amount of research for this book is simply overwhelming. The only other time when I was in such awe, concerning the dedication for details and information provided, was when I read A History of Religious Ideas by Mircea Eliade. At least Eliade was a religion historian among other specialties but KSR has no background in science, which I find to be even more mind-blowing.All I can say is that this is high class literature.

For me, this trilogy is one of those life-changing books - something you talk about, and think about years later. If we ever go to Mars - this is the way it should be done. For those of you not familiar with Kim Stanley Robinson, his science is so grounded in real, hard, current science - it's called future history. For those of you scared of sci-fi being too boring - much like that physics class you hated - relax. Robinson gives you the basic idea, without pages to describe just how a particular engine works. For those of you sick of Star Trek solutions - Reconfigure the tri-corders or the dilithium crystal and BAM - problem solved! I swear you will feel satisfied.How would you decide how many people to send? How would you choose who goes? How would you design the ship so it would keep your settlers (cuz they are not coming back) alive, and sane for the 6 month trip? How would you design the ship so at least parts of it can be used immediately upon landing for something useful? Once you land, how does the human brain handle 1000 new colors that are ALL warm (yellow - purple) and NO cool colors. No blues or greens...ever. How do you MAKE water, and oxygen, and heat? What do you do to earn your money, or your food once you get there? How do you create rules, and a government in this completely alien place? How long would it take before you decided Earth's laws and rules no longer applied?These are the questions he explores, discusses and answers. If you like to think about stuff like this - start reading and make yourself a happy human. If "thinkin" ain't your thing - walk away slowly and no one will get hurt. John Carter this is not. You are participating in the dialogue, even if you are just watching the action. So this is a book for those who want to ponder, brood, wonder, think, debate and discuss.What's to love?ACTION - biblical-size natural disasters on Mars and Earth, and a revolution.DESCRIPTION - lot's and lots and lots, but the scale is so HUGE it's cool. Instead of Grand Canyon, think Marinaras Trench, but not under the ocean.CHARACTERS - Great! These people had to endure a year of isolated, highly-monitored living in a confined space to get a ticket on the spaceship. But think about it, what kind of people would want to do that - no family, no friends - move to Mars, face possible death, not come back. Just think about it. Bottom line - these are not mainstream, balanced people.CREATION - creating a new world, new economic systems, new politics, new ecosystems, new species, new religions, new science. Every civilization is a possibility of what you can have, and an example of what you should dismiss. What would you do?What's not so fun?Sometimes the Tolkein-size descriptions of the landscape are too much. Skim a little here and there if you have to, but don't miss the EPIC size scenery, because it will stick with you forever.Read this and for the rest of your life, you will perk up whenever someone mentions Mars. Oh, and you will have informed opinions.