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    The Martians
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    The Martians
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    The Martians
    Ebook500 pages9 hours

    The Martians

    By Kim Stanley Robinson

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    A glorious companion volume to Robinson’s world-wide bestselling trilogy.

    All Colours Mars

    Red Mars. Green Mars. Blue Mars.

    The Mars trilogy has rapidly assumed the status of modern science fiction classic, capturing the imagination of hundreds of thousands of readers around the world. Now, with The Martians, comes Kim Stanley Robinson’s essential companion to the Mars series. New novellas and short stories head the collection, along with texts on the Martian constitution, maps and Martian inspired poetry.

    In short, The Martians is a unique collection of previously unpublished fiction, a fascinating addition to Robinson’s oeuvre, and a must for all lovers of the red planet.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateFeb 6, 2014
    ISBN9780007400072
    Unavailable
    The Martians
    Author

    Kim Stanley Robinson

    Kim Stanley Robinson was born in 1952. After travelling and working around the world, he settled in his beloved California. He is widely regarded as the finest science fiction writer working today, noted as much for the verisimilitude of his characters as the meticulously researched scientific basis of his work. He has won just about every major sf award there is to win and is the author of the massively successful and highly praised ‘Mars’ series.

    Read more from Kim Stanley Robinson

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    Reviews for The Martians

    3.5/5

    172 ratings10 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This is a collection of short stories and poems based on the universe portrayed in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy: Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars. These stories complement the novels. But they are uneven, some are good and expand on the backstory behind the original novels, others are padding that could have been left out. This collection does not rise to the heights of the original trilogy, and is probably meaningless to those who have not read the original books.1. Michel in Antarctica - A group of people build and live in a settlement in one of the dry Antarctic valleys as a precursor to settling on Mars. But not all of them would make it to Mars. And it was Michel's job, as one of four psychologists, to evaluate the suitability of the candidates for life on Mars. He studied the individuals and the group dynamics, trying to stay detached while attracted to the women and admiring the men. He worried that the group were all going insane slowly in the sunless winter, and thus would never survive on Mars. So he had misgivings about the planned Mars project.2. Exploring Fossil Canyon - Follows a group of amateur hikers exploring a canyon complex that has had little human presence, even though humans had been living on Mars for several generations. They endure a sandstorm that results in the group becoming dangerously dispersed. Before the storm, one of the group found a canyon with stones that looked like fossil sea shells.3. The Archaea Plot - A supposed plot by ancient native lifeforms to reclaim Mars from the human invaders.4. The Way The Land Spoke To Us - A description of some of the Martian terrain, and what this means for people traversing it.5. Maya and Desmond - One woman's search for a stowaway, Desmond, on board the spaceship carrying the first 100 settlers to Mars, and, once found, the assistance she gives him. Subsequently it follows Maya and her occasional encounters with Desmond.6. Four Telelogical Trails - Wrong way: a hiker discovers a blazed trail in Crommelin Crater and follows it. Mistakes Can Be Good: a son takes his parents on a taxing trail with a rewarding end. You Can't Lose the Trail: rediscovering the lost trails in Crommelin Crater. The Natural Genius: a hiker has fun following bits of old trails, finding the next one, and questioning whether the trail he thought he saw was actually there.7. Coyote Makes Trouble - the radical reds plan to sabotage the terraforming. But Coyote has his own plan for a visible protest.8. Michel in Provence - almost a hundred years after the first Martian settlement, Michel is back on Earth, in particular His home in Provence. He reflects on life on Mars. He meets Maya at a space habitation conference in Nice, and their relationship is rekindled for a few days. But each is stuck in their own world.9. Green Mars - a group of people prepare to climb an escarpment on Olympus Mons. Roger Clayborne is a last minute addition to the party after resigning his position as Minister of the Interior. For him, this climb is an epiphany.10. Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars - baseball on Mars is different: the outfield is bigger, and getting batters out is harder. But an American teaches a native-born Martian how to throw a curve ball.11. Salt and Fresh - suggests that Mars was inhabited by single-celled creatures called Archaea, which are plotting to reclaim Mars, or at least some of them might be.12. The Constitution of Mars - a proposal for a legal constitution that describes how Mars is to be governed.13. Some Worknotes and Commentary on the Constitution - some comments on the Mars Constitution based on experience.14. Jackie on Zo - a mother's recollection of giving birth and raising a child on Mars.15. Keeping the Flame - Nirgal encounters a strange Greek-style monument. While there, two of the first hundred arrive. They tell him that the monument is a memorial to Phyllis Boyle, who was their colleague. And they reminisce about the past.16. Saving Noctis Dam - the dam was built in the Noctis Canyon, but it was botched having been built in part on sandstone. And the first severe rainstorms had a devastating effect on the dam, which was on the verge of collapse.17. Big Man in Love - a myth about a demi-god called Big Man and his supposed relationship with a cloned descendant of John Boone, the first man on Mars.18. An Argument for the Deployment of All Safe Terraforming Technologies - the landscape of Mars undergoes continual change as the water flows. But during the 2210s decade, the climate started to cool. As a result, lots of methods were proposed to stop this trend. One group surfs the big waves.19. Selected Abstracts from the Journal of Areological Studies - several extracts debate the possiblity of ancient life forms on Mars.20. Odessa - memories of time spent in the town of Odessa.21. Sexual Dimorphism - one man investigates the adaptation of various cetaceans to a changing environment. He feels marginalised as his research appears to be increasingly unimportant. He also feels that the relationship with his partner is cooling.22. Enough is as Good as a Feast - a description of the settlement of craters, which developed into towns. A man remembers life in a agricultural commune.23. What Matters - after breaking up with his partner, Peter Clayborne decides to take a long walk along the rims of some canyons. He meets Roger Clayborne at a Swiss restaurant. As they enjoy dinner, large groups of people arrive to celebrate Fassnacht.24. Coyote Remembers - Coyote reminisces about past relationships.25. Sax Moments - various moments in Sax's life during his recovery from a stroke, from absurd science to considering the science of memory.26. A Martian Romance - the relationship between Eileen Monday and Roger Clayborne following their expedition climbing Olympus Mons. Mars is cooling, and the introduced animal and plant life is going through a mass extinction. The group goes on an ice sailing trip.27. If Wang Lei Lived on Mars and other poems - a series of poems about imagining life on Mars.28. Purple Mars - the author's day is he finishes his novel about Mars.
    • 4/5
      This book confirms my feeling that Robinson is one of the best sf writers in existence today. He takes the world he created in the Mars trilogy and expands and adds to it so that I can tell it is real to him. For heavens sake, he even has the constitution and notes on the constitution. (And it all makes so much sense that I wish I could live there.) He also gives us a glimpse of his own life and I could see the genesis of some of the story in the climate change trilogy that is his latest work. If I had to choose a favourite story I think it would be Green Mars, the story of the climbing party on Olympic Mons. It really made me feel like I was there, experiencing the climb. And that also gives me a glimpse into Robinson's life because he must be a climber.
    • 3/5
      To my mind doesn't add anything to the Mars Trilogy. If you love the Mars books you will likely enjoy these short vignettes from the entire span of Red to Blue Mars, if not probably best to avoid. I found myself skimming many of the stories as they lack the grand narrative I enjoyed about the Mars Trilogy. It is possible that I am in a different mindset or not as familiar with the Mars novels as you need to be (due to the span of time since I read the novels) to enjoy this collection. Many of the short stories don't stand on their own, as you can tell from how much of my review is about the Trilogy rather this collection.
    • 3/5
      To my mind doesn't add anything to the Mars Trilogy. If you love the Mars books you will likely enjoy these short vignettes from the entire span of Red to Blue Mars, if not probably best to avoid. I found myself skimming many of the stories as they lack the grand narrative I enjoyed about the Mars Trilogy. It is possible that I am in a different mindset or not as familiar with the Mars novels as you need to be (due to the span of time since I read the novels) to enjoy this collection. Many of the short stories don't stand on their own, as you can tell from how much of my review is about the Trilogy rather this collection.
    • 3/5
      This is a collection of short stories that fill in some gaps and covers other aspects of the Blue/Red/Green Mars series. While the trilogy was a great read this book is less so. This book is for those who want to more about the world and characters of the trilogy and not recommended as a stand alone read.
    • 5/5
      Short stories from the Mars trilogy, which really must have been read first otherwise these will make no sense at all. Mostly they seem to be out-takes, small sidelines and excerpts from characters who didn't get much voice in the full novels, with perhaps the exception of Eileen Morning who features in a few of these, but whom I don't remember at all. The timeline generally progresses forward, with some skips, and includes major spoilers for all of the novels, as the important events are frequently discussed or reminisced by the characters. It's always a little difficult to review short story collections because the nature of short stories makes them so variable. That these are all thematically linked the main novels is significant factor, but even here they're highly variable from very emotionally driven stories of partnerships across the decades, to a more cerebral philosophical examination of motives. My favourites were perhaps the extended climb up Olympus Mons, which highlights KSRs technical outdoor skills that are a feature in many of his books. Perhaps my least favourite were the collection of poems, mostly TBC
    • 4/5
      I'm both elated and depressed at finally finishing Robinson's Martian trilogy-plus. It's been a long, LONG voyage, and the ideas he offers and the characters who span the story have taken become very real to me.This fourth book is a series of short stories, some poems, and even a few scientific reports (all done within the Martian world Robinson created), and they add some interesting alternatives and information on major and minor characters and theories. If you've read the trilogy proper, do tack this on to your TBR list. If not, don't, because it will make little sense.
    • 4/5
      A great companion to the Mars Trilogy (some parts of which I found a trial to get through). A wistful nostalgic feeling pervades the book -- perhaps a KSM is trying to add a hint of Ray Bradbury's 'Martian Chronicles' to his Martian literature.
    • 2/5
      Any book of short stories naturally has its strengths and weaknesses. "The Martians" is no different, except that it has far more misses than hits.There are some great stories in here, as good as the original trilogy. The first one, "Michel in Antarctica," had a brilliant twist ending that made me actually say "wow" and had me determined to read the rest of the book, no matter how bad the subsequent stories might be. There were a few more good ones in there - the full text of the Martian constitution was in there, with notes on its genesis, and the short stories "Coyote Makes Trouble" and "Odessa" were also quite good.The rest, unfortunately, are nowehere near up to scratch. One story in particular - the novella "Green Mars," written long before the actual trilogy - concerns a mountain-climbing expedition that stretches across an agonisingly tedious eighty pages.If you absolutely loved the Mars trilogy, then of course you should read this (and no bad review will stop you). But if, like me, you thought the Mars trilogy was a decent series of books with some great features, but also a lot of boring, pointless or badly written features, then give it a miss.
    • 2/5
      A collection of interludes and character pieces set between events from the Mars books. Not memorable.