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Comment by kleiba | Hacker News Reader

A little off-topic (please don't hate me): could anyone recommend a good sci-fi novel about people first exploring Mars (or some other planet for that matter)? I figure there must be some good ones around, as the subject obviously offers much room (no pun intended) for cool plot ideas, but I don't know a lot about the genre. Classics welcome, but no spoilers please. Thank you!

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Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Series is a very detailed trilogy about the colonization of Mars:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_trilogy

The first book, Red Mars, follows the colonization from an initial expedition of 100 scientists to the building of a space elevator and the development of an independent culture.

It's a good mix of hard science, politics, and the interpersonal relationships of the original 100 colonists.

The only technological assumption I thought was a bit of a stretch is independent robotic machinery. They can use these to perform public-works scale construction or filter minerals out of the dust with little human input.

FWIW, I hated Red Mars as a novel. It had some interesting science in it but as a story it was way below par. The characters were not fleshed out well, the bad guys had no motivation, the chapters seemed strung together haphazardly with plot threads constantly left dangling. The "exciting finale" felt completely forced with a silly chase sequence that didn't seem to matter in the overal scheme of things.

Bad, bad book.

I agree, as a novel it's frustrating at best. I usually give science fiction a pass on plot and characters if the ideas are good. The science is generally sound, the ideas (especially the terraforming techniques) are very interesting, and the descriptions of the Martian topography help anchor the planet in reality in a way that maps or even the rover images can't.

THANK YOU.

I found this book horrifically tedious, and everyone I talk to apparently thinks it's the Greatest Story Evvvaaaarrr1!!!11!! It's nice to know that I'm not completely alone on this.

That often can be a problem with Hard SF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_science_fiction) the characters usually take the back seat. There also was definitely some loose plotting in there.

All that said Red Mars is essential the canonical book when it comes to Mars colonization. Some excellent ideas are imaginatively explored within.

I thought the first book was alright. Not the best writing but it kept a pace and had interesting content. I read the second and part of the third, they were completely lacking any of the charms of the first.

It really helps if you don't try to analyze all of the philosophy and politics until you're done reading the series. I was a little put off by the deus ex machina of the longevity treatments, but I understand that it was necessary to keep a consistent narrative over the timespan it would take to actually terraform Mars. I thought the epilogue (humanity's colonization of the solar system and migration to the stars) was pretty inspiring though.

Interestingly, the First Hundred were sent on a one-way mission to Mars as well, thus making the original question not quite so off-topic. Once you send someone that far, the thought of not bringing them back seems like an eminently reasonable approach.

remember, the First Hundred was really the First Hundred plus One. The Coyote wasn't supposed to be there. only a few in the agri group knew about him.

They are sort of corny and 1950s but I have always liked Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles."

For that matter Burroughs "Barsoom" books are fun:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barsoom

Definitely way more fantasy than sci-fi, but they're enjoyable nonetheless.

I don't know if it quite fits your criteria but if you want a good book about Mars you should check out Red Mars (and the Mars trilogy for that matter). It is more of a hard scifi as a heads up.

The Mars Trilogy (Red/Blue/Green Mars) by Kim Stanley Robinson.

I read Ben Bova's "Mars" a long time ago, when I was much younger, and I recall liking it then. Bova tends to express an ultra-libertarian viewpoint in his scifi, but very much less so in this particular novel; he does a good job exploring the real-world science of a likely first manned expedition to Mars, with enough drama to keep it interesting.

"Speaker for the Dead" might make it. Also, following the theme of more philosophical aspects of exploring new planets, "Solaris" could be a good choice too. Both books are classics ("Solaris" of a literature in general, not only of sci-fi) so it wouldn't hurt knowing them even if they are not exactly what you asked for.

If you don't restrict yourself to novels in the classical sense, there's much to be read (and played) in the Civilization-like game Alpha Centauri.

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy is excellent. Not 100% sure it contains the very first men on Mars, but it does contain everything afterward.

For a more dramatic and dream-like take -- not "hard" sci-fi by any means -- read Bradbury's Martian Chronicles. I consider them to be masterpieces, though again, it's a softer, more mythological-like style.

"Voyage" by Stephen Baxter is a very good hard sf alternate history novel about what could have happened if the US had pushed on to Mars after Apollo.

Not much about the actual exploration of Mars, but a good imagining of the technology and politics needed to get there.

Buzz Aldrin cowrote a novel called "Encounter with Tiber" about the discovery of alien artifacts leading to the first colonies on mars. 11 year old me loved it, FWIW

I enjoyed the Coyote series, by Alan Steele: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote_(novel)

Thirteen by Richard Morgan talks about colonizing Mars and how that impacts Earth's culture. It's also big on how our biology shapes our decisions, along with the shape of the world after the fall of the United States. Most of the action actually takes place on Earth, but still a fascinating book.

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