Editing Mars trilogy (section)

==Plot==

=== ''Red Mars''&nbsp;– Colonization ===
{{Infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name          = Red Mars
| title_orig    =
| translator    =
| caption       =
| author        = [[Kim Stanley Robinson]]
| illustrator   =
| cover_artist  = [[Don Dixon (artist)|Don Dixon]]
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| series        = Mars Trilogy
| genre         = [[Science fiction]]
| publisher     = [[Bantam Spectra|Spectra]]/[[Bantam Dell]]/[[Random House]]
| release_date  = September 1992
| exclude_cover     = yes
| media_type    = Print (hardback & paperback)
| pages         = 519 (hardcover)
| awards        = [[Nebula Award]] (1993), [[British Science Fiction Association Award]] (1993)
| isbn          = 0-553-09204-9
| dewey         = 813/.54 20
| congress      = PS3568.O2893 R44 1993
| oclc          = 26054317
| preceded_by   =
| followed_by   = Green Mars
| italic title  = no
}}
''Red Mars'' starts in 2026 with the first colonial voyage to Mars aboard the ''Ares'', the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever built  and home to a crew who are to be the first hundred Martian colonists.  The ship was built from clustered [[Space Shuttle external tank|space shuttle external fuel tanks]] which, instead of reentering Earth's atmosphere, had been boosted into orbit until enough had been amassed to build the ship.  The mission is a joint American–Russian undertaking, and seventy of the First Hundred are drawn from these countries (except, for example, Michel Duval, a French psychologist assigned to observe their behavior). The book details the trip out, construction of the first settlement on Mars (eventually called Underhill) by Russian engineer Nadia Cherneshevsky, as well as establishing colonies on Mars' hollowed out asteroid-moon [[Phobos (moon)|Phobos]], the ever-changing relationships between the colonists, debates among the colonists regarding both the [[terraforming]] of the planet and its future relationship to Earth. The two extreme views on terraforming are personified by Saxifrage "Sax" Russell, who believes their very presence on the planet means some level of terraforming has already begun and that it is humanity's obligation to spread life as it is the most scarce thing in the known universe, and Ann Clayborne, who stakes out the position that humankind does not have the right to change entire planets at their will.

Russell's view is initially purely scientific but in time comes to blend with the views of Hiroko Ai, the chief of the Agricultural Team who assembles a new belief system (the "Areophany") devoted to the appreciation and furthering of life ("[[viriditas]]"); these views are collectively known as the "Green" position, while Clayborne's naturalist stance comes to be known as "Red."  The actual decision is left to the United Nations Organization of Mars Affairs (UNOMA), which greenlights terraforming, and a series of actions get underway, including the drilling of "[[mohole]]s" to release subsurface heat; thickening of the atmosphere according to a complicated bio-chemical formula that comes to be known as the "Russell cocktail" after Sax Russell; and the detonation of nuclear explosions deep in the sub-surface [[permafrost]] to release water. Additional steps are taken to connect Mars more closely with Earth, including the insertion of an [[Areosynchronous orbit|areosynchronous]] asteroid "[[4923 Clarke|Clarke]]" to which a [[space elevator]] cable is tethered.

Against the backdrop of this development is another debate, one whose principal instigator is Arkady Bogdanov of the Russian contingent (possibly named in homage to the Russian polymath and science fiction writer [[Alexander Bogdanov]] - it is later revealed in Blue Mars that Alexander Bogdanov is an ancestor of Arkady's.). Bogdanov argues that Mars need not and should not be subject to Earth traditions, limitations, or authority. He is to some extent joined in this position by John Boone, famous as the "First Man on Mars" from a preceding expedition and rival to Frank Chalmers, the technical leader of the American contingent. Their rivalry is further exacerbated by competing romantic interest in Maya Katarina Toitovna, the leader of the Russian contingent. (In the opening of the book, Chalmers instigates a sequence of events that leads to Boone being assassinated; much of what follows is a retrospective examination of what led to that point.)

[[Earth]] meanwhile increasingly falls under the control of [[transnational corporation]]s (transnats) that come to dominate its governments, particularly smaller nations adopted as "flags of convenience" for extending their influence into Martian affairs. As UNOMA's power erodes, the Mars treaty is renegotiated in a move led by Frank Chalmers; the outcome is impressive but proves short-lived as the transnats find ways around it through loop-holes. Things get worse as the nations of Earth start to clash over limited resources, expanding debt, and population growth as well as restrictions on access to a new longevity treatment developed by Martian scientists—one that holds the promise of lifespans into the hundreds of years. In 2061, with Boone dead and exploding immigration threatening the fabric of Martian society, Bogdanov launches a revolution against what many now view as occupying transnat troops operating only loosely under an UNOMA rubber-stamp approval. Initially successful, the revolution proves infeasible on the basis of both a greater-than-expected willingness of the Earth troops to use violence and the extreme vulnerability of life on a planet without a habitable atmosphere. A series of exchanges sees the cutting of the space elevator, bombardment of several Martian cities (including the city where Bogdanov is himself organizing the rebellion; he is killed), the destruction of Phobos and its military complex, and the unleashing of a great flood of torrential groundwater freed by nuclear detonations.

By the end, most of the First Hundred are dead, and virtually all who remain have fled to a hidden refuge established years earlier by Ai and her followers. (One exception is Phyllis Boyle, who has allied herself with the transnats; she is on Clarke when the space elevator cable is cut and sent flying out of orbit to a fate unknown by the conclusion of the book.) The revolution dies and life on Mars returns to a sense of stability under heavy transnat control. The clash over resources on Earth breaks out into a full-blown [[world war]] leaving hundreds of millions dead, but cease-fire arrangements are reached when the transnats flee to the safety of the developed nations, which use their huge militaries to restore order, forming [[Police state|police-states]]. But a new generation of humans born on Mars holds the promise of change. In the meantime, the remaining First Hundred —including Russell, Clayborne, Toitovna, and Cherneshevsky— settle into life in Hiroko Ai's refuge called Zygote, hidden under the [[Planum Australe|Martian south pole]].

=== ''Green Mars''&nbsp;– Terraforming ===
{{Infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name          = Green Mars
| title_orig    =
| translator    =
| caption       =
| author        = Kim Stanley Robinson
| illustrator   =
| cover_artist  = Don Dixon
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| series        = Mars Trilogy
| genre         = Science fiction
| publisher     = Spectra/Bantam Dell/Random House
| release_date  = October 1993
| media_type    = Print (hardback & paperback)
| pages         = 535 (hardcover)
| awards        = [[Hugo Award for Best Novel]] (1994), [[Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel]] (1994)
| isbn          = 0-553-09640-0
| exclude_cover     = yes
| preceded_by   = Red Mars
| followed_by   = Blue Mars
| italic title  = no
}}
''Green Mars'' takes its title from the stage of terraforming that has allowed plants to grow. It picks up the story 50 years after the events of ''Red Mars'' in the dawn of the 22nd century, following the lives of the remaining First Hundred and their children and grandchildren. Melting ice causes the top of the dome of Hiroko Ai's base under the south pole to collapse, forcing the survivors to escape into a (less literal) underground organization known as the Demimonde. Among the expanded group are the First Hundred's children, the [[Nisei]], a number of whom live in Hiroko's second secret base, Gamete.

As unrest in the multinational control over Mars's affairs grows, various groups start to form with different aims and methods. Watching these groups evolve from Earth, the CEO of the Praxis Corporation sends a representative, Arthur Randolph, to organize the resistance movements. This culminates into the Dorsa Brevia agreement, in which nearly all the underground factions take part. Preparations are made for a second revolution beginning in the 2120s, from converting moholes to missiles silos or hidden bases, sabotaging orbital mirrors, to propelling Deimos out of Mars' gravity well and out into deep space so it could never be used as a weapons platform as Phobos was.

The book follows the characters across the Martian landscape, which is explained in detail. Russell's character infiltrates the transnat terraforming project, with a carefully crafted fake identity as Stephen Lindholm. The newly evolving Martian biosphere is described at great length and with more profound changes mostly aimed at warming up the surface of Mars to the brink of making it habitable, from continent-sized [[Space mirror (anti-global warming measure)|orbital mirrors]], another space elevator built (using another anchored asteroid that is dubbed "New Clarke"), to melting the northern polar ice cap, and digging moholes deep enough to form [[volcanoes]]. A mainstay of the novel is a detailed analysis of philosophical, political, personal, economic, and geological experiences of the characters. The story weaves back and forth from character to character, providing a picture of Mars as seen by them.

Sax, alias Stephen, eventually becomes romantically involved with Phyllis, who had survived the events of 2061 from the end of the first novel, but she discovers his true identity and has him arrested. Members of the underground launch a daring rescue from the prison facility where Sax suffers torture and interrogation that causes him to have a stroke; Maya kills Phyllis in the process of the rescue.

The book ends on a major event which is a sudden catastrophic rise in Earth's global sea levels not caused primarily by any [[greenhouse effect]] but by the eruption of a chain of [[volcano]]es underneath the ice of West [[Antarctica]], disintegrating the ice sheet and displacing the fragments into the ocean. The resultant flooding causes global chaos on Earth, creating the perfect moment for the  Martian underground to seize control of Martian society from Earth. Following a series of largely bloodless coups, an extremist faction of Reds bombs a dam near Burroughs, the major city where the remaining United Nations forces have concentrated, in order to force the security forces to evacuate. The entire city is flooded and the population of the city has to walk a staggeringly long distance in the open Martian atmosphere (which just barely has the temperature, atmospheric pressure, and gas mixture to support human life) to Libya Station, in order to resettle in other locations. With this, control of Mars is finally wrested away from Earth with minimal loss of life, leaving the weary survivors hopeful about the prospects of their newfound political autonomy.

=== ''Blue Mars''&nbsp;– Long-term results ===
{{Infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name          = Blue Mars
| title_orig    =
| translator    =
| caption       =
| author        = Kim Stanley Robinson
| illustrator   =
| cover_artist  = [[Don Dixon (artist)|Don Dixon]]
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| series        = Mars Trilogy
| genre         = Science fiction
| publisher     = Spectra/Bantam Dell/Random House
| release_date  = April 1996
| media_type    = Print (hardback & paperback)
| pages         = 609 (hardcover)
| awards        = [[Hugo Award for Best Novel]] (1997), [[Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel]] (1997)
| isbn          = 0-553-10144-7
| exclude_cover     = yes
| preceded_by   = Green Mars
| followed_by   =
| italic title  = no
}}
''Blue Mars'' takes its title from the stage of terraforming that has allowed atmospheric pressure and temperature to increase so that liquid water can exist on the planet's surface, forming rivers and seas. It follows closely in time from the end of ''Green Mars'' and has a much wider scope than the previous two books, covering an entire century after the second revolution. As Earth is heavily flooded by the sudden melting of the Antarctic ice cap, the once mighty metanats are brought to their knees; as the Praxis Corporation paves a new way of "democratic businesses". Mars becomes the "Head" of the system, giving universal healthcare, free education, and an abundance of food. However, this sparks illegal immigration from Earth, so to ease the population strain on the Blue Planet, Martian scientists and engineers are soon put to the task of creating asteroid cities; where small planetoids of the [[Asteroid belt|Belt]] are hollowed out, given a [[Centrifugal force|spin to produce gravity]], and a mini-sun is created to produce light and heat.

With a vast increase in sciences, technologies, and spacecraft manufacturing, this begins the "Accelerando"; where humankind spreads its civilization throughout the Solar System, and eventually beyond. As Venus, the [[Moons of Jupiter|Jovian moons]], the [[Moons of Saturn|Saturnian moons]], and eventually [[Triton (moon)|Triton]] are colonized and terraformed in some way, Jackie Boone (the granddaughter of John Boone, the first man to walk on Mars from the first book) takes an interstellar vessel (made out of an asteroid) to another star system twenty [[light-year]]s away, where they will start to terraform the planets and moons found there.

The remaining First Hundred are generally regarded as living legends. Reports of Hiroko's survival are numerous, and purported sightings occur all over the colonized solar system, but none are substantiated. Nadia and Art Randolph lead a constitutional congress in which a global system of government is established that leaves most cities and settlements generally autonomous, but subject to a central representative legislature and two systems of courts, one legal and the other environmental. The environmental court is packed with members of the Red faction as a concession (in exchange for their support in the congress, as much of their power was broken when they attempted and failed to violently expel remaining UN forces early on after the second revolution of Green Mars; yet they still retained enough power to stymie constitutional negotiations). Vlad, Marina, and Ursula, the original inventors of the longevity treatments, introduce a new economic system that is a hybrid of capitalism, socialism, and environmental conservationism. During a trip to Earth occurring alongside the congress, Nirgal (one of the original children to be born on Mars to the First Hundred, and something of a Mars-wide celebrity), Maya, and Sax negotiate an agreement that allows Earth to send a number of migrants equal to 10% of Mars' population to Mars every year. Following the adoption of the new constitution, Nadia is elected the first president of Mars and serves competently, although she does not enjoy politics. She and Art work together closely, and eventually fall in love and have a child.

Sax Russell devotes himself to various scientific projects, all the while continuing to recover from the effects of his stroke. Since the second revolution, he feels enormous guilt that his pro-terraforming position became the dominant one at the expense of the goals of Ann's anti-terraforming stance, as Sax and Ann have come to be regarded as the original champions of their respective positions. Sax becomes increasingly preoccupied with seeking forgiveness and approval from Ann, while Ann, depressed and bitter from her many political and personal losses, is suicidal and refuses to accept any more longevity treatments. However, when Sax witnesses Ann collapse into a coma during an attempt to demonstrate to her the beauty of the terraformed world, he arranges for her to be resuscitated and to be treated with the longevity treatment, both against her will.

The longevity treatments themselves begin to show weaknesses once those receiving them reach the two-century mark in age. The treatments reduce most aging processes to a negligible rate,  but are much less effective when it comes to brain function, and in particular memory. Maya in particular suffers extreme lapses in memory, although she remains high functioning most of the time. Further, as people age, they begin to show susceptibility to strange, fatal conditions which have no apparent explanation and are resistant to any treatment. Most common is the event that comes to be known as the "quick decline", where a person of extremely advanced age and in apparently good health suffers a sudden fatal heart arrhythmia and dies abruptly. The exact mechanism is never explained. Michel dies of the quick decline, while attending the wake of another First Hundred member. Russell speculates that Michel's quick decline was brought on by the shock of seeing Maya fail to remember Frank Chalmers (who was killed while escaping security forces in the first revolution) upon looking at a treasured photo of him on her refrigerator. As a result of this and Russell's own problems with memory, he organizes a team of scientists to develop medicine that will restore memory. The remaining members of the First Hundred, of which there are only 12, congregate in Underhill, and take the medicine. It works so well that Russell remembers his own birth. He and Ann Clayborne finally recall that they had been in love prior to leaving Earth the very first time, but both had been too socially inept and nervous about their chances for selection for the Mars voyage to reveal this to each other. Their famous argument over terraforming had been a mere continuation of a running conversation they had been having since they still lived on Earth. Through the memory treatment it is also revealed that Phyllis had been lobbying to free Sax from his torturers when she was murdered by Maya. Maya herself declines the treatment. Sax also distinctly recalls Hiroko assisting him in finding his rover in a storm before he nearly froze to death before disappearing once again and is convinced she remains alive, although the question of whether she is actually alive is never resolved.

Eventually, the anti-immigration factions of the Martian government provoke massive illegal immigration from Earth, risking another war; however, under the leadership of Ann and Sax, who have fallen in love again following their reconciliation, along with Maya, the Martian population unites to reconstitute the government to accept more immigration from Earth, defusing the imminent conflict and ushering in a new golden age of harmony and security on Mars.

=== ''The Martians''&nbsp;– Short stories ===
{{Infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name          = The Martians
| title_orig    =
| translator    =
| image         = The Martians.jpg <!--prefer 1st edition-->
| caption       =
| author        = Kim Stanley Robinson
| illustrator   =
| cover_artist  = [[Don Dixon (artist)|Don Dixon]]
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| series        = Mars Trilogy
| genre         = Science fiction
| publisher     = Spectra/Bantam Dell/Random House
| release_date  = April 1999
| media_type    = Print (hardcover & paperback)
| pages         = 336 (hardcover)
| awards        = [[Locus Award]] for Best Collection (2000)<ref>[http://www.sfadb.com/Locus_Awards_2000 Locus Awards 2000] (from the ''Science Fiction Awards Database''. Accessed 2020-04-04.)</ref>
| isbn          = 0-553-80117-1
| preceded_by   =
| followed_by   =
| italic title  = no
}}
''The Martians'' is a collection of [[short story|short stories]] that takes place over the timespan of the original trilogy of novels, as well as some stories that take place in an alternate version of the novels where the First Hundred's mission was one of exploration rather than colonization. Buried in the stories are several hints about the eventual fate of the Martian terraforming program.
* "Michel in Antarctica"
* "Exploring Fossil Canyon" (originally published in ''[[Universe (anthology series)|Universe 12]]'', 1982)
* "The Archaea Plot"
* "The Way the Land Spoke to Us"
* "Maya and Desmond"
* "Four Teleological Trails"
* "Coyote Makes Trouble"
* "Michel in Provence"
* "Green Mars" (originally published in ''[[Asimov's Science Fiction]]'' 1985)
* "Discovering Life" (also in ''Vinland the Dream'')
* "Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars" (subsequently anthologized)
* "Salt and Fresh"
* "The Constitution of Mars"
* "Some Work Notes and Commentary on the Constitution by Charlotte Dorsa Brevia"
* "Jackie on Zo"
* "Keeping the Flame"
* "Saving Noctis Dam"
* "Big Man in Love"
* "An Argument for the Deployment of All Safe Terraforming Technologies"
* "Selected Abstracts from ''The Journal of Areological Studies''"
* "Odessa"
* "Sexual Dimorphism" (Originally in: ''[[Asimov's Science Fiction]]'', June 1999 and subsequently anthologized, including {{cite book |title=[[Year's Best SF 5]] |date=2000 |publisher=Harper Collins |editor-first=David G. |editor-last=Hartwell |editor-link=David G. Hartwell |isbn=0-06-102054-0}}; {{cite book |title=The Hard SF Renaissance |date=2002 |publisher=Tom Doherty Associates |editor1-first=Kathryn |editor1-last=Cramer |editor1-link=Kathryn Cramer |editor2-first=David G. |editor2-last=Hartwell |isbn=0-312-87635-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/hardsfrenaissanc0000unse }}; and {{cite book |title=A Science Fiction Omnibus |date=2007 |publisher=Penguin UK |editor-first=Brian |editor-last=Aldiss |editor-link=Brian Aldiss |isbn=978-0-14-118892-8}} Nominated for the [[James Tiptree, Jr. Award]], which celebrates [[gender]]-bending science fiction.)
* "Enough Is as Good as a Feast" (the title phrase appears often in the ''Science in the Capital'' series)
* "What Matters"
* "Coyote Remembers"
* "Sax Moments"
* "A Martian Romance" (originally published in ''[[Asimov's Science Fiction]]'', October–November 1999, subsequently anthologized)
* ""If Wang Wei Lived on Mars and Other Poems"" inc "The Names of the Canals", "The Soundtrack" 
* "Purple Mars"