Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

Part 1: Festival Night:



Part 2: The Voyage Out (Dec 21, 2026



Part 3: The Crucible


  • Prologue: Geological Formations of Mars--lifeless, millenia of change and water.

  • 3.1 (97): NADIA--Landing--getting used to Mars (gravity and walkers)--oddness in habitats, settling in people and equipment.

  • 3.2 (108): NADIA--setting up the temporary colony--listening to Maya's complaints about Frank and John (doesn't understand the political ramifications that Maya sees)--brick and bamboo habitats.

  • 3.3 (120): NADIA--discussion of the Martian calendar and clock--more of Maya's problems, building the first vaults, beginings of the Terraforming argument--accidents and Nadia losing a finger.

  • 3.4 (135): NADIA--travel across Lunae Planum to create ice mines at North Polar Cap--Ann and Phyllis argue b/c Ann want no change to the planet and Phyllis wants as much as is profitable. v
  • 3.5 (158): NADIA--coming back to Underhill--political struggles--Arkady comes down from the station on Phobos and hooks up with Nadia-- renewal of terraforming debates, Sax Russell wins approval. v
  • 3.6 (180): NADIA--the dirigible--Arkady and Nadia's trip to sow windmills--discovery of Sax's algae seeding, the dust storm, end of initial arguments about terraforming b/c it's too late--new colonists begin to arrive elsewhere, but the first hundred don't really care.


Part 4: Homesick


  • Prologue (204): Adaptation and growth--how man is changing the face of Mars forever.

  • 4.1 (206): MICHEL DUVAL-- Maya's trouble deciding between John (conservative) and Frank (visionary) and her manic-depression, Michel's own obsessive homesicknesses--the new home has been begun, Greimas semantic rectangles and the humors--insanity--the return of the stranger (delusions)--his induction into the aerophany (Hiroku's new religion of Mars)


Part 5: Falling Into History


  • Prologue (232): Creation of Gene replacement therapy--list of the massive implications of it on Mars

  • 5.1 (234): JOHN BOONE--sabotage in mohole--visit w/ Ann and Simon--the town Senzeni Na--another fight w/ Ann over terraforming--Hiroku and some others have vanished.

  • 5.2 (255): JOHN BOONE--meeting with Sax--atmospheric needs for terraforming--contact between Sax and Hiroku.

  • 5.3 (267): JOHN BOONE--meeting with Helmut Bronsky about contractor mining and the treaty renewal forthcoming--visit to Bradbury mines.

  • 5.4 (278): JOHN BOONE--visit with Arabs--seeing Frank doing the same thing with another group--John's reunion with Maya hurts Frank again--idea of the clan of the 100--no one else seems real.

  • 5.5 (285): JOHN BOONE--Acheron with Maya--LONGEVITY TREATMENTS (new genetic breakthrough that repairs the DNA damage caused by both radiation and aging, creating indetirminate lifespans).

  • 5.6 (295): JOHN BOONE--winter at Acheron and perspective shift (b/c of treatment) to long-term planning--discussion of ecology economics--the beginnings of the 2 year storm--John's travels in the storm--the religion of Mars (the Sufis)--the space elevator begun.

  • 5.7 (316): JOHN BOONE--travels--aquifers--Nadia--meeting with strangers (the stranger called the Coyote, Kasei, and another)--UNOMA investigation--attack on John outside the dome.

  • 5.8 (338): JOHN BOONE--travel up to PHOBOS--John discovers first-hand the physical difficulties of leaving Mars--discussion with Arkady about treaty concerns--mention of coming revolution--end of the two-year storm--dead body found in John's room--(20 earth years since the colony began).

  • 5.9 (364): JOHN BOONE--Olympus Mons (asteriod areobraking celebration)--convening of first 100 to discuss events--explanations of different positions and events--John's speech about the new Mars.


Part 6: Guns Under the Table


  • Prologue (384): Reactions to John's assassination--miracles and mythology about John develop (like Challenger, JFK stories)

  • 6.1 (388): FRANK--Diplomacy--the treaty negotiations and Maya (come together, then fight)--neg reactions to the treaty (balance of power meant to create stasis).

  • 6.2 (405): FRANK--With Martian Arabs--travels with Bedouin miners--private catharsis about murder--discussion of Arab culture--dreams of John.

  • 6.3 (427): FRANK--At Underhill--space elevator up--Frank has more dreams of John--surge of commerce and immigration with the cable--population explosion leads to crime.

  • 6.4 (444): FRANK--visiting Phyllis at Clarke--negotiating with workers (association of religion (Phyllis) and bad business) using Frank's US conections to play politics with transnats--unrest and strikes--back with Maya (love and politics)--Maya declares love--beginning of revolution--(nine years after John's death).


Part 7: Senzeni Na "What have we done?"


  • Prologue (472): The Martian Revolution--Arkady's death--state of revolution--easy destruction of towns from weapons on Phobos.

  • 7.1 (477): NADIA--aquifer sabotage and dangers--reports of the revolution.

  • 7.2 (486): NADIA--rebuilding damaged domes--never catching up with destruction--lakes forming from aquifer damage (not all freezing b/c part over a mohole)--bringing down the space elevator cable--wraps around the planet twice (umbilical cord and birth trauma images) and flings Clarke and Phyllis away--finding Arkady's body (along with several others of first 100).

  • 7.3 (512): NADIA--Cairo--rejoining Frank and Maya--deaths of more of first 100--bringing down Phobos (explosives Arkady had planted the first year, she now sets off with a transmitter to stop blasting of domes from the moon)--Cairo taken--Kasei appears to take them to the lost colony.


Part 8: Shikata Ga Nai "There is no other choice."


  • Prologue (536): Elevator crash--Peter Claybourne (Ann's son) and others escape in space suits, but with no way down and limited life support--he's the only one rescued by a passing descending ship.

  • 8.1 (540): ANN CLAYBORNE--meeting Kasei (John's genetic son)--dust storm begins, then subsides--Ann's depression over Peter--Compton (Mar's largest) aquifer spill--end of "red" Mars b/c of amount of water spilled--losing Frank in the flood.

  • 8.2 (568); (omniscient narrator)--reaching an abandoned refuge.

  • Epilogue (570): Refuge in the South--Maya makes them move on--find Peter alive--remnants of first 100 with Hiroku--few people left to begin again now that Mars is irrevokably marked.


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