An excursion into SF

Ok, I decided to abandon re-reading Charles Fort, and switched over to Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars. This isn't the sort of SF I normally read. Generally, when I read science fiction, I prefer space opera to hard SF, and this book is closer to hard SF than to space opera. Still, I found it to be a very engrossing work. Mr. Robinson, has a real talent for creating vivid, memorable characters.

The story is about the colonization of Mars told by its first settlers. These settlers, called the First Hundred, who are a group of scientists. Soon after their arrival, other colonists follow, as do the big, bad corporations, who want to rule Mars and plunder it for profit. Soon many of the colonists rebel, and all Hell breaks lose.

It's a tale of political intrigue and scientific exploration. I found that I was interested by the politics, but not so much by the science; whenever I came to a bit where the characters would discuss the science, I'd skip over it. The characters range from iodealists to revolutionaries to political schemers to more-or-less ordinary people. Each of the sections in the book are told from the point of view of one of these characters, and it makes for a very interesting perspective.

The only thing I don't like about this book is the hard science, and that's just a matter of taste. So, I'll give it 4 yo-yos.

Up next, I'm reading something a little different: The Charmed Sphere by Catherine Asaro.