gripping

great book, creating a detailed world and describing the challenges of life in the extreme, but underlined by humanity and cultures

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Staggering book

Loved every minute of this epic of a story. Engrossing. Fascinating. A hope for the future.

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Rich, prescient, thought-provoking, beautiful

An incredible story - rich characters, interesting multilayered tale of science, space, politics and culture. I learned a lot, pondered a lot and enjoyed its richness, relevance and epic poetic style. Since starting this book I have become a fan of the author as a thinker and speaker. Looking forward to the next two in the trilogy!

Performance by the narrator was pretty good.

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Love the detail

Have been wanting to read this for 20 years. Just a bit long, looking forward to the sequels

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Rereading an old favorite

I read these books as a teenager and still have concepts from it come into my brain. I loved the attempts at predicting the future of science and that no character is so central to the story that they are “safe”.

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MB

Read this when first published. It hasn’t aged perfectly but still one of my favourites.
Yes there are a few hiccups, add a decade or two to the timeline and it will flow that much better.

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Hard Science Fiction at the Cutting Edge

This book has aged really well. The discussions about technologies and the science behind them are still rock solid.

Although this book felt a little like Dune in places (particularly with the discussions of morals) it is a very very solid piece of work and definitely stands on its own.

If you want an action packed science fiction novel, this is not the book for you. If you want a nuanced exploration of feudalism/capitalism and the relationship of mankind with technology and the environment, this is the perfect book.

The narration was also really very good.

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1 person found this helpful

Highly anticipated but greatly disappointed.

I tried a few times and I might eventually finish this but the last part wasn't enough to interest me to spend more hours on this book. A different narrator might have carried this through for me and I am disappointed because someone I regard highly endorsed this book. I might have to try any more Kim Stanley Robinson without audio or perhaps just not this narrator. It helped to speed the narrator up to 1.2 speed but not by much. such a shame.

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this should definitely be a TV series

this is a amazing book , and it should definitely be a TV series if done by the book however I feel the first chapter of the book would be deemed as islamophobic and would be cancelled after the first chapter .......... but hope it oneday becomes a TV series because I'm hooked and love the problem solving and mystery and humanity problems ...... one thing that confuses me is the part 1,2 ,3 ,4, 5 and so on time line .......... its something you really need to concentrate on if you zone out for 5 minutes you'd better rewind because you've missed something great or important....... bought the other 3 books before finishing the first

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best Mars sci fi ever

there are a lot of sci fi books about Mars, mostly focus on the plot and storyline. This one put a great deal to creat a extremely detailed Mars life. listen to this book, I felt like seeing Mars with my own eye. the book was unique and different from common space opal style. maybe not for everyone, but definitely impressed me

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