Match BookRed Mars
Kim Stanley Robinson
1992 · 572 pages · Science fiction
How it reads
Red Mars is science fiction (hard science fiction, specifically), and its dominant mood is adventurous. It's driven by momentum, discovery and getting into trouble. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in several locations, in the future, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are survival, nature and power and politics. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It opens a series. The ending resolves happily. At 572 pages it's a real commitment. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something adventurous
- you want something to chew on
- you want to be sure it ends well
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy or melancholy
- you want something you can finish this weekend
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- science fiction
- Author gender
- male
- Author experience
- prolific veteran
- Setting: place
- multiple locations
- Setting: time
- future
- Mood / feeling
- adventurous
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- long
- Narrative style
- third person, several viewpoints
- Publication era
- modern classic
- Popularity
- well known
- Series vs standalone
- first in a series
- Themes
- survival, nature, power and politics
- Ending style
- resolved and happy
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
HyperionDan SimmonsShares: science fiction, adventurous mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
The Foundation TrilogyIsaac AsimovShares: science fiction, adventurous mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace- Cloud AtlasDavid MitchellShares: science fiction, adventurous mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- RingworldLarry NivenShares: science fiction, adventurous mood, hard science fiction, resolved and happy ending
The Long WarTerry PratchettShares: science fiction, adventurous mood, moderate pace, set in multiple locations- FledglingOctavia E. ButlerShares: science fiction, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace, set in multiple locations
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