I have very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the author's vision of the Mars landscape and his back story about the planet's former life forms really grabbed me. On the other hand, the characters seemed like robots, and the (long) narrative felt plodding, without a sense of rising crisis (even though the actual events are cataclysmic). I tend to prefer minimalist scifi, where everything flows from a few premises about future technology or society. MOVING MARS, on the other hand,

One of the slowest burns, but with a very bright ending. You could say the majority of the book (400 pages) is all backstory and character development, if not the entire thing. All so the last 100 hundred pages can stitch up the story nicely with emotion, action and all--even a little nostalgia (it's a long book). The main character was nicely set up over time. Very epic. She made a few leaps in skill level that could be a little unbelievable but the author kept her humble enough. Same could be

Storyline: 3/5Characters: 3/5Writing Style: 3/5World: 4/5Using some rough measure of quality, one could make a convincing argument for Moving Mars being categorized alongside Queen of Angels and Heads, the first two volumes in this loosely connected series. None of them rank among the greats of science fiction but all are clearly above the average-quality works that so populate the genre’s shelves. Lumping in Moving Mars in such a category, however, obscures just how much inferior of a book it i...

This is supposed to be a hard science fiction novel, but its characters move Mars 10,000 light-years just by the force of thinking about quantum logic. Quantum logic is an actual field of study in physics; unlike classical logic, it allows one to reason about such propositions as "The electron is less than 1nm from the proton" and "The speed of the electron is less than 1km/s"; the truth of both propositions cannot be determined at the same time. Thinking hard about it (or about anything else) w...

Verbose, political acumen poor, characters stupid beyond ridiculous. Bear at his worse.

This book was my introduction to one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time. Greg Bear takes universe-creation to a new level. While there have been many books about the eventual colonization of the red planet, this one goes one step beyond to when independence lights the fire under people who no longer see Earth as home.The plot is not only believable, but frightening when one considers just how close we are to beginning this process on another world. Read as much of Greg Bear's wo...

The book marries a number of complex topics: politics, sci-if technology, racial identities and, hyper-philosophical candor… very well I might add, making for a competent and insightful read.

Reading this book is a unique experience, as it varies from VERY BORING to AMAZING every couple hundred pages.Maybe it's two books in an awkward dance, with author Greg Bear unable to tweak the pacing enough to bring more balance to the novel.Don't get me wrong - when this book is good, it is VERY VERY GOOD! One of the finest books you'll read.But when it's boring, it's several hundred pages of boredom. And unfortunately, the dull parts occur fairly early. I wonder how many people gave up on thi...

Reading Challenge Prompt: A book set in a different planetAgain, I grabbed this book off of the library shelf. This is not my go to genre. The story was ok, but I struggled with the "technical" terms used. I have no idea how much of it, if any is based on actual science. It was not an easy read, but I was invested in the characters and storyline enough to finish the book.

Enjoyable hard science fiction novel about the coming of age of the Mars colony both politically and scientifically and how Mother Earth reacts to the changes. Thought the main plot was very interesting and loved all the political machinations but did get a bit bogged down during the scientific explanations. Listened to the audio version read by Sharon Williams.

Meh. The first third of this book is near unreadable. If you can struggle through that it opens up into a fast paced political thriller with some rather insane physics assumptions baked in. The main conflict of the book revolves around the concepts of mutually assured destruction, colonialism, and game theory. The problem is that it's just about bonkers. For a hard sci-fi book it had some problematic assumptions. It didn't help that I hated one of the main characters.If you want to read a good M...

Moving Mars is probably my favorite hard Sci-fi book I've read! Although the first half is mind boggling and full of politics and science that I didn't understand whatsoever, the 2nd half more than makes up for it with the breathtaking action. Again, as in the first six or ten times I've read this, as I flipped the last page, I let out the breath I've apparently been holding for hours! (Yes, I know I didn't really hold my breath for hours, but it sure feels like it!)

Wow! An amazing tale of politics, personalities, passions and patriotism. A great lesson in developing new technologies that upset the balance of society. Great heroine, really challenging science. A whopping good read!

I kind of can't believe this book was nominated for a Hugo. I mean, Greg Bear is often a very good writer, and I've enjoyed previous books of his. Not this one, though. This one was just plain bad and there were several points where I thought about putting it down and walking away. When I was scrolling through my Hugo spreadsheet and realized that it had been nominated, I was flabbergasted.Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You...

Now this is one of those books that was handed to me by a colleague and has sat unread on my bookshelf for possibly more than a year. But once I started reading, I was transported forward into Mars in the 22nd century. More of a political thriller with plenty of scientific information placed in to help the world building, humans don't appear to have evolved very much. Still lots of plotting and backstabbing and heartache. But it sure was a good story! Goodreads review published 28/03/20

What a great read. You begin with a story, a psychology, an idiology and think, this book does a good job of understanding the human condition(s). Then the (red) rabbit hole deepens and you are taken into a science of scale that is wonderous and frightening. The results of which create the mess and subsequent liberation of Mars.I was truly enthralled the whole time. This book in itself could have been broken up into a few volumes and a number of tributaries to let you know more of the people, po...

This thing about settling Mars always devolving into political strife has to stop...

I'm not into drama and character development, or long, elaborate social development stories. I'm much more interested in the new tech, the scientific breakthrough, or just a good action tale in a sci-fi setting that couldn't possibly be told in any other setting.Unfortunately for me, Mr. Bear takes a long time setting up and developing his characters and the socio-political background for his Mars colony. If that's your cuppa, you'll probably love it. If, like me, that just doesn't interest you,...

If it takes more than a 100 pages to pick up the story, it's time to drop the book. I would not suggest this book to anyone.

4.5 to 5.0 stars. This is a fantastic novel. Greg Bear gives the reader a very well rounded view of a future Mars (and Earth) and provides fascinating ideas about a variety of topics, including future politics (both Earth and Mars), artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and genetic engineering. I enjoyed the way Bear addressed each of these topics and made them both accessible and very interesting. All of the above is enough to highly recommend this book. However, when you add in the "major sc...