Blue Mars
- 784
- Pages
- about 14 h
- Reading time
- Hugo Award for Best Novel
- Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
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Our view
“Blue Mars” closes the Mars trilogy as a vast novel of ideas, absorbed in politics, memory and place. Over nearly eight hundred pages, the quarrel between Reds and Greens over the terraformed planet is worked out in scientific detail. Those who enjoy that density call it slow but rewarding; some find it long and nearly plotless and give up early. For readers who want more thinking, not more action.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The red planet is red no longer, as Mars has become a perfectly inhabitable world. But while Mars flourishes, Earth is threatened by overpopulation and ecological disaster. Soon people look to Mars as a refuge, initiating a possible interplanetary conflict, as well as political strife between the Reds, who wish to preserve the planet in its desert state, and the Green "terraformers". The ultimate fate of Earth, as well as the possibility of new explorations into the solar system, stand in the balance.From the Paperback edition.
Reading order · Mars trilogy
Full order & progress →- Red MarsStart here
7.77.7 / 10 - Green Mars
7.97.9 / 10 - Blue MarsThis book
7.87.8 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.7 across 253 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 63% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Science fiction average of 7.8. That is how 7.8 comes out. A further +0.10 comes from the small bonus for major awards.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 6.5 | 20 | 8% |
| Hardcover | 7.8 | 233 | 92% |
Frequently asked
How long is Blue Mars?
It has 784 pages — longer than 94% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Science fiction — and a score of 7.8, the closest to this book.
