Kim Stanley Robinson - Red Mars

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Harper Voyager An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1992

Copyright © Kim Stanley Robinson 1992

Cover photograph © Detlev van Ravenswaay/Science Photo Library

Cover layout design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2013

Kim Stanley Robinson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780007115907

Ebook Edition © MARCH 2013 ISBN: 9780007401703

Version: 2019-05-29

This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings:

Change of font size and line height

Change of background and font colours

Change of font

Change justification

Text to speech

For Lisa

Cover

Title Page RED MARS KIM STANLEY ROBINSON

Copyright Copyright Copyright Note to Readers Dedication PART ONE Festival Night PART TWO The Voyage Out PART THREE The Crucible PART FOUR Homesick PART FIVE Falling Into History PART SIX Guns Under the Table PART SEVEN Senzeni Na PART EIGHT Shikata Ga Nai Chronology About the Publisher This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. Harper Voyager An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1992 Copyright © Kim Stanley Robinson 1992 Cover photograph © Detlev van Ravenswaay/Science Photo Library Cover layout design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2013 Kim Stanley Robinson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication Source ISBN: 9780007115907 Ebook Edition © MARCH 2013 ISBN: 9780007401703 Version: 2019-05-29

Note to Readers Note to Readers Note to Readers Dedication PART ONE Festival Night PART TWO The Voyage Out PART THREE The Crucible PART FOUR Homesick PART FIVE Falling Into History PART SIX Guns Under the Table PART SEVEN Senzeni Na PART EIGHT Shikata Ga Nai Chronology About the Publisher This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings: Change of font size and line height Change of background and font colours Change of font Change justification Text to speech

Dedication Dedication Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Note to Readers Dedication PART ONE Festival Night PART TWO The Voyage Out PART THREE The Crucible PART FOUR Homesick PART FIVE Falling Into History PART SIX Guns Under the Table PART SEVEN Senzeni Na PART EIGHT Shikata Ga Nai Chronology About the Publisher For Lisa

PART ONE Festival Night

PART TWO The Voyage Out

PART THREE The Crucible

PART FOUR Homesick

PART FIVE Falling Into History

PART SIX Guns Under the Table

PART SEVEN Senzeni Na

PART EIGHT Shikata Ga Nai

Chronology

About the Publisher

Mars was empty before we came. That’s not to say that nothing had ever happened. The planet had accreted, melted, roiled and cooled, leaving a surface scarred by enormous geological features: craters, canyons, volcanoes. But all of that happened in mineral unconsciousness, and unobserved. There were no witnesses – except for us, looking from the planet next door, and that only in the last moment of its long history. We are all the consciousness that Mars has ever had.

Now everybody knows the history of Mars in the human mind: how for all the generations of prehistory it was one of the chief lights in the sky, because of its redness and fluctuating intensity, and the way it stalled in its wandering course through the stars, and sometimes even reversed direction. It seemed to be saying something with all that. So perhaps it is not surprising that all the oldest names for Mars have a peculiar weight on the tongue – Nirgal, Mangala, Auqàkuh, Harmakhis – they sound as if they were even older than the ancient languages we find them in, as if they were fossil words from the Ice Age or before. Yes, for thousands of years Mars was a sacred power in human affairs; and its color made it a dangerous power, representing blood, anger, war and the heart.