Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
Tor Books (1993), Edition: 1st, Hardcover, 448 pages
Description
Fiction. Science Fiction. Sacrifice, revolution, the promise of freedom. These flood into the life of Casseia Majumdar, daughter of the Binding Multiples. Rebelling against her conservative family, the colonists who occupy Mars, Casseia takes part in the brewing revolution sparked by student protests in the year 2171. Meanwhile, her love life is in a very precarious situation, with her beloved Charles Franklin's seeking to merge his mind with the most advanced artificial mind. MOVING MARS is a science-fiction look at love and war, family and conviction, heart and mind�.
Media reviews
Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine
Greg Bear goes from strength to strength. This new addition to his distinguished body of work is sure to be considered one of the major SF novels of 1993 and a sure award nominee. The very model of a modern SF novel, it excels in a number of dimensions. ...
... it gives us that without which no
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Greg Bear novel would be complete, a really Big IDEA. ... Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member bluewoad
Regarding award-winning SF novels, that prolific fan of speculative fiction, William Shakespeare, once wrote in one of his ‘zines “Be not afraid of greatness; some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.” I’ve often felt the same way, so I’m
First up (mainly because it was on my shelf and I’ve never read it) is Greg Bear’s Moving Mars which won the Nebula in 1994, as well as being nominated for the Locus Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. The title is pretty descriptive of the novel: it traces the political upheavals involved in the colonization of Mars that result in the planet being moved from its solar orbit.
OK, I can hear some of you diehards complaining about my having just giving a spoiler, but it’s the title of the book! And besides, the strength of the book — why it won the Nebula (or why I would have given it) has more to do with getting to that conclusion than the actual plot resolution.
In the Terran year 2171 (Mars year 53), the University of Mars Sinai is caught up in the power struggle between the new statist government and the decentralized BMs — binding multiples, the extended family syndicates. The statist government cancels the contracts of all the students, sending them home. Being like college students since the dawn of the university, they do what is natural to their make-up: they protest. Among the protesters is Casseia Majumdar and Charles Franklin, who meet for the first time during the protests.
After the protests, Charles and Casseia become lovers, but soon split and go their separate ways, Casseia to a career in politics and Charles to theoretical physics. Eventually, though, they meet again during Mars’s fight for independence and together they ensure that Mars will never be threatened by Earth again.
The power of the novel is not in the SFnal nature of the storyline — it’s actually not that thick in SFnal tropes (even though they end up moving Mars) — but in the political nature of the storyline. Moving Mars is a political novel about the power of sacrifice. The story is told in the first person by Casseia and follows her development from a self-centred college student to someone who is willing to sacrifice her security and even her life for the sake of Mars’s future.
While reading the novel, I felt it dragged quite a bit through the middle, but by the end, I could see what Bear was up to and why he made the choices he did. Although I had to work to get through the novel, I’m glad he did and don’t wish for him to have done it any differently. A second reading will probably bring greater enjoyment than the first.
So, in conclusion, I think Moving Mars has definitely stood up in the nearly two decades since its first publication. Even though there is a little flavor of datedness, Bear is dealing with issues that transcend time — the Big Ideas — and so the novel will continue to hold up, even when history has passed the era that Moving Mars deals with.
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going to try to read a number of Hugo and Nebula winning novels this year to see whether they live up to the hype and are truly timeless works or whether their popularity was a flash in the pan the year they won.First up (mainly because it was on my shelf and I’ve never read it) is Greg Bear’s Moving Mars which won the Nebula in 1994, as well as being nominated for the Locus Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. The title is pretty descriptive of the novel: it traces the political upheavals involved in the colonization of Mars that result in the planet being moved from its solar orbit.
OK, I can hear some of you diehards complaining about my having just giving a spoiler, but it’s the title of the book! And besides, the strength of the book — why it won the Nebula (or why I would have given it) has more to do with getting to that conclusion than the actual plot resolution.
In the Terran year 2171 (Mars year 53), the University of Mars Sinai is caught up in the power struggle between the new statist government and the decentralized BMs — binding multiples, the extended family syndicates. The statist government cancels the contracts of all the students, sending them home. Being like college students since the dawn of the university, they do what is natural to their make-up: they protest. Among the protesters is Casseia Majumdar and Charles Franklin, who meet for the first time during the protests.
After the protests, Charles and Casseia become lovers, but soon split and go their separate ways, Casseia to a career in politics and Charles to theoretical physics. Eventually, though, they meet again during Mars’s fight for independence and together they ensure that Mars will never be threatened by Earth again.
The power of the novel is not in the SFnal nature of the storyline — it’s actually not that thick in SFnal tropes (even though they end up moving Mars) — but in the political nature of the storyline. Moving Mars is a political novel about the power of sacrifice. The story is told in the first person by Casseia and follows her development from a self-centred college student to someone who is willing to sacrifice her security and even her life for the sake of Mars’s future.
While reading the novel, I felt it dragged quite a bit through the middle, but by the end, I could see what Bear was up to and why he made the choices he did. Although I had to work to get through the novel, I’m glad he did and don’t wish for him to have done it any differently. A second reading will probably bring greater enjoyment than the first.
So, in conclusion, I think Moving Mars has definitely stood up in the nearly two decades since its first publication. Even though there is a little flavor of datedness, Bear is dealing with issues that transcend time — the Big Ideas — and so the novel will continue to hold up, even when history has passed the era that Moving Mars deals with.
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LibraryThing member rondoctor
Good read in the tradition of Bear's earlier works. The story builds slowly. By the time you get about 2/3 through the book it becomes a must-read, cannot-put-it-down story. The story is set on Mars about a hundred years after settlement. It deals with the politics of Earth-Moon-Mars and follows
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the main characters from college years to mid-life. Very nicely done. Show Less
LibraryThing member terriks
Loses one star because there's a narrative slowdown in the middle - but right when it picks back up, it's a page-turner. I really appreciate Greg Bear's strong women characters and good dialog, while keeping the SF very thinky. It's a great ride, told in retrospect, and extremely entertaining.
I
I
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read it when it first came out in the '90's, and read it again this year, feeling quite validated that I'd hung onto my now-battered copy. Is there anything better than reading a battered old paperback that contains a rip-roaring tale? Why, no. No, there is not. Show Less
LibraryThing member cmoore
5/5. One of the top 3 Bear novels, with Moving Mars or Eon being my favorites. If you accept the possibility that all matter, all energy, can be codified by a data point in N-dimensions... then teleportation becomes possible (after all, you're just shifting bits in the datastream). Of course, when
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it's the Mars colony that figures this out, a jealous colonial Earth may try and do something to correct this power imbalance... Show Less
LibraryThing member biblioconnisseur
This was a good book. A bit on the hard SF for my taste but not too overdone. I really like the concept and I think the writer has a pretty good grasp of human nature! I can see a future like this is more probable than a lot of happier books
LibraryThing member tcgardner
What's Going On: Mars and the moon have been colonized for years now. Mars has developed its own culture of "do it your self." A culture of self reliance that makes Earth nervous. Earth wants Mars to tow the line one way or an other.
We follow Casseia Mujumdar from her early days of political
Up: Great premise. A good story to tell. The last third of the book was fast paced and gripping.
Down: The first two thirds of the book where slow and plodding. I know it was character development but more action was needed.
Cut to the Chase: Read it. Get through the first of the book. The pay off at the end is worth it. I don't think this will be a library keeper though. Read once and move on.
We follow Casseia Mujumdar from her early days of political
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activism to leading a planet. The missteps and triumphs are many. In the end, she must make the ultimate decision. Leaving Earth behind forever.Up: Great premise. A good story to tell. The last third of the book was fast paced and gripping.
Down: The first two thirds of the book where slow and plodding. I know it was character development but more action was needed.
Cut to the Chase: Read it. Get through the first of the book. The pay off at the end is worth it. I don't think this will be a library keeper though. Read once and move on.
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LibraryThing member librisissimo
It has all the great elements of hard sf (physics, areology, etc), but in the context of today's world the politics seemed shallow, and the characters juvenile and retro-earnest. Plus Bear has no witty badinage.
LibraryThing member majackson
The same Geo-politacal background as the others in the series, but a bit more intense. The first part is a love story--that bored me, but is important for the rest of the story. The heroine goes to Earth and is christened in the crucible of cutthroat-backstabbing politics as she learns that Earth
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wants the rest of humanity to join it in political unity--or else! Then we learn of the first love's accomplishments in quantum physics and the balance of power changes. And then the action really picks up as the balance of power shifts again. I can forgive Bear's occasional weaknesses on the power of his strengths. It was well worth the read. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 1994)
Nebula Award (Nominee — Novel — 1994)
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (Finalist — 1994)
Ignotus Award (Winner — 1996)
Original publication date
1993
Physical description
448 p.; 8.2 inches
ISBN
031285515X / 9780312855154