Icehenge by Kim Stanley Robinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a very pleasant surprise. Not only had I not known that Kim Stanley Robinson had written three rather good novellas that pretty much outline the immense worldbuilding of Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars, it also spans four hundred years, most of the major issues including the revolution on Mars, the memory issues, and the greater terraforming of the Solar System, but it did it 6 years before Red Mars even came out.
Totally fascinating.
Granted it's not an action novel. Indeed, it reads more like science mystery and archeology, a true Future History that deals with some really fascinating structures found on Pluto, other "lost history" issues on Mars, itself. And then there is the humanist angle that pretty much dominates the entire text from all three time periods.
I DO recommend this for anyone who is a fan of the big trilogy and who would love to get a side-take on the vast worldbuilding. I wouldn't particularly recommend starting here, but as a freakishly good, idea-packed philosophical, scientific, and archeological take on our future that neatly dovetails into most, if not all of his other future histories, it should definitely not be ignored.
You hear that, fanboys and fangirls?
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