Has anyone else realized that they don’t enjoy Green Mars(GM) nearly as much as Red Mars(RM)? I immediately started green mars after ending red mars (hours). I was so excited to get more of the characters and matter-of-fact writing.
I’m still in the beginning of GM, where Nirgal goes out in the rover for the first time. But the tone of green Mars so far is incredibly off putting. In some ways it reflects the change of main characters from adults to the new generation of Martians, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I find myself reading the book out of spite and hoping that it gets better.
I find the allegory/metaphors in GM to be so grossly heavy handed. Everything is “bird like” and everything is the “green and white worlds”. And Nirgal is the ~chosen one~ because he’s a special boy who can ‘see it all’ (eye roll). It seems so different from RM. RM is written in a very matter-of-fact way, where you have doubts and fears that the characters will even make it to the next chapter. And RM will even out the weight of main characters through the perspective shifts. But GM feels like I’m just being sold a hero’s journey of an insufferable “chosen one” child and there is no way that he could fail. He’s going to save his family, and mars, and somehow find love doing it.
Did anyone else feel this way about the green mars book? Does it get better? What about blue mars?
by uuftah