As the series moves along, Robinson hunkers down and gets in the muck of how he sees the martian society & biospheres grow. Sometimes this is extremely dry prose, but in general this writing style is either growing on me, or Robinson is getting better at it. When it's obvious that the story is coming from the interactions of one of the first 100, the story flows far better than the time when narration is a bit more spread out - scattered is perhaps a better word.

This was certainly not what I expected these books to be. My assumption was that they would be more scientific utopia more than conflict central, but that is unfortunately a more realistic future. For that alone Robinson has made me a stronger fan of this epic. Can't wait to see what he makes of all this in the final instalment.