I got through the first half of this book and posted something about how it seemed like nothing was happening. And broadly, that's true. Compared to the first two in the trilogy, it didn't have nearly the level of action or political intrigue. KSR loves to put the science in "hard science fiction", and it doesn't show more in anywhere in the trilogy than it does in this book.

So about halfway through, I just wanted to trudge through it, just to say I had finished the trilogy. But then, I kind of had an insight.

As someone who dabbles in writing fiction, I came to realize what had happened: KSR had kind of come to love these characters, and loved the setting, and wanted to wrap it all up. Whereas the first two books are the story of Mars, Blue Mars is very much a story about Martians and what it means to be one.

Sure, you don't get the excitement of the revolutions that make up the climax of the first two books, but you do see how those revolutions made the characters who they are afterward. You get a better sense of not just who they are, but why they do what they do. And it ends up being fantastic.

I didn't know I wanted to see these characters again until I got past the halfway point and I started realizing how many dangling character threads were left after Green Mars. And that's what this book gives.

I also appreciated that we've come far enough in time since Red Mars that we see how the ripple effect of Martian colonization affects the rest of the solar system. How it affects Earth, which is still in disarray. How other planets, moons, and asteroids are being colonized. How humanity has decided to set its sights on something beyond the borders of our solar system. Humanity is just as much a character here as Sax, Nirgal, or Maya, and they deserve a satisfying character arc as much as any named main character. So it was nice that not only do we get individual character arcs, but we see the slow gears of history as well.

It wasn't my favorite of the series (Green Mars holds that title for certain) but about halfway through, I couldn't put it down. I'm glad I didn't.