All posts tagged: Robinsons

Why Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars is still a classic, 34 years on

Why Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars is still a classic, 34 years on

Published by skeptic

Kim Stanley Robinson, author of Red Mars Terese Loeb Kreuzer/Alamy 2026 marks the dawn of a momentous era: humankind taking our first steps towards colonising Mars. Later this year, NASA’s ESCAPADE probes will fly to the surface of the Red Planet, capitalising on its proximity to Earth and paving the way for crewed flights in the near-future. Settlers may one day construct a number of self-sustaining cities, altering the barren Martian surface and allowing humans to flourish away from Earth. This will have the convenient side-effect of extending the lifespan of collective human consciousness. It’s a scenario posed by both Elon Musk (who, in 2024, posted on X of his plans to land on Mars within two years – though his firm SpaceX has since shifted focus to the moon), and one of the most acclaimed science-fiction novels of the last century: 1992’s Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. Set in a then-future 2026, the book doesn’t rely on conflict with aliens or implausible technology for its action. The focus is instead on the infighting …

New Scientist Book Club: Read an extract from Kim Stanley Robinson’s sci-fi classic Red Mars

New Scientist Book Club: Read an extract from Kim Stanley Robinson’s sci-fi classic Red Mars

Published by skeptic

Bluish-white water ice clouds hang above the Tharsis volcanoes on Mars NASA/JPL/MSSS Mars was empty before we came. That’s not to say that nothing had ever happened. The planet had accreted, melted, roiled and cooled, leaving a surface scarred by enormous geological features: craters, canyons, volcanoes. But all of that happened in mineral unconsciousness, and unobserved. There were no witnesses – except for us, looking from the planet next door, and that only in the last moment of its long history. We are all the consciousness that Mars has ever had. Now everybody knows the history of Mars in the human mind: how for all the generations of prehistory it was one of the chief lights in the sky, because of its redness and fluctuating intensity, and the way it stalled in its wandering course through the stars, and sometimes even reversed direction. It seemed to be saying something with all that. So perhaps it is not surprising that all the oldest names for Mars have a peculiar weight on the tongue – Nirgal, Mangala, …

Jackie Robinson’s Dodgers should not visit the White House again

Jackie Robinson’s Dodgers should not visit the White House again

Published by Sam Flores

In 1970, two years before he died, Jackie Robinson spoke at his son’s high school graduation. “In a land where we declare that we have liberty and justice for all,” Robinson said, “it seems that slogan really means liberty and justice for all as long as you do and say what some people want you to do and say.” Those words ring uncomfortably true today. Robinson often spoke out on civil rights, challenging both political parties. If you visit the Jackie Robinson Museum, as the Dodgers did when the museum opened in 2022, you see displays on civil rights and economic opportunity and social justice before you get to the baseball showcases. “Jackie’s passion was civil rights and equality, and more so than baseball,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said then. “It was more of, baseball was just a vehicle for him to use his voice, which is pretty cool to see and actually pretty inspiring.” In these perilous times, in which “indivisible” has been replaced by “you’re with us, or you’re the enemy within,” Robinson’s …