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Author Topic:   Anyone read the Mars Trilogy?

mavie posted 03-29-99 08:37 PM ET
I got this game and I think it's great, however I was disappointed with one thing the plot. It is a total rip of of the Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars) by Kim Stanley Robinson. He won a whole bunch of awards for his science fiction writing on this series.
If you read the books so many of the charcters are dead ringers for the faction leaders. All the special projects and technologies? Very similar to the book.
I was wondering if anyone else has read these books and sees the same similarities?
MikeH II posted 03-30-99 03:39 AM ET
They are great books, they summarise the current ideas about potential scientific breakthroughs in the future, it would be strange if there weren't similarities in a game based on near future colonisation.
I'm not sure which characters you mean though.
Lee Johnson posted 03-30-99 08:33 AM ET
The parallels aren't that obvious to me:
Zakharov = Sax
Deirdre = Hiroko
That's the end of the easy ones.
Morgan = Fort?
Lal = Art? Frank? Boone? Nirgal?
Santiago = Kasei?
Miriam = ???
Yang = ???
If you look in the back of the manual, you'll see a list of SF works that are cited as inspiration for SMAC. If I recall correctly, RGB Mars is one of them, but others are listed, too.
As far I can tell, the most influential work is actually Frank Herbert's "The Jesus Incident", which I reread prior to SMAC's release.
I wouldn't go so far as to say that all of the projects and techs were ripped off from RGB Mars, not by a long shot. Furthermore, some of them aren't even original with those books. The concept of the space elevator, for example, is an old one, and was popularized in fiction by Arthur C. Clarke's novel, "The Fountains of Paradise", which predates RGB Mars by quite a few years.
In any case, I didn't buy SMAC for its plot.
MikeH II posted 03-30-99 08:49 AM ET
Yang is the one that I can't see any possible parallel for.
I'd go for Nirgal as Lal as he sounds in principle and Frank for how he plays in practice.
I remember in the songs to SMAC to thread on the old forums someone (I think it was me but I could be mistaken) suggested
"Love in a Space Elevator" I get that song in my head every time someone mentions Space Elevator now.
Bdot posted 03-30-99 03:42 PM ET
Yeah.. I was the first to mention the Mars Trilogy here... only problem is, with SMAC, I can get to the end.. I've been reading Blue Mars for about as long as this game has been in design.. those have got to be the 3 most boring books ever.. I've started skim reading Blue Mars in hopes of one day finishing it.
Rong posted 03-30-99 04:38 PM ET
I managed to finished the first two. I really couldn't finish Blue Mars before I had to return it to the public library for a moderate sum of overdue fines.
Maybe that's whey the game manual only listed Red Mars.
eNo posted 03-30-99 05:38 PM ET
I've read all three books of the trilogy (they aren't that boring) and though ideas like the Space Elevator and the Green faction are repeated, SMAC gets many ideas elsewhere. For example, the idea of a planet-mind is present in Isaac Asimov's Nemesis as well as in one of his short stories. The ideas of Digital Sentience is typical of science fiction though the Mars Trilogy did not mention any form of competent thinking-machines. Remember how Nadia was fustrated at how dumb the construction AI was? Somebody mentioned Frank Herburt's Dune series as some inspiration but the only relation I can find is Psi-Combat, which would be like the Voice in Dune.
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Author	Topic: Anyone read the Mars Trilogy?
mavie	posted 03-29-99 08:37 PM ET I got this game and I think it's great, however I was disappointed with one thing the plot. It is a total rip of of the Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars) by Kim Stanley Robinson. He won a whole bunch of awards for his science fiction writing on this series. If you read the books so many of the charcters are dead ringers for the faction leaders. All the special projects and technologies? Very similar to the book. I was wondering if anyone else has read these books and sees the same similarities?
MikeH II	posted 03-30-99 03:39 AM ET They are great books, they summarise the current ideas about potential scientific breakthroughs in the future, it would be strange if there weren't similarities in a game based on near future colonisation. I'm not sure which characters you mean though.
Lee Johnson	posted 03-30-99 08:33 AM ET The parallels aren't that obvious to me: Zakharov = Sax Deirdre = Hiroko That's the end of the easy ones. Morgan = Fort? Lal = Art? Frank? Boone? Nirgal? Santiago = Kasei? Miriam = ??? Yang = ??? If you look in the back of the manual, you'll see a list of SF works that are cited as inspiration for SMAC. If I recall correctly, RGB Mars is one of them, but others are listed, too. As far I can tell, the most influential work is actually Frank Herbert's "The Jesus Incident", which I reread prior to SMAC's release. I wouldn't go so far as to say that all of the projects and techs were ripped off from RGB Mars, not by a long shot. Furthermore, some of them aren't even original with those books. The concept of the space elevator, for example, is an old one, and was popularized in fiction by Arthur C. Clarke's novel, "The Fountains of Paradise", which predates RGB Mars by quite a few years. In any case, I didn't buy SMAC for its plot.
MikeH II	posted 03-30-99 08:49 AM ET Yang is the one that I can't see any possible parallel for. I'd go for Nirgal as Lal as he sounds in principle and Frank for how he plays in practice. I remember in the songs to SMAC to thread on the old forums someone (I think it was me but I could be mistaken) suggested "Love in a Space Elevator" I get that song in my head every time someone mentions Space Elevator now.
Bdot	posted 03-30-99 03:42 PM ET Yeah.. I was the first to mention the Mars Trilogy here... only problem is, with SMAC, I can get to the end.. I've been reading Blue Mars for about as long as this game has been in design.. those have got to be the 3 most boring books ever.. I've started skim reading Blue Mars in hopes of one day finishing it.
Rong	posted 03-30-99 04:38 PM ET I managed to finished the first two. I really couldn't finish Blue Mars before I had to return it to the public library for a moderate sum of overdue fines. Maybe that's whey the game manual only listed Red Mars.
eNo	posted 03-30-99 05:38 PM ET I've read all three books of the trilogy (they aren't that boring) and though ideas like the Space Elevator and the Green faction are repeated, SMAC gets many ideas elsewhere. For example, the idea of a planet-mind is present in Isaac Asimov's Nemesis as well as in one of his short stories. The ideas of Digital Sentience is typical of science fiction though the Mars Trilogy did not mention any form of competent thinking-machines. Remember how Nadia was fustrated at how dumb the construction AI was? Somebody mentioned Frank Herburt's Dune series as some inspiration but the only relation I can find is Psi-Combat, which would be like the Voice in Dune.