First Landings

My favorite Sci-Fi series before the Honorverse was Red, Green and Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. It dealt with the first landing of Terrans onto the Red Planet Mars and all of the difficulties and hardships which ensued. It clearly laid out the importance of choosing all of the right professionals to be sent out on that first colony ship with the talent to overcome such an unforgiving environment. The series is truly a monumental read and will always remain a personal favorite. It is so well written that it has been said that it could serve as a blueprint as to how to terraform a new planet. One aspect of the series that endears me so much to it is that all of the existing technologies are present day technologies.

Having said that, I often bring the baggage of that series with me when I read other series. I often find myself wishing at some point RFC would give us a similar account of a first landing in the Honorverse up to when that first colony could be considered out-of-the-woods so to speak.

However, I seriously cannot make up my mind as to which colonists I'd like a first ship account of in the spirit of a RED, GREEN and BLUE Mars. The Manticorans? The Graysons? Beowolf? Or Havenites?

What about you?

cthia wrote:My favorite Sci-Fi series before the Honorverse was Red, Green and Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. It dealt with the first landing of Terrans onto the Red Planet Mars and all of the difficulties and hardships which ensued. It clearly laid out the importance of choosing all of the right professionals to be sent out on that first colony ship with the talent to overcome such an unforgiving environment. The series is truly a monumental read and will always remain a personal favorite. It is so well written that it has been said that it could serve as a blueprint as to how to terraform a new planet. One aspect of the series that endears me so much to it is that all of the existing technologies are present day technologies.



Having said that, I often bring the baggage of that series with me when I read other series. I often find myself wishing at some point RFC would give us a similar account of a first landing in the Honorverse up to when that first colony could be considered out-of-the-woods so to speak.

However, I seriously cannot make up my mind as to which colonists I'd like a first ship account of in the spirit of a RED, GREEN and BLUE Mars. The Manticorans? The Graysons? Beowolf? Or Havenites?

What about you?

The most interesting would probably be Beowulf - it was the first Human colony outside of Sol and the first time mankind was truly on their own, and free of Earth's influences guidance and support.

Every Sol colony was within hours of radio time of Earth, so Earth's Experts and knowledge base could be queried for any problem, and orders for any part could be made for the next ship (even if it wasn't scheduled for years in the future. Beowulf was 80 years aways from earth (as the conversation goes) and congratulation's of a baby's birth could arrive at his deathbed after a long life.

So Beowulf only had what they brought - I hope they packed right.

Was there a fourth book titled "The Marsians"? (sp?) (EDIT; Martians) I for one found the writing style a little bit slow and clumsy. Not at all like DW and his good stuff. Just me.

If you want a recommendation on a couple of Mars themed books try The Martian Race by Gregory Benford and The Martian by Andy Weir which is being released as a movie this fall staring Matt Damon.

HB of CJ wrote:Was there a fourth book titled "The Marsians"? (sp?) I for one found the writing style a little bit slow and clumsy. Not at all like DW and his good stuff. Just me.

Yes, Martians. There was also "A Year of Rice and Salt."

Slow? Probably, depending on how you look at it. It's not written about epic space battles so it isn't fair to compare to Weber. It is about terraforming another planet, the difficulties, dangers, pitfalls, etc. Terraforming takes time. What you should note is that an enormous amount of technical data is imparted to the reader. An enormous amount. It is obvious the amount of research necessary for such an epic series. And again, no handwavium used. All current technological capabilities, albeit cutting edge. I think it is one of those series that you either love or you don't. It possibly reminds me of the reason Star Trek was first cancelled during it's infancy - "It was considered too cerebral for its readers."

Funny, many people felt that way about Star Trek's "Spocks World," which is also a momentous read. And where my screen name hails... cthia.

The series creates a new genre IMO. Life-true Sci-Fi. It's a teaching series.

If I found myself stranded on Mars, I'd certainly want to have that series, intact.

cthia wrote:

HB of CJ wrote:Was there a fourth book titled "The Marsians"? (sp?) I for one found the writing style a little bit slow and clumsy. Not at all like DW and his good stuff. Just me.

Yes, Martians. There was also "A Year of Rice and Salt."

Slow? Probably, depending on how you look at it. It's not written about epic space battles so it isn't fair to compare to Weber. It is about terraforming another planet, the difficulties, dangers, pitfalls, etc. Terraforming takes time. What you should note is that an enormous amount of technical data is imparted to the reader. An enormous amount. It is obvious the amount of research necessary for such an epic series. And again, no handwavium used. All current technological capabilities, albeit cutting edge. I think it is one of those series that you either love or you don't. It possibly reminds me of the reason Star Trek was first cancelled during it's infancy - "It was considered too cerebral for its readers."

Funny, many people felt that way about Star Trek's "Spocks World," which is also a momentous read. And where my screen name hails... cthia.

The series creates a new genre IMO. Life-true Sci-Fi. It's a teaching series.

If I found myself stranded on Mars, I'd certainly want to have that series, intact.

Yes, there is a great deal of technical information. And that was quite interesting. But I'm afraid I found the books dull and plodding. I was unable to get through more than half of the first book. And I read almost any science fiction. [shrug] But I know many others rate it quite highly. Matter of taste.

I'm not sure I would want to read a book like that in the Honorverse. So I can't offer a planet choice.

Interesting thing. I also tried to get through the three aforementioned excellent Mars books, but each time I gave it up and returned the unread book early to the library. I also stalled out about one third through the first book; "Red Mars". It did not hold my interest at all. The book never explained to me just how or who paid for the expeditions. Just me. Respectfully.

HB of CJ wrote:Interesting thing. I also tried to get through the three aforementioned excellent Mars books, but each time I gave it up and returned the unread book early to the library. I also stalled out about one third through the first book; "Red Mars". It did not hold my interest at all. The book never explained to me just how or who paid for the expeditions. Just me. Respectfully.

I understand. *Different strokes for different folks. I'm having severe difficulty getting through Cauldron of Ghosts. I'll eventually finish it. I don't like leaving books unread. Too many times I hunkered down and continued trudging through the jungle, machete in hand, and coming to a clearing upon a sign that read "epiphany, you like this book after all." So yea.

*Or in the words of my sister "One brother's read (past tense) is a sister's dread."

She hates all Sci-Fi.

Theemile wrote:
The most interesting would probably be Beowulf - it was the first Human colony outside of Sol and the first time mankind was truly on their own, and free of Earth's influences guidance and support.

Every Sol colony was within hours of radio time of Earth, so Earth's Experts and knowledge base could be queried for any problem, and orders for any part could be made for the next ship (even if it wasn't scheduled for years in the future. Beowulf was 80 years aways from earth (as the conversation goes) and congratulation's of a baby's birth could arrive at his deathbed after a long life.

So Beowulf only had what they brought - I hope they packed right.

There's probably some other (unknown to us) planet for that early colonization phase that had tougher terraforming problems than Beowulf. Though unless someone really screwed up not as bad as trying to colonize Mars.

But by the time the Manticore colony ship was launched you had hyper capable scout ships doing planetary surveys before you set out. So you had more information on the target planets than even the most powerful orbital observatory could have provided. So the risks and challenges are somewhat reduced.

Then by the time the Manticore colony arrived hyper travel had become safe and routine enough to expect the occasional ship to stop by. So if you'd really forgotten something you had a hope of importing it. (Plus getting general info dumps on the background state of technology from the Core worlds.


All of which is a long winded way of saying that it is probably that early (and to date not really explored wishing the books or short stories) early colonization phase that seems most likely to provide the kind of background cithia seems to be looking for.

Jonathan_S wrote:

Theemile wrote:
The most interesting would probably be Beowulf - it was the first Human colony outside of Sol and the first time mankind was truly on their own, and free of Earth's influences guidance and support.

Every Sol colony was within hours of radio time of Earth, so Earth's Experts and knowledge base could be queried for any problem, and orders for any part could be made for the next ship (even if it wasn't scheduled for years in the future. Beowulf was 80 years aways from earth (as the conversation goes) and congratulation's of a baby's birth could arrive at his deathbed after a long life.

So Beowulf only had what they brought - I hope they packed right.

There's probably some other (unknown to us) planet for that early colonization phase that had tougher terraforming problems than Beowulf. Though unless someone really screwed up not as bad as trying to colonize Mars.

But by the time the Manticore colony ship was launched you had hyper capable scout ships doing planetary surveys before you set out. So you had more information on the target planets than even the most powerful orbital observatory could have provided. So the risks and challenges are somewhat reduced.

Then by the time the Manticore colony arrived hyper travel had become safe and routine enough to expect the occasional ship to stop by. So if you'd really forgotten something you had a hope of importing it. (Plus getting general info dumps on the background state of technology from the Core worlds.


All of which is a long winded way of saying that it is probably that early (and to date not really explored wishing the books or short stories) early colonization phase that seems most likely to provide the kind of background cithia seems to be looking for.

Indeed Johnathan. I am certain that the landing of Grayson could be portrayed just like the Mars Trilogy except that I don't think the Graysons knew their beautiful planet was dangerous until after offspring began to be born with extra thumbs and noses. And I'd personally find the tedious task of transporting the initial tech from the ship and setting up colonies interesting. Which progresses to the wars between the factions and the power struggle within the Keys and the Protector using the Palace as a stronghold and intimately finding out where the bullet holes in Protector's Palace that Honor amused over came to be. Grayson could potentially offer a momentous type of read in that manner.

But IMO it can ultimately be presented as the same type of romantic read. Grayson just has so much interesting, first landing, material to work with.

Was the approximate years that it took to realize that their Trojan horse of a planet was killing them ever given?