Red Mars (Mars Trilogy) 
This is a vast book: a chronicle of the exploration of Mars with some of the most engaging, vivid, and human characters in recent science fiction. Robinson fantasizes brilliantly about the science of terraforming a hostile world, analyzes the socio-economic forces that propel and attempt to control real interplanetary colonization, and imagines the diverse reactions that humanity would have to the dead, red planet.
Red Mars is so magnificent a story, you will want to move on to Blue Mars and Green Mars. But this first, most beautiful book is definitely the best of the three. Readers new to Robinson may want to follow up with some other books that take place in the colonized solar system of the future: either his earlier (less polished but more carefree) The Memory of Whiteness and Icehenge, or 1998's Antarctica. --L. Blunt Jackson
Reviews
I love epics, so I plodded through this trilogy, hoping it would get better, but it never did. I could sense that Robinson was extremely proud of the detailed world he created, but the story is horrible. The story unfolds glacially, with no sense of movement. Just when you think you might be getting attached to a character, he/she dies. Interesting story lines get dropped. There are long, long stretches where Robinson just describes everyday life, in excruciating, boring detail. There is no excitement or suspense, no character that grabs you. It's like some dull person's real life, full of routine, disappointment, and boredom. Robinson's typical character has a dream, begins to pursue it, getting you inspired, then gets killed or just gives up and joins the cause he was fighting.
This was the worst science fiction I have ever read. I can't believe I read all three books.