Bruce Balfour's favorite science fiction novels about Mars colonization
Name Change
Welcome to BookDNA.com (formerly Shepherd.com)
Browse
Fiction
Nonfiction
Kids
YA
Best Books 2025
Personalized Reading Picks
Home
For Authors
Our Story
Membership
Bruce Balfour's favorite science fiction novels about Mars colonization
Picked by
Bruce Balfour
What did I love about each book?
List by
Bruce Balfour
Website
Blog
Why am I passionate about this?
I read every science fiction novel I could get when I was a kid. My worldview was shaped by Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, and other SF novelists. I want my readers to feel that same “sense of wonder.” I was fortunate to have been exposed to these big ideas early on because they got me interested in artificial intelligence, space colonization, and Big Science – resulting in my computer science work at NASA-Ames Research Center in the 1980s. My fiction and computer games also draw on these concepts, including my hard SF novels: The Forge of Mars, The Digital Dead (sequel to The Forge of Mars), and Prometheus Road, among others.
I wrote
The Forge of Mars
By
Bruce Balfour
What is my book about?
In 2054, NASA discovers alien ruins buried in a Martian canyon at the site called Vulcan’s Forge. NASA needs to…
show more.
Read a chapter
Amazon
More buying options
Bookshop.org
When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).
The books I picked & why
Red Mars
By
Kim Stanley Robinson
#1 of Mars Trilogy series
Why I love this book
Hard SF writers need to build believable worlds as seen from a variety of character perspectives. These stories require a ton of research to create the details about how technologies may develop and how cultures might respond to those changes to make the story world credible. When I was researching other hard SF novels written about Mars in the early 1990s, Red Mars was at the top of my list because of its high level of detail and character perspectives. I worked for NASA and am picky about technology projections. Although the technologies have continued to change, the novel (published in 1992 with the story starting in 2026) still holds up well in terms of colonization strategies and in terms of the overpopulation and environmental destruction issues as drivers for migration to Mars.
What is this book about?
Red Mars
By
Kim Stanley Robinson
Why should I read it?
13<br>authors picked
Red Mars<br>as one of their favorite books, and they share<br>why you should read it.
What is this book about?
The first novel in Kim Stanley Robinson's massively successful and lavishly praised Mars trilogy. 'The ultimate in future history' Daily Mail
Mars - the barren, forbidding planet that epitomises mankind's dreams of space conquest.
From the first pioneers who looked back at Earth and saw a small blue star, to the first colonists - hand-picked scientists with the skills necessary to create life from cold desert - Red Mars is the story of a new genesis.
It is also the story of how Man must struggle against his own self-destructive mechanisms to achieve his dreams: before he even sets foot…
show more.
Explore
Books like Red Mars
Book lists with this book
Why do people like this book?
Topics
Mars
Terraforming
The colonization of Mars
Life on Mars
Genres
Adventure
Science fiction
Read a chapter
Amazon
More buying options
Bookshop.org
Moving Mars
By
Greg Bear
#3 of Queen of Angels Series series
Why I love this book
What if you have an established culture on Mars in 2171 that wants to be independently governed? What if Mars develops a powerful new technology linking human brains to the most advanced AI ever built, giving them almost magical powers of teleportation? I like this book because it’s another great example of how to make advanced technologies and social developments believable through a small number of character perspectives. Arthur C. Clarke said that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” and I appreciate how this novel was able to accomplish that. As a social scientist, I also appreciate the political aspects of this world as shown through the female lead, who starts as a young student protestor for Martian independence and evolves into a seasoned politician.
What is this book about?
Moving Mars
By
Greg Bear
Why should I read it?
author picked
Moving Mars<br>as one of their favorite books, and they share<br>why you should read it.
What is this book about?
She is a daughter of one of Mars's oldest, most conservative Binding Multiples--the extended family syndicates that colonized the red planet. But Casseia Majumdar has a dream of an independent Mars, born in the student protests of 2171. During those brief days of idealism she forged bonds of friendship and hatred that set the stage for an astonishing war or revolution on Mars.
Explore
Books like Moving Mars
Book lists with this book
Why do people like...