The title of Greg Bear’s “Moving Mars” is both metaphorical and literal. The greater part of the novel is about Mars moving from a loose-knit frontier society into to a real nation united under one government. The last hundred pages or so are about literally moving the planet from its current position to an orbit around a star 10,000 light years away.
The story unfolds from the perspective of Cassiea Mujamdar, whose humble political beginnings in a student protest lead to her eventual rise to President of the Federal Republic of Mars. As a young woman, she meets and has a romantic relationship with Charles Franklin, a possibly brilliant young scientist who of course emerges in an important role later in the novel. The characters can come across as somewhat flat and unrealistic. They display their emotions about as effectively as middle schoolers and express their personal feelings equally as eloquently. But when they shut up about their personal lives, when they begin talking about new theories of physics and government and political subterfuge, that’s when the book really shines.
The book’s original publication in 1994 precludes it from having any real metaphorical relationship with our nation’s current situation with the Middle East. It did, however, strike me as having a certain level of applicability. Observe: The well-established and self-important ruling bodies of Mother Earth find out that a young and unpredictable (read: uncontrollable) nation could be developing weapons of mass destruction, which could be deployed instantaneously across the hundreds of millions of miles that separate Earth from Mars. In reaction, Earth pre-emptively attacks Mars, hoping to disrupt their fledgling government and bring all Martians back under its wing. Sound familiar? Perhaps its a stretch, but it was interesting because the book is from a total Mars perspective, from someone who grew up on Mars and only visited Earth once. Earth is a quiet but deadly aggressor, concerned only with its own dominance, and it won’t let anyone, even another sovereign planet, undermine that.
Moving on. If there were a moral to the book, it would read like so: “If you think international politics is complicated, try interplanetary politics!” If the book has a weakness, it’s that it dwells too long on the long and arduous political process of trying to convert a tribe-based planetary society into a united democratic government with a constitution and all that jazz.
The more interesting developments are the ones that call into question our concepts of how the universe is assembled. A team of scientists, led by Charles Franklin of course, discovers a new level of physics, called Descriptor Theory. Franklin describes the universe as basically a large system of equations. Each particle in the universe contains certain variables, stored in said descriptors. The variables describe such things as the type of matter, the location, and a bunch of other stuff I didn’t really understand. Descriptors can be “tweaked” using complicated Quantum Logic thinkers (A.I.) and a small group of atoms kept at absolute zero. Tweaking allows the scientists to perform a variety of neat tricks, such as instantaneous communication across any distance, instantaneous and remote transformation of any matter into mirror or antimatter, and also — and this is where the thrust of the story comes in — the ability to move very large objects very long distances instantaneously and with a relatiively small amount of equipment. This was the part of the story that truly fascinated me, in addition to the descriptions of everyday life on Mars and the archeological evidence of past (and maybe future!) native life on Mars. And what a ride it is.
“Moving Mars” is a great mind trip, and quality science fiction, even if its characters are a tad cardboard-esque.
My college roommate, Stephen, gave me this book a few years back, and I’m glad I was able to finally read it. Good choice, Stephen, and thanks again.
Next book, “Casino Royale” by Ian Fleming.
[This article is part of the 26 Books project that I'm doing this year.]
I will interested to see what you think of “Red Mars”.