Icehenge: A Novel

OK, I know this book was published before the Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars) and before "The Martians" but it was the last of the Mars books I read. This book brought Robinson's whole Mars reality back vividly into my mind.

I don't know if I would have enjoyed this book as much as I did had I not read the Mars trilogy first. Having the background of the trilogy allowed me to focus on the story unfolding in this book.

If you like Robinson's examination of society through the fiction that he writes then you will like this book.

The aspect of the book I found most enjoyable is its examination of how history is created and how a search of facts and historical objects can lead to many different interpretations of the same data. The book seems to me to be saying that we can't ever truly know what happened in the past; we can only examine the available information and take a guess. We should never forget that the victors make the history whether they were in the right or not.

The book itself is a triptych surrounding the creation of a monument near the north pole of Pluto. It is set in the future in the same fictional universe as the Mars trilogy and The Martians. I'd say it is most like The Martians in that it is a collection of three short stories that all deal with the same theme and build one upon the others. Each of the three stories could be taken individually and be interesting but they are related and the relationship between them is what gives this book it's unique quality. In the first part of the triptych Robinson provides an account of events in the form of a journal written by one character. In the reading of this journal one identifies with the character writing it and in a sense becomes her friend. As the book progresses the reader is confronted with the possibility that she never really existed and that the journal was written as part of an elaborate hoax. When confronted with this, Robinson's development of the journal writer's character in the first section of the triptych and of the supposed history of what happened to her presented in the second part makes the reader instinctually reject the proposal that she never existed. The evidence presented in the third section is very clear that the hoax exists but the reader is still led to believe that the journal writer was real and that even if the journal is part of a hoax it is still an authentic journal. There are no definite answers or conclusions presented in the book but none are truly necessary. Robinson presents the facts and lets the reader reach their own conclusion. Near the very end a final theory is presented that I reached about halfway through the third section. All the parts fit and it is a wonderful end to the story.

Anyway, I hope someone finds this interesting and helpful.

-Anthony

If I hadn't already read KSR's Mars Trilogy, I'm not sure I would have liked this book much. This book was written 10 years before Red Mars/Green Mars/Blue Mars were published, but KSR obviously had already thought through a number of the terraforming and long life issues he would deal with in those books. For that reason alone, this book is extremely interesting as a precursor to the trilogy (although it actually is set in a future time when Mars has an established atmosphere and settled government).
However, there was a darkness to this book that disturbed me. The main character in the middle section constantly struggles to avoid falling into a deep, immobilizing depression. There is little joy in this book, and overmuch political machinations, hopelessness and depression.

Having saturated myself in Robinson's excellent Mars Trilogy several years ago, Icehenge ended up being one of those purchases that sat on my shelf for some time. Picking Icehenge up several years after its publication has not detracted at all, as the author's easy creation of a realistic solar society still remains on course and, given the advances in genetics over recent years, all the more plausible.
Icehenge is a story set in three parts told by three connected people over several hundred years. Robinson seeks to take archaeology into the future to demonstrate that the provision of primary written evidence is inevitably biased and that written evidence of what we will do will become too distorted and too historically complex for our future generations to be in any better position to understand than our archaeological techniques can today.
The opener, narrated by Emma Weil tells of her unwitting participation in a somewhat idealistic attempt by the underground Mars Starship Association to set off for pastures new beyond our solar system. Her love affair is woven in as both a motivator and an explanation for the links between Weil and Davydov, giving us a story of a group of people determined to leave the solar system to colonize pastures new. Heavily influenced by the political situation on Mars at the time it culminates in Emma's return to Mars to be part of the uprising and final destruction of New Houston. A voyage in both the physical and mental sense, part I is intensely reflective and demonstrates the struggle between idealism and reality, between fact and perception.
A `footnote' to the opening text is Davydov's desire to leave a megalithic message and this is picked up in second story, narratted by (at the time) maverick archaeologist Hjalmar Nederland who was present at the fall of New Houston. His expedition to uncover this lost city of the rebellion and question the official version as denoted in the Aimes Report is a personal odyssey that culminates in his discovery of a truth that contradicts the official version, yet doesn't upset the political apple cart. He then moves on to be a leading part of the IceHenge discovery and the links between both it and Emma Weil.
Whereas Weil's journey is from `good citzen' to rebel, Nederland's is the opposite - though mainly in the intellectual community. What is ironic is that it is the understanding of Weil's last days and transition that sends Nederland unwittingly back to the path of officialdom, rather than truth.
This is further continued in the third story, that of Edmond Doya, the great-grandon of Nederland whose passion for all things archeological and his upbringing off-planet forces him to question the reality of Emma Weil's testament, Nederland's explanation for Icehenge and, in doing so, the perception of history. His search leads him to Pluto where a final dating methodology is established seeming to give a final proof to his findings and concluding several historical records and theories. Robinson throws in a final thought with Doya's colleague advancing a further theory to close the cycle begun by Emma Weil some many years ago.
As well as being a well written, plausible exposition of a humar solar society in the distant future, what Robinson's Icehenge achieves is to question our perception of history, of how history is written and how the need to understand our origins can cause those explorers or seekers of historical truth to make assumptions and give explanations which, though plausible, are created through suggestion.

I'm surprised that this book gets such high marks and so many rave reviews. I found the book to be poorly written with few - if any - likeable characters (even the characters know they aren't likeable!). As science fiction the book is even worse. The book consists of three separate sections that take place in three different time periods: 2248, 2547 and 2610. Guess what people still do in these far off years: visit post offices, drive in cars that have 4 wheels, use cassette tapes, work with paper and create copies using Xerox machines, and use paper money. Also, rich people are billionaires. That doesn't show much science fiction imagination! Other than being able to travel and live on other planets and moons there's nothing science fiction about the book. Oh, and the worlds are dominated by the Russians and the Americans.

Part 1 of the book is a character Emma Weil writing down her experiences in a journal. The journal tells about an attempted revolution of the the people living on Mars against the ruling Earth government that fails. Some of the revolutionaries are able to build a starship to escape to nearby stars to look for a habitable planet (these escapees are never heard about again in the book). To crush the revolution and keep it from succeeding the Earth government bombs all of the martian dome cities and executes nearly all of the survivors. A tiny handful of young children (young enough so they most likely won't remember anything about the events) are allowed to live. The government concocts a history where the people on Mars blew up the domes themselves and killed themselves. Emma Weil and some other revolutionaries escape into the wilderness and are never heard from again.

Part 2 of the book is about an archeologist Hjalmar Nederland (who happens to be one of the surviving children from part 1) trying to prove that the government version of what happened in part 1 is a cover-up. He finds convincing evidence that the police blew up the domes and executed the people (and are therefore evil) rather than the revolutionaries pulling some kind of Jim Jones. He also finds Emma Weil's diary which is what drives him to further learn the truth. Around the end of part 2 Icehenge is discovered on Pluto and Hjalmar believes it was created by the people who built the starship in Part 1 and that they left it as a monument on their way out of the solar system.

Part 3 is about Edmond Doya (coincidentally the great-grandson of Hjelmar) trying to prove that Hjelmar's account/theories are incorrect and that everything about Icehenge is a hoax and could not have been built by the starship people in Part 1 because it's too new. He finds credible evidence that Icehenge is contemporary and not old enough to have been built in part 1. He also believes that the person who built Icehenge is Emma Weil. He thinks she's still alive and earlier she strategically placed the diary so it would be found by Hjelmar in part 2. Nobody had heard of the people who built the starship and so she concocted Icehenge and the diary, etc. so that somebody would learn about the history and honor the starship people.

If you can't understand my synopsis of the parts I apologize. It's hard to provide a clear synopsis because the book itself is a little convoluted.

In the end you're left to draw your own conclusions. Is Hjelmar correct? Or his great-grandson Edmond? Is Emma Weil still alive? Did Emma Weil even exist? If she is still alive, is the diary a complete fabrication, or is it historically correct? Did she write it in 2248 or did she write it much later and then plant it to be discovered? If you like convoluted stories without answers and science fiction with no imagination, buy this book. Otherwise, pass on it and find something better!

This was a novel I just couldn't get into, so much so I gave up and never finished it. It's well written from a technical standpoint and a clever idea but the middle portion of the book didn't hold my interest. The book is divided into 3 distinct parts. In the first, a mining vessel is converted into a craft capable of leaving the solar system by Americans and Russians who don't agree with the governing body in charge of Mars. Their way of getting out from under an oppressive regime is to find somewhere else to live. It is written from the point of view of a female scientist who helps them convert their ship but doe not go with them. Emma Weil returns to Mars to fight in the revolution to save her home of Mars.

The second part takes place more than a century later with an archaeologist trying to disprove the government version of what happened when the rebellion was stopped. This part of the book lost me. The archeologist is not a likable character and nothing happens. Talk, talk, talk, talk. People reminisce, they argue, they pontificate, they ruminate, they make plans, they remember, they regret but nothing really happens. I tried to push myself through because I wanted to know what Icehenge was, but eventually I just lost interest.

The only reason I did not give this book five stars is because his Mars Triology is better. Icehenge has the same in depth character development as the rest of KSR's work and also has an intriguing plot, although the novel slows up a little in the middle. The book is told from the point of view of three people over the course of hundreds of different years, and is an enjoyable read just for its setting, but the enigma behind the plot (which is revealed in the end) is incredible.
If you like sci-fi, and especially if you're a KSR fan, this is the book for you!

I like Kim Stanley Robinson's Icehenge. After reading his epic Mars trilogy Red, Green, Blue Mars all 5 stars I had to try Icehenge. Robinson does not disappoint. His character development is fantastic as is his detail. Kim Robinson does a very good job blending sci fi and a mystery. The book has many characters but 3 main characters in 3 different time periods after Mars colonization.

We see life systems specialist Emma Weil 2248 AD., archaeologist/professor Hjalmer Nederland 2547 AD., and great grandson Edmond Doya 2610 AD. Starting with the colonization and terraforming of Mars mankind has been given a drug/procedure where they have a thousand year life expectancy (sometimes but suffer memory loss as the hundreds of years progress).

Mankind has settled much of the solar system. A group of revolutionaries want to go to the stars in a hijacked, giant mining ship converted into a star ship. The mystery who built Icehenge starts in the late part of the second part of the book and intensifies in the third part. I won't ruin the book for you. Kim Robinson gets the reader thinking who built the Icehenge ice monolith on planet Pluto and why?

The book in part 1 was great fast action 5 stars. Part 2 was slower action dragged down by explaining the "funk" and loss of memory the old humans go through after they are hundreds of years old. To me explaining the "funk" too long slowed down the book. Part 2 was 3 1/2 stars. Part 3 was great making you think who made the Icehenge and why at 5 stars.

Icehenge a good book I like and recommend... 4 stars. Now reading Robinson's novel Antarctica. Will post review

I've long had to admit that while I liked Stan Robinson's writing, I had never read any of his novels, just his short stories in magazines and collections. No more, although the case could be made that Icehenge is a collection of three novellas. In fact, parts of Icehenge were published as "To Leave a Mark" (in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction) and "On the North Pole of Pluto" (in Orbit 21). This is the reason why I picked Icehenge to read first, before Robinson's first published novel, The Wild Shore; that is, to satisfy my anal retentive (does that have a hyphen?) desire for reading things chronologically. Icehenge is three stories inter-connected, each from a different time period and point of view. The first tells of Emma Weil and the Martian Unrest. The second of Nederland and his archaelogical investigation into the Unrest. And last is Doya, who questions whether Nederland's "proof" is actually an ingenuous hoax. Complicated? Yes, but also done in such a way that the convolutions are easy to follow. Robinson admires Philip K. Dick--his graduate thesis was on Dick's novels--and it shows in the theme of this book: what is real? What can we trust? Several people have recommended his latest novel, Red Mars, to me, and I do intend to read it...after I finally read all these others of his that have been sitting on my to-be-read shelf for far too long.

Icehenge is a science fiction book that isn't easy to follow. It involves a futuristic search for how icehenge (take off on stonehenge in England?) got on the planet Pluto. The search is convoluted and nonsensical.

Good book, well worth the money and time to read. I would get it again as a gift to anyone. Mr. Robinson has done an excellent job again; I'm a big fan of the Mars books. Fine addition to anyone's reading list!