New Hard Sci-Fi story

--- In ssi_list@... "Valens Agnitio"
>
> Watch out, Tango! KSR's series has a devoted following because of its
> ability to suck you in. I loved it...
>
> Val

Perhaps my experience will improve as I progress through the books.
Right now I'm half way through "Red Mars." I'm coming from a decidely
HF perspective and I'm having trouble suspending my disbelief because
I still don't understand the economic rationale for the missions, nor
why the colonists have extensive industrial infrastructure "magically"
available to them. Also, I find highly suspect the terraforming
decisionmaking being made by the 100 colonists rather than on Earth
and the lack of discipline and appeals to anarchy amongst the group.
And on and on . . .

Other than terraforming Mars and sucking wealth from Earth, what are
those colonists doing on Mars? The High Frontier perspective is a huge
pebble in my shoe with regards to believing the plausibility of the story.

Hopefully it gets better. Nevertheless, I'm determined to finish these
books so I can understand their appeal to the Mars crowd, but it's
still a chore at this point.

TangoMan