It is
myth; it is legend; it is part of the fabric of the culture. Every schoolboy and girl in the US knows the
story of the Pilgrims, how they were oppressed in their native land and came to
a new world to practice their beliefs in freedom. Ahh, America. Among the first Europeans to settle in the
West, this historical event is commonly viewed as a seminal moment in US
history. As a result, similar stories have
come to be prized by the culture: good ol’ American fighting spirit and can-do
will win the way when one desires to live a certain way or practice a
particular political ideal. Taking the myth/legend
to the next planet outward in the solar system, in 1994 Greg Bear penned Moving Mars. Nominated for every major American science
fiction award (and winning once), it’s fair to say the cultural mindset
continues to reinforce itself.
Moving Mars is the story of Casseia Majumdar,
university student and daughter of one of Mars' oldest families. Called Binding Multiples, blood relations are
not necessarily the common denominator to the big communities. The BMs’ mixing corporate and genealogical
ideals into ‘bloodlines’, their clannish presence is as far as Mars’ governance
has evolved since humanity first settled the planet. Growing up ‘red rabbit’, Casseia lives in the
tunnels of Mars along with five million others, getting a university education,
and living as normal a life as Martian underground conditions allow for. In comparison to Earth, this is rather
limited. Technology is available but
always a few upgrades behind, and in limited supply. And while people are free to mix as they
please, Martian society remains more provincial in its customs and traditions. Following on a love affair after university,
Casseia is selected by her BM for an amazing honor: to accompany a relative to
Earth for political negotiations. What
she sees and experiences there forever changing her worldview, little does she
know it is her knowledge Mars will be drastically changed by in the future.
