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This is the second volume of Mars trilogy, every volume of which either won or was nominated for major awards � Hugo, Nebula and Locus. This one won Hugo and Locus awards and was nominated for Nebula in 1994.

The story of Mars terraforming (or areoforming of earthlings) continues. Over 50 years since 2061 revolt, which took down the space elevator and significantly slowed inflow of immigrants. The new generations (up to a third, sansei) of Mars-born grew up, especially in Hiroko’s zygote. The surface of the planet is often covered in lichens and even sturdy grasses, temperature and pressure are up, far from breathable but quite a fit compared with the starting conditions.

The character cast has both old acquaintances like Nadia Ann, Sax, Michel and new, Nirgal, Jakey (from Zygote) and Art (sent from Earth by a multinational). Their stories remain quite interesting, especially of Sax, even despite on the first time it’s the same old: repression from Earth and new ways from Mars. Only now Multinationals are in cyberpunk-like way rule Earth and captured both UN and sovereign governments. The ‘immortality� treatment isn’t available to all and there is a war of haves and have-nots. Meanwhile on Mars, followers of Ann, called Reds are sabotaging terraforming

Once again a broad range of topics is discussed, from gift economics and communes to ways of terraforming. While I cannot agree that a lot of author’s positions are correct (e.g. scalability of communes is questionable if you check real life examples), they are definitely interesting and worth knowing.