Moving Mars by Greg Bear
"Moving Mars" is a science fiction narrative that explores themes of political struggle, cultural identity, and self-determination on the planet Mars. The story follows Casseia Majumdar, a student who becomes embroiled in a movement against the Statist party's attempts to centralize control over Mars, which threatens the autonomy of the Binding Multiples—business clans that have established a self-sustaining society. As tensions escalate, Casseia travels to Earth to testify about Mars's economic independence and becomes entwined in a complex relationship with Charles Franklin, who is involved in a classified project.
The plot thickens when Martians uncover a revolutionary discovery that allows them to manipulate matter. Fearing this power, Earth launches destructive attacks on Mars, leading Casseia, now the planet's president, to make the drastic decision to relocate Mars to a safer position in the galaxy. This decision is met with mixed reactions from the Martian populace, who feel isolated from their familiar solar system. Ultimately, the story grapples with the consequences of interplanetary conflict, the quest for autonomy, and the weight of leadership decisions, as Casseia navigates her new reality and the legacy of her actions.
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Subject Terms
Moving Mars
First published: 1993
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—extrapolatory
Time of work: The twenty-second century
Locale: Mars and Earth
The Plot
Settlers on Mars develop a largely self-sustaining culture and economy that draws Earth’s suspicions and envy. Ultimately, they must move their planet to avoid mutual destruction. The story, told by Casseia Majumdar, begins when she impulsively joins students at the University of Mars in demonstrating against the Statist party, which wants to bring Mars under centralized control. The Statists are attempting to undercut the decentralized power of the Binding Multiples, the business clans that control the planet. Although the demonstration apparently fails, the Statist insurgents eventually flee to Earth.
During the demonstration, Casseia meets Charles Franklin, with whom she forms a close bond. She rejects his courtship, however, when she learns that he has applied to establish a Quantum Logic link with an Earth computer in order to study quantum physics.
Continuing her study of Govmanagement, she has the opportunity to join a group that travels to Earth to testify in the U.S. Senate concerning Mars’s economic links with Earth. After a journey of months in a fusion-powered craft, her group reaches Earth, which in the late twenty-second century has never been happier, despite an extraordinarily high population density. Constant therapy enables people to live in relative harmony, product and resource shortages are solved by efficient recycling methods, and political decisions are based on economic benefit.
Leaders on Earth seem determined that Mars, along with the Moon, accept a subservient economic role within the tri-world combine. Rumors abound concerning an impending “paradigm shift,” a drastic change that looms ahead. In a vaguely related development, Casseia learns that Charles Franklin is on Earth, working on a classified project. When she attempts to contact him, she receives only a cryptic reply.
Apparently accomplishing little, Casseia and her party return home. Resuming her old life, she meets and marries Ilya Rabinovitch, whose clan is taking the lead in developing a more evolved political organization, though many groups oppose them. Casseia becomes an active leader in proposing creation of the Federal Republic of Mars.
In the midst of the political turmoil, Charles, back from Earth, offers the services of the Olympians, a group that has been exploring new principles of physics. Matter, they have found, is in its essence a series of descriptors. By changing the descriptors, one can change the matter. In short, their discovery gives complete control over the natural world.
Earth, aware that Martians have discovered a powerful capability, attempts preemptive strikes before the Martians can use it. In order to warn Earth off, the Olympians move one of the Martian moons, Phobos, into Earth’s orbit, then return it to its Martian orbit. Earth is momentarily subdued but all the more determined to develop the same potential. Soon, Earth is using the same power to obliterate large parts of Mars.
Without allowing the elected representatives to vote, Casseia, now president of the planet, directs the Olympians to move Mars out of harm’s way to another part of the galaxy. After the move, Martians look up in shock at a new sun and new stars. Instead of giving her credit for saving their lives, they blame her for isolating them far from their familiar solar system. They imprison her and the Olympians but eventually release them. Having lost Ilya during the attacks from Earth, Casseia lives out her life with Charles, whose grasp of the normal world is seriously impaired by his prolonged contact with Quantum Logic. Ultimately, she and the Olympians are honored as those who freed Mars.