Editing Mars trilogy (section)

==Characters==
===The First Hundred===
The initial colonists from the ''Ares'' who established a permanent colony. Many of them later become leaders or exemplary figures in the transformation of Mars or its new society. The "First Hundred" actually consisted of 101, with Coyote being smuggled aboard the ''Ares'' by Hiroko.

====John Boone====
An American [[astronaut]], who was the first human to walk on Mars in the year 2020. He returns a public hero and uses his considerable influence to [[lobbying|lobby]] for a second mission, this time one of [[colonization]]. Boone received a large amount of [[radiation]] on his first trip to Mars, more than the recommended dosage according to medical regulations. However, his celebrity status allows him to skirt this. On the second voyage, Boone is one of the "First Hundred" colonists sent to permanently colonize Mars. His accomplishments and natural charm yield him an informal leadership role. In the first chapter of ''Red Mars'', John Boone is assassinated in a plot instigated by Frank Chalmers. The narrative then steps back to the First Hundred's voyage to Mars aboard the spaceship ''Ares''. His ideas continue as a point of reference for the remainder of the trilogy. Boone's character portrayal is complex; in one light, Boone is a stereotypically simple, heroic figure, an everyman hero: his first words on his first trip to Mars are "Well, here we are." He is almost uniformly cheerful and good-natured, and approaches everything he undertakes with hale bonhomie. But later in ''Red Mars'', Robinson switches to Boone's [[Point of view (literature)|point of view]], and it is in this section that it is revealed that late in life, Boone is addicted to omegendorph, a fictional drug that is based on [[endorphin]]s in the [[human brain]]. In addition, it reveals that at least some of his seeming simplicity might simply be an act designed to further his political goals. Overall, Boone is presented as larger-than-life.

====Frank Chalmers====
Head of the American contingent, he is [[wikt:Machiavellian|Machiavellian]] in his use of power. However, his cynicism is later shown to be a form of self-defense; Chalmers is at least partly driven by a hidden idealistic side. Early in the voyage to Mars, he becomes sexually involved with Maya Toitovna, the leader of the Russian contingent of the mission. During the second half of the voyage, Toitovna becomes involved with Boone. Already bitter that Boone became the first to walk on Mars instead of him as they were both candidates for the mission and that he was allowed to join the colonization trip despite his manipulations, Chalmers further despises Boone because of Toitovna's affection. His dislike culminates in his involvement in a plot to assassinate Boone, which ultimately succeeds and allows him to take over handling major affairs on Mars. This ultimately becomes his undoing, as his ruthless governance and aggressive diplomatic work backfire on him during the revolution of 2061. In the final chapters of ''Red Mars'', Chalmers flees with Toitovna and other members of the First Hundred to join the hidden colonists at the polar ice cap but dies along the way when he is caught outside their vehicle during an [[aquifer]] flood in [[Valles Marineris]].

====Maya Toitovna====
An emotional woman who is at the center of a love triangle between Boone and Chalmers, she begins as head of the Russian contingent. The novels hint that she used both wit and seduction to rise through the ranks of the Russian space agency to become the leader of the first colonization mission. After the first revolution, she flees with other members of the First Hundred to the hidden colony in the pole. She becomes a school teacher of the children of the hidden colonists but later becomes a powerful political force. After the deaths of Chalmers and Boone, she falls in love with Michel Duval. She suffers heavily from [[bipolar disorder]] and from memory-related psychological disorders with growing age, which often lead her to isolate herself from others and sometimes turn violent. Throughout the novels, Maya takes an active political role, helping to keep the surviving First Hundred together during the failed revolution of 2061 and guiding the successful revolutions that occur decades later, despite her psychological problems.

====Nadezhda "Nadia" Chernyshevski====
A Russian engineer who started out building nuclear reactors in [[Siberia]], during the voyage and initial exploration of Mars, she does her best to avoid the squabbles of the other members of the First Hundred. Instead, she busies herself by building the first permanent habitation of Mars, Underhill, using programmed automated robots. She also helps to construct a new and larger habitat, and research facility in a nearby canyon. In the later books, she becomes a reluctant politician. Chernyshevski is in love with Bogdanov and is devastated when he is killed in an attack by anti-revolutionary forces associated with UNOMA, the transnationals and Phyllis Boyle during the first Martian revolution. In retaliation for Bogdanov's murder, she activates his hidden weapon system, built into [[Phobos (moon)|Phobos]], which causes the entire moon (a UNOMA/transnational military base) to decelerate in orbit and destructively [[aerobrake]] in Mars' atmosphere, utterly destroying it. In ''Blue Mars'', she falls in love with Art Randolph, with whom she eventually starts a family. After Martian independence, she grudgingly becomes the first president of Mars.

====Arkady Bogdanov====
A mechanical engineer with [[anarchism|anarchist]] leanings, possibly based on the [[Russian Machism|Russian Machist]], [[Alexander Bogdanov]] (the character's ancestor) and [[Arkady Strugatsky]], he is regarded by many other members of the First Hundred, particularly Boyle, as a troublemaker. He leads the team which establishes an outpost on the moon [[Phobos (moon)|Phobos]], and leads an uprising against the transnational corporation towards the end of first novel. Like Boone (with whom he was good friends), his political ideas (later known as Bogdanovism) weigh heavily on characters later in the series. In love with Nadia Chernyshevski, he is killed during the first Martian revolution in 2061.

====Saxifrage "Sax" Russell====
An American [[physicist]], he is a brilliant and creative scientist, and is greatly respected for his intellectual gifts. However, he is socially awkward and often finds it difficult to understand and relate to other people. Russell is a leader of the Green movement, the goal of which is to [[Terraforming|terraform]] Mars. During ''Green Mars'', Sax suffers a stroke while being tortured by government security forces and fellow member of the First Hundred, Phyllis Boyle (although it is later revealed that she actually opposed Sax's torture). He subsequently suffers from [[expressive aphasia]] and has to relearn how to speak and becomes less predictable in his actions. Originally apolitical, this event and a growing attachment to Mars itself leads Russell to become the physical architect of the second revolution. After memory issues become apparent in many of the remaining first hundred including Sax he begins work on an ambitious project to gather the remaining first hundred and have them try an experimental treatment he helped to develop. It is after this that Sax realizes his persistent attempts to please Ann are actually because he is also secretly in love with Ann Clayborne, who cannot stand him at first, but after decades on Mars, eventually reconciles. [[Saxifrage]] means "stonebreaker" and is the name for an Alpine plant that grows between stones.

====Ann Clayborne====
An American [[geologist]], Clayborne is one of the first areologists and maintains a stalwart desire to see Mars preserved in the state it holds when humans arrive.  Clayborne early on debates Saxifrage Russell over the proper role of humanity on Mars and though initially apolitical, this stance marks her as the original "Red," while Russell's hands-on terraforming reflects the antithesis of these views.  Clayborne is shown to prefer solitude during much of the series, and even her relationship with fellow First Hundred settler Simon (with whom she has a child) is subject to introspective silence in most cases.  Simon's death and the estrangement she finds from their son Peter when the latter emerges as a leading moderate "green" drive her to further isolation.  Clayborne's relationship with Russell is shown to be complex, the two of them taking early opposite views but the situation slowly changing as Russell comes to appreciate what has been unleashed and what has indeed been lost as science gives way to commercial exploitation that he cannot control.  During the events of ''Blue Mars'', Russell intervenes to save Clayborne's life; later, the two are revealed to have once shared an attraction that went astray because of a casual misinterpretation between them. Ann undergoes a drastic change toward Blue Mars due to the emergence of something inside of her that she describes as anti-Ann and something else that she can't quite describe.

====Hiroko Ai ({{langx|ja|愛紘子}})====
A Japanese expert on [[biology]], agriculture, and ecological systems, it was Ai who smuggled Desmond "Coyote" Hawkins onto the ''Ares'' (the two were friends and lovers as students in London). She is the charismatic leader of the farm team, one of the important work groups and cliques among the First Hundred. She thus becomes the focus of many of the trilogy's central themes. Most importantly, she teaches the importance of maintaining a respectful relation with one's planet. On Mars, this is called the Areophany. In the secret colony Zygote, which Hiroko established, the first generation of children of the First Hundred, the ectogenes, are all the product of artificial insemination outside of any human body. Hiroko uses the ova of the female members of the First Hundred as the female genetic material and uses the sperm of the male members of the First Hundred to fertilize the ova. Although Hiroko is seldom at the center of the narrative, her influence is pervasive. She disappears for the final time in ''Green Mars''. Her ultimate fate is left unresolved. ''Ai'' (愛) is the Japanese word for love.

====Michel Duval====
A French [[psychologist]] pivotally involved in the early psychological screening of the First Hundred candidates in Antarctica, which he describes as being a collection of double-bind requirements. Duval is assigned to accompany the Mars mission and is treated as an observer rather than as a member of the team during the early events of ''Red Mars''. His aloof personality enforces this ostracism and also subverts his relationships with others, but in time it becomes clear that Duval is struggling with his own psychological issues perhaps more than anyone else from the expedition. During the first disappearance of the farm team, he is invited by Hiroko to flee with the farm team and establish Zygote, the first hidden colony. Duval desperately wants to return to [[Provence]] as he remembers it, and after visiting as a part of the Martian diplomatic mission to Earth, he becomes even more homesick. Duval falls in love with Maya Toitovna and guides her through particularly challenging psychological episodes throughout most of the series, dying late in ''Blue Mars'' of heart arrhythmia when Maya displays signs of very heavy temporary memory loss.

====Vladimir "Vlad" Taneev====
Nearly sixty when he arrives on Mars, a Russian biological scientist who is the oldest of the First Hundred.  Taneev heads medical treatment and most research projects on Mars, becoming famous as the creator of the gerontological treatment used to regenerate human cellular systems and ushering in a new era of longevity.  He lives in Acheron on the Great Escarpment in the north of Mars before fleeing to the hidden colony after the First Revolution but later returns to his research, falling victim to "quick decline" late in the events of ''Blue Mars''.  For much of his Mars-centric life, Taneev lives in a [[ménage à trois]] with Ursula and Marina, the exact nature of which is never resolved.
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====Phyllis Boyle====
A Christian American geologist with a harsh personality that does not win her many friends among the First Hundred and gains particular enmity from Ann Clayborne. As the Mars situation develops, Boyle sides against most of the First Hundred in favor of the increasingly authoritarian United Nations Office of Mars Affairs (UNOMA) and its successor, the [[corporate]]/quasi-fascist United Nations Transitional Authority (UNTA). Her influence is strongest during the later events of ''Red Mars'', where by the 2061 revolution she has been placed in charge of the asteroid Clarke that serves as the counterweight of the First [[Space Elevator]].  The events of the revolution send Clarke (and Boyle) spinning off into the outer Solar System at the end of ''Red Mars''; ''Green Mars'' finds her back in the equation, but her influence is greatly reduced against the backdrop of a much-expanded UNTA presence.  Boyle engages in a brief sexual relationship with Saxifrage Russell (who despises her) while the latter is living under an assumed identity and is singularly capable of discerning who he really is, turning him over the UNTA.  She is later present at a session in Kasei Vallis where Russell is being tortured, and is killed by Maya Toitovna.  Later, as his memory recovers, Russell reveals that Boyle had been opposed to his torture and was demanding that he be released at the time that Maya's team freed him.

====Desmond "Coyote" Hawkins====
A [[Trinidad]]ian stowaway, he is a friend and supporter of Hiroko, and a fervent [[anarchist communist]]. Present in ''Red Mars'' only as a stowaway who eventually blends effortlessly into the Martian background, he is not even identified as anything more than Coyote until the beginning of ''Green Mars''. He becomes a leading figure in the underground and an unofficial coordinator of a developing [[gift economy]].

===Their descendants===
Since the trilogy covers over 200 years of human history, later immigrants and the children and grandchildren of the First Hundred eventually become important characters in their own right.

The Martians use the same terminology for different generations as [[Japanese Americans]]. People who immigrated from Earth are called issei, the first generation born on Mars are [[nisei]], and the second-generation Martians are sansei.  Third-generation Martians are called yonsei.

====Kasei====
Kasei is the son of Hiroko and John Boone and the father of Jackie Boone. Kasei is the leader of the Kakaze, a radical Red faction. His name is Japanese for the planet Mars. He dies during the second revolution, after an unsuccessful attack on the second space elevator.

====Nirgal====
The son of Hiroko and Coyote, he is raised communally by Hiroko and her followers in Zygote. He is a good-natured wanderer who eventually becomes a political leader advocating ties with Earth. He is one of the founders of the Free Mars movement and is famous for his running technique that allows him to run all day for days on end. As Nadia's assistants, he and Art are instrumental in getting the Martian constitutional declaration written. Later he is sent on a diplomatic mission to Earth but nearly dies from an infection.  His name is ancient Babylonian for [[Mars]] (the planet and the [[Nergal|war-god]]).

====Jackie Boone====
The granddaughter of Hiroko and John Boone (raised with Nirgal), she emerges as a leader of the Free Mars movement, but is seen to change her platform based on whatever keeps her in power (e.g. changing from banning Earth immigration to allowing almost unlimited immigrants). After her daughter Zo's death, she retires in grief and joins a one-way expedition to an [[extrasolar planet]] near [[Aldebaran]].

====Peter Clayborne====
Peter Clayborne is the son of Ann Clayborne and Simon Frazier, being one of the first children born on Mars. Peter holds a position of older brother to all of the following first generation. Many revolutionary and later political decisions of the Mars First movement are influenced by his opinions and judgment. He works part-time as an engineer and a green politician.

====Zoya "Zo" Boone====
Jackie's daughter; she has feline traits (purring) inserted into her genome via the gerontological longevity treatment. In ''Blue Mars'', she travels the solar system running political errands for Jackie, although the two do not get along particularly well. Her character is portrayed as [[hedonistic]] and explicitly [[Nihilism|nihilistic]], making sexual satisfaction a priority and seemingly having little regard for the feelings of others. On the other hand, she apparently has a conscience, risking her life to rescue a man on Mercury and later dying in an attempt to save a distressed flier.

====Nikki====
The daughter of Nadia and Art.

===Other characters===
====Arthur "Art" Randolph====
A representative of the Praxis corporation sent to contact the Martian underground movement on a quasi-[[diplomacy|diplomatic]] mission in an attempt to create a system of ecological capitalism based on democratic corporations. Like the other metanationals, it takes on intensive economic and political ties with governments, but Praxis aims for partnerships rather than exploitive relationships.

====Zeyk Tuqan ({{langx|ar|زيك طوقان}}) and his wife Nazik ({{langx|ar|نازك}})====
[[Bedouin]] nomads who originally emigrated from [[Egypt]] and respected figures in the [[Arab]] Martian community. Zeyk is a close friend of Chalmers. His [[eidetic memory]] becomes a minor plot point.

====William Fort====
The founder of Praxis, one of the huge multinational corporations. He embraces a fusion of Eastern and Western lifestyles.