Editing Mars trilogy (section)

====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.