She is a daughter of one of Mars's oldest, most conservative Binding Multiples--the extended family syndicates that colonized the red planet. But Casseia Majumdar has a dream of an independent Mars, born in the student protests of 2171. During those brief days of idealism she forged bonds of friendship and hatred that set the stage for an astonishing war or revolution on Mars.

This book is a must read for science fiction readers. Novel about a colony on Mars that revolts against Earth, and a scientific discovery there that eventually makes the book's title literal.

• The novel won the Nebula Award and was a Hugo, Locus, and Campbell award finalist.


• Tor's website has this description and an excerpt.

Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review of the original edition, which said "Bear offers a fast-moving plot; realistic, appealing characters; a vividly imagined future Earth awash in 'tailored microbes,' nanotechnology and dirty dealing; and the most believable evocation of the workings of politics and science in any recent science fiction novel. It all adds up to a blowout of a book, perhaps the best of the recent Mars novels, and certainly one of the best sf novels of the year."