At the same time, Bookchin clearly draws insights from Marx’s analysis of capitalism (Kovel 1998:37–48). Bookchin’s relationship with Marx is largely oppositional he rejects the centrality of class struggle, focusing on a more general struggle with hierarchy/domination (for example, 19 Purchase 1994: 57–70). Intellectually, Bookchin falls in the Western tradition of dialectical thought represented by Aristotle, Hegel, Marx and the Frankfurt School. The second section introduces Robinson’s Mars trilogy and interprets those works as an exploration of free nature. The first sketches out Bookchin’s ‘dialectical naturalism’ and considers a particular critique of the idea of third nature. This chapter is divided into two main sections. The Mars trilogy provides a fruitful exploration of what Bookchin refers to as third or free nature, a synthesis of first (bio-physical) nature and second (human social) nature wherein humans ‘co-operate’ with first nature and directly participate in the evolution of life. Philosophically and theoretically, Robinson’s writing has particular relevance to the work of social ecologist Murray Bookchin.

In his award-winning Mars trilogy, Red,Green and Blue Mars, Robinson uses the idea of transforming Mars into a habitable planet to explore the ethics and limits of the human ability to (re)produce nature. One of the exemplars of this tradition is Kim Stanley Robinson.

While science fiction most often conjures up images of technology and the so-called ‘hard sciences’, writers in the genre also address human social relations.

Red mars trilogy