Given a major plot arc in the trilogy was...

(SPOILER!!!)

... the destruction of the space elevator by a terrorist organisation and the consequent destruction on the surface of Mars as the cable, released from its counterweight, wrapped itself around the planet... I’m not sure it’s a great example :-)

To be fair, the "terrorists organisation" was not called like this in the book and was just shown as one party in the war of independency from earth. And the elevator was controlled by earth and brought down earth troops who hunted down the resistance. So you can argue it was a valid military target ... terrorist(in my definition) target civilians. They just acted very rughless.

But I liked in the book, how it did not actually took sides, but just showed the implications of what violent struggle/war for independency on mars means for different sides. And mainly from the perspective of Nadia, the engineer who build things. And she sees everything just gets destroyed and smashed. (I got moved a bit by the memory)

On extraordinarily rare occasions, mankind has been known to learn from cautionary tales.

Gave it to my father after reading it. He thought it was too slow and didn't have enough of a narrative arc, and he opted not to finish reading.

I loved the trilogy, though.

It is really slow in places. Robinson loves to flesh out the environment of Mars. Beautiful trilogy, really enjoyed it, but it is an occasional slog.

my Dad totally got into it, we read pretty much everything KSR wrote... :)

I enjoyed Red Mars. At some point I stopped with the rest of the series. Should pick it up again from the beginning.