Though it was published almost ten years before Kim Stanley Robinson’s acclaimed Mars trilogy and takes place in a different version of the future, Icehenge contains elements that should be familiar to readers of the Mars series. Extreme human longevity, Martian revolution, historical revisionism, and shifts between primary characters are all present.

Icehenge is part mystery, part psychological drama, and is set in three distinct time periods. The story shifts from a failed Martian revolution of 2248, to an expedition to explore a mysterious monument on the north pole of Pluto three centuries later, and ultimately to a space station orbiting Saturn, home to a reclusive and wealthy woman who may hold the key to solving a mystery spanning centuries.