Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (1993) Bantam Spectra

The first novel in an epic about the colonization of Mars.  The first hundred people to become Martians and their vision of a non-political, non-economics-based society.  Temper this with the reaction of an overpopulated Earth needing a place to bleed-off their starving masses and the natural tendency of people to not change.  Amazing advances in applied science to transform the face of Mars and the collision of competing forces drive an outcome that should be predictable.  The outcome is both natural and surprising.