I'm completely foreign to the base building genre, and I'd like to try my hand at it. From the reviews, I gather that Surviving Mars is a good one (very attractive for me, too), but probably not the one to chose for a beginner at base building games.
Which games would you advise, for learning this type of gameplay? Thanks!

I... never considered it. Surviving mars is not specially difficult, but it is slow paced, so if you mess up, it'll take you hours to notice.

I think all base building are similar. I personally started with Caesar 2 (more of a city building game), and the old sim cities.

If you feel brave, you can go hard mode and train yourself to think in the problems and solutions those games present you with, with games like Dwarf Fortress or Rimworld.

If you want to go easier to hard, I recommend games like the Tropico series, or Evil Genius.

Or just go ahead, play this game and give it a go. It is a videogame, not homework!