Mars – Ben Bova

Tor, copyright 2004, 470 pages

Read: November 2014 (at age 36)

First time read

What this book is:

This is one of many of Bova’s books based on the solar system (his “Grand Tour”), which do follow each other, but can mostly be read out of order without too much being lost.  This one’s followed by Return to Mars, and then eventually by Mars Life but it’s not necessary to continue.  This book ends just fine.

So far in this series, I've read Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury, Saturn, and Titan.  There's significant variety in the quality of these.  Generally, I've preferred the earlier books.

My comments:  (spoilers ahoy!)

Overall:

Arguably the strongest entry into this series that I've read so far, there were flat, cut-out characters who rounded into form, lots of scientific/engineering conflict v. the world, and some nice inter-character conflict and growth.  Not perfect, and I didn't buy some of the science, but it's what I think science fiction should be - excitement about science and the future.

Rating: 4

Characters:

There was a nice mix of characters – heroes, villains, neither of the above, and the characters grew and changed and moved from one box to another as the story progressed.  The people were well done.

Premise: 

Basically, go explore Mars, and then come home.  Survive.  It was a good setup, and allowed for some non-traditional character arcs and plot resolutions.

Setting:

Excellent.  Mars was vividly brought to life, as was the spaceship, training, and travel.

Plot:  

In general, the plot was very strong.  I cared about the characters.  I cared about the science, and the mission parameters.  I really, really didn't buy that you can get scurvy while drinking orange and tomato juices, and that was a major plot point, so  it became a really loud sour note as the book went along.

Readability: 

Good.  I haven’t come up with a better set of adjectives than ‘clear and evocative’ so I’ll use them again.  The pacing was nice in this book, too.  Enough movement to stay interesting, but not so much it felt like a thriller.

Other views:

Inverarity is not a Scottish Village

Nice review.