Mars Crossing
by Geoffrey A. Landis
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Tor (New York): December 2000. Hardcover: 331 pages. ISBN-10: 0-312-87201-1 Suggested retail price: $24.95 (US) Tags: astronauts; murder; Science Fiction; space station Tactical strength: [7/10] |
With Mars Crossing, Geoffrey Landis has written a hard science fiction story with strong characters and the suspense of a murder mystery. He describes the Martian scenery with the avid detail of an art film, but the crew of the Don Quixote Mars lander looks at the scenery as more of a threat to their survival than as a subject for exploration.
By the mid-twenty-first century, man has not only sent men to Mars, but has launched three expeditions. The first expedition landed two men on the north pole, but the crew mysteriously died before their scheduled return. On the second expedition, a form of athlete's foot fungus grew rampantly on the crew and in all the equipment. The expedition successfully landed on Mars, but hastily tried to return to Earth. The return vehicle disappeared on its slingshot orbit around Venus.
The third expedition goes to Mars on a low budget. To raise money, the space administration holds a lottery. For a thousand dollars per ticket, anyone could buy a chance for a seat on the expedition. The lottery winner, Trevor Whitman, and five other regular astronauts successfully land on Mars's southern hemisphere, but discover that their return ship, which landed on Mars six years earlier, has not stored any fuel for the return trip. The crew has only one chance: get to the return vessel abandoned by the first expidition at the north pole. And even if they can get to the pole, the return module can only take two people home.
At first Mars Crossing reminded me of Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity. Both novels present a new and wondrous world to the reader, but Landis never lets the scientific details take center stage. He provides plenty of hard science, including monofilament cables, land rovers and cycles, piezoelectric spacesuit material, and plenty of Martian geography and weather. But these details only come forward as the characters interact with their environment. The scenery and science seem interesting because you want to see how the crew of the Don Quixote deals with a deadly situation.
Landis's characters live for space travel -- you feel their passion for excellence and adventure. Imagine the shock to your system when you have finally achieved your goal, and you must then exert the same level of energy trying to return to where you started, and you start wondering which lucky two will get to go home. Landis makes reality TV shows look silly. His characters have a more realistic response to living in tight quarters and fighting for survival than any staged island or house party.
Mars Crossing draws you in quickly and keeps a steady level of tension throughout. The characters never work up to the tension you feel with some space emergencies like the Apollo 13 movie. The suspense pulls you forward, and Landis keeps you guessing right up to the very end about who will survive and who will get to return to the Earth.
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