The Martian Race - Softcover

Benford, Gregory

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0446608904 ISBN 13: 9780446608909

Publisher: Aspect, 2001

Synopsis

When an explosion of the rocket launching the Mars Transit Vehicle kills four crewmen, the U.S. decides to redirect its energies to near-Earth projects, killing the manned mission to Mars. But tycoon John Axelrod assembles a consortium to fund the project, and he expects to net billions. But a European-Asian airbus will make a similar expedition. Now, the race is on to get to the Red Planet first.

About this title

Review:

Esteemed Mars guru Bob Zubrin calls The Martian Race "one of the finest novels about human exploration of the Red Planet ever written. "But then again, Bob is a character in the book (albeit in the briefest of cameos), so what else could he possibly say? That notwithstanding, Zubrin's right--he couldn't have picked a better book to show his face in. By popular assent, Martian Race deserves top honors among the millennial wave of Mars exploration tales, propelled as it is by the skillful storytelling of physics doyen Gregory Benford, a Campbell and two-time Nebula winner.

Martian Race is near-future SF, set in the twenty-teens (just before Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars saga kicks off), which may contribute to its being a bit of a slow starter; this is realistic, nuts-and-bolts speculation on a mission using pretty basic technology. But the pace picks up considerably as our heroes--the likable Julia and her Russky hubby Viktor and crew, backed by the Mars Consortium and its biotech billionaire CEO John Axelrod--begin to duke it out with a Euro-Sino concern to claim the $30 billion Mars Prize and, of course, get back from the Red Planet in one piece. Benford's work throughout is engaging and thorough, exploring every aspect of why we should make this trip at all (and even a few arguments against it, like Mars Bar marketing tie-ins). --Paul Hughes

About the Author:

Gregory Benford is a professor of physics at the University of California, Irvine; a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and a fellow at Cambridge University; and an adviser to the Department of Energy, NASA, and the White House Council on Space Policy.

About this edition

• Publisher: Aspect
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0446608904
• ISBN 13: 9780446608909
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 464