Mars Crossing

Mars Crossing is a science fiction novel by Geoffrey A. Landis about an expedition to Mars, published by Tor Books in 2000. The novel was a nominee for the Nebula award, and won the Locus Award for best first novel in 2001.

The characters in the novel are members of the third expedition to Mars, following the failures of earlier Brazilian and American expeditions. The mission plan is based on the Mars Direct concept, where fuel is manufactured from the Martian atmosphere; the Brazilian Mars expedition selected a polar landing.

The following information comes from the book release notice^[1]:

• Geoffrey A. Landis, a scientist at the NASA John Glenn Research Center and a member of the Pathfinder Sojourner Rover team, has written a science fiction novel. Mars Crossing, just released from Tor Books, tells the story of an expedition to the red planet Mars. It has been called the most accurate novel about Mars exploration ever written, and has been praised by people such as Donna Shirley, former head of Mars exploration at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who said "His landscape captures the feel of Mars as glimpsed from Pathfinder's landing site... an excellent, fast-paced read." Analog magazine calls the book "an excellent job in a classic vein." Charles Sheffield says "The characters are splendid, the scientific description is full and authentic, and the story has the epic quality of the greatest real-world adventures." While Dr. Landis has previously won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards for short fiction, Mars Crossing is his first novel.

Reception

Locus reviewer Jonathan Strahan praised the book as "a strong first novel," saying "the real strength of Mars Crossing has less to do with realistic portrayals of science at work, though there is plenty of that, and more to do with Landis's characters and the drama they face."^[2]

See also

• Mars in fiction

References

External links

• reviews
• Amazon link
• Polar Landing Site for a First Mars Expedition
• Mars Direct information