Mars

Rating:
Summary: Mars Storm
Review: This is a good book. Not great, but good. It is part of the resurgent interest serrious SF writers have taken in the red planet. Bova with this novel, along with Kim Stanley Robinson with his Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy, and Greg Bear with Moving Mars, form the best of SF's revived interest in Mars.

Much of it is a tad over the top. But Bova makes it work. He attempts to show scientists are people motived by the loves, hates, irritations, likes, dislikes, and oddities that make all humans tick. In to this mix he tosses some stuff about life on mars, and being that Bova is a hard SF writer... it is interesting to note that he did this before the controvial discovery's of possible life on mars. So, he may well have perdicted some things there. But probably not, as it really is just a plot device. But he makes it work.

Worthwhile for lovers of Hard SF.

Rating:
Summary: Good but somtimes droned off
Review: This novel was very well-written and had a good plot. However, it sometimes droned off to parts that were not necessary. It also was racially insulting. NASA would never put together a crew like this that was socially incompatible.

Rating:
Summary: A book showing the hardships of a mission to Mars
Review: This book is an excelent review of the mistakes all human beings can make. I thought it of an example of carelessness that human beings can and will have. In my opinion, Bova writes in a true, life-like style.

Rating:
Summary: Not a page-turner, but decent nonetheless
Review: An interesting read. The characters were well-defined and the plot was good, but it was no page-turner, or nail-biting read. The book focuses more on character development and interaction, rather than action. Don't get me wrong, the interaction was interesting, but if you're expecting action, this isn't the book for you.

Rating:
Summary: Women Writers Are Different
Review: I just started reading this book and already I am upset at the ethnic and gender stereotyping. Women writers seem to create stong women without creating weak men. I find women to be more comfortable with political correctness, it seems less strained, less self-serving. In The Sparrow, for example, Mary Doria Russell gives us people who are different and unique, not sterotypical. I am a woman, and I prefer women SF writers for that reason. I do not want to dream of a future where we take all this unpleasantness which actually limits us. Hopefully, Bova is over this by the time we Return to Mars.

Rating:
Summary: Mr. Bova has seen too many Hollywood Indians
Review: This may have been an interesting story, but I could not stomach the offensive racial and cultural stereotypes. I finally put the book down-- threw it in the trash, actually-- after the main character, a half-Navajo, upon receiving good news, was depicted as follows: "Jamie's first impulse was to give an ear-splitting war whoop." I doubt a Navajo would be any more tempted to react to good news in this fashion than I, of Irish descent, would be tempted to shout "begorrah" and dance a jig.

Mr. Bova deals the Navajo people a great insult by portraying them without bothering to do more than a cursory research of their culture. Mr. Bova: Navajo children on the reservation do not speak broken English.

Rating:
Summary: Either you love it or you hate it - take your pick.
Review: If you peruse the previous reviews you will notice that almost every single rating is 5 or 1. Do you know why? Because this is SCIENCE FICTION. Any sci-fi fan will drool over this book for hours on end, whereas other readers may pass it off as being to steriotypical. I agree that in some instances it is, but when you take a close look at this book, much of the point is that the characters are steriotypical. Bova is obviously trying to show what the flaws with a real mission to Mars would be. His characters must represent not only themselves but their countries and races as well. The spacecraft on which these people are traveling is kind of like a miniature representation of the world and its countries. Through the trials, tribulations, and benevolance of the crew Bova shows us that the consequences of such an interracial assortment are there, but so are the rewards.

Rating:
Summary: True science fiction
Review: Ben Bova's approach to a trip to Mars reminds me of how Tom Clancey approaches the military and goverment. Bova attempts to be exceedingly realistic and plausible in terms of technology, while crafting characters worth reading about.

Rating:
Summary: Stereotypical characters, bad plotting, horrible chronology
Review: It appears that Ben Bova didn't look any farther than Primetime television to research his characters, as they all exhibit the glossy stereotypes one would normally find on TV at 8:00. From the die-hard blond reporter whose first rule of survival is "Don't go to bed with a man until you get what you want;" the Japanese science leader who decorates his cubicle with watercolors of birds and mountains for "comfort;" the british doctor who hides his sexual obsessions beneath a veneer of refinement.... and even the main character, a half navaho American geologist (they'd make the Indian a rock doctor, don't you know) who apparently lapses into his ancestral language during bouts of intense emotion, the racial stereotypes abound. As if this wasn't bad enough, the plotting is an uncannily watered down shadow of Kim Stanley Robinson's "Red Mars" and it jumps between locations at breakneck speed, never allowing the reader to understand any specific chronology of events. I finished this book for the SOLE reason that I could not believe that it would continue to be so bad! Unfortunately, it did, and it does. I don't recommend this book at all, if you are looking for cardboard characters, predictable plotlines, and no depth, watch a sitcom. Skip the book

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't take long to realize this is trash.
Review: In the character descriptions on the first pages, it says, "RAVAVISHNU PATEL: The brilliant, introverted Hindu geologist had studied the Tharsis volcanic shields of Mars for fifteen long, lonely years. Now his once-in-a-lifetime chance to use his knowledge has been squelched, and those responsible would feel the anger that devoured his heart." NO THEY WON'T!!!! His dreams are crushed, but he never does anything!!! They LIED to us!!! And anyway, there aren't any real characters in this book, just ethnic, racial, and national stereotypes. Example: a subtly sarcastic lecher of a british doctor, a Native American with some strange spiritual connection to nature, etc. There's never any real emotion involved, no grandeur is conveyed once they reach mars, and nothing seems important to the characters or the author. Even though he does his best to SHOUT IN YOUR FACE how important this whole thing is to the characters, you just get the feeling nobody takes it seriously, least of all Ben Bova. If this were somebody's first novel, I could excuse it, but to be outright LIED to, insulted with noncharacters and a Mars mission that's treated like a joke, is too much especially from someone as recognized as Ben Bova. Don't even trifle with this garbage.