Mars Crossing

Rating:
Summary: "Mars Crossing? More Like Double-Crossed!
Review: "Mars Crossing" is a colossal disappointment as a novel, though it has one thing going for it: Geoffrey landis at least evokes the beauty and mystery of the Martian landscape--an accomplishment that totally evaded Ben Bova in his equally disappointing "Mars" (but Bova gets points for the imaginative title!!!!!!)
The book gets off to a promising start--but the concept of a crew of people driving/climbing/hiking thousands of kilometers across the surface of Mars soon becomes remarkably absurd. How do these people eat? How do they go to the bathroom? And didn't it occur to them to drive AROUND the Valles Marineris instead of lowering the damn vehicle down a two-mile high cliff?
Landis--like Bova--has the annoying habit of bringing his plot to an interesting point--and then jumping backwards in time to fill us in on the history of one of the characters. This is a terrible way to tell a story--especially when these people's pasts are not very interesting. (Leon Uris did this years ago in "Exodus" and the technique irritated a good many reviewers then.)
The conclusion is very unsatisfying: the spectacle of his survivors skiing over the Martian pole on makeshift skis is silly enough--but his last-minute revelations about the motives and actions of some of his characters are downright dumb.
To read the jacket blurbs, one would think that "Mars Crossing" was the "Shackleton's-Incredible-Voyage" of Mars-themed fiction--but it's not. It's a comic book dolled up with some pretty descriptions and enough techno-babble to make you believe the author knows his science. What he left out was a credible plot and interesting characters.

Rating:
Summary: "Mars Crossing? More Like Double-Crossed!
Review: "Mars Crossing" is a colossal disappointment as a novel, though it has one thing going for it: Geoffrey landis at least evokes the beauty and mystery of the Martian landscape--an accomplishment that totally evaded Ben Bova in his equally disappointing "Mars" (but Bova gets points for the imaginative title!!!!!!)
The book gets off to a promising start--but the concept of a crew of people driving/climbing/hiking thousands of kilometers across the surface of Mars soon becomes remarkably absurd. How do these people eat? How do they go to the bathroom? And didn't it occur to them to drive AROUND the Valles Marineris instead of lowering the damn vehicle down a two-mile high cliff?
Landis--like Bova--has the annoying habit of bringing his plot to an interesting point--and then jumping backwards in time to fill us in on the history of one of the characters. This is a terrible way to tell a story--especially when these people's pasts are not very interesting. (Leon Uris did this years ago in "Exodus" and the technique irritated a good many reviewers then.)
The conclusion is very unsatisfying: the spectacle of his survivors skiing over the Martian pole on makeshift skis is silly enough--but his last-minute revelations about the motives and actions of some of his characters are downright dumb.
To read the jacket blurbs, one would think that "Mars Crossing" was the "Shackleton's-Incredible-Voyage" of Mars-themed fiction--but it's not. It's a comic book dolled up with some pretty descriptions and enough techno-babble to make you believe the author knows his science. What he left out was a credible plot and interesting characters.

Rating:
Summary: "Mars Crossing? More Like Double-Crossed!
Review: "Mars Crossing" is a colossal disappointment as a novel, though it has one thing going for it: Geoffrey landis at least evokes the beauty and mystery of the Martian landscape--an accomplishment that totally evaded Ben Bova in his equally disappointing "Mars" (but Bova gets points for the imaginative title!!!!!!)
The book gets off to a promising start--but the concept of a crew of people driving/climbing/hiking thousands of kilometers across the surface of Mars soon becomes remarkably absurd. How do these people eat? How do they go to the bathroom? And didn't it occur to them to drive AROUND the Valles Marineris instead of lowering the damn vehicle down a two-mile high cliff?
Landis--like Bova--has the annoying habit of bringing his plot to an interesting point--and then jumping backwards in time to fill us in on the history of one of the characters. This is a terrible way to tell a story--especially when these people's pasts are not very interesting. (Leon Uris did this years ago in "Exodus" and the technique irritated a good many reviewers then.)
The conclusion is very unsatisfying: the spectacle of his survivors skiing over the Martian pole on makeshift skis is silly enough--but his last-minute revelations about the motives and actions of some of his characters are downright dumb.
To read the jacket blurbs, one would think that "Mars Crossing" was the "Shackleton's-Incredible-Voyage" of Mars-themed fiction--but it's not. It's a comic book dolled up with some pretty descriptions and enough techno-babble to make you believe the author knows his science. What he left out was a credible plot and interesting characters.

Rating:
Summary: Most Excellent
Review: A most excellent Sci-Future(my term)book, Landis presents a novel angle(forgive the pun)of presenting a possible Science Future of multiple explorations of the "Planet of War'Mars'". Found myself truly rooting for a particular charactor to survive. Landis has a way of making all his characters so real that one cannot but help feel solidarity with the reasons behind each one's goodness, roughness, sorrow and joy of their lives. Found myself weeping with sorrow and yes even joy at Landis' finality of the tale- also hoping for a continuation of humanity's insatible need to understand the planet Mars via a sequel to 'Mars Crossing'.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, a good story on Mars
Review: After last summer's horrid "Mission to Mars" and the disappointing "Red Planet," I was hesitant to invest my time in yet another Mars story. Besides the above mentioned movies, I also found Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars somewhat disappointing (I have yet to read Ben Bova's recent Mars books), so I began this book with some trepidation.

After the first few chapters of the book I was looking forward to kicking a few of the characters out the air lock; one in particular was very annoying. However, Geoffrey Landis did a good job of making me care for the characters by the end of the book. Landis accomplished this through frequent flashbacks to develop the characters. Some may find this style of writing distracting, but I found it important because I would not have found the tension in the story if I did not care about the characters.

The basic story is very similar to the movie "Red Planet," a team of astronauts fly to Mars in one ship and trek a short distance to a return vehicle only to find it damaged beyond repair. Their only hope is a long distance voyage across most of mars to use another ship as an escape vehicle. The problem: the vehicle cannot hold them all. Despite the lack of "Red Planet's" flesh eating explosive insects and psychotic attack robot, I found the adventure in this "Mars Crossing" much more exciting, largely because it felt real.

If you are a fan of space exploration and have been following the various real missions to Mars (at least the ones that worked), you will be treated to the additional pleasure of having the recent knowledge gained from these missions woven into the story. Science, when presented well, can be an adventure.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, a good story on Mars
Review: After last summer's horrid "Mission to Mars" and the disappointing "Red Planet," I was hesitant to invest my time in yet another Mars story. Besides the above mentioned movies, I also found Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars somewhat disappointing (I have yet to read Ben Bova's recent Mars books), so I began this book with some trepidation.

After the first few chapters of the book I was looking forward to kicking a few of the characters out the air lock; one in particular was very annoying. However, Geoffrey Landis did a good job of making me care for the characters by the end of the book. Landis accomplished this through frequent flashbacks to develop the characters. Some may find this style of writing distracting, but I found it important because I would not have found the tension in the story if I did not care about the characters.

The basic story is very similar to the movie "Red Planet," a team of astronauts fly to Mars in one ship and trek a short distance to a return vehicle only to find it damaged beyond repair. Their only hope is a long distance voyage across most of mars to use another ship as an escape vehicle. The problem: the vehicle cannot hold them all. Despite the lack of "Red Planet's" flesh eating explosive insects and psychotic attack robot, I found the adventure in this "Mars Crossing" much more exciting, largely because it felt real.

If you are a fan of space exploration and have been following the various real missions to Mars (at least the ones that worked), you will be treated to the additional pleasure of having the recent knowledge gained from these missions woven into the story. Science, when presented well, can be an adventure.

Rating:
Summary: Good straight forward Mars Book
Review: After so many disappointing books and movies on Mars, along comes Mars Crossing. This is an interesting problem that places a crew on the surface with a broken space craft, and the only working (or maybe no longer working) space craft is on the other side of the planet. For the first time I really got to see Mars in terms of its geography. I think the characters could have used some more work. They weren't flat or anything, they were just kind of the same. This is a good read with some interesting twists towards the end.

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing if imperfect
Review: As a disclaimer, I should admit to having known Geoff online and at conferences for some years, so I am not completely unbiased.

This novel is the author's first full length book, and shows many first-novel flaws. As an engineer and scientist, I was coughing dismay at the lengths gone to set up the primary man-against-nature conflict, though the execution once set up was better than average. There is a focus on the characters which is nice, but inconsistent. Some ring true, some fall flat. Plotting was unsteady in places.

That said, this is a book that I enjoyed reading. Geoff is a better than average writer and I am looking forwards to future novels of his. I do not recommend _Mars_Crossing_ without reservation, but I do recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: I can't get enough Mars books!
Review: As you may have heard, Landis is actually a NASA engineer, so he knows what he's talking about. Everything in the book is technically accurate, and he has a lot of interesting sociological predictions. It is always hard to write near future sci-fi, since everyone has different ideas about how things will turn out.

The best part of the book, however, is the characterization. I felt like I really knew every one of the characters after finishing the book. They actually have the quirks and character flaws that all of us carry around.

I would recommend this book to anyone, regardless of whether they are Mars fans or not. It will definitely get you thinking. Just be sure to buy it from Amazon through the Mars Society's web site, so you can actually help us get to the Red Planet!

Rating:
Summary: Leaves much to be desired
Review: Don't let Geoffrey Landis' claims of being a "NASA insider" fool you into thinking that this book is even remotely based on science fact. I AM A NASA INSIDER and I assure you that most of the book is based on complete bunk. The astronauts in this book seem like out-of-control gang-bangers who shrug off death like it happened every day. The reality of WALKING or DRIVING from the southern hemisphere to the north pole of Mars? I think not. Astronauts having sex in the space station? No. And don't even get me started on the ending... It's horrible.

Do yourself a favor and read another book. I will never, repeat, never read another book by Landis.