A Step Beyond

Rating:
Summary: Real People - Real Problems
Review: A great read that gives the reader some idea of how complicated space travel is with out making us feel dumb in the process. I used to fantasize about being an astronaut on a journey to Mars. I have had to revise my fantasy since reading this book!

Rating:
Summary: Gripping High-Tech Drama from a Newcomer
Review: Freshman novelist C. K. Anderson has delivered a gripping high-tech drama cast with believable, imperfect characters. Anderson's mastery of the technology of space travel and the Martian environment is remarkable - but he stops just short of delivering too much scientific detail. As a first novel from a previously unpublished author, A Step Beyond has a few minor rough edges, and it's a fairly orthodox Martian adventure - but it's a very well-done Martian adventure and an impressive effort overall. It holds up well in comparison to similar near-future adventures like Ben Bova's Mars and Geoffrey A. Landis's Mars Crossing.

Rating:
Summary: Exciting Science Reality
Review: Science-Fiction was low in my reading order because of the "made-up" events and "magical" solutions. A Step Beyond smacks you in the face with reality. The excitement of exploration and the resolve of the human spirit is highlighted by the fact that this could "really" happen. Well-written, full of human questions and exciting situations.

Rating:
Summary: Exciting Science Reality
Review: Science-Fiction was low in my reading order because of the "made-up" events and "magical" solutions. A Step Beyond smacks you in the face with reality. The excitement of exploration and the resolve of the human spirit is highlighted by the fact that this could "really" happen. Well-written, full of human questions and exciting situations.

Rating:
Summary: A Science Fiction First -- Great Science AND Great Fiction
Review: The literature of Mars exploration is growing geometrically, but until now has largely favored fantasy over reality. Chris Anderson has focused on the reality that awaits us, and has produced a novel that grips our minds as well as our emotions. His insights into how a small group of astronauts will be able to carry out a comprehensive exploration of the vast and tortured surface of the red planet are extraordinary, because they are both novel and credible. Anderson's account of what the astronauts find occurs, perhaps, on the frontier at which science ends and imagination begins, but it is a product of the imagination of an informed and disciplined mind. Anderson is to be praised not only for giving us a foretaste of what the actual landing of humans on Mars may reveal, but also for wrapping his account in a compelling story of the emotional challenges facing the earthlings chosen to carry out the greatest adventure ever undertaken by mankind. A compelling read!