Mars Underground

Rating:
Summary: Much ado about nothing
Review: I had heard (and read) good things about MARS UNDERGROUND so at the first chance I purchased the book. After a couple of chapters the problemse were already glaring. The first one is the matter of character - or lack of it. The people never seem to "grab" the reader and are like cardboard cutouts. There are no individual personalities and no one really "grows", totally forgetful. Then there is the matter of the S-L--O----W moving plot. After a lot of boring set-up, give and take on the planet, discussions of various ideas and operational minutiae someone goes missing.

The events are totally predictable: Media folk yap about the public's "right to know", the Cold War continues (2034), professional jealousy, secrecy, revolt, etc Toward the end the group is drilling for rock samples and discovers an alien object dated 3.2 billion years BC. It originated outside the Solar System and after some brainstorming, they declare it to be a terraforming machine.

Let's get this over with. Surprise, shock, arguments and at last we get to see the grand machine (horizontal and vertical pipes). One fool unscrews a bolt on the machine - nothing happens of course. Then battles over disclosure and suddenly an earthquake/tremors caused by ancient machine - nothing happens again. That's the sum of this book - nothing happens.

Rating:
Summary: Mars Mystery Tradition Continues
Review: I obtained this book when the author Bill Hartmann came to my Arctic home town of Barrow, Alaska to do some public science presentations about Mars,and also brought along this very good mystery novel set on the Red Planet.
Some of the other reviewers rightly note that this is not the best novel ever produced, but it is a great combination of mystery and science fiction.
Hartmann the astronomer does a lot of work interpreting photos of Mars from missions ranging back to Mariner 9, through Viking and Mars Pathfinder to the present. And that background is put to good use as the main character, Carter, uses similar talents to unravel the mystery of the missing scientist.
There are similar scientific touches added to the story, including seldom-discussed --daily life on the small Martian moon Phobos. Sometimes, the details on Mars and Phobos are a little long, and slow down the plot, but it is a small price to pay for the overall reading experience---
accuracy on the real Mars, solid science fiction and a rather unique Mars mystery.
Some have criticized the love story within the book. Sure,it could be tightened up a bit, but give Hartmann some praise for including passion in the Mars mix.
Let's all remember that Mars itself is a planet of passion and mystery to many of us. There was Percival Lowell and his canals, and Orson Welles and the Mars scare over radio, and pioneers like Robert Goddard who dreamed of flying to Mars and then worked long and hard to develop rockets to get us there.
Hartmann combines this passion, and sense of mystery, built on a solid Mars science foundation.
On to Mars---in person someday, but for now, through robot spacecraft, and creative scientists and writers like Hartmann.
Earl

Rating:
Summary: An exceptional first hard-SF novel
Review: It's 2030 in Mars City. Crusty old scientist Alwyn Stafford is out on a solo
Mars-buggy trip in Hellespontus. Now he's overdue, and his young
protege "Carter Jahns" (nudge, ) is leading the search. Annie Pohaku, a
reporter newly-arrived from Earth, tags along.

Stafford isn't found before his air runs out, and is presumed dead.
Carter finds the abandoned buggy. Oddly, it had been deliberately hidden.
The director of Hellas Station is uncooperative. Carter heads to the
University of Phobos to study satellite imagery for clues to the fate of his
friend. He finds interesting IR imagery; overnite, the imagery is lost due
to "computer error". Annie has followed. They become lovers, and plot
the next move in an increasingly-murky mystery...

Hmmph. I've never much cared for plot-outline book reviews, but how
else do you start one?

Astronomer and planetary scientist Hartmann makes an impressive
fiction debut in "Mars Underground". The areology and extrapolation
are impeccable, as one might expect. Less-expected, but equally welcome,
are fully-formed characters - people you come to care about - set in a
well-paced story with intriguing plot twists and a satisfying resolution.
Bravo!

I've read and enjoyed a number of Dr. Hartmann's nonfiction books and
papers over the years. An endnote says his novel took 8 years to write. I
hope we don't have to wait that long for his next.

For bookstore blurb-browsers: Tor has assembled an impressive
collection, ranging from Clarke, Benford & Bear to Tony Hillerman.
They're all fair and accurate, IMO. Nice cover art, too.

Happy reading!
Pete Tillman