Ahem, MARS..... that's sands of MARS!!!
Written: Jan 19 '02 (Updated Nov 25 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Extremely detailed and exquisitely dated, its a good thing
Cons: Extremely detailed and exquisitely dated, its a bad thing
The Bottom Line: The usual finest-quality tour of a near future scenario from Clarke. Walk away from this book as though you have walked in Mars' first colony.
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| snpmurray's Full Review: |
Clarkes first ever full length novel, The Sands of Mars is a beautiful book.
I'll begin by offering definitive reassurance that despite Epinions typo, there is no Clarke book called Sands of Maris. I triple checked my sources. So I'm putting my review for Sands of Mars right here.
Righty-ho then!
I'm a fan of Arthur C Clarke, he is one of my favorite authors. I enjoy his somewhat old-school science fiction style, writing when the subjects he was writing about were still so hopelessly unfamiliar to the general public that his patient, detailed but accessible explanations of the near future were shiny and new. It is not to everyone's taste, I know.....but classics are classics, and one learns to overlook the odd off-target speculation in the interests of happy nostalgia ("There are no mountains on Mars" being a good example from this book).
Having said that, let me tell you about this lovely book. Written in the late forties, waaaaaayyyyy before even the very first probes had had a good look at Mars, Clarke describes for us a journey to Mars and an exploration of one of its early colonies. He shows us their work, their lives, and the obstacles that must be overcome if we are to ever really stand a chance of establishing an outpost on this our only real sister-planet.
Martin Gibson is a successful author on Earth. His science fiction novels are considered classics, and he has wide popular appeal. As such, he has been chosen to ride the inaugural flight of the first passenger vessel which will make a run to Mars, and write about it for the folks back home. Blatant propaganda, it is hoped that he can be shown such a positive experience that he will recommend Mars to his many (understandably) reticent earthbound fellows.
The story starts right at the beginning of the journey, with Gibson's lift off from Earth, on a shuttle heading for a 2001-esque space station spinning in orbit. Clarke starts as he means to go on, and throughout the book, the voyage of discovery of the protagonist is also our personal guided tour of speculative wonders of the local cosmos. We check out the space station, a sleek wonder, donut-shaped spinning future echo of how we might establish our first tollbooth in space. Clarke inhabits both the spacestation and the passenger liner with scant crews of somewhat atypical spacefarers.....in Sands of Mars, flashy suave ship's captains, and hoards of smart-casual-dressing stewardesses are entirely absent. Both on Mars, and in space in general, everyone is a world class geek....poorly dressed, poorly paid fanatics with a low standard of living and a genius I.Q. This works wonderfully, and in a world where even the cabin boy has a masters degree, the most descriptive word I can find for the dialog is "enviable". Naturally, since Gibson is here as a reporter, he spends much of his voyage engaging in asking lots of juicy questions about the mechanics of the craft and journey. Clarke makes the most of this plot vehicle, and through the answers Gibson receives, he offers the reader his vision for the future of everything . Subjects thoughtfully and courageously tackled are as diverse as astronavigation and boiling milk in zero-gee, and most things in between. Throughout, gentle humor flows, and Clarke is clearly of the school that when conditions are tough and demanding, laughter will always be the best medicine. I have always got a few grins from the gold-medal standard geekyness of Clarke's characters....I wasn't let down here...one scene which had me smiling with a mixture of affection and sympathy was a sweepstake the crew take on how far a missile will be off its calculated astronavigational trajectory.
I'm smiling with them, not at them, you should understand....a patient spotted my NASA T-shirt under my scrubs the other day at the hospital.....busted again....geek at work!!!!
On his arrival on Mars, Gibson is wholly shocked by what he finds. There are no shiny plazas and courtyards full of exotic alien trees, no robots whizzing to and fro with urgent chores too menial for the hands of man....instead, the mars colony is 2000 souls, struggling a living in prefabricated aluminum sheds underneath some thick plastic domes, held aloft only by the internal air pressure. Life on Mars is tough. The administrator describes it as if being at battle with the planet. Adjusting slowly, Gibson sets about exploring the planet and colony and learning what he can. Again, here Clarke steps up to the plate in herculean fashion, and does what he does best, and does it well. I guarantee you, that without any fuss or bells and whistles, Clarke will construct Mars Colony Number One in your mind by the end of this book. And not really a colony of fiction either, since despite any technologies which may arise in the next century which no-one can predict, the challenges will be just as Clarke writes them.....frustration, beurocracy, harsh living , slow results, and a task that Sysyphus would pass up as too arduous. With insight, the author shows us the technologies which might overcome the technical challenge, but this is a bookmore truly about how mankind will face those challenges from within, and here it succeeds completely.
So in a nutshell, those are the things that Clarke shows us in the book, the tours we enjoy.....around these he weaves more plot: the story of an estranged father and son, and the love that the former can develop for the latter when they are later reunited under the harsh cramped conditions of Mars. The plans that the colonists have for the red planet, to escape their lives under plastic domes, and the domination of Earth.....how to achieve self-sufficiency on a hostile planet and the secret role of the Martian moon Phobos....about which I can say little, without doing a huge spoiler. All well handled.
If you are one of those readers who thinks that only contemporary fiction of this genre is palatable, I assure you, don't even bother trying this one. If however you have a taste for nostalgia, adventure, quality thinking and salutes to the bravado of mankind, regardless of scientific accuracy, please enjoy this book, on my recommendation.
Some of my other science fiction book reviews:
Rama Revealed
Prelude to Space
Stand on Zanzibar
The Demolished Man
The Stars my Destination
Cat's Cradle
The Gods Themselves
Watchmen
A Canticle for Leibowitz
The Hammer of God
The Left Hand of Darkness
Flowers for Algernon
Lord of Light
Rendevous with Rama
The Tombs of Atuan
The Dispossessed
I am Legend
The Einstein Intersection
Earth Abides
Peace on Earth
The Farthest Shore
Methuselah's Children
A Call to Arms
To your Scattered Bodies Go
The Lion of Comarre / Against the Fall of Night
To Say Nothing of the Dog
The Doomsday Book
Frankenstein Unbound
Batman - The Dark Knight Returns
Imperial Earth
A Case of Conscience
Solaris
The Sands of Mars
The Land of Laughs
Eden
His Masters Voice
Citizen of the Galaxy
King David's Spaceship
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Double Star
The Fabulous Riverboat
Songs of Distant Earth
Way Station
The Fountains of Paradise
The Long Tomorrow
Lincolns Dreams
Alas Babylon
More Than Human
1984
The Forever War
All the Myriad Ways
I Sing the Body Electric
Gateway
Flow my Tears, the Policeman Said
This Immortal
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Recommended:
Yes
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snpmurray
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Location: Sedona, Arizona
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