Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #997044 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 464 pages

From Amazon.com
Esteemed Mars guru Bob Zubrin calls The Martian Race "one of the finest novels about human exploration of the Red Planet ever written. "But then again, Bob is a character in the book (albeit in the briefest of cameos), so what else could he possibly say? That notwithstanding, Zubrin's right--he couldn't have picked a better book to show his face in. By popular assent, Martian Race deserves top honors among the millennial wave of Mars exploration tales, propelled as it is by the skillful storytelling of physics doyen Gregory Benford, a Campbell and two-time Nebula winner.

Martian Race is near-future SF, set in the twenty-teens (just before Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars saga kicks off), which may contribute to its being a bit of a slow starter; this is realistic, nuts-and-bolts speculation on a mission using pretty basic technology. But the pace picks up considerably as our heroes--the likable Julia and her Russky hubby Viktor and crew, backed by the Mars Consortium and its biotech billionaire CEO John Axelrod--begin to duke it out with a Euro-Sino concern to claim the $30 billion Mars Prize and, of course, get back from the Red Planet in one piece. Benford's work throughout is engaging and thorough, exploring every aspect of why we should make this trip at all (and even a few arguments against it, like Mars Bar marketing tie-ins). --Paul Hughes

From Publishers Weekly
With so many Mars novels having been published in recent years, including award-winning fiction by Kim Stanley Robinson and others, it's hard to believe that even a talented writer like Benford (Cosm) could pull off another successful retelling of humanity's first expedition to the Red PlanetAbut he does. In the early 21st century, after NASA's Mars program has been grounded because of a Challenger-like catastrophe, a $30 billion prize is announced to be awarded to the first private organization that can land a spaceship on Mars, do serious science and return in one piece. Enter John Axelrod, eccentric billionaire and space aficionado. His Consortium launches a bare-bones Mars expedition that is closely followed by a Chinese-European attempt, and the race for Mars is on. Landing on the Red Planet, veteran astronaut Julia Barth and her comrades run into difficulties. Their return craft has suffered serious damage and may not be repairable. Even if they can lift off, they discover that their nuclear-powered Chinese-European competitor, although launching later than they did, may have the sheer power necessary to return to Earth first. Then, after months of fruitless searching, Julia discovers evidence of life on Mars. Benford is a solid prose stylist who creates full-toned characters. A practicing physicist, he writes plausible hard SF as well as anyone on the planet, and his portrait of Mars is among the most believable in recent genre literature. His strange and beautiful Martian ecology is so well described, in fact, that most readers will hope to explore it further, in a sequel. (Dec.) scheduled December 3, 1999, touchdown of the Mars Polar Lander.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
After a launching pad disaster shuts down NASA's dreams of sending a manned mission to Mars, astronaut Julia Barth and her teammates find a way to travel to the red planet under the auspices of billionaire John Axelrod, who expects his investment to make a tidy profit. When a rival coalition decides to enter the race to Mars, the trials and tribulations of the privately funded expedition escalate, becoming a battle for survival against the steadily diminishing possibility of a safe return. The author of Timescape brings his copious knowledge of the physics of space travel to bear in a gripping tale of human enterprise and courage that combines a pro-space polemic with sf adventure. Benford's talent for creating issue-driven stories that do not neglect the human element makes him one of the premier crafters of the genre. Highly recommended.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Racing to Mars with a great deal of verve...
I have never read Gregory Benford before, and picked up "The Martian Race" from a bargain-bin pile with a little interest. It strayed to my "to be read" pile, then finally worked its way to the surface.

I am a big fan of Kim Stanley Robinson's "Red Mars" trilogy, and I found "The Martian Race" another strong extrapolation of potential future visits to our brother planet. The team of four sent to Mars - intelligently told through the eyes of the team biologist and the only female of the group - are there not from NASA, not from science, but from the most basic of societal drives: Corporate Sponsorship and Prize Money.

30 Billion to the first team to reach Mars, fulfill a series of scientific requirements, and return. The conflict of the story is multi-levelled: the arrival of a second team trying to beat the first to the prize, the "mere survival" conflict of four humans trying to survive on Mars, and then a further twist that I don't want to ruin by mentioning.

All in all, "The Martian Race" was an enjoyable reading experience, with enough "real science" to feel entirely plausible. The plot curves catch you unaware, but don't feel overly contrived, and the fantastical element that becomes the third conflict is wonderfully crafted.

The only real frustrations I had with the book were, as another reviewer mentioned, a rather weak ending, and a few occasions where I felt a few characters suddenly acted out of character for what we'd seen of them so far. Regardless, you won't be let down with "The Martian Race," especially if you enjoyed Robinson's "Mars" trilogy.

'Nathan

Mildly interesting science fiction
Not great, not bad. The characters are mildly sympathetic and the story is mildly interesting, but nothing about the book is particularly affecting. I'd recommend it to someone who had read the genre extensively and was looking for a slightly different take on near-term space exploration. I did find the inclusion of real-life persons as characters somewhat fawning, but nowhere near as bad as Niven's Fallen Angels.

A note on the workmanship of the book itself: The edition I purchased was from Warner Books (Aspect), and fairly new (no more than a year old, I'd estimate). The binding was so poorly done that the cover fell off before I was halfway through the book, and the pages themselves separated from the main body as they were read. While I fully expect paperbacks to be of lesser quality than hardcover editions, I expect them to at least make it through the initial reading. I will certainly think twice before buying another Warner Book.

Binding Falls Apart
An excellent story ruined by the WORST binding effort I have ever seen. The book literally fell to pieces in my hand after only a few pages. I guess it says something about the story that I even bothered to fight to the end of it. No chance of a re-read. Unless you're willing to deal with loose 25 page sections, I would just look for a copy at the library. It will not survive to become part of your collection.