The martian race (original 1999; edition 1999)

Billionaire's boys and girls beat NASA by parsimony and corporate propaganda.

A novel that details the first trip to Mars by a manned crew. This is done as cheap and as feasibly as possible by an idealistic and enterprising rich guy, who realises that but cutting out some super keen safety margins and using osme existing stuff they can do it 'cheap', that being a relative term when you are talking about manned spaceflight. it also involves cramming in more advertising than a Formula One driver carries.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/06/martian-race-gregory-benford.html ( )

http://www.sfreader.com/read_review.asp?ID=127 ( )

The Martian Race tells the story of the first manned mission to Mars.

It is a light read and an interesting look at how such a mission might proceed. The storytelling is fairly straightforward. There's no contrived drama the way there is in many books of this type. The characters get along and do their jobs about as well as could be expected and there's no grandstanding and no 'nefarious dealings'. This made quite a pleasant change - I kept waiting for one of the characters to do something essentially out of character just to "add drama" but it didn't happen.

This book doesn't provide the detail that a book like Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars does - but is an easier read for that.

One aspect of the book that amused and rang very true was that the mission was funded by a private consortium rather than NASA. The astronauts became, by necessity, media stars - and sponsorship deals were everything. Picture Astronauts taking that first historic step onto mars, then holding up a Mars Bar for the cameras. ( )