Mining the Oort
by Frederik Pohl
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Mars was harsh and unforgiving, but for the colonists who called it home, its future was as bright as the comets that hung in the night sky, for locked in those icy bodies were the water and gases that would make Mars live again, mined from the vast Oort Cloud beyond Pluto. Young Dekker DeWoe yearned to become an Oort miner. But when he finally arrived on Earth to begin training, the mining project was abruptly canceled. Then he began to hear rumors of a plan to force the restoration of the show more mining -- a plan that would result in the deaths of millions . . . From the Paperback edition. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Mankind has settled Mars, but the colony is struggling and tenuous and expensive. The Martians are told that Mars will be terraformed by dropping comets on it, restoring Mars' atmosphere. However, the project has to be financed by Earth and it is too expensive.... I thought this was interesting and clever.
Mankind has settled Mars, but the colony is struggling and tenuous and expensive. The Martians are told that Mars will be terraformed by dropping comets on it, restoring Mars' atmosphere. However, the project has to be financed by Earth and it is too expensive.... I thought this was interesting and clever. It is very similar to Robinson's Red/Green/Blue Mars series, though much simplified.
This was a quick read. Only 264 pages with a few one paragraph chapters. Pohl knows his science - I even asked Dad (the physicist) about the elevator into orbit and was pleasantly surprised. This coming of age story follows the hero from adolescence to (young) manhood with few surprises. He does get the girl(s) (sort of) and he does save the world. Mr. Pohl's commentary on capitalism and social conditioning make the deep story behind the young hero's adventure what I spent my time on. In all, it seemed a bit "Lite" but I did enjoy the story. Mom would approve of the young man and she will probabbly find this one in her stack. It did make me want to revisit Huck Finn.
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Author Information
640+ Works 42,833 Members
Frederik Pohl was born in New York City on November 26, 1919. More interested in writing than in school, he dropped out of high school in his senior year and took a job with a publishing company. After serving as a public relations officer in the United States Army from 1943 to 1945, he returned to publishing as copywriter for Popular Science, a show more literary agent for several sci-fi writers, and the editor for the magazines Galaxy and If from 1959 until 1969, with If winning three successive Hugo awards. His first published work, a poem entitled Elegy to a Dead Satellite: Luna, was printed in Amazing Stories magazine in 1937 under the pen name Elton Andrews. His first science fiction novels were published in the mid 1960's, some written in collaboration with other writers, others created alone. During his lifetime, he won over 16 major awards for his writing (much of which was published pseudonymously) including six Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards. His works include Gateway, which won the Campbell Memorial, Hugo, Locus SF, and Nebula Awards, Beyond the Blue Event Horizon, and Jem, which won the National Book Award in 1979. He also embraced blogging in his later years, using his online journal as an ongoing sequel to his autobiography, The Way the Future Was. He died on September 2, 2013 at the age 93. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1992
- People/Characters
- Dekker DeWoe
- Important places
- Mars
- First words
- There isn't anything much wrong with Mars that a decent atmosphere wouldn't fix right up.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"At least we can hope, and what else do we need?"
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 284
- Popularity
- 113,406
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (3.42)
- Languages
- English, Spanish
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 2
