One Day on Mars by Travis Taylor (2007)

Travis Taylor’s new book, One Day on Mars (2007, Baen), was published in hard cover earlier this month.

An astronomer and aerospace engineer who has worked for the Dept. of Defense and NASA, Taylor is currently working on “several advanced propulsion concepts, very large space telescopes, space-based beamed energy systems, and next generation space launch concepts.” This is his second fiction novel about Mars, having co-authored Von Neumann’s War with John Ringo (2006, Baen).

Here’s a description of One Day on Mars, taken from Taylor’s website: “It's 24 on Mars: a nonstop futuristic thrill-ride, all in one day, through the critical events which were the breaking point for the underclass of Martian citizens and precipitated a revolution to break the Martian colonists free from the formidable Sol System government. The formerly red planet-now in danger of again becoming red, blood red-would never be the same, nor would the human race. It was one day that changed the course of history for the Solar System, raging from hand-to-hand combat to piloted armored mecha suits clashing to an enormous space battle, with dedicated heroes on both sides of the conflict wondering if they were doing the right thing-and if they would live to see another day. And wondering, as well, if the spark of this new war, that would eventually reach across whole star systems, would bring them peace One Day on Mars.”

The first six chapters of the book are available at Baen’s website.

Additional information about the book and Taylor is available at his website. Note that this past summer Taylor gave a lecture, “Putting the Hard Science in Science Fiction,” at the Decatur Public Library, Decatur, Alabama.

Speaking of hard science: According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the length of one Martian day is 24 hours and 37 minutes.

Taylor's sequel to One Day on Mars, titled The Tau Ceti Agenda, is due out in May 2008.