Mars Life (Tor Books, 2008), a new novel by Ben Bova, has been published and is now available in bookstores. Following Mars (1992) and Return to Mars (1999), this is his third science fiction book about geologist Jamie Waterman and the human exploration of the Red Planet.A prolific writer who has authored more than one hundred works, Bova is a six-time winner of the Hugo Award and past president of both the National Space Society and the Science Fiction Writers of America.
Here’s a description of Mars Life: Jamie Waterman discovered the cliff dwelling on Mars, and the fact that an intelligent race lived on the red planet sixty-five million years ago, only to be driven into extinction by the crash of a giant meteor. Now the exploration of Mars is itself under threat of extinction, as the ultraconservative New Morality movement gains control of the U.S. government and cuts off all funding for the Mars program.
Meanwhile, Carter Carleton, an anthropologist who was driven from his university post by unproven charges of rape, has started to dig up the remains of a Martian village. Science and politics clash on two worlds as Jamie desperately tries to save the Mars program and uncover who the vanished Martians were.
A 25-page excerpt of Mars Life is available at Bova’s website and he discusses the issue of financing space exploration in an interview with ColoradoBiz Magazine.
A review by John Joseph Adams is posted on Sci Fi Wire.
Conveniently, the publication of Mars Life coincides with the real world debate as to whether NASA’s Phoenix Mars Mission has discovered life on Mars. Bova speaks to both in "How would we react to Martian life?", his most recent column for the Naples Daily News.
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2 comments:
Welcome Back! Bova's new book looks very good.
-Dave Tackett
Dave, thanks. As Dorothy used to say "There's no place like home." Bova's new book is pretty good, I'm about 1/3 of the way through it. Thanks for the tip on Jones' "The Memory of Mars."
Paul
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