Web novel: The Mars Run by Chris Gerrib

Originally written in 2001 and inspired in part by childhood memories of reading books about rockets
at his local library in small-town Illinois, The Mars Run (2006) is a self-published novel by Chris Gerrib. You can read the entire novel online at Gerrib’s website, or purchase it through Amazon or Lulu.com.

Here’s a description of The Mars Run. Please note the story contains strong language and sexual content.

“In 2071, Janet Pilgrim, a recent high school graduate, suddenly finds herself unable to afford college, thanks to her father's financial mismanagement. Faced with the fear of dying of embarrassment if she goes to a junior college, she looks for a way out. After considering joining the Army, she stumbles on the solution to her problems -- becoming an astronaut on a commercial space ship.

But by 2071, “astronaut” is only slightly more glamorous then “truck driver” is today. But the money is good, and one run to Mars -- the
"armpit of the Solar System" will fund several years of college. Even better, she won’t have to face her friends. Unfortunately, being an astronaut can be dangerous, as she discovers when a friend dies in a training accident, the first of many dangers.”

Quite a few readers and critics have voiced their opinions about The Mars Run, as Gerrib details on his website. According to artist and writer Ron Miller, The Mars Run “reads very much like a three-way cross between early Heinlein, Joe Haldeman and Allen Steele. ... What the book really is represents the very best of what science fiction is really all about: human beings. And that's where its great strength lay: in the vivid, realistic depiction of its characters, in particular Gerrib's heroine, Janet Pilgrim.”

Chris Gerrib recently attended WindyCon 35 in Illinois. Read all about it in his LiveJournal.