theotherguy
Newbie
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2003
- Messages
- 5,107
- Reaction score
- 1
I bought this series on audiobook to listen to on the 3-day drive to college in Pittsburgh, and I've started listening to the first book. I have to say, this book is the most realistic portrayal of space travel and planetary settlement in a novel that I have ever read. Not only does the author describe Mars and space in a scientifically accurate way, but all the engineering solutions that he details are precisely the solutions that NASA has come up with to get the first Mars colony up and running.
When I did a brief internship last summer at NASA, we did a mock Mars mission and had to come up with solutions to problems like a 6-month space flight, lethal radiation, dust storms, extreme cold, and lack of water and materials that would be encountered on such a mission. If I had read this book beforehand, I would have been much better off! There are no gimmicks here, and no hand-waving. Just hard, plausible science.
Unfortunately, this makes the novel a bit tedious and boring for anyone who doesn't have a background in this sort of thing. But if you want a good hard sci-fi novel, and aren't afraid of a bunch of technical details being thrown at you, I highly recommend this book.
Don't get me wrong, the book isn't all technical details. There are plenty of interpersonal relationships, political struggles, ethical dilemmas, action, war, and instances of satire and allegory along the way.
When I did a brief internship last summer at NASA, we did a mock Mars mission and had to come up with solutions to problems like a 6-month space flight, lethal radiation, dust storms, extreme cold, and lack of water and materials that would be encountered on such a mission. If I had read this book beforehand, I would have been much better off! There are no gimmicks here, and no hand-waving. Just hard, plausible science.
Unfortunately, this makes the novel a bit tedious and boring for anyone who doesn't have a background in this sort of thing. But if you want a good hard sci-fi novel, and aren't afraid of a bunch of technical details being thrown at you, I highly recommend this book.
Don't get me wrong, the book isn't all technical details. There are plenty of interpersonal relationships, political struggles, ethical dilemmas, action, war, and instances of satire and allegory along the way.
