List $25.00

Written by Ben Bova - Performed by Harlan Ellison - Abridged Fiction - 4 CASSETTES

Publisher, Dove Audio (July 1999)

Another blockbuster by the six-time Hugo Award winner of 'Mars.'

The New York Times Book Review says:

Where Bova shines is in making science not only comprehensible but entertaining, as when he explains why explorers on Mars will not have to send their laundry home to be cleaned. It seems that when clothes are left out in the near vacuum on the Martian surface, "the dirt flakes completely off the fabric. And the unfiltered ultraviolet light from the sun sterilizes everything.''

Publishers Weekly says:

The sequel to Bova's popular Mars (1992) returns Navajo Jamie Waterman to the Red Planet as the mission director in tenuous command of a crew of scientists and astronauts jockeying for political power, romantic liaisons and scientific renown. And as anonymous journal entries also indicate, one of the explorers is seriously deranged. Waterman's chief rival on the mission is C. Dexter Trumball, the heir of the man who substantially funded the flight. Trumball has promised his wealthy father that the mission will make money, and he is determined to win his father's love and respect, even if it means turning Mars into a tourist attraction. For ideological reasons, Waterman is equally bent on keeping Mars free of tourists, especially his beloved "cliff dwellings"—a nearly inaccessible structural anomaly that he believes will prove there was once intelligent life on the planet. Waterman must struggle to find the Navajo way of negotiating the crew's various desires and manias. He must also contend with the powers-that-be back on Earth to ensure that scientific concerns continue to supersede crass commercial interests. Bova makes the speculative hard science aspects of this novel vivid and appealing. His characters, however, are less enchanting, and the inclusion of a saboteur seems like overkill, since the environment he describes is more than capable of destroying anyone for simple carelessness. The novel ends with plenty of room for a sequel to pick up and continue the saga.