My Trip To Mars...

I just finished reading Mars by Ben Bova. Excellent read! I literally feel like I just got back from a harrowing adventure to the red planet. Which attests to the author's incredible adeptness at painting such a believable version of what it would be like to explore the dusty, craggy, freezing planet. The vivid characters, the shady politics, the meddlesome media--all contributed to the authenticity of this story.

Here's a taste: (Keep in mind, the characters are searching for the existence of life on Mars.)

Jamie stood as tall as his suit would allow and gazed out toward the beckoning horizon, his back to the dome and the others. Even inside the hard shell of his suit he strove to get a feeling for this Martian landscape, a sense of harmony with this strange new world.

Then he saw a patch of green.

Ooooh ahhhh. I just about peed my pants at that point. And now I want to go back. I want to pee some more. I want to write my name in the red sand. Okay, I'm getting carried away. But I do want to go to Mars again. Which is quite possible, since Ben Bova has written a book called Return to Mars.

The problem is that it's part of the Grand Tour series which consists of about fifteen novels, two of which are between Mars and Return to Mars. So you can see my dilemma: I can't just skip over Moonrise and Moonwar--to do so would go against my neurotic sense of order. The universe would be thrown completely out of whack.

So, instead, I decided to read something completely different. Something a little more down to Earth. Details in the right hand column.

Here are some of the great predictions Ben Bova has made throughout his career:

1) Space race of the 1960s
2) Solar power satellites
3) Organic chemicals in interstellar space
4) Virtual reality
5) Strategic defense initiative
6) International peacekeeping force
7) Electronic books
8) Water on the moon
9) Life on mars
10) Sex in zero gravity (I'm not kidding)