The Martian Race (ISBN 0446608904)

Amazon.com Review:
Esteemed Mars guru Bob Zubrin calls The Martian Race "one of the finest novels about human exploration of the Red Planet ever written. "But then again, Bob is a character in the book (albeit in the briefest of cameos), so what else could he possibly say? That notwithstanding, Zubrin's right--he couldn't have picked a better book to show his face in. By popular assent, Martian Race deserves top honors among the millennial wave of Mars exploration tales, propelled as it is by the skillful storytelling of physics doyen Gregory Benford, a Campbell and two-time Nebula winner. Martian Race is near-future SF, set in the twenty-teens (just before Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars saga kicks off), which may contribute to its being a bit of a slow starter; this is realistic, nuts-and-bolts speculation on a mission using pretty basic technology. But the pace picks up considerably as our heroes--the likable Julia and her Russky hubby Viktor and crew, backed by the Mars Consortium and its biotech billionaire CEO John Axelrod--begin to duke it out with a Euro-Sino concern to claim the $30 billion Mars Prize and, of course, get back from the Red Planet in one piece. Benford's work throughout is engaging and thorough, exploring every aspect of why we should make this trip at all (and even a few arguments against it, like Mars Bar marketing tie-ins). --Paul Hughes

Perhaps not fiction for too much longer ... we can but hope!:
Congress just couldn't stomach NASA's estimated $450 billion price tag to send a manned mission to Mars. So the USA and a group of other interested countries agreed on a different approach - a $30 billion prize to the first people that went to Mars and returned with a completed set of specified scientific explorations including geologic mapping, seismic testing, studies of atmospheric phenomena, core samples and, of course, searches for water, fossils and life. This was obviously much more than a flash and grab mission in the style of the first moon landings where the objective was to basically plant the flag and return. The stakes were enormous but, of course, so were the risks and there didn't seem to be any takers until a private consortium headed by flashy billionaire entrepreneur, John Axelrod, took up the challenge. Julia and her husband, Victor, along with Marc and Raoul, a team of ex-NASAnauts, hired on as crew for the mission found themselves facing a similar operation from China that had also tossed their entry into the ring. "The Martian Race" was on in earnest. Set only in the very early 21st century, the familiarity and apparent reality of Benford's novel is breathtaking - the politics and governmental interference; the buffoonery of political protests launched by any number of right and left wing fringe groups with a variety of axes to grind; the media coverage and the outpouring of world adulation for the team's "right stuff"; the real hard core valuable first time scientific research; the money-grubbing and the commercial offshoots of the entire venture; the legal squabbling over contracts and the prize money; the hard core mechanics of how the landing is achieved; the daily crises, dangers and emergencies; the psychology of extended living in confined quarters; the inevitable boondoggles associated with such a mammoth undertaking and much, much more. As Julia was conducting some analysis protocols on samples obtained in an out-gassing vent on Mars to determine whether they were organic in nature or, perhaps even more exciting, whether they constituted Martian life, dead or alive, the tension was palpable and I found myself turning pages at a frantic pace. Who would have thought it possible for an author to inject that much excitement into a laboratory experiment? Benford's dialogue was consistently witty, credible and germane to every situation and sounded appropriate in the mouth of each speaker - business-like yet casually slick for the entrepreneur, Axelrod; earthy, warm and romantic for Julia and Viktor as lovers, yet curt and workmanlike in the context of their roles as scientists and astronauts. Descriptive moments (not something I'd look for in a sci-fi entry that was so obviously geared to the hard side of the genre!) were beautiful and approached poetic in their eloquence: "A ruby radiance suffused the horizon and above it rose a lustrous blue-white dot. Earthrise. A resplendent smudge, brimming brighter than Venus. She peered closely and could make out the small white point to one side. The only primary-and-moon visible to the naked eye in the solar system. Until now, that tiny little interval had been the full extent of the human reach. On the bigger creamy-blue dot, a million years of hominid drama had been acted out, blood and dreams playing on a stage a few miles thick, under a blanket of forgiving air." The climax ... an eloquent statement of Benford's clear hope that "The Martian Race", should it come to pass, would result in a new Martian race, as it were - one based in teamwork and cooperation and a new paradigm of exploration and cooperative problem-solving that has thus far eluded the best intentions of an earthbound mankind. Bravo, Gregory Benford! A magnificent tale! Paul Weiss

Mars-The way it probably will be:
In THE MARTIAN RACE, Gregory Benford has created what is probably going to be the most realistic portrayal of our first manned expedition to Mars. The inevitable comparisons to Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy and Ben Bova's Mars and it's sequel are bound to follow. What Benford brings to this already thoroughly explored genre is a fresh, realistic and very scientifically accurate adventure that should please fans of hard SF everywhere. The title of the novel originally derives from a competiton that is set up with a 30 Billion dollar prize to the first expedition that can reach Mars, extract new scientific information, and return to Earth successfully. The expedition is funded by billionaire John Axelrod who stretches his finances to the limit in pursuit of the 30 billion dollar prize and is as tight with his purse strings as any corporate CEO would be. There were a number of aspects to this novel that set it apart and made it better than previous Mars novels-the main one being the depth of Benford's characters. Each one has their private motivations for being part of the crew and the changes and accomodations they have to go through including overcoming their own personal shortcomings made this novel very realistic. The other strength of this novel lies in the manner in which Benford deals with all the side effects of a Mars expedition-the politics,the fringe groups, the media exploitation, etc. This book does not gloss over or candy coat any of the problems or opposition a scientific effort of this magnitude is going to encounter. Several critics of this novel have complained about the pacing, but again I belive this just adds to the realism of this novel. The actual journey to Mars is going to be a tedious one and the scientific research is going to be painstaking and is detailed very accurately by Benford. With enough suprises and twists and turns and very powerful descriptions of the Martian landscape this is a solid page turner and one of Benford's very best efforts to date. If you want to read how our first expedition to Mars is likely to happen-then pick up a copy of the Martian Race-you won't be disappointed

Mars the bold way !:
This book is an outstanding account of a manned Mars mission the way it could occur in a very near future, less than fifteen years ... provided there is a political will and a willingness to take risks to explore new worlds, not just to circumnavigate the Earth. I enjoyed it very much. The scientific and technical sides are very accurate and based on the famous Mars Direct plan of visionary space engineer Robert Zubrin. I think this book serves as a reminder that the age of the great explorations of the past is not over, far from it. We can make it happen again, and even more exciting than it was a few centuries ago!

Imagine the X Prize for Mars Exploration:
After Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars), science fiction novels about Mars exploration became quite common; and, most of them were just that common and derivative and paled in comparison to Robinson's epic trilogy. But, finally there is a worthy successor with the release of Gregory Benford's The Martian Race. The Martian Race is an exciting take on a near future where one more fatal accident in the space program has left NASA canceling its Mars Exploration program that was considered the front runner in claiming a $30 billion international prize for the first successful exploration mission to the red planet. But, the void left by NASA's exit is filled by an eccentric billionaire who leverages everything to to hire away NASA's best astronauts, buy up its hardware (including the return vehicle already parked on Mars, but exposed to the harsh Martian atmosphere), and launch a stripped down effort to make the launch window before it closes for two years. Benford has divided up the storytelling in a way that sucks the reader into the excitement of the exploration effort, while using flashbacks to tell the story of how the scrappy effort succeeding launching and the trials and tribulations they faced in doing so, as well as the Chinese program that rose as competition in a fog of secrecy. Told from the perspective of astronaut Julia Barth, this tale brings the reader along for the ride as the mission both discovers amazing things on Mars and suffers potentially fatal setbacks such as corrosion of the return vehicle that needs make-shift repairs so they can attempt to return home. Benford has modeled his mission after Robert Zubrin's Mars First plans and designs, a mission design that many find quite doable and a better approach than any effort now being considered. >>>>>>><<<<<<< A Guide to my Book Rating System: 1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper. 2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead. 3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted. 4 stars = Good book, but not life altering. 5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

Not Free SF Reader:
Billionaire's boys and girls beat NASA by parsimony and corporate propaganda. A novel that details the first trip to Mars by a manned crew. This is done as cheap and as feasibly as possible by an idealistic and enterprising rich guy, who realises that but cutting out some super keen safety margins and using osme existing stuff they can do it 'cheap', that being a relative term when you are talking about manned spaceflight. it also involves cramming in more advertising than a Formula One driver carries.