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| Mars Life | 
 enlarge | Author: Ben Bova
Publisher: Tor Books
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $12.44
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Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 36605
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.5
ISBN: 0765317877
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780765317872
ASIN: 0765317877
Publication Date: August 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Jamie Waterman discovered the cliff dwelling on Mars, and the fact that an intelligent race lived on the red planet sixty-five million years ago, only to be driven into extinction by the crash of a giant meteor. Now the exploration of Mars is itself under threat of extinction, as the ultraconservative New Morality movement gains control of the U.S. government and cuts off all funding for the Mars program.
Meanwhile, Carter Carleton, an anthropologist who was driven from his university post by unproven charges of rape, has started to dig up the remains of a Martian village. Science and politics clash on two worlds as Jamie desperately tries to save the Mars program and uncover who the vanished Martians were.
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| Customer Reviews:
 superb Grand Tour thriller August 9, 2008
6 out of 11 found this review helpful
In his first trip to Mars, Native American geologist Jamie Waterman discovered proof that life existed on the red planet when he found the ruins of cliff dwellings. He wants to return to continue his anthropological studies of the dead Martians, but so far lacks funding.
On earth, the planet suffers from environmental disaster so the government has doubts about research into a dead race on another orb. At the same time religious leaders demand the end to the Martian exploration expedition; claiming heresy and a waste of money on a fake project. When Waterman shows a fossil from the fourth planet from the sun, he places his wife and him in danger from fanatics. Desperate, the couple returns to Mars to save their project.
Part of the superb Grand Tour exploration of the solar system, Ben Bova's RETURN TO MARS with the star of that title and book three MARS, Jamie Waterman, back tying to continue the exploration into a past civilization on the fourth planet. Mindful of the Planet of the Apes after the archaeological find of a talking human doll, Mr. Bova catches the nuances of the politicking of science as the politicians do not want the facts to interfere with the prime objective of reelection and the religious fundamentalists ignore ethical means as only achieving their end goal matters. Readers will appreciate this fine action-packed tale as a beleaguered Jamie cannot comprehend why his find does not propel funding while Mr. Bova makes it lucid where he stands on support to science.
Harriet Klausner
Listen to the wisdom of the Old Ones September 2, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I haven't read a great deal of science fiction in recent years but I grew up on the novels of Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke, and Ben Bova's Mars Life reminds me a whole lot of the style used so successfully by those guys. Those writers were at their peaks in socially simpler times, when the dialogue of books and movies seldom reflected the harsh reality of street language and the raciest sex scenes described were of the relatively tame James Bond style. Their plots were seldom over-complicated, their character types rather predictable and their dialogue not always very realistic sounding. But, taken as a whole, the style worked, and today many of their books are considered to be science fiction classics. So the fact that Mars Life reads like a throwback to that science fiction era is not at all a bad thing.
This book is actually the third in Bova's Mars series but readers like me who have not read the first two books in the series will have no problem reading and enjoying it as a standalone novel. In fact, Mars Life is actually the sixteenth novel in Bova's "Grand Tour" series begun in 1993, which also includes a book of "Grand Tour" stories.
Navajo tribesman, Jamie Waterman, discovered Martian cliff dwellings on his first trip to Mars and has ever since that time dedicated his life to keeping the Mars exploration program focused and well-funded. Now, much to the dismay of Waterman and everyone associated with the program, both governmental and private funding is drying up and the existence of the program is threatened. Partially, that is because the United States government is facing the tremendously complicated and expensive prospect of relocating a substantial portion of its population due to all the flooding caused in recent years by global warming.
But even more importantly, a group of religious fundamentalists known as the New Morality has become so powerful that it can determine the outcome of elections at both the state and national levels by simply choosing whom to support. And New Morality leadership sees the archeological work being done on Mars as such a threat to its core religious beliefs that it wants the whole project shut down. Private donors have been intimidated into withdrawing their support from the Mars program, and the President and members of Congress told to do the same if they want to have any hope of being re-elected.
Mars Life is a race against the clock during which anthropologist Carter Carleton tries to uncover as much of the Martian village and cemetery discovered beneath the cliff dwellings as possible before everyone is forced to leave the planet and Waterman desperately searches for new sources of funding. It is also an intriguing look at what might happen if the clash between science and religion were to get so out of hand that extremists end up with the power to shut down scientific exploration any time that it threatens their shaky religious beliefs, something that seems more and more possible every day.
 Life on Mars October 18, 2008
I had not read the first two books in this series, in fact didn't know there were two previous books until I read the reviews here. Even still, a reader can pick up Mars Life and understand what is going on. I liked the story and thought the happenings on Mars were believable. It was hard to get a sense of how far in the future this was supposed to be. They had ships which could get them to Mars in under a week but computers which didn't seem much different than what we use today. My only real problem with the book was the political stuff back on Earth. The New Morality organization frankly seemed unbelievable to me. Not that I couldn't believe in that such an organization could exist. I couldn't believe that such an organization could gain such power in the United States in so short a time. Also, and this is a minor point, the global warming crisis Earth was handled pretty much as an after thought and suffered therefore from inconsistencies.
One other thing, the plot device to get the priest to Mars was a failure. In fact, the whole subplot involving the priest could have been dropped. I'm guessing he was a major character in perhaps the first book and Bova wanted to wrap-up his history.
Incredible November 4, 2008
Ben Bova's book reminds me a bit of Issac Asimov in the sense that the action takes place in boardrooms and meetings. This is a fabulous read about the frustrations of trying to make science work in a world of fundamental denial.
Bova's first book brought us to Mars. His second made us live in Mars and the third examines what it will take to preserve and cherish the planet. Jamie Waterman, a great character once again returns to salvage an operation rotting from lack of funding. The long awaited discovery of what the Martian village is all about is finally revealed as well as a few other surprises.
The ending, left me with hope and anticipation that the future may indeed be worth living if science is allowed to survive it.
 Predictable and Dull November 16, 2008
I own over a dozen Ben Bova books (including Mars and Return to Mars), so I'm obviously a fan. That doesn't stop me from giving Mars Life a mediocre rating. If you've read Ben Bova's earlier books, you will see that Mars Life contains numerous repetitions of previous themes and plots. This book also has predictable characterizations: Earth politicians are bad, entrepreneurs are good, businesses are half good and half bad, well-rounded scientists are good, tunnel vision scientists are bad, environmentalists are bad, nanotech researchers are good, etc.
The plot of Mars Life is dull and illogical. The Mars colony is endangered by lack of funds. Earth has undergone catastrophic global warming with massive ocean flooding. (I'm really tired of this plot. Note to sci-fi writers: Find something else to write about.) People and countries are fighting for high, fertile land and no one has time or money for Mars. Why is that a big deal? Because the colony is not even close to being self-supporting (though moon colonies have been self-supporting for more than a century). The scientists are doing nothing "Mars-shattering": standard geology, studying extremophile bacteria, and digging up a 64 million-year-old alien village. None of the research is urgent, so why the fuss about funding?
There's a bit more to the plot, but I'll stop now to keep this review from being duller the book.
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