This feels like throw
back science fiction which may be an oxymoron.
The story is about the first manned mission to Mars. It had the feel of the stories I read as a
child which was a long, long time ago in the far, far away.
The most dismaying and
probably accurate factor in the story was the way politics impact something as
important as space exploration. A
President who believes that the world needs a space frontier to both unite it and
provide hope is opposed by a self serving senator who want to be
President. This would be trite if it
wasn't so realistic. You can't pick up
the paper (age showing) or read news on the net without an example of political
corruption. As I write this, the TV news
is discussing a Texas
governor's indictment. We have to
accept that we live in an imperfect world and hope that the general population
can be made to understand how important a viable frontier is to our national
psychic.
Probably obvious that
the book was preaching to the choir.
The technology and industry already jump started by our space program
should make it so obvious that space exploration is hardly a waste of
money. With the short sighted poltical
climate in DC we have to hope that private industry can demonstrate successful
space flight and perhaps shame Congress into providing support.
This book is a
novelization of my diatribe above.
I enjoyed the book and
Ben Bova's periodic editorials in the Naples Daily News.
Web: http://www.benbova.com/
http://www.lesjohnsonauthor.com/
This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.
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