The SF Site Featured Review: How to Live on Mars: A Trusty Guidebook to Surviving and Thriving on the Red Planet
Robert Zubrin How to Live on Mars: A Trusty Guidebook to Surviving and Thriving on the Red Planet review science fiction SF scifi sci-fi books
Rodger Turner
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Could we live on other planets? Is it possible? Human ingenuity has always thrived to grow and expand our boundaries. But which worlds could support us? And how? All this and more is answered in this remarkable well explained guidebook that gives you the do's and don'ts of living on Mars.

Having been written well in the 22nd century, Robert Zubrin's book is part humor and part science. Taking the reader through the various stages of not only getting to Mars, but once there how to achieve a habitat, means of transportation and becoming self-sufficient in creating one's own materials from basic Martian elements, the book is a complete analysis and it's quite obvious not only has Zubrin done his research but he wholeheartedly believes in what he writes.

It's also quite evident that he has little to no respect for the folks at NASA and JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) as he repeatedly criticizes their "past" attempts to get to the moon, from mold-growing space stations, to the "ridiculous" idea that the moon was worth visiting. However, his arguments are sound and learned, so even if you might disagree, you can't fault his logic.

There is also a nice "future history" of Mars included. Featuring such references to Becky Sherman, the explorer who first discovered pre-bacteria on Mars, the signing of the Martian Declaration of Independence and the founding of a full fledged Martian city, Zubrin does create a believable Mars that seems quite possible to inhabit.

There are several levels of humor in the read as well, from a section on silly ways Martian "newbies" have died, how to pick up a possible mate on Mars, and a very compelling sell to buy stock and join up with the Ares Asteroidal, Zubrin's own (fictitious) company that is making financial, social and political leaps and bounds ahead of the Mars Authority.

And, yes, there is science involved as well, but the reader is warned with a Technical Note that High Science Content is coming. And Zubrin does make it quite easy to understand as well so it's nothing to fear.