FACT SF Reading Group

June 2002

June 4: Mars Crossing by Geoffrey A. Landis

This meeting was held at the home of Charles and Willie Siros. Twelve people attended, and one submitted comments by email. Our topic was Mars Crossing, the first novel by Geoffrey Landis. Landis is a real-life space scientist and a prolific author of short SF. Mars Crossing tells the story of the third manned mission to Mars in the year 2028. The first two missions, sent by Brazil and the USA, had been spectacularly unsuccessful, failing to return a single crewmember back to Earth. The purpose of the third mission is to use up the rest of the rapidly diminishing budget for manned exploration and to try to demonstrate that it is possible for people to visit Mars and return home. Almost immediately after landing, the crew discovers an unfixable problem with the return vehicle. In a desperate plan, they travel to the sites of previous expeditions and try to salvage enough supplies and parts to get at least some of them home. During the course of the journey, extensive flashback sequences show how each astronaut came to be on the mission. All of us had started the book, but two did not finish it.

It was fun to read a hard SF novel written by a real scientist. The science in the book was well thought out and believable, and from the author’s background we were sure it was accurate. We enjoyed reading an insider’s anecdotes about the training of an astronaut and life on a long mission. The details of the Martian environment were vividly described, and several of us enjoyed the scene where the crew passes by the Pathfinder site. We liked the travelogue nature of the story.

We had problems with the astronaut characters. In general we found them to be boring people who were hard to care about. A couple of them had lied on their resumes to get on the mission, and we found it unbelievable that they weren’t uncovered by NASA background checks. The crew members did not seem to know each other well and did not work well as a team, which we found hard to believe for a group that had been together most of a year.

The story disappointed most of us. One person felt the book read like "a cross between a National Geographic special and a JPL puff piece". The rescue story was too simple to sustain our interest at novel length. Eventually a "locked room murder" mystery is introduced into the story, but we found this did not fit with the rest of the book. Most of us figured out the killer’s identity early. The "final revelation" at the end had little payoff.

Overall we found Mars Crossing to be a flawed novel with interesting bits. Many of us had read and enjoyed Landis’s short fiction, so we felt that he’s still learning how to write a novel. After the meeting we had a nice dinner at Threadgill’s.

June 18: Eternity's End by Jeffrey Carver

Eleven people attended this meeting at the home of Jeff Hurst and Judy Strange. Our topic of discussion was Eternity’s End, a futuristic space opera by Jeffrey Carver. The book tells the story of Renwald Legroeder, a star rigger whose ship is captured by space pirates. The crew is forced into slavery, but Legroeder eventually escapes. When he returns to his home planet, he discovers that he has been accused of collaborating with the space pirates. To clear his name, Legroeder must lead a daring mission to infiltrate a space pirate base. Eight people at the meeting had started the book, and six had finished it.

Several of us thought this book was a tremendous amount of fun. We enjoyed reading a fast-paced SF adventure novel. It follows an old-fashioned tradition established by Doc Smith and Jack Williamson, but with a more modern writing style and more three-dimensional characters. The plot was a suspenseful and fun ride, and we found the pace picked up throughout the whole book. The book offers some interesting speculation about the future of the Internet. We enjoyed the concept of "flux" (a means of traveling faster than light speed), and several of us thought the scenes of flux travel were reminiscent of the dimension hopping in Zelazny’s Amber novels. We liked the Legroeder character and enjoyed reading about his daring escapes and romances. One person who’d read prior Carver novels appreciated the appearance of major characters from Star Rigger’s Way as supporting characters in this book.

A few in the group felt that Eternity’s End was just not their type of book. One person complained about too many characters, locations, and plot threads. Another wanted more background on Legroeder’s character. The length of book intimidated some folks, prompting one person to read the book in hardback because it had fewer pages than the paperback edition.

While we had mixed feelings about Eternity’s End, most people who liked the book enjoyed it a great deal. After the meeting, we had an unimpressive dinner at Thomas Super Buffet.

-- A. T. Campbell, III