MARTE - II (COLECÇÃO NÉBULA #51)

MARTE - II de Ben Bova -- Autor galardoado com o Prémio Hugo. '-' A tripulação internacional da missão Marte, que inclui os melhores cientistas de onze nações, viaja mais de cem milhões de quilómetros, durante nove meses, até chegar ao seu destino. Mas, mesmo antes de os exploradores tocarem na superfície de Marte, as fricções políticas e pessoais ameaçam transformar a missão numa tensa batalha de egos e ideologias. No entanto, acima de tudo isso ergue-se a majestade do Planeta Vermelho. A partir do momento em que os cientistas pisam a superfície marciana e olham para o céu rosado, ficam esmagados pela beleza brutal que lhes é revelada. Pela primeira vez, o homem pisa uma paisagem alienígena, testemunhando incríveis chuvas de meteoros, escalando o grande maciço vulcânico de Társis e enfrentando um misterioso vírus marciano, a caminho do enigmático e espantoso Tirhonium Chasma, onde dão com a mais incrível e chocante descoberta...Geologist Jamie Waterman is a last-minute replacement on the first international Mars landing team. He endures training rigors, personality conflicts, political intrigues, and over 100 million kilometers travel in space. The crew battle an alien landscape and earthbound bureaucrats. Heading toward a chasm over 10 times the Arizona Grand Canyon, they make a shocking find.[From Kirkus Reviews] The Grand Tour #4: Mars, by Ben Bova, (first published January 1992) '-' A bulging, impressive, all-you-ever-wanted-to-know, you-are- there Martian odyssey, from the veteran writer-editor (Cyberbooks, Voyagers, etc.). In about the year 2020, a huge multinational project gets under way, the bulk of it seen through the eyes of young Navaho geologist and Mars-voyage hopeful Jamie Waterman. Unconcerned with traditional science-fictional plotting and melodrama, Bova focuses tightly on the day-to-day, nuts-and-bolts details: the inordinate amount of politicking necessary to get the project off the ground; the vital cooperation and occasional wrangling between the many participating nations (Russian pilots, American software, Japanese technology and money, plus a sprinkling of Europeans); the months of arduous training; more politicking as science and flight-crew teams are selected from the dozens of expectant trainees--Jamie gets the nod because geologist #1 falls ill, and the much-loathed #2 is forced out by his colleagues; the tensions that build up through long months in space. Neither does the exploration of Mars run smoothly. Stepping down onto the red sand, Jamie offends the powers-that-be by lapsing into Navaho instead of parroting a politically correct prepared speech; a British doctor, hot to seduce one of the female crew members, neglects his job; a meteorite shower nearly destroys the explorers' living quarters; Jamie persuades mission control to let him approach a cliff village he's convinced he finds; the explorers fall mysteriously ill; Jamie's Mars buggy falls into a dust bowl while his crew are too weak to haul themselves out. And, well, of course there's life on Mars! Technically accurate and absorbing if somewhat ponderous at times, with questions and answers reliably in balance: a dependable, satisfying foray into science realism. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP.[Wikipedia] The Grand Tour (novel series) is a series of novels written by science fiction author Ben Bova. The novels present a theme of exploration and colonization of the solar system by humans in the late 21st century. Most of the books focus on the exploration of one particular planet or planetary moon. Several recurring themes are presented throughout the series. In particular, most of the solar system bodies whose exploration is the focus of a particular novel are presented as having life, either past or present. Many of the expeditions which explore the planets run into serious difficulty. The protagonists of most of these books are presented as initially weak and/or lacking in ability or confidence, and as part of surviving the trials of the story become heroic.The future humanity as depicted in the Grand Tour novel series is divided between Greens (environmentalists) and wealthy industrialists, as well as between secularists/scientists and religious fundamentalists. These conflicts generally are presented as part of the background and often set up the initial conflicts of each of the books. In addition, several of the books reference, or indeed directly deal with, conflicts between wealthy industrialists and small, independent operators seeking to exploit the solar system's vast untapped mineral wealth. A major theme of the series, which takes center stage in several of the novels, is the search for life on other planets in the solar system. Mars, Mars Life, Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Saturn, Titan, and Leviathans of Jupiter all deal with this issue. The discovery of life in the solar system often leads to conflicts between religious fundamentalists and scientists, with the former seeing the existence of such life as conflicting with their religious doctrines.While each novel can be read independent of the others, and they can be read in any order, there are distinct story arcs within the series. The Moonbase arc (which may also include the Asteroid Wars arc), the Mars books, and the Saturn books, for instance, comprise various sagas within the series...