Mars from the Hubble…

A local news item last week caught my fancy. It was a story about a young woman from Eugene, Oregon, who has applied to be one of the first people to colonize Mars. A company called Mars One is planning to establish human settlements on Mars, starting in 2024. Crews of four will leave Earth for Mars every two years, and this young lady is one of 1000 people to make the first cut for the first flight. I admire her dream and her courage! What a fascinating idea! Here comes the Future!

The news item couldn’t have been more timely for me because I just finished reading Ray Bradbury’s, The Martian Chronicles, which is a classic science fiction book about that very thing — humans colonizing Mars. I wonder if this young woman has read the book? I wonder if the people in charge of the Mars One organization have read it? I hope so because I think it would be an important book for them all to read before they leave Earth to establish those human settlements on the Red Planet.

Bradbury, himself, narrated the audiobook version I listened to, and I enjoyed listening to his voice. The best parts of all, however, were his comments at the end of each story explaining his writing process and/or the inspiration for that story.

The book is a series of stories told chronologically, each separate yet with references to happenings or people in the other stories. The first story is about the arrival on Mars of the first humans and of their immediate demise. Each subsequent story is about another group of settlers, a larger group each time, and the problems they face with the planet, and the native Martian population, and with each other.

I was expecting a more fanciful, plot-driven, movie-like story about Mars and Martians, but the book is really a very insightful exploration of what it means to be Human. Ray Bradbury has the eye of a sociologist but the heart of a poet, so his stories and creativity are wonderful to experience and leave you with a deeper understanding of the human condition. This book was somewhat awkward at times, and one story, in particular, was very disturbing to read (a story that is definitely politically and culturally incorrect in today’s world.) So I gave the book only 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads, but I’ve discovered it’s one of those books that lingers. I’ve thought a lot about it since I finished it, and like it more now than I did when I finished the final page.

I chose this book for Carl V’s 2014 Sci-Fi Experience, and I really enjoyed the reading experience. It’s certainly a book that gets you thinking, and that’s why I hope it would be required reading for anyone seriously contemplating relocating to Mars!

Carl V’s January/February Sci Fi Experience challenge is always fun and a ray of sunshine in the middle of cold, dark winter.  This year I did some reading, and my husband and I watched a variety of really interesting movies and some great TV series for it this challenge, and so we both enjoyed it!  Thank you, Carl, for hosting it again this year.  Here’s a summary of my Sci Fi Experience 2010:

Books:

1. Journey Between Worlds, by Sylvia Louise Engdahl
2. Moon-Flash, by Patricia A. McKillip
3. The Moon and the Face, by Patricia A. McKillip

Movies & TV Series:

1. Doctor Who: Blink (from the British TV series)
2. 9
3. District 9
4. Star Trek, (J.J. Abrahms)
5. Life on Mars (the British TV series)
6. Flash Forward (TV series)

Journey Between Worlds, by Sylvia Louise Engdahl, is a science fiction book for young adults. It’s a coming of age story, a romance, but more than that it is a book that really gets you thinking about space travel and colonization.

From a review by Marianne Dyson on the National Space Society website:

Space enthusiasts will find all their arguments for settling space and colonizing Mars articulated in the pages of this book. Yet no technical knowledge or expertise is required to appreciate the straightforward and realistic story of a young woman reconsidering the options for her future.

I really enjoy Sylvia Engdahl’s science fiction novels. Her ideas about the future are insightful and thought-provoking, and the stories she tells are equally well thought-out and written. Last year, I read her wonderful award-winning book, Enchantress From the Stars. So this year, for Carl V’s Sci Fi Experience, I decided to read another one of her books, and I was not disappointed. I appreciated her sensitive and honest descriptions of a young woman growing up, and this story really makes you believe that the colonization of Mars is just around the corner.

I admit to being a long-time fan of the science fiction series, Doctor Who, having gotten hooked on it because our son loved it way back when.  (I even knit the boy a Doctor Who scarf, á la Tom Baker –although I didn’t quite finish it, it was soooo long and took forever to knit. Sorry, Dan!)  Well, B and I have recently gotten hooked on the newer Doctor Who series that started in 2005, and have been watching them all on DVDs.  We loved Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Doctor, and David Tennant as the tenth Doctor. Last night we watched what is now my favorite Doctor Who episode thus far: Blink.  It was so creative, and such a great time-traveler story. I’m not surprised to discover that it won a number of awards, including the Hugo Award in 2008.

It’s a perfect fit for my Sci Fi Experience — Carl V’s fun January-February challenge — because it was creative and fun, and a great Sci Fi experience!