First Landing
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
From renowned Mars visionary Robert Zubrin comes his much-anticipated debut novel. Filled with startling authenticity, First Landing follows humankind’s first manned mission to Mars, a new frontier of undreamed-of possibilities—and nightmarish dangers.
Five are chosen for the landmark mission to Mars—to become the first humans to walk upon the Red Planet. But when their findings set off a wave of controversy and political upheaval back home, public opinion turns against the Mars mission—and an ineffective government leaves the team stranded. As their situation becomes more desperate, all trust is lost in NASA Mission Control. With differences dividing the crew into warring cliques, life-threatening accidents begin to look like sabotage. Yet somehow the crew must try to pull together.
Because if they don’t save themselves, no one will.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Having won plaudits from the likes of Carl Sagan and Arthur C. Clarke for his nonfiction (The Case for Mars, etc.), Zubrin delivers a debut hard SF thriller that balances technical detail with political back-stabbing and intrigue. The crew of the Mars-bound Beagle is the usual oil-and-water mix of stereotypes. Mission Commander Townsend, the quintessential "bomber-jacket-clad ex-fighter jockey," has his hands full keeping rein on his unlikely team: Major Guenevere Llewellyn, no-nonsense coal-miner's daughter and flight mechanic; laid-back Texan Luke Johnson, mission geologist; Dr. Rebecca Sherman, the chief scientist with "the mind of Einstein in the body of the young Kelly McGillis"; and dark horse Kevin McGee, a journalist with the political ties to buy a slot as mission historian. An equipment malfunction possibly sabotage forces a dangerously off-course landing on Mars. Then Dr. Sherman's discovery of primitive bacteria leads to rioting back on Earth as pseudoscience supporters prime a gullible public with fears of alien contamination. As the president and his cronies scramble to avoid the fallout, further sabotage empties the fuel tanks on the Beagle's return vessel. Will the political climate allow for the sending of a resupply ship? Despite a crew seemingly chosen by Hollywood rather than rigorous psychological and scientific processes, and despite the mission's apparent lack of predetermined priorities and research schedules, among other logical inconsistencies, the action quotient is high enough to keep not-too-fussy readers entertained.
