A City on Mars
Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?
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4.0 • 63 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
* THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Winner of the Hugo Award * Scientific American’s #1 Book for 2023 * Winner of Royal Society's Trivedi Prize * A Guardian Best Book of 2024 * A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * A Times Best Science and Environment Book of 2023 * A Tor.com Best Book of 2023 *
“Exceptional. . . Forceful, engaging and funny . . . This book will make you happy to live on this planet — a good thing, because you’re not leaving anytime soon.” —New York Times Book Review
From the bestselling authors of Soonish, a brilliant and hilarious off-world investigation into space settlement
EARTH IS NOT WELL. The promise of starting life anew somewhere far, far away—no climate change, no war, no doomscrolling—beckons, and settling the stars finally seems within our grasp. Or is it? Critically acclaimed, bestselling authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith set out to write the essential guide to a glorious future of space settlements, but after years of research, they aren’t so sure it’s a good idea. Space technologies and space businesses are progressing fast, but we lack the knowledge needed to have space kids, build space farms, and create space nations in a way that doesn’t spark conflict back home. In a world hurtling toward human expansion into space, A City on Mars investigates whether the dream of new worlds won’t create nightmares, both for settlers and the people they leave behind. In the process, the Weinersmiths answer every question about space you’ve ever wondered about, and many you’ve never considered:
Can you make babies in space? Should corporations govern space settlements? What about space war? Are we headed for a housing crisis on the Moon’s Peaks of Eternal Light—and what happens if you’re left in the Craters of Eternal Darkness? Why do astronauts love taco sauce? Speaking of meals, what’s the legal status of space cannibalism?
With deep expertise, a winning sense of humor, and art from the beloved creator of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, the Weinersmiths investigate per-haps the biggest questions humanity will ever ask itself—whether and how to become multiplanetary.
Get in, we’re going to Mars.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"There is no urgent need to settle space" and "most of the pro-settlement arguments are wrong," argue Kelly Weinersmith, a behavioral ecology professor at Rice University, and her cartoonist husband Zach in the wickedly irreverent follow-up to their 2017 collaboration, Soonish. They contend it will likely take centuries to overcome the logistical challenges—including the development of long-term waste management systems and laws to settle conflicts over sovereignty—posed by establishing a colony on Mars, the moon, or a free-floating space station. The Weinersmiths explore other critical issues, such as how to have sex in reduced gravity ("The physics will be a little tricky because every action has an equal and opposite reaction") and generate energy (harnessing solar power on Mars would be complicated by the fact that "the day is about half as bright" as on Earth). They also gleefully tear down frequently cited reasons for settling space, suggesting that "leaving a 2°C warmer Earth for Mars," which has an average surface temperature of -60°C, "would be like leaving a messy room so you can live in a toxic waste dump." The cheeky tone is loads of fun, and Zach's humorous illustrations of, for instance, contraptions proposed to facilitate zero-gravity sex, entertain. It adds up to a boisterous takedown of techno-utopianism. Illus.
Customer Reviews
Not recommended
If you are interested in space settlement and Mars settlement, do not get this book. If you are not interested in space settlement, do not get this book. It is poorly written partly because the authors lack knowledge, experience, or training in this area. It has too much sarcasm for my taste. Many of the arguments are silly and unjustified. The cartoons neither good nor useful (one of the authors claims to be a cartoonist).
They seem to think that lawyers should decide the rules and laws before anyone embarks on a Mars settlement scheme. Do they not know that any new advance occurs on its own and the layers only come afterwords to reduce the abuses of the new advancement? The endeavor will occur before the lawyers.
No lawyers in space
This book is very negative on technology and very positive on lawyers in space. Exactly backwards on what we want for our future. More technology and exp;oration and less to no lawyers.