Customer Reviews

Beachhead.

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Though not a masterpiece, rather simple, and at times naive, that story entertained me. It's got enough of driven people, betrayals, romances, and action to make it poignant. Who may be more forlorn than stranded people on Mars? Jilted such a long way from Earth, what could you do? Would you survive? What for?

Initially drawn into the book by it's premise, author and foward by Arthur C. Clarke, I thought Beachhead would take me on a remarkable journey to colonize the planet Mars. The book started well enough, even though I felt that the main characters were generic or stereotypical: a rich boy, perfect women with green eyes and untrustworthy eastern Europeans. Background info for each character is dotted throughout the entire book, even within the last 10%. Strange as it may be, I thought that type of character introduction worked well, however choppy it seemed. Choppy, as well, was the plot. The five months on the Ares spacecraft was summerized in only a small chapter, not exploring difficulties the crew faced in such a closed environment. The plot would jump from a action, skipping detail, and ending straight up at the result. There was no prose behind the between.

Choppy would be an understatement for the final 15% of the book. Details are skipped over as if the the last 15% of the book had been heavily edited out by at least three-quarters. The plot takes huge leapfrogs, which left me 1) scrathing my head in disbelief, 2) groping for the credibility of such a leap and 3) details for how the transition happened.

Regardless of all the above, the story was satisfactory. At times the heart goes out for the settlers through the betrayal, hardships and joys.

In Jack Williamson's Beachhead, humanity finally plants its first steps on Mars...though not without much strife. Not only is the planet harsh and unyielding, but internal, and often-times petty, conflict among the first crew threaten to tear apart the dream of a stable Martian colony.

Beachhead was published in the early 1990's, at approximately the same time as several other stories written about the Red Planet by other authors. Beachhead does not hold its own when compared to Robinson's Mars Trilogy or even Bova's Mars. There is simply no grand sense of wonder; and little detailed exploration of this new frontier as was present in the similar stories just noted. Though Williamson does introduce at least one new idea. A member of the first crew to arrive at Mars is a complete coward...not something I would have thought to include had I been writing this story.

On the upside, the plot does move along relatively easily...at least once the story gets moving after the first quarter of the book or so. One does end up feeling something for the characters' plight in the latter half of the book and hope that events turn out in their favor. But again, the overall sense of WE ARE HERE is simply missing.

I am normally a big fan of this subgenre...but this book just didn't do it for me. On the whole, Beachhead is only worth picking up if you are a die-hard scifi or Mars exploration (and I use this term loosely) fan.