Ben Bova weaves a compelling, realistic tale of man's first mission to Mars. This is a plot-line that has been pretty well beaten to death, but Bova has created a story that, I think, explores the complexities and possibilites of our first exploration of the Red Planet. The strength of this books is definitely in character development. The main character, Jamie Waterman, is a geologist whose father is a well-educated Navaho indian, and his mother from a wealthy family in New England. This type of character could easily have been cliched, but I found him to be thoughtful, sympathetic, and well-developed. His family are both professors at Berkeley, but I found it interesting that Bova had Waterman study at a less well known school (University of New Mexico). Waterman isn't some superhuman who was destined for greatness from the time he was three, just a smart, hard working scientist who through a combination of effort and luck ultimately gets selected to go to Mars. The ultimate goals of this mission are two fold: to find out as much as they can (in a scientific sense), but also to lay the ground work for future missions.
The story starts with the explorers arrival on Mars, but the text is filled with flashbacks that describe the training, the characters, some of their initial interactions, and the background of the trip to Mars. Bova clearly did his homework when writing this book and describes Mars in great detail. Many of the difficulties encountered by the explorers are well-reasoned and well-explained, and the entire mission plan is well thoughtout by Bova. One thing that could really have added to this book was a map of Mars so that we could see where everyone was going and what the relationship was between the locations visited by the scientists.
There are a few things that I didn't like about this story. Occasionally the tale degenerates into `Beverly Hills 90210' in space. The characters become more interested in who is sleeping with who, or who is giving who little meaningful winks. There is also a minor story thread that involves the US vice-president and simple power politics. This didn't really advance the story at all and was left hanging at the end. This thread was wasted space in my view, Bova should have used it on Mars. This book was written in 1992 and the Russians play a much larger role in the mission than they likely would given the current political climate. This dates the book slightly, but there is no real US/Russian Cold War rivalry. Finally, some of the rivalries between the scientists are a bit overblown.
Finally, I thought the ending was fantastic, an intelligent ending to an intelligent book. One of the less favorable reviews states that there is no big payoff at the end. Without giving too much away, there isn't any great termination of the story, so if you're looking for some fantastic discovery to finish the tale, you'll be disappointed. The `payoff' is the journey itself, not the conclusion. Bottom line - this story is an intelligent tale of man's first visit to Mars with well-developed, complex characters. Definitely recommended.