Customer Reviews

Mars : The Story of the Red Planet

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My interests in Mars were sparked by NASA missions such as Viking and Pathfinder but the background knowledge and overview of Mars as a planet came almost exclusively from this volume.

I had it on permanent revolving loan from my local library, and finally bought an out-of-print copy to enable me to scribble notes in the margin without qualms of conscience.

This is an excellent entry-level (for serious readers) book for Mars, distilling the 1000 page Kieffer et al. scientific tome to a manageable and readable volume. With this as a starting point, you will have a good understanding of the Viking era view of Mars.

Despite the passage of 25 years this view has much to commend it. the questions about Mars' evolution and the role of water remain cogent today.

You would have to go far to find a scientist who understood Mars as simply and comprehensively as Peter Cattermole, and who could put his thoughts into publicly-accessible words as clearly and as graphically.

And if you have trouble reading there are lots of good pictures!

Perhaps we will never see the likes of this book again? It dates from a time when one man could hold in his head everything we knew about Mars, and present it clearly to a wide range of readers. Modern Mars is more complicated and detailed than this, but I strongly encourage you to start reading here, and build on this basic but comprehensive undestanding of Mars.