Voyage to the Red Planet [Paperback]

Terry Bisson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Space travel is viewed with a witty, original eye in Bisson's entertaining novel. The U.S. has survived the Greater Depression by selling off assets to settle its debts. Disney has bought NASA, and now wants to film a movie on location on Mars. The mothballed, never-used, joint U.S.-U.S.S.R. spaceship, the Mary Poppins , is restored to active status, and takes off. On board, in addition to the movie crew, is a stowaway teenage girl, who, when the leading lady does not awaken from suspended animation, gets her big chance to become a movie queen--maybe. Back on Earth, business mergers are threatening not only her chances, but also that of the entire voyage, as Mission Control goes bankrupt and can no longer provide the sophisticated course correction the Mary Poppins requires. The writing is enjoyably silly: Bisson ( Fire on the Mountain ) describes this making of a B-movie in tongue-in-cheek prose, itself deliberately reminiscent of the hackneyed plotting of that genre.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA-- In Bisson's fourth novel, readers find no 12-foot-tall Burroughsian aliens or memory-blocked Schwarzeneggers turning the landscape viscera red. Instead, the tranquil Martian sands become Hollywood's largest and most remote on-location filming. Set in the 21st century, a near bankrupt U. S. government is reduced to selling off federal agencies to private industry, e.g. NASA to Disney and the Smithsonian to Nabisco. Enter Pellucidar pictures, which has launched the first Mars mission as a money-making "long shot" and Academy Award winning hopeful. The cast and crew are a zany mixture of aging astronauts, wacky Hollywood types, and a teenage stowaway. Budget cuts on Earth and equipment malfunction threaten both the picture and the lives of the crew. Take the socio-political satire of Philip K. Dick or John Brunner and the hard science of Larry Niven and stir in the irreverent humor of Harry Harrison or Robert Asprin and you get a glimmer of what Bisson's original, imaginative yarn is like. --John Lawson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (September 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380755742
• ISBN-13: 978-0380755745
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #387,195 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Formerly ('75-'02) a Kentuckian living in New York,
currently a New Yorker living in California.

Known mostly for SF short stories (Hugo, Nebula awards),
also writes novels, screenplays, comics and non-fiction.
Biographer of Mumia Abu Jamal. Former automechanic,
wrote CAR TALK with 'Click and Clack'. Produced and
edited NO FRILLS Books back in '80s. Completed ST
LEIBOWITZ AND THE WILD HORSE WOMAN for Walter M Miller
estate. Lives in Oakland. Rides a KLR650.

Hosts monthly author reading series in San Francisco (SFinSF).
Edits 'Outspoken Author' series for PM Books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What if the first spaceflight to Mars was done by Hollywood?, August 25, 2002

By 

Glen Engel Cox (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Voyage to the Red Planet (Paperback)

Look at NASA...please! If there isn't a more frightening indication of the impact of space on today's culture, I'll become a monk in space. Can you even see NASA from where you are, or is it hidden behind the lifestyles, the crime reports, the utter banality of "human interest" stories in the news? When you do hear about NASA it is either because they are requesting more money, having their budget cut by Congress, or they've delayed the shuttle launch yet again. Is today's apathy with space caused by NASA's incompentence, or vice versa? Either way, the future looks grim.

Grim tidings bring modest proposals. Bisson's proposal in Voyage to the Red Planet may be hidden by a standard SF adventure plot, but it is as cutting as Swift's ever was. When the government has to sell off various departments (like NASA) to corporations to pay back the national debt, when movie stars become a new royalty, that's where you'll find Bisson, pillorying the temples with a humor and irreverence that's a joy to read. In every chapter Bisson drops a casual remark that seems innocuous at first, but sits like a dormant virus until you immune system yells "Uncle" and then unleashes its full fury making you double- and triple-up in laughter.

The plot and writing reminded me of late 60s/early 70s Philip K. Dick, except jazzed up and in tune with the 90s. Like Dick's novels, even though Voyage to the Red Planet is set in the future, its topic is the present. Today, Bisson says, we are in danger from greedy corporations threatening to gobble up each other in a gigantic Ouroboros-orgy, we are in danger of creating a new aristocracy with its own rules and classes, we are in danger of losing our perspective on what is important and what isn't. What Bisson isn't saying, though, is that the future or the present is filled with doom. If we can doctor ourselves with a little humor and stop taking everything so damned seriously, perhaps there will be some hope for us all.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hollywood does NASA, January 27, 2002

By 

Mark Scott (What makes you think I'm on this world?) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Voyage to the Red Planet (Paperback)

Boldly go where no pawn of the multinational corporations has gone before. Lots of fun and filled with fresh ideas. Sort of a hybrid between Star Trek and Neal Stephenson's 'Snowcrash'.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sci fi lite, March 5, 2002

By 

Kim Boykin (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Voyage to the Red Planet (Paperback)

Disney-Gerber, Beatrice-Texaco, and other corporate conglomerates run the world; Movie Stars are members of a hereditary caste; and the first humans to set foot on Mars are there to make a movie.

A few days after I'd finished this book, I saw it on my shelf and couldn't remember what it was about. I prefer my science fiction to have some challenging or mind-bending ideas in it, but if you're just looking for a little light entertainment, this is an amusing book.

(My favorite book about Mars is Kim Stanley Robinson's "Red Mars.")