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andrea_author's review
4.0
This book is pretty much what it says on the tin—a human history of Mars. It's not a science book. It's a social science book. History, sociology, politics, ethics, literature—they all play a role in this story. It's more a story of the human imagination than a story of Mars.
Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.
Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.
shanaqui's review
informative
slow-paced
3.0
This book isn't really about the science of Mars -- though that comes into it -- but is more of a cultural history: an attempt to understand what Mars has meant to people, the framework in which people have understood it in different ages, and how that has shaped how we understand Mars now and the kind of assumptions we hold about it.
I found it a surprisingly slow read for the length, comparatively speaking; it was perhaps a bit drier than I expected for a book about Mars (which just goes to show how we think about Mars, I suppose), and spent rather a long time recounting the stories that people told about Mars, e.g. a detailed explanation of Dante's Paradiso.
I did expect a cultural history from the blurb (though it seems other people were misled), but I suppose I'd expected something focusing more on the modern part of it. I did really enjoy the chapter that discusses the Mars rovers and people's intense, surprisingly emotional reactions to them.
I found it a surprisingly slow read for the length, comparatively speaking; it was perhaps a bit drier than I expected for a book about Mars (which just goes to show how we think about Mars, I suppose), and spent rather a long time recounting the stories that people told about Mars, e.g. a detailed explanation of Dante's Paradiso.
I did expect a cultural history from the blurb (though it seems other people were misled), but I suppose I'd expected something focusing more on the modern part of it. I did really enjoy the chapter that discusses the Mars rovers and people's intense, surprisingly emotional reactions to them.
ashlyn's review
2.5
To start off, I received and advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley and The University of Chicago press.
This book really wasn't for me. While I appreciated how comprehensively researched this book was, I went into it expecting more of a pop science non-fiction book, which it is not. This book is a very thorough history of human's relationship with Mars and the cosmos more generally. It covers culture all around the globe in every time period from ancient civilizations to today and explores the role that Mars has played in religion, mythology, early science, and pop culture. There was a huge variety of topics and I personally found the last chapter/conclusion on the future possibilities of Mars exploration and the pitfalls to avoid (e.g. brining Earth's current division, consumption, colonialism, and capitalism) really compelling. I think this book is more tailored to an academic audience who wants a primer on this topic as it reads much more like a textbook than something from Bill Bryson, Mary Roach, or Yuval Noah Harari.
This book really wasn't for me. While I appreciated how comprehensively researched this book was, I went into it expecting more of a pop science non-fiction book, which it is not. This book is a very thorough history of human's relationship with Mars and the cosmos more generally. It covers culture all around the globe in every time period from ancient civilizations to today and explores the role that Mars has played in religion, mythology, early science, and pop culture. There was a huge variety of topics and I personally found the last chapter/conclusion on the future possibilities of Mars exploration and the pitfalls to avoid (e.g. brining Earth's current division, consumption, colonialism, and capitalism) really compelling. I think this book is more tailored to an academic audience who wants a primer on this topic as it reads much more like a textbook than something from Bill Bryson, Mary Roach, or Yuval Noah Harari.
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