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angus_mckeogh's review against another edition
3.0
Had moments of pure information and discovery which were riveting; however, for my tastes and what I was expecting of a scientific book about Mars and the search for life, the book ended up delivering too much memoir for me to get lost in the pleasure of the story. Above average but not amazing.
saraaai's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
imogenprictor's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
3.25
balletbookworm's review against another edition
emotional
informative
relaxing
medium-paced
4.0
A good audiobook to listen to while roadtripping for a work thing where I'm driving and the other people in the car are working and/or studying.
The memoir bit wasn't the most interesting part until we got to how <i>she</i> became involved in interplanetary science and exploration and kind of talked her way into a gig on one of the Mars missions in grad school for a couple of months. Otherwise, this was a very interesting book about the history of Mars exploration and how we worked up to landing rovers on Mars. The way it was written you could really feel the disappointment in the scientists when a mission goes wrong or even as a planned mission begins to wind down as the mechanical components begin to age and you feel a lot of compassion for this little robot going silent out by itself on Mars.
The memoir bit wasn't the most interesting part until we got to how <i>she</i> became involved in interplanetary science and exploration and kind of talked her way into a gig on one of the Mars missions in grad school for a couple of months. Otherwise, this was a very interesting book about the history of Mars exploration and how we worked up to landing rovers on Mars. The way it was written you could really feel the disappointment in the scientists when a mission goes wrong or even as a planned mission begins to wind down as the mechanical components begin to age and you feel a lot of compassion for this little robot going silent out by itself on Mars.
abbyfrelier's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
An enjoyable quick read that's part autobiography and part a history of our fascination with looking for life on Mars.
inhale_exhale_read's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
3.25
I found this interesting enough to read a chapter every morning, but for me, it was a bit dry with quite a lot of science and math that I didn't understand. Every now and then, the author would talk about her own life and I wish there had been more of that. It sounds really exciting to be a scientist dedicated to the search for life on Mars, though!
alisha247's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
3.0