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A review by adrianwelsh
How We'll Live on Mars by Stephen L. Petranek
5.0
4.5 stars, rounding up to 5.
There is a new TV series on the National Geographic Channel that is based off this non-fiction book. Some may find it dry and boring but since I enjoy the space opera genre of science fiction books, this is really interesting to me. Since this was initially published in October of 2014, it makes me think that the author was not able to read the book [b:The Martian|18007564|The Martian|Andy Weir|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1413706054s/18007564.jpg|21825181] before getting his own book published (since some of the ideas in The Martian just make more sense in terms of humans having initial success at briefly living on Mars – however, this is discussed in more detail later on in the book… so, never mind…).
It is really interesting to think what our space program might have been like if Wernher von Braun had his way with things (not saying those were bad things, it’s just that I can understand the viewpoint that this space stuff is ungodly expensive and it makes sense why it lost some budget).
Altogether, I really enjoyed this short book and found the optimism was just fantastic! All the things that Petranek mentioned and suggested are all certainly reachable and approachable goals (at least, he made it sound this way). It’s like sci-fi coming to life!
But, like all new endeavors like this, the biggest problem is likely to be humanity itself. In any case, it will be really interesting to see what happens next in the world of space travel. I can see Elon Musk’s ideas towards the extinction of humanity and saying that a colony on Mars is the only way to permanently avoid extinction. But, I think that this is a little extreme and believe there are other ways to avoid this type of catastrophe (and if humans are meant to become extinct from whatever reason, then maybe it is supposed to happen… just saying…).
Tips for the reader: Read this book. And watch the TV series on the National Geographic Channel (it’s only a six-episode miniseries). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_(miniseries)
Audiobook narrator [a:Stephen L. Petranek|14733992|Stephen L. Petranek|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]
rating: 4 stars
The author does a decent job of narrating his own book. There isn’t much in terms of dialogue so I can’t judge it there. There is a quick audio intro of Obama during the 2015 State of the Union Address. The end of the book has some really weird Russian-sounding music that I did not understand.
There is a new TV series on the National Geographic Channel that is based off this non-fiction book. Some may find it dry and boring but since I enjoy the space opera genre of science fiction books, this is really interesting to me. Since this was initially published in October of 2014, it makes me think that the author was not able to read the book [b:The Martian|18007564|The Martian|Andy Weir|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1413706054s/18007564.jpg|21825181] before getting his own book published (since some of the ideas in The Martian just make more sense in terms of humans having initial success at briefly living on Mars – however, this is discussed in more detail later on in the book… so, never mind…).
It is really interesting to think what our space program might have been like if Wernher von Braun had his way with things (not saying those were bad things, it’s just that I can understand the viewpoint that this space stuff is ungodly expensive and it makes sense why it lost some budget).
Altogether, I really enjoyed this short book and found the optimism was just fantastic! All the things that Petranek mentioned and suggested are all certainly reachable and approachable goals (at least, he made it sound this way). It’s like sci-fi coming to life!
But, like all new endeavors like this, the biggest problem is likely to be humanity itself. In any case, it will be really interesting to see what happens next in the world of space travel. I can see Elon Musk’s ideas towards the extinction of humanity and saying that a colony on Mars is the only way to permanently avoid extinction. But, I think that this is a little extreme and believe there are other ways to avoid this type of catastrophe (and if humans are meant to become extinct from whatever reason, then maybe it is supposed to happen… just saying…).
Tips for the reader: Read this book. And watch the TV series on the National Geographic Channel (it’s only a six-episode miniseries). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_(miniseries)
Audiobook narrator [a:Stephen L. Petranek|14733992|Stephen L. Petranek|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]
rating: 4 stars
The author does a decent job of narrating his own book. There isn’t much in terms of dialogue so I can’t judge it there. There is a quick audio intro of Obama during the 2015 State of the Union Address. The end of the book has some really weird Russian-sounding music that I did not understand.