Marsbound
by Joe Haldeman
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Book Summary Information
Author: Joe HaldemanEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2008-08-05
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Ace Hardcover
Book Reviews of Marsbound
Book Review: the definition of modern pulp
Summary: 1 Stars
I once took a writing course where the instructor told the class not to bother with getting the English correct. Consumers are not interested in reading "literature" outside of their common speech. To an extent this is true, and probably more so today than 50 years ago. When I first read the BARSOOM series by Burroughs as a teen I found myself getting the hang of proper language as I was taught in H.S. Many of the early Sci Fi stories upheld the standards of good written English. Today it is hard to find this on the bookshelves. For upholding the literary standard, Haldeman's book is an abomination. Surely a writing professor at MIT can do better than this? At least he didn't include the common contraction errors that people have devolved into. I was astounded to learn from my son that he could write an essay with misspellings, poor grammar and punctuation, syntactical errors, and still be given a good grade for content! Many of my generation will recall that when we advanced to writing classes our grade was pivotal on demonstrating basic command of English grammar. If you couldn't demonstrate that in your essays you flunked. Today no one cares to preserve the technical aspects of written English whether in business, education, or literature.
The inclusion of sex in the story, as well as the development of the main character can only be attributed to appealing to young male libido. I wasn't the least bit convinced the protagonist's portrayal as female was credible. In fifty years of reading science fiction very few stories (especially the good ones!) included sex scenes. Generally, they lend nothing to the elements of the story and add nothing to plot development. Sex in Sci Fi is a "recent" addition born of Hollywood producers. Before then if it was incorporated at all it was an integral part of the plot like in Fred Hoyle's A for Andromeda. There it isn't presented to stimulate the libido but to explore the nature of the female psyche from an alien POV.
As others have commented, this story was very slow in plot development. The first third of the book covers nothing but the boring aspects of traveling a space elevator. The technical problems and errors of the "sky rope" are clearly obvious to the astute reader. The most stimulating parts were the elevator stopping for cable repair. That is high drama to make a person want to get back into the story at the earliest convenience? For a "Who Done It?" plot it crashed on all counts. Go read The Cat Who Walked Through Walls by Heinlein for well formulated plot.
When I read The Forever War I found it difficult to stay involved with the story. Good stories kept me reading late at night, and being pulled out anywhere I found myself idle. Marsbound did not measure up in my mind as anywhere near the classics in Sci Fi and yet it has received rave reviews. Clearly, as a Sci Fi editor and professor of writing, Haldeman's book heralds a new era in the standard of trash fiction. It does not reflect the standards which Ben Bova laid out in The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells. Today if you have a handle on the publisher community you can get all manner of junk published. Either Bova is wrong or the bottom has fallen out of good writing.
I gave it a star because you can't select none!
Summary of Marsbound
A novel of the red planet from the Hugo and Nebula Award?winning author of The Accidental Time Machine and Old Twentieth.Young Carmen Dula and her family are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime?they?re going to Mars.
Once on the Red Planet, however, Carmen realizes things are not so different from Earth. There are chores to do, lessons to learn, and oppressive authority figures to rebel against. And when she ventures out into the bleak Mars landscape alone one night, a simple accident leads her to the edge of death until she is saved by an angel?an angel with too many arms and legs, a head that looks like a potato gone bad, and a message for the newly arrived human inhabitants of Mars:
We were here first.
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