Marsbound

I picked up Marsbound (Ace Books, 2008; no editor listed), on the recommendation of Michael Burstein in the Hugo recommendations comment thread, and while I enjoyed reading it, I don't think I can put it on my list of nominees.  Just as well, since it is seems to have come out in 2008 and isn't eligible this year.  Earth to Michael!  But it was fun to read while sitting home miserably sick in bed for the last couple of days.

There seems to be an odd trend lately towards the sort of YA science fiction I really loved as a little kid -- good, old-fashioned SF by major authors writing teenaged protagonists -- but it isn't being marketed as YA.  I can't tell whether that indicates cluelessness on the part of marketers or some weird conspiracy to push nostalgia buttons in older readers.  I don't necessarily object to the latter, and this particular novel starts promisingly in that regard.  Then it takes a sharp turn to a different story that feels like a considerably less-effective retread of John Scalzi's Zoe's Tale (discussed here).

Some spoilers follow, though the outcome is so predictable that I don't think they're a big problem.

Haldeman writes from the perspective of a nineteen-year-old girl, Carmen Dula, going with her younger brother and her scientist parents for a multiyear stay on Mars.  The first part of the book is great stuff about the procedures for leaving Earth via space elevator and the challenges of living in close quarters.  I'd actually have like this better with a slightly younger heroine; the sex-and-romance bits did not feel particularly convincing and to me were unnecessary clutter in the story as well as somewhat sexist.  Why does romance have to be part of a girl's story?  That's an old-fashioned bit I could live without. 

But I loved the details, everything from the showering limits and methods prompted by the tight water supply to the complications of going to school via email and VR connection when there's a lengthening communications lag.  This was all perfectly pitched to revive or engender a longing to travel in space.  I am sad all over again that I will probably never get to outer space, let alone another planet.  My curiosity was also piqued by brief mentions of the Gehenna attack, a bioweapons assault on Israeli cities, but it remained only background material.

This was all very promising, and I really liked the book right up through the early days on Mars, where it became obvious that the colony administrator had a grudge against Carmen.  Teenager vs. authority figure is a classic plot, and when Carmen accidentally discovers some Martians only to face skepticism from most of the adults, I still thought it was looking good.  I even liked the mother-daughter interactions and the realism of having Good/Clueful Adults as well as Bad/Clueless Adults in the story.

But then it turned into a different story, and one that skipped along way too quickly.  Whoosh, full alien contact.  Whoosh, off we go back to Earth orbit.  Whoosh, we skip several years so that Carmen now has a graduate degree and a job as liaison with the aliens.  Whoosh, things get even more complicated with the aliens.  Whoosh, Earth is threatened.  Is there any doubt that our heroine will somehow save the day?  What odds would you put on a happily-ever-after ending for the romance?

There are some nice skiffy bits in the latter part of the book, from the decoding of alien messages using SETI techniques to the explanation of the Martians to the rather clever final trick.  But this story just didn't go with the early part.  It felt like Haldeman got tired of writing his teenager and decided to skip along to an adult's tale.  I wish he'd made it two separate books.  Both parts have promise, but the first part is cut off too abruptly and the second part is told too quickly.

An overall problem I also had is that while Carmen is supposed to be smart, she doesn't actually do much of anything.  She discovers the aliens by getting rescued when hurt.  She forces contact by going to them for medical help when the colony is threatened.  Later, she lives with them in Earth orbit as a liaison, but doesn't seem to do much, and she gets the job not because she's acquired a graduate degree in xenology but because they have a quasireligious bond with her because they saved her life.  We never see her apply any of her education.  Saving Earth is done by her romantic partner while she waits at home.  This is much too passive for my tastes; while it's good to have a female protagonist, she needs to take a much more active role in events.

Also: while I'm not equipped to critique the science elements in general, I found the medical miracles provided by the aliens unconvincing.  Created by an advanced civilization or not, it made no sense to me for their treatments to be instantly compatible with humans.  Everything else seemed plausible, but I choked on the medicine.

I do have to commend Haldeman, though, for addressing in passing the impact of a zero-G environment on certain human activities, as contemplated many years ago by Diana Gallagher in her notorious filksong.

Marsbound is not a bad book overall, and it's fast and fun reading.  I suspect I'd have been less critical of it when I was still of the right age for YA fiction.

Judge for yourself:

Comments

[Serge]

I am sad all over again that I will probably never get to outer space

Count yourself lucky, Susan. You were born at about the time the Space Age was winding down. Me, I was a teenager when Armstrong & Aldrin landed on the Moon, and Kubrick's movie was telling us that the Human Future in Space was around the corner. Things didn't quite work out that way.

[Marilee J. Layman]

I have a fair number of Haldeman books, including this one and its sequel, Starbound. I haven't read either of them, though, they're too far back in my to-read piles.

[Serge]

About the off-kilter structure of "Marsbound"... I wonder if he got more and more into the First Part's research, and got carried away, but still had to lead the plot to the heroine now being grown up.

[Michael A. Burstein]

Huh. For some reason, I thought it had a 2009 pub date.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Usually I'd have checked before reading, but I've been really sick.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Marilee:
I really liked The Forever War. Haven't kept up with his work since, though.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Serge:
I'm not sure 'lucky' is precisely the term I'd apply to not getting to live through the excitement of space exploration.

[Serge]

That definitely was an exciting time to live thru, Susan, and an awesome Future was bound to happen. It's what followed, or rather what didn't follow, that had me make that earlier comment.

On the other hand... We've had probes land on Mars like beachballs. One of them - Sojourner, I think - contains a disk with the Planetary Society's complete membership, which included the name of yours truly.

[Marilee J. Layman]

The Planetary Society's Phoenix disk also contains some SF literature.

[Serge]

Marilee... What a coincidence that you should mention that. The disk is the very subject of Allen Steele's "The Emperor of Mars" in the latest Asimov's.

[Marilee J. Layman]

Yeah, I know. I read that Asimov's when it came. ;) I've heard Allen talk about it before, too.