Going to Mars Word by Word with an Optimistic Knight

We’re going to Mars today via the words of one of the “Big Three*,” Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s The Sands of Mars. Clarke said, “I have a special fondness for Sands, as it was my first full-length novel”. Published in 1951 it is an optimistic story of the early days of colonizing Mars. So hop aboard, let’s explore Mars with an Optimistic Knight.

Illustration of the Ares space-liner as it approaches Deimos and Mars, Going to Mars word by word with a optimistic knight, lynettemburrows.com

I read an omnibus edition paired with The City and the Stars. Warner Aspect published the omnibus in 2001.

In the introduction, Clarke makes wry note of the year, and says, “When I tapped out ‘The End’ on my Remington Noiseless (ha!) Portable in 1951, I could never have imagined that twenty years later I would be sitting on a panel with Ray Bradbury and Carl Sagan at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory waiting for the first news of the real Mars to arrive from the Mariner Space Probes. . .”. Nor could he imagine the Mars we’ve come to know through modern telescopes and NASA rovers.

Clarke does not romanticize the harsh conditions he imagined the colonists would have to survive. He used the best scientific information available at the time but admits there are errors in his speculations. Like many other science fiction authors, Clarke did not imagine the miniaturization of electronics. Nor did he imagine the development of personal electronic devices that resulted in a proliferation of computers and cell phones. His protagonist takes a manual typewriter on the spaceship. He faxes articles back to Earth. Faxes! And the crew of the space-liner smokes cigarettes. (Secondhand smoke was not an acknowledged issue in 1951.)

I am delighted that a multiple award-winning, best selling author like Clarke re-released this novel with all of its warts. The story is entertaining, though much slower paced than today’s novels. It suffers from stiff prose, weak conflicts, and internal story inconsistencies. All of which are fairly typical of a first or second novel. Personally, I can forgive and overlook those blunders if I enjoy the characters.

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

The first half of the book deals with the flight to Mars. The protagonist, a well-known science fiction author, rides a rocket ship into space. Martin is going to Mars on assignment. He is to report on what the colony is doing with the millions of Earth dollars spent on it.

Stricken with space-sickness, Gibson fears he’ll be sent back to Earth in shame. Fortunately, the space-sickness resolves quickly and he boards the next ship on his journey.

Ares is on her maiden voyage, a test run with a stripped down crew consisting of Captain Norden, an experienced space pilot; his engineer, the Scottish astrogator; the cynical electronics officer, the medical officer, and Jimmy Spencer, a Master’s degree student hoping to pilot his own spaceship someday. Jimmy, the junior member of the crew, must assist their only passenger, Gibson. Over the course of the three-month trip, Gibson discovers a link between Jimmy and Gibson’s own unpleasant college days.

When he first arrives on Mars, the spartan lifestyle in the small, claustrophobic settlement disappoints Gibson. As he explores the domed city and its surrounds, Gibson learns about the challenges of surviving on the planet. The weekly articles he writes and sends to Earth become more and more pro-Mars as his ideas about the colony change. He meets and grows to respect and like the locals, even his antagonist Warren Hadfield, Chief Executive of Mars. Finally, during one of Gibson’s excursions, a severe sandstorm forces his aircraft off course and he makes discoveries vital to the success of the colony, or so he thinks.

I found the ending satisfying, but in case you’d like to read this novel for yourself, I’ll keep that information to myself.

HOW THE RED PLANET IS PORTRAYED

Clarke’s vision of Mars is more scientific and less descriptive than some. During the trip to the planet, the electronics officer confesses that he can’t see why anyone would want to go to Mars. “It’s flat, it’s cold, and it’s full of miserable half-starved plants looking like something out of Edgar Allan Poe”. The cities and scientific centers are contained in clusters of circular domes. Oxygen is ‘cracked’ from the iron oxide that tinted the soil a dark red.

Clarke does a remarkable job of evoking the orbiting moons, Deimos and Phobos, and the size of Mars. However, he speculates that lush brilliant green plants fill areas of the planet, though much of the planet was barren, red dirt and rocks. Infamously, he has his protagonist, Gibson, declare, “There are no mountains on Mars!” (That was true as far as anyone knew in 1951.) Finally, Clarke disables his protagonist and strands him in a deep trench. (In 1950 Clyde Tombaugh a member of the Lowell Observatory and discoverer of Pluto, proposed that the ‘canals’ of Mars were actually fissures radiating from craters which were the result of cosmic impacts.*)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in southwestern England, Arthur Charles Clarke (1917 – 2008) enjoyed stargazing and reading American science fiction magazines as a child. So much so, that he was active in science fiction circles before World War II. During the War he joined the Royal Air Force, serving as a radar instructor and technician. It was during that time he published his landmark scholarly paper, “Extra-Terrestrial Relays Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage,” where he set out the first principles of global communication via satellites in geostationary orbits.

His first science fiction story professionally published was “Loophole” for Astounding in 1946. Listing all of Clarke’s accomplishments as a scientist and author is not possible in this short blog post, but I’ll hit the major points.

Besides having been a radar instructor and technician, Clarke earned a first class honors degree in Physics and Mathematics in 1948 and served two terms as the British Interplanetary Society president.

He developed a keen interest in undersea exploration when he visited Sri Lanka (called Ceylon at that time) and moved there in 1956. He created a diving school. In 1962 a diagnosis of polio curtailed his diving activities. (The 2004 tsunami that hit Sri Lanka and Indonesia did not harm Clarke, his staff, or his home. It did destroy his diving school.)

Regarded as one of the chief prophets of the space age, he joined CBS newsman Walter Cronkite and astronaut Wally Schirra in narrating the 1969 Apollo lunar landing and returned for coverage of Apollo missions 12 and 15.

Childhood’s End, Rendezvous with Rama, and 2001: A Space Odyssey are among Clarke’s best-known works. His body of work includes more than 70 books of fiction and nonfiction.  He’s known for an optimistic view of the future of space exploration. Histories have accurate technical details and philosophical themes. He’s won Hugos, Nebulas, and the SFWA Grand Master. He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 1997 and was knighted in 1998.

CONCLUSION

I would recommend reading this novel. Its characters are engaging. The argument of should we explore and colonize Mars is pertinent today. Finally, it’s fascinating to read the first novel of one of the best-known science fiction writers of all time. Go ahead, go to Mars in the words of Arthur C. Clark’s The Sands of Mars.

REFERENCES

There are numerous websites where you can learn more about Sir Arthur C. Clarke. My references include the Clarke Foundation, arthurcclarke.net, and sf-encyclopedia.

If you’d like to read a Mars discovery timeline to make your own comparisons of the facts known in 1950 go to astrodigital.org

*science fiction authors, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein

I love it when you share your thoughts with me!

What do you think? Would you read a book with known inaccuracies?  

Will there be a colony on Mars one day?

Are exploration and colonization worth it?

12 comments

  1. Hi, Lynette! Yes, I’d read a book with known inaccuracies if it represents the attitudes and scientific knowledge of its time, that is, the time it was published.

    I’m laughing about the characters smoking on the space ship. Whenever I see a movie or TV show based on events in the forties, fifties, or sixties, I’m amazed by all the cigarettes.

    I love fish-out-of-water stories, so the premise of THE SAND OF MARS, with the outsider SF writer aboard the spaceship, appeals to me.

    1. Cool! I’m glad to suggest this as an interesting and entertaining book, definitely a “fish-out-of-water” type of story.

      The cigarettes were the most blatent, but I laughed aloud at the manual typewriter he carried all the way to Mars!

  2. I actually love some of the older science fiction because of the inaccuracies. I love seeing how people 50 years ago imagined the world would be because it reminds me of how wrong we probably are about how the world will be 50 years from now.

    I also like how the older science fiction acknowledges the hardships but still has a relatively positive view about the future. Compare that to all the dystopian novels written today!

  3. Wonderful post, Lynette! I have been wanting to read Arthur Clarke, and this post is another reminder to add him to my list. The inaccuracies do not bother me for it is interesting to read how people viewed their world as well as what their future might look like, much as Marcy says. BTW, I’m with you on the typewriter; that’s what grabbed me as well.

    Karen

    1. Thanks, Karen. Yeah, it’s amazing to me that he could figure out satellite communication but couldn’t figure out there’d be at least word processors or hand held computers. Oh, well, we can’t all be perfect. LOL!

  4. I started to say yes, but upon reflection, I deleted those words and got honest – in truth I wouldn’t. In this case, the inaccuracies of the expectation about Mars wouldn’t bother me, but I tend not to read older books – I much prefer the fast read of today’s authors. that doesn’t say much about me, does it? Or maybe it says lots thanks for food for thought, Lynette.

  5. Hi Lynette!

    Oh Louise, you are so funny. I love your honesty. It’s true, not all of us are into science fiction. That said, I found your post interesting Lynette, or maybe I should say fun, because how was Mr. Clark to know that some of the things he wrote about would really happen. That makes me think of Dick Tracy talking into his watch. I learned to type on a manual typewriter and oh boy do I remember when smoking was an acceptable thing. Could you imagine being stuck in a confined space with a smoker? Both my parents smoked and it wasn’t a fun ride in the car. I know all about second hand smoke. Thanks for sharing this review Lynette. I’m not a SF reader, but I learned something today which is cool! 🙂

    1. Hi, Karen! No, I can’t imagine being stuck in a confined space with a smoker – not being able to breathe well for three months might just be murder! I’m so glad that you, a non-SF reader, enjoyed the post nonetheless. Thanks you for stopping by!

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