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Born in 1925, Brian Aldiss is a doyen for many writers, as Iain Banks will attest (see right). Sir Roger Penrose is the acclaimed physicist, hailed as 'one of the greatest living disciples of Einstein and author of THE EMPEROR'S NEW MIND (OUP/Vintage 1990), which won the prestigious Science Book of the Year award.
White Mars is, as its title implies, Brian Aldiss's considered reply to the novels--Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars--in which Kim Stanley Robinson portrayed the terraforming of our neighbour planet and the creation of a utopian society there. Aldiss disapproves of the whole idea of meddling with another world in the first place, and also, more genially, of the melodrama surrounding the creation of Robinson's utopia. Where Robinson's Martians get their chance after near-genocidal warfare on Mars, and environmental disaster on Earth, Aldiss's get theirs as the result of a corruption and scandal-fuelled recession in which supplies for the Martian colony are a victim of cuts. This is, unusually for the shrewd and sometimes cynical Aldiss, a novel with a hero--Tom Jeffreys, the Thomas Jefferson of this Martian revolution: "His manner was less severe than well controlled. He showed great determination for the cause in which he believed, yet softened it with humour, which sprang from an innate modesty. He was not above self-mockery. In his speech he adopted the manner of This is a very English, and a very urbane book, in which there is an awful lot of talk--about utopia, about consciousness, about sub-atomic particles; Aldiss collaborated on parts of the book with mathematician and physicist Roger Penrose--this is a wise Roz Kaveney, AMAZON.CO.UK Brian Aldiss is one of the most influential and one of the best SF writers Britain has ever produced... Iain Banks
Funded by an international consortium, Earth embarks on the colonization of Mars. With the sudden and unanticipated collapse of the home planet's economy, however, the colonists find themselves stranded on a hostile planet. Despite pressures from within and without, the citizens of Mars struggle to build for themselves a Martian utopia free of the mistakes that have plagued human history. SF veteran Aldiss and collaborator Penrose (one of the world's leading physicists) have created a fictional "history" of the colonization of Mars that incorporates hard science with the authors' visions of a perfect society. A paean to rationalism and scientific truth, this volume is suitable for large sf collections. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
White Mars is, as its title implies, Brian Aldiss's considered reply to the novels--Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars--in which Kim Stanley Robinson portrayed the terraforming of our neighbour planet and the creation of a utopian society there. Aldiss disapproves of the whole idea of meddling with another world in the first place, and also, more genially, of the melodrama surrounding the creation of Robinson's utopia. Where Robinson's Martians get their chance after near-genocidal warfare on Mars, and environmental disaster on Earth, Aldiss's get theirs as the result of a corruption and scandal-fuelled recession in which supplies for the Martian colony are a victim of cuts. This is, unusually for the shrewd and sometimes cynical Aldiss, a novel with a hero--Tom Jeffreys, the Thomas Jefferson of this Martian revolution: "His manner was less severe than well controlled. He showed great determination for the cause in which he believed, yet softened it with humour, which sprang from an innate modesty. He was not above self-mockery. In his speech he adopted the manner of This is a very English, and a very urbane book, in which there is an awful lot of talk--about utopia, about consciousness, about sub-atomic particles; Aldiss collaborated on parts of the book with mathematician and physicist Roger Penrose--this is a wise Roz Kaveney, AMAZON.CO.UK Brian Aldiss is one of the most influential and one of the best SF writers Britain has ever produced... Iain Banks
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