The Book of Mars: An Anthology of Fact and Fiction

Description

From myth to Musk, astrology to astronomy, Dr Stuark Clark selects the very best writing about the Red Planet. From its very first sighting, Mars has been a source of fascination for humanity. Named for the Roman god of war, this red planet has been explored more than any other beyond Earth and continues to occupy a distinctive place in our imagination. It's an environment that may even foster life. In The Book of Mars, Dr Stuart Clark selects one hundred pieces of writing about the planet. It is a collection that brings together fact and fiction, dreams and fears, centuries of observation and more recent feats of interstellar exploration. From classic writers of science fiction - Stanley G. Weinbaum, Arthur C. Clarke, H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, Pamela Sargent, Roger Zelazny - to distinguished experts in astronomy, astrobiology and aerospace engineering; from Hugo and Nebula Award-winning authors - Kim Stanley Robinson, Mary Robinette Kowal - to trail-blazing journalists and science communicators; from Andy Weir's The Martian to Elon Musk's SpaceX programme, The Book of Mars is an extraordinary overview both of the Red Planet and of the way scientific investigation diffuses into culture.

Stuart Clark is an author and journalist whose career is devoted to presenting the complex world of astronomy to the general public. He holds a first class honours degree and a PhD in astrophysics, is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a former Vice Chair of the Association of British Science Writers. He is the author of numerous non-fiction books including The Sun Kings, The Big Questions and Voyager and a trilogy of novels set around the times of greatest change in mankind's understanding of the Universe. Clark regularly writes for the The Times, New Scientist, BBC and Astronomy Now. The Independent placed him alongside Stephen Hawking and Professor Sir Martin Rees as one of the 'stars' of British astrophysics teaching.

[T]he range of nonfiction extracts is excellent... Stuart Clark has done a fine job * Parsec #5 * PRAISE FOR STUART CLARK: 'Stuart Clark's picture of the yawning gaps in our understanding of the cosmos is fuller than most' Nature. 'Popular science at its best: accurate, meticulously researched [...] and full of adventures' Times Higher Education. 'Excellent... This books makes you rethink the traditional story of the history of astronomy... Effortlessly readable' * BBC Sky at Night *