β Scribed by Eric Flint; Ryk E. Spoor
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Adult/High SchoolβAs this engaging and mostly lighthearted tale of the first expedition to Mars begins, three friends and colleagues are sharing what they expect to be their last dig in Montana with paleontologist Dr. Helen Sutter. Joe Buckley and Jackie Secord are graduate students about to embark on engineering careersβJoe with the Ares Project, and Jackie as an astronaut. After a strange fossil is found, anomalies pile up, and A.J. Baker, a genius with new imaging technologies, comes to help document the site. Then a robot explorer he is working with on the Ares Project finds a suspiciously similar fossil on Phobos, the Mars moon, and before long the four are on their way there, along with an equally likable pilot, security officer, and international crew of scientists. Their adventure of discovery and exploration unfolds in intriguing and surprising ways. While the existence of Jurassic-age fossils on Mars is a little hard to swallow at first in such a reality-based nuts-and-bolts type of science fiction, in the end they serve to raise valid questions about the future of humans in space. Besides paleontology, engineering, and space flight, puzzles in linguistics, biology, physics, and evolution further the story, as well as wacky humor, academic rivalries, and even some sweet romances. Science-fiction fans will enjoy a number of in-jokes (such as naming the fossil Bemmius secordeii).βChristine C. Menefee, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright Β© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Eric Flint's is the author-creator of the New York Times best-selling Ring of Fire series. His impressive first novel, Mother of Demons (Baen), was selected by SF Chronicle as one of the best novels of 1997. With fellow New York Times best-selling author David Weber collaborated on 1633 , a novel in the Ring of Fire series, and on Crown of Slaves , a best of the year pick by Publishers Weekly and on two Ring of Fire novels, 1633 , and the recent 1634: The Baltic War Flint received his masters degree in history from UCLA and was for many years a labor union activist. He lives in East Chicago, IL, with his wife.Ryk E. Spoor , while earning his Masterβs degree in Pittsburgh, became a playtesting consultant and writer for the Wizards of the Coast, the leading publisher of role-playing games and related novels. He now lives in East Greenbush, NY, working as a technical proposal writer for a high-tech R&D firm, and spending his non-writing time with his wife and sons. Baen published his first novel, Digital Knight , in 2003.
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