They say the third time’s the charm. Well, for the six brave men and women of the _Don Quixote_, that’s not enough. They have succeed where others have failed, or risk the disastrous fates of the first two manned missions to Mars. First the Brazilians simply fell over, dead on the spot after their polar landing. Then the Americans ran afoul of a simple fungus. Now it’s up to a mixed crew from Brazil, America, Canada and Thailand to journey to Mars and survive. There won’t be a fourth mission. If anything goes wrong, there will be no rescue. The margin for error is razor-sharp and just as unforgiving.
They say bad things come in threes. For the crew of the _Don Quixote_, that also turns out to be true. They quickly discover that the automated system built to manufacture fuel on Mars is useless; its time alone and unmaintained in the hostile environment has turned it unreliable and dangerous. An attempt at maintenance ends in tragedy, killing one austronaut and destroying the system completely. There will be no return home, and no rescue.
Now the five surviving members of the mission must gamble their lives on an impossible plan: to trek halfway across an alien environment frought with danger at every turn, their only hope the ship left by the doomed Brazilian astronauts. A ship which can hold half their number, at the very most. Even if they succeed, using equipment never meant for such intense and extended treatment, with supplies that won’t last, with a million ways to die lying before them, someone won’t be going home.
Who will make it? John Radkowski, mission commander, whose maverick ways and fierce independence have made him all the more driven to save these people left in his care? Tana Jackson, who’s always pushed herself to the limits of her abilities? Trevor Whitman, youngest of the crew, who harbors a secret no one can even guess at? Ryan Martin, brilliant and introverted, determined to survive? Or Estrela Consolheiro, whose husband perished with the first mission? Who will take command, who will kill to ensure a spot in the return ship, and who will Mars claim as its sacrifice? Relying upon human ingenuity, sheer determination, and exploiting every bit of their meager supplies, the five will undergo a journey unlike any other, across a hostile planet of dust and ice, gambling upon long-disused resources and knowing that to reach their destination will still be a Phyrric victory for half of them.
Quite simply, this novel is tense and spellbinding, the crew’s perilous journey across the deadly surface of Mars told with such detail that one can easily picture the events as they unfold. Landis, a noted scientist who participated in the Mars Pathfinder mission and who’s studied Mars in great detail, conveys scientific accuracy and intense details without sacrificing any of the archetypal “human struggle for survival” plot, or deep characterization that make this book so enjoyable. These are real people, in a situation as real as any other expedition into the unexplored and unknown, and they shine as a result. *Mars Crossing* quite clearly demonstrates why Landis has won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for his fiction in the past, though this is his first actual novel. It’s safe to say we can expect great things from him as a novelist. I couldn’t put this book down once I started, always finding a reason to read one more page, one more chapter. This book is definitely recommended.