Mars

Mars is a science fiction novel by the American writer Ben Bova, published in 1992.

The Mars of the novel is a world shrouded in mystery. It is a planet pocked by meteors, baked by ultraviolet light and covered in endless deserts the colour of dried blood.

Travelling to it are the twenty-five astronauts of an international mission to Mars. The novel follows what happens when the landers touch down, the base dome is inflated and the robotic explorers are sent aloft, and the crew discover that they have to find a way to come together.

On the surface they are fighting deadly meteor showers, subzero temperatures and a mysterious illness that comes to be known as the Mars virus. The novel follows them through a struggle of discovery and survival against everything the planet can throw at them, and it leads towards the discovery that the back cover of the original edition described as the most incredible and shocking of all, the thing waiting for the first people ever to reach Mars.