A Natural History Of Mars

The Red Planet: A Natural History of Mars is a geological and meta-historical look at the fourth planet in our solar system from the Sun. Written by a well-known science fiction writer who has a PhD in Geology (Planetary Geology + Geophysics), the book is as captivating as any sci-fi novel, and it’s reliable and enthralling in its descriptions of Mars’ geology and history.

Author Simon Morden occasionally takes a “you are there” approach to giving a sense of place. In the first section, for example, he describes the surface of a particular region of Mars by literally putting “you” in the scene. (He does this occasionally throughout the book.) “You” are wearing a dusty white space suit and driving a rover with wheels that are as tall as you are. You are cold because Mars is cold. You notice that the soil is rubbly and so brittle that it squeaks under your boot when you walk. The horizon that you see is curved. And so on. Morden expertly sets the reader to imagining.

His sci-fi chops are not all that serve Morden well. His PhD does, too. In short, plain-language chapters, he describes Mars region by region and eon by eon. All told, The Red Planet reads like a vastly entertaining Michelin’s written by a guide who knows so much about science that he can explain anything to anyone.

The name “Mars” may be particularly apt for this pock-marked planet. Its formation was cataclysmic, with a lot of bashing (and being bashed) in the first half a billion years or so. What’s more, during its proto-planet phase, Mars suffered a radioactivity-inspired melt that turned literally everything on its surface into liquid and that made geysers spew fire. Not surprisingly, Mars today is a haunted landscape. Aside from its ice caps, it is entirely dry. The vast ocean and rivers that once characterized the planet are long gone. In Mars’ low-pressure atmosphere, they boiled away. (According to Morden, Mars once had enough free water that “it would have been possible to sail around the world.”)

As extraordinarily well-suited for writing about Mars as his sci-fi proclivity and PhD have made Morden, he’s never seen Mars up close and likely never will. Charmingly and rather immediately (page 10), Morten acknowledges that he has had to make his best guess again and again.

“So to be plain with you, this book is not going to tell the whole story. That’s not to say I won’t try, but when I come across alternative explanations of the same phenomenon, I may pick my favorite. Everything here is accurate, but I’m not going to pretend I’m impartial. … I am not here to stab you with facts and leave you bleeding by the end of chapter three. I’m here to tell you about Mars, with all its ambiguities, and about the times when, honestly, I think it’s lying to us.”

The Red Planet: A Natural History of Mars

Simon Morden, PhD. Pegasus, $26.95 (256p), July 5, 2022

ISBN 9781639361755