In the first volume of Sigmund Brouwer's Mars Diaries series, an emergency interrupts Tyce's training. Tyce is a young paraplegic who exhibits unprecedented skill in controlling robots during computer simulations. Actually, he's the only young person living on Mars, as his mother is a scientist, and his father is a pilot on the Earth-to-Mars route.
His mentor Rawling has driven him hard to achieve this skill. The two hope to convert Tyce's skills during simulations into actual remote-control of robots on the surface of Mars, once the researchers can figure out how to grow plants outside their protective dome. Unfortunately, an unexplained oxygen link has curtailed unnecessary power usage. Unless the scientists in the dome can fix the problem, not being able to run computer simulations will be the least of Tyce and Rawling's problems.
In this fun, young adult novel, the scientists living on Mars are scrambling for ways to terraform Mars. They know that humans living on the surface of Mars is a long-term goal. The short-term goal--say in the next few decades--is to develop plants that can exist outside the protective dome. Should they be able to grow crops on this new world, who knows? They might even be able to grow food, and ship it back to feed Earth's starving billions.
In this first novel, they find themselves scrambling to fix the oxygen-generation problem. With his daily schedule interrupted, Tyce has a lot of time on his hands. As the oxygen-situation grows progressively worse, his mother must make a difficult choice for her own future. Along the way, Tyce will learn a devastating secret about his past, and confront his own views on faith and spirituality.
Although I didn't realize it when I began reading it, Mars Diaries Mission 1 was published by a Christian publishing house. Tyce's mother loves Jesus Christ, and her beliefs influence the significant choices she faces in this issue. But the story would work equally well, if his mother was Buddist, Hindu, or Muslim. For every person, at some point in their lives, must decide: Do I choose to believe in more than I can perceive and prove?
While I wish the novel dealt more with the reality of living outside their protective dome, I enjoyed this first installment in the Mars Diaries sequence. It employed simple (perhaps outdated) scientific terminology, and viewed at least one of the characters in rather simplistic terms. Also, I'm not sure how realistic most critics of the science fiction field would find it.
That said, I love stories about Mars. If later novels in the series were to come my way, I would welcome more adventures with Tyce. Might his scientific community engineer plants that will grow unaided on the harsh, demanding surface of Mars?
It's a dream worth dreaming.
Dragon Dave
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