It's roughly thirty years from now. Two manned expeditions have been sent to Mars-but the astronauts never returned. This time may be the last. The crew includes four men and two women. One of them is a teenager who won a lottery contest (which helped to fund the expense of the mission). He's enthusiastic but may be a problem down the line. Of course, things begin to go wrong with their machinery, foremost among them is not having enough fuel to return to Earth. So they begin a massive trek halfway across the planet, to one of the other ships that is still there. Along the way some accidents happen which may not be accidents at all.
Although it's somewhat similar to other Mars landing novels, like Bova's MARS and Benford's THE MARTIAN RACE, it's different enough to make it interesting. Every other chapter is a flashback giving the back story for each astronaut-and the majority of them have a secret that can affect the mission. Let's just say that no everyone survives...
It's roughly thirty years from now. Two manned expeditions have been sent to Mars-but the astronauts never returned. This time may be the last. The crew includes four men and two women. One of them is a teenager who won a lottery contest (which helped to fund the expense of the mission). He's enthusiastic but may be a problem down the line. Of course, things begin to go wrong with their machinery, foremost among them is not having enough fuel to return to Earth. So they begin a massive trek halfway across the planet, to one of the other ships that is still there. Along the way some accidents happen which may not be accidents at all.
