The sands of mars Author:Arthur C. Clarke For a science fiction book written in the late 1940s, this is an amazingly undated piece of work. Oh, sure, there are a few anachronisms ~ vacuum tubes and the possibility of vegetation on Mars are the most obvious to my non-scientific mind ~ and we are not as close to having a colony there at the end of the Twentieth Century as Clarke expected,... more » but almost nothing else is out of place. The plot itself is impeccable; Clarke has created likeable, fun, believable, cogent characters of whom it is a pleasure to read. Martin Gibson is a Terran writer journeying to Mars to report on the successes there; his discoveries, including the major one that life on a frontier is what he wants. Mars is on the cusp of starting to make itself independant of Earth by the success of a secret project that Warren Hadfield ~ Chief Executive ~ has had scientists working on: Nothing less, in fact, than the complete reformation of the planet is contemplated. There are surprises a-plenty and mountains of pleasure in this, Clarke's first great novel.« less