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The Sands of Mars

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Format: Paperback

Condition: Very Good

$4.79
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More by Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke has long been considered the greatest science fiction writer of all time. He was an international treasure in many other ways, including the fact that a 1945 article by him led to the invention of satellite technology. Books by Clarke -- both fiction and nonfiction -- have sold more... Learn More About This Author
2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey
Arthur C. Clarke

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Childhood's End
Childhood's End
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Rendezvous With Rama
Rendezvous With Rama
Arthur C. Clarke

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2010: Odyssey Two
2010: Odyssey Two
Arthur C. Clarke

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3001: The Final Odyssey
3001: The Final Odyssey
Arthur C. Clarke

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2061: Odyssey Three
2061: Odyssey Three
Arthur C. Clarke, Sir Clarke, Arthur C.

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Rama II
Rama II
Gentry Lee, Arthur C. Clarke, Gentry Clarke, Arthur C.; Lee

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The Garden of Rama
The Garden of Rama
Arthur C. Clarke, Gentry Lee, Arthur C. Clarke; Gentry Lee

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Rama Revealed: The Ultimate Encounter
Rama Revealed: The Ultimate Encounter
Arthur C. Clarke, Gentry Lee

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The Fountains of Paradise
The Fountains of Paradise
Arthur C. Clarke

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The Songs of Distant Earth
The Songs of Distant Earth
Arthur C. Clarke

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The City and the Stars
The City and the Stars
Arthur C. Clarke

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The Sentinel
The Sentinel
Arthur C. Clarke

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The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke
The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke

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Great Short Tales of Mystery and Terror
Great Short Tales of Mystery and Terror
Richard Barham Middleton, John Collier, Daphne du Maurier, Algernon Blackwood, H.P. Lovecraft, Truman Capote, Lord Dunsany, Guy de Maupassant, Ross McDonald, Robert Bloch, Gertrude Atherton, Georges Simenon, Carl Stephenson, Alfred Noyes, Roald Dahl, Arthur C. Clarke, Agatha Christie, William Hope Hodgson, H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, Shirley Jackson, Robert Barr, W.W. Jacobs, John Dickson Carr, M.R. James, Eric Stanley Gardner, Ian Fleming, Thomas Burke, Ambrose Bierce, Edgar Allan Poe, C.S. Forester, G.K. Chesterton, Leslie Charteris, Gilbert Highet, William Irish, Stanley Ellin, Evelyn Waugh, Saki, André Maurois, A.M. Burrage, George Hitchcock, Arthur Conan Doyle, John Russell, Ellery Queen, Rudyard Kipling

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Time's Eye
Time's Eye
Stephen Baxter, Arthur C. Clarke

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Firstborn
Firstborn
Stephen Baxter, Arthur C. Clarke

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Sunstorm
Sunstorm
Stephen Baxter, Arthur C. Clarke

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A Fall of Moondust
A Fall of Moondust
Arthur C. Clarke

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The Light of Other Days
The Light of Other Days
Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter

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The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction
The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction
J.G. Ballard, Stanley G. Weinbaum, Clifford D. Simak, Fritz Leiber, R.A. Lafferty, Bruce Sterling, Pamela Zoline, Frank Herbert, C.L. Moore, Samuel R. Delany, Theodore Sturgeon, Joanna Russ, H.G. Wells, Judith Merril, Ray Bradbury, Frederik Pohl, Avram Davidson, Misha Nogha, Brian W. Aldiss, Pat Cadigan, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein, Alfred Bester, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Philip K. Dick, Jules Verne, Eileen Gunn, Ursula K. Le Guin, William Gibson, Stanisław Lem, Edmond Hamilton, Isaac Asimov, Octavia E. Butler, John Varley, Kate Wilhelm, E.M. Forster, Harlan Ellison, Robert Sheckley, Nancy Kress, James Tiptree Jr., Robert Silverberg, Cordwainer Smith, William Tenn, Leslie F. Stone, Carol Emshwiller

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The Hammer of God
The Hammer of God
Arthur C. Clarke

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The Last Theorem
The Last Theorem
Frederik Pohl, Arthur C. Clarke

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Book Overview

Predating the earliest manned space mission: the first full-length science fiction novel from the acclaimed author of 2001: A Space Odyssey.First published in 1951, before the achievement of space flight, Arthur C. Clarke created this visionary tale. Renowned science fiction writer Martin Gibson joins the spaceship Ares, the world's first interplanetary ship for passenger travel, on its maiden voyage to Mars. His mission: to report back to the home planet about the new Mars colony and the progress it has been making.In The Sands of Mars, Clarke addresses hard physical and scientific issues with aplomb-and the best scientific understanding of the times. Included are the challenges of differing air pressures, lack of oxygen, food provisions, severe weather patterns, construction on Mars, and methods of local travel-both on the surface and to the planet's two moons."[Clarke is] one of the truly prophetic figures of the space age." -The New Yorker This description may be from another edition of this product.

Customer Reviews

1 customer rating | 0 review

Rated 5 stars
A compelling story of human and personal destiny

"The Sands of Mars" is an underrated masterpiece by the master of science fiction, Arthur C. Clarke. This is the story of the first human colonies on the planet Mars. In this story Clarke brilliantly weaves the personal saga of the story's protagonist against the panorama of Man's successful colonization of Mars. Clarke's speculations are dazzling, and as always, he weaves a touching personal story into a grander story...

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Rated 4 stars
A classic that stands the test of time!

The Sands of Mars is a joy - a lightweight, easy-reading, far-sighted hard sci-fi novel that addresses the broad topics of interplanetary travel and colonization, development and terraforming of the hostile extra-terrestrial Martian environment. One could quibble, I suppose, that the science is slightly dated and there were certainly a couple of predictions that have since been proven incorrect but, for my money, the story...

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Rated 5 stars
Sands of Time...

I read the book about 23 years ago and have re-read it time and time again. What it lacks sytlistically it makes up for in sheer joy of discovery and achievement by its characters on a Mars that was a valid extrapolation from knowledge at the time (c.1950) of writing. Good SF is about real people in a world that really might be - hence the personal secrets that are discovered along-side the planetary ones as the novel progresses.Mars...

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Rated 4 stars
Classic Clarke

Although not one of his absolute best stories, The Sands of Mars is a classic work of science fiction and one which has held up well over time. It starts out a little slow at first, but once the story gets a bit into the Mars landing part of the book it increasingly picks up steam. Once again, in the climax of the book, Clarke has a seemingly impossible thing happen and describes it in such a way as to make it believable...

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Rated 4 stars
Cogent Clarke Carries Conviction

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, but almost nothing else is out of place. The plot itself is impeccable; Clarke...

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