The latest book releases for curious minds

THE RED PLANET

GO ON A TOUR OF MARS

AUTHOR SIMON MORDEN

PUBLISHER ELLIOTT & THOMPSON

PRICE £14.99 / $26.95

RELEASE OUT NOW

For a man who, in his own words, realised he was never going to travel to space, author Dr Simon Morden has made much of his lot in life. He’s a planetary geologist and geophysicist, a writer who has won the prestigious Philip K. Dick Award for his fictional series Metrozone and, naturally, he’s a science fact writer too. We like to think that after the success of his science-fiction novels, Morden wanted to lean into his PhD and redress the balance on his curriculum vitae with something both factual and close to his heart. The result is The Red Planet: ANatural History of Mars, which is a truly experiential journey through time and across the surface of Mars.

“A truly experiential journey through time and across the surface of Mars”

The Red Planet is split into a loose chronology of the history of Mars, from its formation through to the present day and into the future, detailing the many mysteries that still baffle planetary scientists today: what happened to the former volcanism on Mars, where did all the water go and why is the northern half of the planet flat and significantly lower than the rugged southern half? Morden poses the question and offers possible answers – or at least stepping stones to a possible answer – with a level of insight that only an expert could respond with. Has life ever existed on Mars or will we ever find evidence of it in the extreme Martian environment? He answers this by querying the inevitability of life: if it is simply a matter of the right environment, then yes, Mars once had life.