- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd; New edition edition (1 Aug 1982)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340158352
- ISBN-13: 978-0340158357
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11 x 1.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 260,428 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Synopsis
Aircraft designer Dale Currance undertakes a journey to Mars in an effort to capture the prize being offered to the first man to complete an interplanetary journey, but a female stowaway throws his plans into disarray.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As we are now sending robots to the planets of our solar system to add to our collective knowledge, John Wyndham insightfully saw this and wondered if the other planets would send robots to Earth. In Stowaway to Mars this happens with the discoverer of such a robot sneaking aboard the British expedition to Mars. Well before the Terminator films, John Wyndham speculates on the machine as being the next evolutionary step for man. John Wyndham also foresaw that governments would have better things to spend taxpayers' money on and so the expeditions are undertaken by big business.
It is a bit dated in that the space race is part of the cold war and being written just after Aldous Huxley's Brave New World in that we, as in Brave New World, all travel by gyrocopter. In many ways it is ahead of its time. The heroine is well written and has more courage than her male shipmates. The story is told with some pace avoiding too much science fiction detail that would too easily date. John Wyndham also continues his excellent tradition of giving relevant chapter headings which helps the reader remember the story so far when returning to the book after a break.
It is a bit dated in that the space race is part of the cold war and being written just after Aldous Huxley's Brave New World in that we, as in Brave New World, all travel by gyrocopter. In many ways it is ahead of its time. The heroine is well written and has more courage than her male shipmates. The story is told with some pace avoiding too much science fiction detail that would too easily date. John Wyndham also continues his excellent tradition of giving relevant chapter headings which helps the reader remember the story so far when returning to the book after a break.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Classic science fiction in the style that Wyndham fans have come to know and love.
This is (I think) one of his earlier novels and, sadly it shows.
The plots and characters are less well developed than in, for example 'The Chrysalids', and the story is sexist to modern eyes.
Still, it is an entertaining read and a fascinating example of early science fiction.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Life on Mars - From Earth
1 Jan 2000
Format:Hardcover
"Stowaway To Mars" is one of John Wyndham's early science fiction efforts, written years before he got his big break with "The Day of the Triffids". This futuristic story is set in the far-off year 1981, when a ship called the Gloria Mundi carries the first people to Mars. A young woman has sneaked aboard the ship, and tells the crew of what to expect when they touch down on Mars.
This novel can be compared to H.G. Wells' "First Men in the Moon". Both stories have been proved inaccurate by that bubble burster called Reality. But this doesn't matter. The imagination of such stories is what really counts. This book is the beginning of one man's distinguished career.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
1930s science fiction
18 Feb 1999
Format:Hardcover
Written by a young, pre-Triffids Wyndham under the name John Beynon, this is a less well developed effort that nonetheless shows his talent. The plot is standard, with an attractive female stowaway joining an all-male crew on a race to be the first nation to land on Mars, but it's graced with original details and intelligent epithets such as "Mind is the control of brain by memory," and the fast-paced plot keeps you reading. The most interesting elements are the Martian landscape, the rusty berserk Martian robots, and the sad remains of the Martian people whose cities are like a series of empty rooms. When the story turns into a space romance, you understand why the stowaway had to be female. Wyndham always wrote with a sure hand, and that was no less true of this early effort than of his later, better novels.
Best left for wyndham fans
13 Mar 2012
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Wyndham has written much better stuff, but you can still feel the Wyndham charm on occassion. Probably best left for only the most die hard of Wyndham fans. The kindle edition, however, is poorly prepared. I own a physical copy of the book and the two can hardly be compared -- all formatting has essentially been lost in the kindle edition; medium and long dashes (--) have vanished as well, resulting in conversation with sentences that bleed together without boundaries.
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