Customer Reviews

Stowaway to Mars

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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.

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.