Roberta M. Pala

Maggie is a married high school biology teacher with two children. One of her students, Craig, becomes interested in an asteroid and as Maggie helps him, she becomes interested as well. When Craig graduates, he gets a job with NASA and comes back into Maggie's life. They become obsessed with the planet Mars and form a theory about life on Mars, to the exclusion of everything in Maggie's life. With the help of a friend, Maggie is able to convince the President of the US to send a mission to Mars. Both Maggie and Craig are on the mission, and end up having an affair. The mission finds surprises on Mars, and there are also surprises for those left back on earth.

I found the first half of the book to be very hard to read. It was not difficult reading, it just seemed to drag on and on. The author spent most of the first half of the book educating the reader and getting them up to speed about asteroids, Mars, space exploration, etc. She also spent quite a bit of time building up the relationship between Maggie and Craig. I think she did so because otherwise, I don't think the relationship would have been believable. I think a college student would be grateful to his high school biology teacher for getting him interested in his life's work, but in most cases, it would not be a sexual relationship. I also don't think that a high school teacher with two children and a good husband would somehow find herself seriously attracted to a former student. I contemplated just putting the book down several times, but there was still something compelling about the possibility of life on Mars that kept me going.

The second half of the book was a much easier read, and in the case of the Mars exploration alone was very interesting. However, this is when Maggie and Craig ended up having their affair and having to deal with the consequences. The relationship and the decisions made just did not ring true to me, and I did not enjoy that part of the book. If I were Maggie's husband, I would have divorced her in a heart-beat, however, he welcomes her back with somewhat open arms.

So, all in all, I found the part about the exploration of Mars and the theories that the author develops a very interesting part of the story, albeit a little long in the first half of the book. The interrelationships of the characters in the book, however, just did not make sense to me and really ruined the book for me.

I gave the book three stars, but grudgingly. Put in believable characters, and their actions and it would easily have been four stars.

I received this book froma LibraryThing Member's Giveaway.… (plus d'informations)

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. I liked this book. The storyline is interesting. Although, to be honest, the science (even with the help of a dictionary) was over my head. I have always liked science fiction and this book does not disappoint. Some of the characters (for example - Maggie's husband) seem a little to good to be true and therefore remain one dimentional. Other characters in the book are well drawn and defined and therefore, come alive. The ending seemed a little rushed - there didn't seem to be a real ending...just a bunch of questions. Sequel, perhaps?… (plus d'informations)