The Sirens of Mars

As a lifelong amateur astronomer and observer of Mars, I absolutely love this book. It was a balanced blend of our historical relationship with the planet Mars and what we have learned about the Red Planet from the perspective of a young scientist\’s personal journey in search of life on Mars. A lot of passion went into the writing of this book–truly a labor of love. My only complaint, as others have mentioned, is the lack of illustrations and images. There were so many great opportunities to insert and image here and there to complement the beautifully written text. I realize that there are probably 10s of thousands of images of Mars on the internet. How would one choose? Perhaps these will appear in a future edition or reprinting? The footnotes also contain a wealth of information that I found quite useful. It fills in a lot of scientific details that would have interfered with the beautiful prose. My daughter is finishing up a Ph.D. in astrophysics and I will gift her a copy of this book. I believe Sarah Stewart Johnsons book will inspire more women to go into science.

Another book that should have the subtitle \”the trials and tribulations of my graduate school days\” also, don\’t read this if you are a fan of Carl Sagan. She does not treat him very well in this book. full disclosure; couldn\’t finish the book. might try again someday, but I doubt it. had high hopes here; was disappointed. good books are rare, but two that I found well done regarding astronomy were: \”when the earth had two moons\” and \”A scheme of heaven\”. technically, \’scheme\’ is a look at the history of astrology , but the writer holds a PHD in Physics and approaches the subject as a skeptic, making the book a very interesting read.

This is a fascinating book, both to see how Mars science has developed and to see how a Mars scientist developed. Professor Johnson does such a great job of intertwining her personal journey with the historical journey of many other humans fascinated by the Red Planet. Perhaps the most fascinating thing for me was to read her account of all the experimentation of the past, both over the centuries and the experiments that she herself has been involved in. It\’s fascinating to contemplate how we know what we know, and also, how often what we know turns out to be deeply incomplete or even simply wrong. I feel like I learned a lot not just about the science she describes, but also how science itself works, about its deeper structure. Did I mention that it\’s SUPER READABLE? Because it is. Actually as I read, I kept thinking, I can\’t wait until my two young daughters are old enough to read this book! I know they will love it, and I hope that it sparks their interest in looking at the world(s) around them and wondering what they can find out more!

Johnson brings Mars to life on the page even as she and her colleagues search for signs of biological activity on the planet. Her descriptions of historical observations, recent discoveries, and unmanned missions are peppered with interesting background and anecdotes that help explain why Mars holds such fascination for earthlings. Johnson personalizes this account by weaving in glimpses of how planetary science captured her imagination and propelled her into the career of her dreams. In fact, the book could have benefitted even more from this personal touch. Certainly, Johnson has a unique perspective to share regarding her challenges and triumphs in a male-dominated discipline. That would have been an interesting trajectory to explore in greater depth.

Congratulations Sarah Stewart Johnson; youve managed to write an ode to exploration of the planets that explores our inner terrain and layers of thought while doing it. Loved the story here, the history, discoveries and science around Mars exploration. Terrific book!

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