The Sirens of Mars
Searching for Life on Another World
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The Sirens of Mars
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Narrated by:
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Cassandra Campbell
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
As a new wave of interplanetary exploration launches in summer 2020, a talented young planetary scientist charts our centuries-old obsession with Mars.
Mars - bewilderingly empty, coated in red dust - is an unlikely place to pin our hopes of finding life elsewhere. And yet, right now multiple spacecraft are circling, sweeping over Terra Sabaea, Syrtis Major, the dunes of Elysium and Mare Sirenum - on the brink, perhaps, of a discovery that would inspire humankind as much as any in our history.
With poetic precision and grace, Sarah Stewart Johnson traces the evocative history of our explorations of Mars. She interlaces her personal journey as a scientist with tales of other seekers - from Galileo to William Herschel to Carl Sagan - who have scoured this enigmatic planet for signs of life and transformed it in our understanding from a distant point of light into a complex world. Ultimately, she shows how its story is also a story about Earth: it is a foil, a mirror, a tell-tale reflection of our own anxieties and yearnings to find - if we're lucky - that we're not alone.
©2020 Sarah Stewart Johnson (P)2020 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"This elegantly crafted book conveys what it's like to be a young scientist involved in the quest." (Lord Martin Rees, astronomer royal)
"The inside story of the exploration of Mars and the search for life there." (Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell)
"A celebration of human curiosity, passion and perseverance. Superb in its storytelling, majestic in its vision, The Sirens of Mars will give readers a new appreciation for the preciousness of life in the cosmos." (Alan Lightman, author of Einstein's Dreams)
What listeners say about The Sirens of Mars
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- D. Oxford
- 20-07-20
Captivatingly metaphorical melancholy
Entrancingly insightful overview of the desperate search for the merest sniff of life on Mars, present or departed, beautifully read by Cassandra Campbell.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Blueyedwolf69
- 12-10-20
Planetary science and part memoir
Interesting book with the exploration of Mars at its centre but also orbited by the authors journey into science and her involvement in the Mars programme and also her journey as a woman.
Engaging and thought provoking especially around the subject of life on Mars and how it may present itself.
Narrator was calm and focused in her narration.
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