Book Review – How to Mars (David Ebenbach)

How to Mars is like Andy Weir’s The Martian, if The Martian had been written by a humanities major instead of an engineer. It is also, not coincidentally, a better book.

Now, the subject of today’s review was something of a happy accident on my part. I was at my local library—the same library where I checked out a DVD copy of Nosferatu, just the other week—and was on the prowl for a science fiction novel. It was much harder than it should have been to find one; all the fiction there is amalgamated together, organized only by the last name of the author, so a small scattering of sci-fi and fantasy share the same shelves as lit-fic and Amish romances. Still, after many minutes of searching, something caught my eye: the slim, orange spine of a paperback with the word “Mars” in the title. Had to be science fiction. I picked it up, and took a look.

David Ebenbach’s novel How to Mars is—on the surface, at least—about six scientists who embark on a one-way trip to Mars, where they are the stars of a reality TV show. If that sounds familiar, that’s because the author was inspired by a certain ill-fated corporation with more or less the same goal; fascinated by the implications of flying off to a barren planet with no hope of return, he continued writing even after Mars One died an inglorious death, and finally published his book in 2021.

We open our story two years into the mission. The select few astronauts are three men and three women: Jenny, Trixie, Nicole, Josh, Roger, and Stefan. Josh and Jenny have been secretly dating, despite the strict prohibition by the parent company, Destination Mars!, on any sexual entanglements; Trixie, a biologist, has labored long and hard attempting to find life on Mars, only for her samples to come back sterile again and again; Stefan is an asshole. The main problem for this small colony is boredom, so many monotonous Martian days without purpose or end. It’s so bad, in fact, that the Destination Mars! TV show was cancelled due to poor ratings, though thankfully the supply ships keep coming.

Then it turns out Jenny is pregnant.

Also, as if that isn’t enough, strange things seem to be happening around the habitat dome—unexplained technological hiccups, whispered voices in the dead of the night. Maybe, just maybe, these astronauts aren’t so alone on Mars after all.

The plot of this novel is structured unusually, to say the least. There are the two intertwined “main” threads, Jenny’s pregnancy and the unknown presence that is interacting with the colonists, and then there are numerous detours into the first days after the landing, the selection process back on Earth, Jenny’s notes on her research and pregnancy, a tongue-in-cheek handbook written by the founder of Destination Mars!… it’s all over the place, really.

Expect a lot of jumping backwards and forwards in time. If you’re the type to insist that every scene have direct relevance to the plot, this novel won’t be to your tastes. Ebenbach is a professor of creative writing at an East-Coast university, with another degree in psychology, and it shows. How to Mars is about Mars, yes, but it’s about a lot of other things, too. The irreverent tone and frequent laughs belie a deeply philosophical work.

This is just an observation, not a criticism, but it’s clear from the text that Ebenbach is a first-time science fiction author. While he clearly did his research, there are a handful of (minor) misconceptions¹ and omissions that betray unfamiliarity with the subject matter. The hard-sci-fi writer’s fascination with numbers and the intricacies of technology is almost entirely absent here. As a lifelong enthusiast, myself, I would tell him this: Welcome to the space club—and good job! Please, write more sci-fi novels.

As for actual critiques… that’s a tricky one. Some books are written so deliberately, with such unshakeable artistic command, that even the parts that seem discordant, off-putting, or anticlimactic clearly fit within the author’s grand design. This is one such book. It doesn’t provide too many concrete answers, and it isn’t meant to. So even though the ending felt rushed, leaving a lot of loose ends open, I don’t mind all that much—it must have served some purpose, even if I can’t quite perceive it.

How to Mars is an elegant and moving work of fiction. It’s absolutely worth reading, especially if hard-sci-fi nuts and bolts aren’t at the top of your priorities list. My only caution is that you should know what you’re getting into. This is an artist’s novel, bold and experimental, gleefully flying in the face of genre conventions and reader expectations alike. Just sit back, relax, and see where it takes you.

Rating: 10/10.

I’ll catch you all next week with a little piece on astronomy—enter your email in the subscription box and be sure not to miss it!

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1. An example: It is heavily implied that the colonists took off from Earth and landed on Mars in the same rocket. While this isn’t impossible, existing plans for Mars missions use very different architectures, usually involving orbital assembly of the vehicle, in-orbit refueling, and/or detachment of a lander from the main spacecraft. But don’t mind me—I’m just picking nits here. ↩︎