The novel “The Sands of Mars” by Arthur C. Clarke was published for the first time in 1951.

Martin Gibson is a famous science fiction writer but has never traveled in space. Finally, he has an opportunity and leaves on the Ares, a starship that will be reach the Martian colony. First he has to go to “Space Station One”, in Earth’s orbit, where interplanetary trips start.

When he embarks on Ares, Martin Gibson is assigned Jimmy Spencer, a astronaut in training, whose task is to help him to settle in space and to answer his questions. The relationship between the two of them isn’t always easy but eventually they become friends. It’s also thanks to Jimmy Martin that he gets interested in the future of the Martian colony more than he imagined.

In the early ’50s, Arthur C. Clarke was already famous as a writer of short fiction and in that decade he started publishing novels as well. At that time, humans hadn’t yet started traveling into space so everything about the subject was science fiction.

It’s for this reason that about a third of “The Sands of Mars” tells the protagonist Martin Gibson’s journey to the Red Planet. It’s the part of the novel in some ways dated so today it seems very long and slow but at the time it had to look filled with sense-of-wonder.

Today we can see every day on the Internet on NASA TV astronauts serving on the International Space Station move in microgravity. In the early ’50s, however, the long description of people floating in a space station could be very interesting and even inspire awe.

Some of the technologies used in the novel might make you smile today. Martin Gibson works on the starship Ares using a mechanical typewriter with carbon paper to get a second copy and the pages are sent to Earth by fax. The problems associated with their use today seem rather funny.

It’s always curious to read stories written a few decades ago and see what technological developments were foreseen by the author. Arthur C. Clarke became famous for having provided many of them but among them there aren’t those related to computers. Instead, in a novel set in the last decade of the 20th century he believed that there would already be a colony on Mars.

Beyond the obsolete technologies and what today have become anachronisms, especially in the parte set on the red planet “The Sands of Mars” in my opinion keeps its sense-of-wonder. The knowledge of Mars was much more limited than today so again some elements of the novel are dated but that doesn’t mean they’re not evocative.

In the novel, only a small part of Mars is really known and its exploration continues. The fact that there’s a colony doesn’t make it less complex and especially dangerous. A problem anticipated by Arthur C. Clarke is that the Martian colony isn’t self-sufficient and maintaining it is very expensive. After the initial enthusiasm, many people started thinking that keeping their eyes raised to the stars is too expensive. In short, that’s exactly what’s happening today with the current space missions.

Arthur C. Clarke was known as one of the first masters of hard science fiction and usually his stories the plot and the technological elements were the most important. In “The Sands of Mars” the characters are well developed as well, starting with Martin Gibson as the author also develops his past story. The relationships among various characters turn out to be an important part of the story too.

The pace of the narrative is initially slow, almost educational, in the section about Martin Gibson’s journey to Mars. For this reason, this part may be a bit tough to read. After the protagonist’s arrival on the red planet the pace accelerates with many adventures and twists.

Despite the dated elements, in my opinion “The Sands of Mars” is overall a good novel. If you aren’t intimidated by a slow start and especially if you like Arthur C. Clarke I recommend reading it.