The novel “The Sunborn” by Gregory Benford was published for the first time in 2005. It’s the sequel to “The Martian Race”.

More than twenty years have passed since Viktor and Julia managed to reach Mars and there’s now a scientific research center on the red planet that is home to several people. The Consortium’s plans include a further expansion that brings profits but in the meantime another space mission is exploring Pluto led by Shanna Axelrod.

Meeting general disbelief, after studying the processes taking place on Pluto’s surface, Shanna Axelrod announced the existence of life forms adapted to that really freezing environment. Her father manages to convince Viktor and Julia to leave for Pluto to assist her mission and try to understand how life forms can exist so far from the Sun and what forces are at work.