Finches Of Mars, Brian W. Aldiss
Finches Of Mars, Brian W. Aldiss
List: $15.99 | Sale: $11.20
Club: $7.99

Finches Of Mars

Author: Brian W. Aldiss

Narrator: TJ Clark

Unabridged: 5 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/27/2024


Synopsis

Doomed by overpopulation, irreversible environmental degradation, and never-ending war, Earth has become a fetid swamp. For many, Mars represents humankind's last hope. In six tightly clustered towers on the red planet's surface, the colonists who have escaped their dying home world are attempting to make a new life unencumbered by the corrupting influences of politics, art, and religion. Unable to return, these pioneers have chosen an unalterable path that winds through a landscape as terrible as it is beautiful, often forcing them to compromise their beliefs—and sometimes their humanity—in order to survive.

But the gravest threat to the future is not the settlement's total dependence on foodstuffs sent from a distant and increasingly uncaring Earth, or the events that occur in the aftermath of the miraculous discovery of native life on Mars—it is the fact that in the ten years since colonization began, every new human baby has been born dead, or so tragically deformed that death comes within hours.

The great Brian W. Aldiss has delivered a dark and provocative yet ultimately hopeful magnum opus rich in imagination and bold ideas. A novel of philosophy as much as science fiction, Finches of Mars is an exploration of intellectual history, evolution, technology, and the future by one of speculative fiction's undisputed masters.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Lis on June 09, 2015

This is not an easy book. Humans have established a colony on Mars. It's driven and funded by an international consortium of universities--the United Universities, or UU. The colony consists of six towers, of which the West, Chinese, and Sud-Am towers figure most prominently in the story. The colonis......more

Goodreads review by Jonathan on May 24, 2014

When I look back over the legendary Brian Aldiss' Science Fiction works, it will be with fond memories; as I'm sure it will be for many others, who have had the pleasure of reading them. It also pleases me to think that there are still many that I am yet to read. It then becomes all the more unfort......more

Goodreads review by Jon on June 13, 2013

Purportedly the last book by this great author, which is perhaps why I expected it to be an outstanding book. If you know you're writing your last book, you may want to put everything into it. It must be a tricky situation, and I don't envy the author. Sadly, this will not be a book I would remember......more

Goodreads review by Ray on May 06, 2015

Aldiss provides a mostly speculative vision of what life on Mars would all be about. Earth has become mostly uninhabitable due to a number of reasons ---over-population, constant warfare and lack of natural resources. A small grouping of humans is sent to begin colonizing Mars. They live in 6 separat......more

Goodreads review by Artur on August 28, 2015

A acreditar no que se lê sobre este livro, é com esta vénia que Brian Aldiss despede-se da ficção científica. E que vénia. Finches of Mars é FC depurada, mais próxima do experimentalismo literário legado ao género pela New Wave do que da rígida estrutura narrativa entre aventura e infodump que carac......more