HUMAN TRIALS

Holgate pieces together an alternate-world future history, where humanity colonizes Mars, almost accidentally, and discovers evidence of an ancient, advanced civilization that once flourished there—and may offer knowledge that could save both Earth and Mars from a terrible fate.

This future-history of humanity opens with a preface written by Mons Iridium, a Martian descended from early human explorers of the planet. Mons illustrates “Early Mars History” with vignettes—some from official documents, some extrapolated into narratives—covering several decades of events. George Wilson and Mark Yoshiru, a pair of engineers, are the characters most often used to illustrate events in this portion. Mons signs off after this first section, leaving the rest of the history to be penned by unknown hands. The next segment, “Discovery History,” features Julia, a Martian geologist, and tracks the discovery and aftermath of an ancient, nonhuman Martian civilization. However, the advanced technology this discovery leads to isn’t enough to solve all of humanity’s problems. The third section, “The Exodus,” delves into humanity’s increasingly untenable position and its solution—forced exodus to other, hopefully habitable, planets. The final section, “The New World,” charts the interstellar transit and eventual landing and colonization of a new home world, Potheo. From there, a strange fate befalls both Earth and Mars. Altogether, this span of several centuries of future-history is a well thought out, fascinating exercise in imagining what future might lie before us. Holgate pays careful attention to the sociological and scientific aspects of living on another planet. Unfortunately, the vast span of time and the relatively scant attention paid to individual characters ensures that it reads more like dry history than an engrossing story. Characterization is often reported as fact—“Prissy was pretty quick at understanding things”—but the prose is nevertheless clean and crisp, and the chain of events, while not fully developed, is diverting.

A smart, if sometimes-dry, exploration of space and humanity’s future that should appeal to history buffs and fans of hard sci-fi.