By contrast, the supporting characters-notably an ex-NASA administrator who gets religion-are sketchy and barely integrated with the plot. Baxter, whose recent works include a wildly imagined sequel to The Time Machine (The Time Ships), peoples his story with main characters who are as authentic as his science. Seen primarily through the eyes of Natalie York, the geologist on the mission as well as the first women in space, the road from Apollo to Ares is potholed with bureaucratic battles, technical challenges, an Apollo XIII-like disaster and constant fretting about the inevitability (and necessity) of sacrificing lives to advance the cause of science. In real life, Nixon's directive in effect ended manned space exploration in favor of the Shuttle program in Baxter's novel, thanks to one major change in history, the green light is given for a manned Mars mission, the Ares program. The premise is brilliant: at the time of the Apollo moon landing, President Nixon authorized a Space Task Group to define the post-Apollo role of NASA. With just a little bit of alternate history, Baxter's excellent what-if novel about a 1986 Mars landing accomplishes its mission.
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