The Sirens of Mars

Imagine for a moment that we found life on Mars.

That discovery would shake our world, change our outlook on the universe, and answer the question of whether we’re alone.

Sarah Stewart Johnson, a planetary scientist, has spent her life thinking about this possibility and delves into both her and our obsession with the Red Planet in this beautifully written book. Part memoir, part historical account, and part scientific exploration, this book made me want to ditch a career in journalism and take up astrobiology. You’ll never look at Mars the same way again. 

As Perseverance made its way toward Mars, I found myself looking for ways to design some of my own future characters: What sorts of people are consumed by the search for extraterrestrial life? What do they hope to find, and how will they interpret what they find? Traversing the boundaries between nonfiction and autobiography, this lovely book chronicles not only the history of humans’ fascination with the red planet, but also a personal journey for its author. Through her lens, it offers an in-depth comparison of our own precious Earth to the now-dead planet with which we are endlessly obsessed—a… show more.

This book provided me with a way to think of another planet as a real planet—not some abstract spot in the sky. In it, Sarah Stewart Johnson interweaves her own personal story of becoming an astronomer with the science of Mars, the planet she studies, and the efforts of some humans who came before her. Reading it, the philosophical and personal and scientific mixed together in ways that made all three lenses more focused and powerful for me—and made me see the Red Planet in a new way.

No planet has held our imagination as Mars has. From the “canals” observed by Percival Lowell, to the terraforming of the planet into an Earth-like world, we are just drawn to Mars, and expect to find ourselves on it. NASA still spends most of its effort in planetary exploration to finding life on Mars, and Sarah Stewart Johnson weaves her very personal story of how she got involved in that search alongside the scientific advancements of that search.