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Brian W. Aldiss
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Finches of Mars Kindle Edition

by Brian W. Aldiss (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.5 out of 5 stars 90 ratings
Colonists on Mars fight to prevent their own extinction in “a suspenseful genre-bending combination of straight SF and mystery” (Booklist, starred review).

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 ever 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.
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  1. Print length
    225 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy
  4. Publication date
    August 4, 2015
  5. File size
    3.9 MB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Compelling . . . A suspenseful genre-bending combination of straight SF and mystery. Consider this required reading.” —Booklist, starred review

“Thought-provoking . . . Stimulating . . . Genuinely haunting . . . [Aldiss is] a major figure in world SF . . . Whatever else Aldiss may be, predictable he is not.” —The Guardian

“I have been reading Aldiss’s work with intense delight for something over forty-five years. . . . Finches of Mars certainly does not disappoint, and in fact shows Aldiss at the top of his game. . . . [This book is] full of incident and history and character.” —Paul Di Filippo

“A science fiction story of ideas . . .  Finches of Mars is a thinking person’s SF novel which wants to engage with the reader, to compel you to reflect on the nature of existence, what it is to be human and our relationship with our home planet Earth as well as our place within the universe.” —Starburst

About the Author

Brian W. Aldiss was born in Norfolk, England, in 1925. Over a long and distinguished writing career, he published award-winning science fiction (two Hugo Awards, a Nebula Award, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award); bestselling popular fiction, including the three-volume Horatio Stubbs saga and the four-volume the Squire Quartet; experimental fiction such as Report on Probability A and Barefoot in the Head; and many other iconic and pioneering works, including the Helliconia Trilogy. He edited many successful anthologies and published groundbreaking nonfiction, including a magisterial history of science fiction (Billion Year Spree, later revised and expanded as Trillion Year Spree). Among his many short stories, perhaps the most famous was “Super-Toys Last All Summer Long,” which was adapted for film by Stanley Kubrick and produced and directed after Kubrick’s death by Steven Spielberg as A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Brian W. Aldiss passed away in 2017 at the age of 92. 
 

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00TAJXCXO
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy (August 4, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 4, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3.9 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 225 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.5 out of 5 stars 90 ratings

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Brian W. Aldiss

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3.5 out of 5 stars
90 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Michael Parkes
    5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Martian story that will touch your heart.
    Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The contrast between Mars and Earth was so tragic, but that was what made it so lovely and real to me. Terrific story, now I have to read more by Aldiss!
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  • Clare O'Beara
    3.0 out of 5 stars Finches of Mars
    Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2014
    The finches referred to in the title, are the Galapagos finches which helped Darwin to understand that birds had evolved to suit specific circumstances and were equipped to survive in particular locations.

    Aldiss, whose major work was the Helliconia trilogy, says that this will be his last book. It seems to me that he is now not concerned about possibly offending anyone and so he says again what SF has been saying for generations - Earth is doomed to die from overpopulation.
    He presents a staggeringly unlikely habitat on Mars - six towers, each funded by universities, when it is more likely that solar and background radiation would incline colonists to dig into the rock for shielding. The towers are totally dependent on imported foodstuffs from Earth, and no live animals are allowed, when it seems clear that any colony would be establishing gardens, chickens and fish tanks in order to be self-sustaining. Food is an expensive payload.
    I don't see a mention of where universities are getting this money, and consider that industrial, business-driven space exploration is far more likely.
    Aldiss says that religions are forbidden on Mars, blaming Earth's terrorism, overpopulation and intolerance on illiterate people following primitive writings.
    Sadly for the colonists, their babies are all born dead or die swiftly. The conclusion is that people have not evolved to live on Mars, in hypoxia, cold, low sunlight and low gravity. Aldiss is telling us that it may be that the Earth is the only world where we can live as a race, having evolved here. His characters did not suggest sending Andean mountain dwellers or Tibetans to Mars; this would be a good start as these people have each evolved their own means of survival in hypoxia and cold.

    This book is a useful discussion starter. Sadly in my view it does not make for a riveting read. As it is a short book, those who start it will probably finish it, but by the end we have barely seen more than one side of the main characters and have not gained much sympathy for them. The constantly jumping viewpoints, through persons, times and locations, can be coped with but serve to create a disconnect between the reader and the characters. There is no real protagonist and all but a couple of the Martian dwellers come across as ineffectual.

    Devotees of Aldiss will no doubt want a read of this not at all cheerful book. Some of the themes are also present in the Helliconia world where a planet with an eccentric orbit, which is alternately baked and frozen over the centuries, has evolved people who are adapted as a race to cope with the challenges presented. The first two books are an excellent read; the third is the least good.

    Having recently read The Martian by Andy Weir, I would recommend that hard SF adventure aficionados read that enjoyable book instead of Finches of Mars.
    10 people found this helpful
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  • Schappell
    4.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!
    Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2017
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    It is always fascinating to read a master story teller's work. Just plain amazing!
    One person found this helpful
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  • S. Trudell
    2.0 out of 5 stars Aldiss' Last Science Fiction Novel is No Magnum Opus
    Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2015
    Finches of Mars
    Brian W. Aldiss
    202 pages

    Open Road Media Sci-Fi & FantasyWhile writing this review I was overwhelmed with the feeling of Metanipoko.

    (What is Metanipoko? I’ll get to it later….)

    Finches of Mars is the latest (and allegedly last) science fiction novel from Grand Master Brian W. Aldiss. It’s a philosophical/political/sociological/ study of the first ten years of Mars colonization.Logging in at only 202 pages, it’s not a long read, but it felt that way. Each chapter is a sort of vignette, or perhaps snapshot is a better word, into the lives of the colonists as they struggle to advance life on Mars. They can grow plants. They can find water. They can build things. But they can not create life, or more specifically, human life. During the ten years they have been on the red planet every birth is either stillborn or dies soon after.

    But after a few chapters, you simply don’t care. Why? Because the characters are one-dimensional. Names change, situations change, but there is nothing to emotionally attach the reader to the colonists’ plight.

    There is a very creepy sexual undertone that sort of sneaks up on you. As the story progresses you begin to suspect that the talk of sex, sexual organs and mate selection will eventually lead (at least one thinks it should), to a resolution of the reproduction problem.Yeah…well, let’s just say Spoilers and leave it at that.

    There were times when I was reminded of Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles. Perhaps this was the approach Aldiss was taking. Perhaps. The snapshots of life on Mars gradually interconnect as the novel advances. Are we looking at the colonists’ psychological and physical changes as they live on the red plant?

    About two-thirds of the way through we get his reference to Finches. It refers to Charles Darwin and the birds (finches) he observed in the Galápagos Islands. The finches evolved to fit certain circumstances of their environment, helping them adapt and survive.

    A-Ha! Now I see what Aldiss is doing. This is a textbook case of humans (finches) on Mars (Galápagos) adapting to their surrounding for survival. This is not a story, rather it’s a journal. We are observers of nameless birds that on the surface all look-alike, but their subtle differences allow the strong to survive. Slowly we piece together small facts and situations to create a working theory. It makes sense! It’s all about evolution, survival of the fittest, adaptation and natural selection. The strong survive, certain traits help the species live….

    And then the Deus Ex Machina ending of the novel pretty much slaps you in the face and throws that all out the window.

    The colonists evolve the most through their language and the creation of new words. For example, after life is discovered on Mars (“Life! Let’s eat it!” Yes that happens…) instead of a plot twist that might lead to the solution of the procreation challenge (remember that “problem” that the novel is supposedly about?), the colonists debate how it makes them feel and how to describe that feeling. They settle on the word Metanipoko, or “an intensity of regret and delight”.

    Which brings me to how I feel about this novel. Delight that I am once again reading a novel by Aldiss, Grand Master of Science Fiction … And regret that I could not write a glowing review for his last contribution to the science fiction genre.

    What I Liked About The Novel: the attempt to write a textbook/journal type narrative looking back at the evolution of humans on Mars and their struggle to survive.

    What I Did Not Like: the terrible use of a common sci-fi trope for an ending that totally negated the previous chapters and storyline. It was almost insulting. Almost.

    Conclusion: If you are a fan of Aldiss you may want to skip this one. Remember instead his better novels and stories. Go re-read Super Toys Last All Summer Long or his Helliconia trilogy.Two Stars out of Five.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • twilight zone
    5.0 out of 5 stars FIVE BIG STARS!!!!!
    Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    FIVE BIG STARS!!!!!
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  • Brendan Moody
    3.0 out of 5 stars Finches of Mars
    Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2015
    Amazon Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
    What a peculiar little novel this is. It has enough plot developments for a book of three or four times the size, and yet few of those developments seem to belong to quite the same story. Characters are introduced, behave oddly for a couple pages, and disappear completely. The world-building is haphazard and unlikely. The dialogue is atrocious even by the standards of hard science fiction. Sweeping generalizations about human nature are made, and needlessly repeated, with the bluntness of polemic. I can't fully agree with Aldiss's pessimism, and yet I wish there were more of it, simply because it's the only aspect of Finches of Mars that feels like it might ever result in a successful piece of fiction. But there are whole strands (if one can call something so underdeveloped a strand) of the plot that have nothing to do with the "dark and provocative" vision on which the cover copy focuses. Too often I simply have no idea what Aldiss thinks he is doing, which is a shame, as I think a fully-elucidated version of this novel might be something impressive. And yet the brevity of the book that actually exists works in its favor. A longer work this disjointed and gnomic would be difficult to finish, but I stuck with Finches of Mars, and enjoyed bits and pieces of it. I can't really recommend the book in any of the obvious senses of that word, and yet you might want to read it all the same.
    9 people found this helpful
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  • Anonym
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great!
    Reviewed in Germany on June 7, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Great book. Classic Aldiss! He just knows how to do good, intelligent Sci-Fi. A pity it is his last one. Anyway: great finale to his writing career!
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  • Christine Ellerbeck
    5.0 out of 5 stars Unusual story
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 20, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    It's not my favourite story from author, but is part of his final works.
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  • LUCIAN MIHAI PURICI
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in Canada on July 9, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    N i c e ...I
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  • Kristian Wheeler
    3.0 out of 5 stars Concluded too soon
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 3, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    A good imagining of colonising Mars...but the story ended too soon. A future visitation was a great idea but took away the possibility of human ingenuity
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  • KGBeast
    1.0 out of 5 stars Rückschritt in der narrativen Evolution
    Reviewed in Germany on May 5, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Dies ist Brian Aldiss letzter Roman und in diesem hat er zu einer Form des Erzählens zurückgefunden, wie sie in den 50er und 60er Jahren – und bei einigen Autoren auch noch in den 70ern – normal gewesen ist.

    In einer nicht ganz so fernen Zukunft hat der Überbevölkerungsdruck auf der Erde enorm zugenommen. Immer mehr Leute sehen auf Grund von Wasser-, Nahrungs- und Platzmangel – verstärkt durch ideologische und religiöse Fanatismen – das Ende der Menschheit bevorstehen. Und sehen das auch nicht notwendigerweise als positiv.

    Da entdecken zwei Hydrologen bei der ersten bemannten Marsmission auf dem Roten Planeten durch Bohrungen erreichbares Wasser und schon sind die Karten neu gemischt. Ein Konsortium der Universitäten der Welt (UU – United Universities) beschließt die Marsmissionen voranzutreiben und einen ständigen Stützpunkt der Menschen auf dem ihnen nächsten Planeten zu errichten um dort zum Einen das Überleben der Rasse zu sichern – und zum Anderen ein Sprungbrett zur weiteren Erforschung des Alls zu haben.

    Doch diese Mission, die auf der Erde von vielen – besonders religiösen – Gruppen unterminiert wird, muss mit allerlei Schwierigkeiten rechnen. Das Wasser muss gefördert werden, man benötigt regelmäßige Nahrungsmittellieferungen, bis man den Marsboden urbar gemacht hat und die Luft ist wirklich sehr dünn. Außerdem muss sich der menschliche Körper auch erst einmal auf die veränderten Schwerkraftverhältnisse einstellen.

    So beginnt das Leben in einigen turmartigen Gebilden, die verschiedenen Nationen oder Staaten-bünden zugeordnet sind, wodurch auch in der möglicherweise neuen Heimat der Menschen immer noch alte Empfindlichkeiten eine Rolle spielen. Und anders als angekündigt, hat man nicht die besten der Besten hochgeschickt um die Menschheit gut zu vertreten. Daneben haben auch einige der Exilanten – eine Rückkehr zur Erde gilt als ausgeschlossen – einige Probleme damit, den durch die Programmrichtlinien festgelegten Atheismus aufrechtzuerhalten. Und die Sache mit der Fortpflanzung scheint auch ein Problem darzustellen, denn es kommt in allen Türmen 10 Jahre nach dem Beginn der Besiedlung nur zu Todgeburten. Ein Überleben der Menschheit auf diesem Wege erscheint damit mehr als fraglich.

    Da treten auf einmal zwei absolut unerwartete Ereignisse ein, die die Karten für die Menschheit noch einmal neu mischen.

    Gerade das letzte Ereignis hat einen starken „deus-ex-machina“-Charakter und gibt einem das Ge-fühl, dass sich der Autor in eine Ecke geschrieben hat, aus der er sich da so zu befreien versucht. Doch auch andere Dinge an diesem Roman sind zu bemängeln. Keiner der Charaktere kommt wirklich von den Seiten los, Expositionen sind oft sehr detailverliebt und stehen ohne direkten Handlungsbezug einfach so da – während andere Dinge und grundlegende Probleme und Fragen – wie etwa die Sache mit den Atheisten – nicht wirklich in Erklärungen ausgeführt werden.

    Der Schwerpunkt der Szenariendarstellung und einiger damit verbundener philosophisch-soziologischer Betrachtungen ist aus der Frühzeit der SF vertraut und Aldiss gehört sicherlich mit zu der Generation, die früher so geschrieben hat. Aber im 21. Jahrhundert sind ein straffer Plot und ein aufmerksamer Umgang mit den Charakteren zu einem wichtigen Bestandteil des SF-Erzählens geworden und diese Evolution des SF-Schreibens hat Aldiss‘ Schreibfink auf seinem kleinen metaphorischen Galapagos-Inselchen nicht mitvollzogen. Schade, aber keine Empfehlung.
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