Varios astrónomos descubren sobre la superficie de Marte una serie de extrañas explosiones. A los pocos días, varios objetos metálicos caen sobre Gran Bretaña y de su interior comienzan a salir horribles criaturas. En pocos días, la humanidad se verá enfrentada a un enemigo armado con poderosas armas y cuyo objetivo en deja lugar a dudas: acabar con la especie humana sobre la Tierra.

H.G. Wells' "scientific romance," published first in serial form and then as a book in 1898, attained perhaps its greatest fame in another form, the infamous realistic 1939 radio broadcast "Invasion from Mars" by Orson Welles. It was also made into an early 1950s science fiction adventure movie. Stover (emeritus, Illinois Institute of Technology) describes Wells' story as "a prophecy of startling originality foreseeing the coming of totalitarianism...

"Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he's alive--and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he...

Mars is lonely--his father, the sun, denies him a pet and his sibling planets will not play with him--but when rovers Spirit and Opportunity arrive from Earth, he finally has playmates. Includes facts about the solar system, Mars, and the Mars rovers.