The Forge of Mars

The Forge of Mars #1

by Bruce Balfour

From the national bestselling author of The Digital Dead.A NASA team has discovered alien ruins buried in the canyons of Mars, at the site called Vulcan’s Forge. The first man who touched them died making them very, very interesting. NASA needs to figure out who left them, and what they might mean to Earth exploration.   Tau Wolfsinger is the NASA researcher to do that. Brilliant and intuitive, he’s as much an outsider at the agency as he has been everywhere, all his life. Nobody likes using him, but he’s the best.   What Tau doesn’t know is that the Mars ruins aren’t the first of their kind. The others are in the hands of the Davos Group, a shadowy international organization whose members have been hiding similar artifacts for decades, trying to unlock their secrets. Tau has sworn that his talents will not be put to military use, but dangerous people are watching him now, and they do not intend to be stopped.  “Strap in, and get ready for an exciting ride.”—William C. Dietz   “Balfour expertly speculates on many fronts that make NASA and the Martian environment credible. . . . Tau and his trip to Mars make a good story.”—The Denver Post

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

541 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 27, 2002

Reviews

[Gary Reger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Forge of Mars is another Mars SF novel that takes as its point of departure the discovery of alien civilization on the Red Planet--not indigenous, but from somewhere out in space. It's a very old trope. Bruce Balfour stalks old territory, with a new twist or two; his aliens are machines, engaged in an endless war of coevolution wherever it is they live; their presence on Mars has to do with a couple of portals left behind with the artificial intelligences that oversee them; and Tau is part Navajo (a heritage that excuses some boring passages about Navajo ritual).

The plot revolves around the computer scientist Tau and his allies, on the one side, and Russian military operatives led by a blood-thirsty general named Zhukov. Tau's on-and-off girlfriend Kate is an archaeologist seconded to work with another Russian group excavating the site of one of the portals; the other, whose existence is kept secret, lies below the Russian military base on the planet.

Aside from the rather hackneyed plot, Forge of Mars suffers from multiple other defects that often plague SF. Balfour indulges in lots of lengthy and unnecessary information dumps: unnecessary because they provide information not relevant to plot, character, or setting: for instance, a digression on US and Soviet Cold War bunkers (pp. 59-60) or a discussion of the sociology of street gangs promoted by an attack on Tau (p. 45). Some of the characters display a strange lability: Yvette, Tau's roommate, is depicted as a scheming and amoral bureaucratic climber, lacking even the scientific qualifications for her initial job at NASA's Ames Research Center; by the end of the book she's apparently transformed into a competent administrator who'd also sided with Tau in the struggle against the Russians, but how this change came about is left a mystery. Zhukov is simply a cardboard cut-out, an evil, murderous Russkie right out of the worst Cold War stereotypes.

A glaring improbability mars the centerpiece of the book. Tau is transported to the home planet of the machines, which are engaged in an endless war they're programmed to prosecute by the Code--computer program--which their makers, the Masters, wrote. Soon after Tau arrives he's enlisted to modify the Code to improve it. It's really unbelievable that these alien machines would entrust such a task to some dude from Mars, whom they just met, who doesn't know their language or the computer language the Code's written in, or that they would tolerate any mucking about with the programs their Masters, whom they obey unquestioningly, wrote. At this point Forge of Mars descends into absurdity.

As for Mars, the setting of much of the novel, it's hardly there. After such magnificent evocations of the Martian landscape and feeling in books like Kim Stanley Robinson's trilogy, it's disappointing to meet a Mars that's characterized by little more than dust and cold--which aren't even that well evoked. The same sketchiness characterizes the home planet of the machines.

You'd expect that aliens who'd perfected instantaneous transportation by portal across hundreds of light-years would have altogether pretty sophisticated technology--but you'd be wrong. The fighting machines are equipped with cannons and they are themselves just big old robots. The disjunction here is jarring.

Finally, the writing is pretty pedestrian, ladled with cliches: militant vegetarians are "thin as sticks" and every enclosed space "smells like a high school locker room."

Aside from Zhukov, all the bad guys in Forge of Mars are bureaucrats or wanna-bes. The higher-ups in NASA, the aid to the president, Yvette--manipulators of limited intelligence and moral vacuity. The target is so easy. Wouldn't it be cool--and inventive--to see a SF novel whose heroes were bureaucrats?

[Patrick Gibson · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are only a few books I have given up on before finishing, and this is one of them. Being a fancier of possible life and artifacts on mars, I was drawn to the enticements of the book jacket. Unfortunately, once I began reading I became repelled by the prose, plotting (or is that plodding?) and characters. The writing is pedantic, the people and human situations unbelievable, the science meager, the frame of reference nerdishly undeveloped. I knew that if I persevered, I would only be angry at myself and the author for wasting my time.

[Wesley · Rating 2 out of 5]

The cover is far better than the story. This is one of a handful of books that I was unable to finish because it was simply predictable, uninteresting, and poorly written.

[Thierry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was drawn to this book by it's pitch: alien ruins on Mars, archaeologist investigating, ancien alien AI... I have a sweet spot for alien archaeology.
This book feels a little like a bundle of scifiesque ideas loosely tied together by a threadbare story populated by shallow characters...
Ok I know how this sounds, but despite this honest description, I still enjoyed reading this book.
I never considered not finishing it and it was an easy read, not as challenging as I prefer, but still pleasant.

[Philip Mowrer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, interesting, fast read. Disappointed that the author used Welsh as the 'alien' language rather than creating something himself, makes it less believable when alien robots have Welsh names.

[Silicon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm going to try really hard not to spoil this book, although in order to say why I didn't like it I have to come close to touching on the details of the storyline.

What was a really promising start transpired to be a book about international politics and dealings which confused as much as it entertained.

That being said I progressed through the book, intrigued by the alien technology found on Mars.

The book then changed again, mysteries almost completely removed, the title morphs into something akin to "Transformers the movie" and I half expected Optimus Prime to make an appearance...just because he could. And there's alot in this novel which seems to be added "just because you can"

I think the problem with this book is that it tries to cover too many sci-fi concepts and as a result ends up being a mish-mash of sci fi themes all competing for your attention. In their own right, each concept would have made a good book, but as it stands its a noisy title with no sense of completeness to it.

It wasn't a chore to finish the title, but by around three quarters of the way through, I had given up trying to keep track of all its facets and merely "went with the flow"

I love a good mystery. I love to be left in the dark to theorise over what the "truth" actually was. What I don't love is to be sold a book where I'm given a mystery only to have it taken away to be replaced with something that is probably better suited to a Hollywood CGI extravaganza.

[Jennifer Kleffner · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of this book is fun and interesting, though a bit slow paced. Then, about half way through, its as if a completely different author took over the writing, and went, oh, shit, we better move this along and wrap this up. The second half isn't bad in and of itself, but its so completely different from the pacing and character development of the first half that it is jarring. The second half read more like an action packed video game. Nice idea though.

[Krishna Shah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure about this book but the back cover seemed interesting. I picked it up at a book sale somewhere and was quiet surprised by it. The plot was great as it started from introducing characters that seem quiet real. The action moved pretty well and the twist in the middle that ended up with a highly unlikely hero was great.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a fast read and I enjoyed it. Some of the science was a little over my head but the author was able to convey enough so you could understand. I also really liked the Navajo aspects of it. A little traditional meeting modern.

[Mark Lacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few too many characters to keep track of. Interesting to have so many themes in it, including Navajo culture alongside virtual reality and AI, but somehow it didn't quite work for me.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid, good sci-fi novel.

[Foxtower · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Good!