If you got a copy of this book by reading the title and neglecting to read beyond that, you may not be in for what you expect. Mars specifics are not really spoken of at all. This book is an investigation into the more mundane but necessary requirements of human space flights lasting longer than a brief jaunt around the world and back. How long can a human stay in the same clothing without turning into a fungus, what's the best way to take a dump, is it possible to then eat those feces to save on launch weight? These kind of questions.

In general, this is a great foray into some of the more eyebrow raising aspects of the early to present-day design and engineering of space bound systems, including eye witness testimonies and interesting quips from historical transcripts that idiosyncratically brings some of the heroes of the Apollo and earlier eras, back down to earth.

This is my first introduction to Roach's writing and I can't say I liked it all. Indeed, I think that a great deal of the content here is unique and interesting. It's just that it's peppered throughout the rest of this muck. Much of the baseline of the book is humble-bragging, name dropping and elaborations on just how hard the hardest job in the world is (i.e. journalism).

Let me explain my position a bit here. Roach likes to get into her topic viscerally. So a ride on a parabolic flight in an attempt to greater appreciate weightlessness is really a great step for a non-astronaut to take. Mix that with a forced attempt at constant humor to keep a reader engaged and it comes out shallow. Meeting and interviewing some of the greats from space history is an excellent thing to do for a work like this. I'm impressed by the meeting with Felix Baumgartner and the insights there - this was before his stratos jump. I'm less impressed by some non-sequitur about the ride with Tom Cruise in his convertible. It's difficult to hear about peoples heads turning to a jelly-like mass due to excessive centripetal forces, or brains detaching from the spinal cord, then drudging through an expose about the grueling ordeal that is people not responding to emails or having to deal with antisocial archive clerks.