Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were a reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.
Looking over this novel I realized that the chapters in this book are about as short as the ones in Transformers: Exodus, except that Exodus was a hardcover, and thus a larger book. That means that this actually has SHORTER chapters! I could combine chapters like I did with the other book but I called this series Chapter By Chapter and by Asimov I’m going to do this chapter by chapter. There are 26 chapters, and this is the first one.
Chapter One: Mars
This was the shortest chapter yet…just kidding. It’s the first one, so it would also be the longest chapter yet. This is the opening dream, as Quaid and the currently unnamed Melina are walking on Mars. Quaid rappels down into a cavern, finding what the narrator describes as resembling Calliope pipes (we know what that is now, but Anthony describes them in a way that sets up their mystery) when his rope snaps and he falls to his doom. Yes, the next chapter begins with Quaid waking up next to Lori.
I’m no astronomer and I haven’t seen moon shots from the Curiosity rover, currently running around Mars as this article is written, but are the moons of Mars actually egg/potato shaped? That’s how Anthony describes Phobos and Deimos. Maybe that’s just how they looked through the visor or through Quaid’s dream? I don’t know. What I do know is that the author goes out of his way to tell us how badly Quaid wants Melina to ride his chariot. (Yes, I know, wrong Greek/Roman god.) He also stops a few places to tell us how sexy Melina is even through her space suit, and I don’t recall them being all that form-fitting in the movie. They tend to be a bit bulky thanks to necessity. Sure, Rachel Ticotin is pretty hot in this movie but unless my definition of “voluptuous” is wrong I don’t think she qualifies. You wonder what the filmmakers originally wanted or if Anthony was given a picture of any of the actors.
Mars itself is a big red desert so there isn’t a lot to talk about there. Mr. Narrator mentions a slight atmosphere and the gravity and that’s it.
It’s a decent enough start but I think this was intended to read with a few chapters. However, I want to follow the title for once so we’ll stop here for now.
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