A City on Mars

Scientific, educational, and fun as hell

Andy Weir, bestselling author of THE MARTIAN and PROJECT HAIL MARY

Can a book be hilarious, deeply-researched, utterly original and wise all at the same time? If it's by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, of course it can. This is a sensational book; whether you read it in your snuggle tunnel or your pregnodrome, read it

Tim Harford, author of HOW TO MAKE THE WORLD ADD UP

A refreshing, clear-headed breath of life-support oxygen amidst all the tech-bro naivety and hype on space colonisation. Impeccably researched and argued, yet witty and very easy to read. Superb!

Professor Lewis Dartnell, author of BEING HUMAN

Listen up, humans. How to poop in space will be the least of our concerns. Herein are challenges most space-heads, including me, never even considered: not just technological, but legal, ethical, geopolitical. Despite the breadth and depth of research, this is a clear, lively, and hilarious read. Slam dunk, Weinersmiths!

Mary Roach, author of FUZZ AND PACKING FOR MARS

There's a tendency to have a rather ethereal and even utopian view of space settlement. Kelly and Zach Weinersmith bring us a highly entertaining and down to Earth (or should one say down to Mars?) view of our future in space, filled with humour and cogent insights

Professor Charles Cockell

This might be the best book ever written about humans in space, or at least the funniest. I don't know of anything else quite like it: an extended, comical confrontation between the dreams of space colonies and the gross, dangerous, tedious realities. Read it before you go

Scott Aaronson, University of Texas at Austin

Of the many books and extensive literature on Space mission architectures, technical and otherwise, this is the only one that is a must-read

Professor Sinead O'Sullivan, member of the Advisory Council of the European Space Policy Institute

An excellent new book, Kelly and Zach Weinersmith’s A City on Mars, sets out persuasively and amusingly why you would have to be wildly optimistic or crushingly stupid to want to set up a space settlement any time soon.

Stephen Bush, Financial Times

An engaging new book… A City on Mars is a breezy read about human space settlement, blending together subjects like history, psychology, law and, of course, the sciences, into an honest yet hilarious summary of the field… despite the sobering outlook on humanity’s future beyond Earth, delightful cartoons sprinkled throughout the book are sure to pull chuckles out of you

Space.com

An exceptional new piece of popular science . . . Forceful, engaging and funny… an essential reality check for anyone who has ever looked for home in the night sky . . . hilarious. The breezy prose is studded with charming cartoons . . . This book will make you happy to live on this planet—a good thing, because you’re not leaving anytime soon

New York Times Book Review

Laugh-out-loud-funny

Scientific American

Inventive, funny, and informative . . . Filled with fun illustrations that bring the writing to life, this accessible and thought-provoking book explores what it will really take to build a society on another planet

American Scientist

Full of some of the choice-iest bits of awkward human space exploration histories and theories . . . could have been the research notes for an Ursula K. Le Guin, or a James S. A. Corey story, except that it’s filled with jokes, palette cleansing anecdotes and charming cartoon illustrations . . . a popular science book that reads like a conversation with a friend . . . you can’t get away from this book without thinking about how precious life on Earth is

Mark Popinchalk, Astrobites

A very funny book, underpinned by deadly serious questions about the future of humanity

the Times

If humanity's future looks to be in doubt, is living off-world not the ultimate insurance policy for our species? A City on Mars... answers this question very bluntly: don't pin your hopes on it... All this makes the book sound a much grimmer read than it is. It is peppered with cartoons and jokey-back references, and between each section are interludes tackling some enjoyable anecdotes from space

James Ball, The Spectator

Engaging, wildly informative, insightful and frequently funny

The Sunday Times Book of the Week

An investigation of space settlement that manages to be at the same time informative, sceptical and hilarious

Engineering and Technology Magazine

At a time when billionaires’ comments about space travel seem to be rarely out of the news, this comic illustrator and writer duo give a simultaneously entertaining yet measured analysis of the merits and numerous potential challenges of humans settling in space. In a wonderfully creative way, they analyse one of the biggest questions about the future of humanity in a conversational and refreshing tone

The Royal Society Science Book Prize