Kenneth Franklin Gantz (1908–1980)

On the cover it says "Specially Revised by the Author" - The original publication was in 1957 and I'd be interested in knowing what changes were made.
The first spaceship to land on Mars is a military expedition and it's a mighty big one - 125 man crew. That's a helluva big rocket... The text mentions the first Moon landing as having occurred "back in 2010", so I guess the author assumed a rather leisurely paced but massive near-earth space program, and as is common in this sort of novel, did not anticipate effective unmanned probes.
This is an engrossing novel which reminds me a bit of Stanislaw Lem. The Mars of "Not in Solitude" has a very thin atmosphere with no oxygen but is a planet with life, nonetheless. Martian life is in the form of lichen like vegetation which appears to conceal some hidden intelligence which produces electrical discharges that may be an attempt at communication.
[ I have since gotten a copy of the Doubleday Book Club edition from 1959 and the revisions appear to be very minor.]… (mais)