The astronomer Percival Lowell envisioned a world threaded by canals and peopled by ancient, intelligent beings. The Viking spacecraft showed us a seemingly sterile planet with a salmon-pink sky and sub-Antarctic temperatures. In this swiftly paced and authoritative book, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer traverses the vast physical and cognitive distances between Earth and Mars--and between Lowell's Mars and Viking's--while offering an informed vision of the future of Martian exploration. Mars Beckons is a fascinating synthesis of myth, history, politics, and high technology, written with the momentum of a grand adventure story.   "Absorbing, fast, paced and neatly balanced . . . It is a testimony to Wilford that he can cover so much ground. . . . He proves that science writing can be done excellently."--San Francisco Chronicle   "Highly readable . . . well-crafted . . . an important book in the ongoing debate about space."--Newsday   "An excellent book . . . Wilford offers us a compelling vision of our past, present and future with Mars."--Wall Street Journal