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Mars is My Destination

by Frank Belknap Long (1903–1994)

  • Free to read
  • 4 hours to read
  • 21 chapters
  • Reading level: 7th grade

"Mars is My Destination" by Frank Belknap Long is a science-fiction adventure written in the early 1960s. The narrative follows Ralph Graham, who is deeply driven by his lifelong dream of reaching Mars, a place fraught with both opportunity and violence. As tensions rise in Earth's spaceports and violent confrontations loom, the story opens with Ralph navigating a chaotic environment that sets the tone for an explosive journey into a world of colonization, danger, and personal conflict. At the start of the novel, Ralph Graham senses impending violence in a spaceport bar filled with patrons anticipating travel to Mars. His instincts prove correct when a confrontation escalates, resulting in a shooting that plunges the bar into chaos. Ralph intervenes and finds himself in deeper trouble as he attracts unwanted attention due to his special Mars clearance, symbolizing his importance in the unfolding events tied to the Martian Colonization Board. Meanwhile, a mysterious blonde woman warns him of the dangers he faces, and the intrigue intensifies as Ralph grapples with his ambitions, relationships, and the volatility surrounding the push for human settlement on Mars. The opening sets the stage for a gripping tale of survival amidst social strife and personal dilemmas.

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  • Science fiction
  • Mars (Planet)
  • Space colonies

Read the opening

Chapter 1

I'd known for ten minutes that something terrible was going to happen. It was in the cards, building to a zero-count climax.

The spaceport bar was filled with a fresh, washed-clean smell, as if all the winds of space had been blowing through it. There was an autumn tang in the air as well, because it was open at both ends, and out beyond was New Chicago, with its parks and tall buildings, and the big inland sea that was Lake Michigan.

It was all right ... if you just let your mind dwell on what was outside. Men and women with their shoulders held straight and a new lift to the way they felt and thought, because Earth wasn't a closed-circuit any more. Kids in the parks pretending they were spacemen, bundled up in insulated jackets, having the time of their lives. A blue jay perched on a tree, the leaves turning red and yellow around it. A nurse in a starched white uniform pushing a perambulator, her red-gold hair whipped by the wind, a dreamy look in her eyes.

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Contents

  1. Chapter 1
  2. Chapter 2
  3. Chapter 3
  4. Chapter 4
  5. Chapter 5
  6. Chapter 6
  7. Chapter 7
  8. Chapter 8
  9. Chapter 9
  10. Chapter 10
  11. Chapter 11
  12. Chapter 12
  13. Chapter 13
  14. Chapter 14
  15. Chapter 15
  16. Chapter 16
  17. Chapter 17
  18. Chapter 18
  19. Chapter 19
  20. Chapter 20
  21. Chapter 21

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About this edition

This free edition of Mars is My Destination by Frank Belknap Long comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #51125, released 2016-02-04. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Science-Fiction & Fantasy, Adventure, Novels.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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