chapter/page	Point of view, narrative techniques	setting (time, place)	characters	plot (what happens)	what you find worth talking about
Chapter 1 pages 1-23	The chapter is told from Frank Chalmer's point of view.	The chapter plays in the year 2053 in the city Nicosia	John Boone, Maya Toitovna and Frank Chalmers	John Boone gives a speech for the new city called Nicosia. After the speech a festival is held and John Boone gets killed.	First impression: How important is John Boone for the rest of the story. How works this tent.
Chapter 2 pages 26-49	Maya's point of view	The chapter takes place in the Ares. It is about 2027	Frank Chalmers, Maya Toitovna	The Ares lifts off for the long journey. Maya describes the situation, the ship and the reaction of the first hundred.	How the Ares works, the technologies that are used to build the Ares.
Chapter 2 pages 50-69	Maya's point of view, but not Maya's perspective (Maya's feelings are described)	Voyage to Mars in the Ares	Maya, John, Phyllis, Arkady, Frank, Hiroko, Michel Duval	Discussion between John and Phyllis about faith. A solar storm arises and the crew hides. Maya sees hidden person in Ares' fields.	How the stranger survived, who he is.
Chapter 2 pages 70-91	Still Maya	Ares arriving at Mars.	Maya, Nadia, Arkady, Frank,	As the Ares arrives at Mars the crew splits into two halves: the first one wants to become independent from earth, the other one wants to follow the assignments from earth. Arkady leads the "independent" crew and stays on the Ares to settle Phobos.	What technique uses Arkady to convince some of the crew to go with him.
Chapter 3 pages 94-107	Now we experience the story in Nadia's point of view	About 2028 on the Martian surface	Nadia, Maya, Sax, Vlad, Ann	They land on Mars and after a little problems to open the habitats (the doors were stuck) they are able to use them. Nadia describes how they work and what they look like inside.	Technique of the habitats. (Maybe one could make a small project out of this. Two students draw and analyze the habitats and show what they might look like.
Chapter 3 pages 108-119	Nadia	2028 on the Martian surface, the colony	Nadia, the other characters are only mentioned	The station is being build on Mars, "Chernobyl" set up, the labs activated and all the little problems solved.	What does this first Martian colony look like, what's important. Maybe Mr. Robinson forgot something important?
Chapter 3 pages 120-134	Nadia	Still in the base. Half a year later.	Nadia, Maya, John, Frank	The reader gets a glimpse of the everyday-life in the colony. Nadia looses on finger during an accident. We see how she is engaged in building the station.	Any ideas how the everyday-life would look for one of the other characters?
Chapter 3 pages 135-158	First the rovers are explained by the omnipotent narrator, then the trip described from Nadia's point of view. (Not in the I-perspective)	The rovers, still the same time. (62 days)	Nadia, Ann, Simon, George, Phyllis, Edvard	They leave the station with three rovers to explore the Martian landscape around the base. They discuss the possibility to melt the pole's water-reserves to use it as drinking-water. The idea of using windmills to heat up the atmosphere evolves.	Does it make any sense to drop thousands of windmills to heat the atmosphere?
Chapter 3 pages 159-179	Nadia	The base	Phyllis, Michel, Simon	The expedition returns. Arkady visits the station, but is not really happy with the work. Two groups form on earth and on Mars: The one group wants to terraform Mars, the other one wants to keep it the way it is.	Terraforming: What can it achieve,  what are the arguments against or for it?
Chapter 3 pages 180-202	Nadia	On the 'Arrowhead', an aircraft for Mars	Nadia, Arkady	Nadia and Arkady leave with the Arrowhead to set out windmills on the surface. Nadia comes up with the idea to burn up ice asteroids in the atmosphere to achieve a higher humidity. Nadia finds the green algae in the windmills. They return to the base.	Is it possible with our knowledge today to build such an airplane that flies on Mars (See Scientific America of November 99)?
Chapter 4 pages 204-230	Michel	The base of the first hundred	Michel, Maya, (John, Frank), Hiroko	Michel describes his life in the base (i.e. his psychological advise to Maya). At the end of the chapter Michel joins Hiroko's group (the celebration of the body of Mars).	Why does Michel join this group?
Chapter 5 pages 232-254	John Boone. This is the last and the only chapter we see the novel in John's eyes.	Places vary.	John, Ann, Sax	Ann incident at a mohole makes John think about vandalism against terraforming. He talks with Sax about the incidents (Sax is pro-terrafoming). John talks to Ann (who is "red"), but she rejects to have anything to do with the incidents.	What do the incidents achieve.
Chapter 5 pages 255-266	John	Places vary.	John, the Swiss and Sax	John drives with the rover and meets a group of Swiss road-builders. he talks with them and is fascinated by their behavior and knowledge. Later he talks with Sax about new plans of terraforming and the incidents.	What may the Swiss team represent in the novel (if anybody).
Chapter 5 pages 267-277	John	Station.	John, Sax, Helmut.	Sax talks with John about the ice asteroid. Later John talks with Helmut about the UNOMA and the Mars-treaty. At the end he leaves the station with a rover and follows an Arab-caravan.	How is the relation to earth by now? Do politicians on earth affect the life on Mars? What power has the Mars treaty?
Chapter 5 pages 278-294	John	The rover, later the base of the first hundred	John, Maya, Frank.	John discusses with Frank the question of immigration. Later in the base of the first hundred he hears of the new treatment to become older. He agrees to be treated.	Is there any possibility of getting older or is it still just a dream of mankind?
Chapter 5 pages 295-316	John	Places vary.	John, Vlad, Sax, Helmut	The largest dust storm on Mars brakes out and covers the whole planet. After that he talks with Helmut about the UNOMA. Later he joins a group called the Sufis and lives with them	Why is John fascinated by the rituals of the Sufis?
Chapter 5 pages 317-337	John	Places vary.	John, Mary Dunkel,	Another accident at the wells. Later John is visited by "The Martians". They tell him to stop the immigration. UNOMA sends up a team of investigators to look into the sabotages. Someone tries to kill John by cutting his walker.	How do the wells work? (They get water, use turbines to make energy, freeze the water and deliver it to colonies. But how could these techniques work?)
Chapter 5 pages 338-363	Still John :-)	Phobos	John, Arkady, Helmut,	John goes up to Phobos and visits Arkady. He talks with him about the sabotage and about terraforming. Later he throws the two UNOMA security-officers out of his room. After a walk outside he discovers a dead man lying in his bed. He removes him/her.	What has changed on Phobos? How has Arkady managed to realize his ideas and thoughts?
Chapter 5 pages 364-382	For the last time: John	Olympos Mons (to visit the impact of the ice asteroid)	John, Hiroko, most of the first hundred.	A big party is held to see the burning ice asteroid in the atmosphere. There the first hundred meet again, Hiroko included. They discuss the disappearance of Hiroko. Later they watch the asteroid and John gives a speech to the guests in the tents.	How does the impact of the asteroid really affect the atmosphere of the planet. Are there negative affects that could have happened in a real asteroid attack?
	JOHN DIES	JOHN DIES	JOHN DIES	JOHN DIES	JOHN DIES
Chapter 6 pages 384-404	Frank	Burroughs	Frank, Maya	Frank helps to make a new Mars treaty and after long discussions about it they decide to sign it. On the other hand he has a fight with Maya and feels personally bad.	What really does this new treaty achieve? (If it achieves anything at all)
Chapter 6 pages 405-426	Frank	Autumn of 2057 (M-year 15)	Frank, the Arabs	First Frank joins the Arabs and follows them. Later he walks in one of the cities and realizes the bad situation of them. He starts to realize that life on Mars is not better than on earth. He returns to the Arabs, but can't oversee the problems of Mars.	When did the situation of Mars change into this terrible conditions?
Chapter 6 pages 427-443	Frank Chalmer	Mostly Underhill	Frank, Janet	Frank decides to settle down in Underhill. During this he talks with Janet about his relationship to Maya. He spends his time to set up the head Department of Mars offices in the town. He hears of strikes in the Martian towns. One night he dreams of John.	Why did all the people come if they don't like it? (Parallels to colonization of America)
Chapter 6 pages 444-	Frank	On the elevator, later in Underhill	Frank, Phyllis (elevator manager)	Frank goes up the space-elevator and discusses with Phyllis the problems of immigration. Franks discusses problems with Washington. After calming down some strikes the situation becomes worse and the revolution starts.	What was the drop that made the barrel full? What made the people start the revolution?
Chapter 7 pages 472-485	Nadia Cherneshevsky	Lasswitz	Nadia, Yeli Zudov, Sasha, Angela	Nadia is very mad about the destruction of the towns she had build up. He has plan to save Lasswitz and succeeds. Because of the revolution a lot of water enters the Martian surface, which is good for Sax's terraforming projects.	Why is the water good for the terraforming? What does it achieve?
Chapter 7 pages 486-511	Nadia Cherneshevsky	In two 16Ds	Nadia, Ann, Yeli, Sasha, Simon, Sax	Nadia leafs the town have a look at the destruction of the planet. On the way she picks up several of the first hundred. great amounts of radioactive water gets on the surface, freezes, and creates a chaos. The elevator had been destroyed and crashed.	Is there any way the situation could be stopped now?
Chapter 7 pages 512-534	Nadia	Cairo	Nadia, Sax, Frank	Frank tries to stop the revolution, but doesn't have any affect on it. Phobos is being fired down on the Martian surface and destroys big parts at the equator of Mars	Is it possible to shoot down a moon? One can calculate, how much gas you need! Wouldn't that be interesting to calculate???
Chapter 8 pages 540-572	Ann	Rover	Ann, Frank, Michel, Maya	Frank dies during a try to set the rover free. In the end all that has been built has been destroyed and all the work that was put in Mars has been gone, except the terraforming, which improved by the revolution.	Wasn't the revolution the thing, which makes life possible through terraforming?