G.G. Berry, BA

Beginning with the mythology of Mars dating back to ancient times, Raeburn takes us on a tour through the earliest efforts to study Mars, including the “discovery” of its once-famous canals, and the many volumes of science fiction they spawned.
Mars includes spectacular photographs of the red planet, culled from NASA’s archives, including a three-dimensional fold out of the Martian landscape as seen by the Pathfinder mission. (The book comes with a pair of 3-D glasses.)

One of the more... interesting... things about having a few hundred books on your to-read pile is that sometimes you find yourself thinking things like, "Hmm, this big coffee table book on Mars has been sitting here for a while. Maybe I should pull it off and give it a read," only to realize in shock that "for a while" actually means something more like "since 1998." Well, better late than never, I guess.

Needless to say, a lot has happened on Mars since 1998, so this book is at least incomplete and, in a few places, pretty dated. But it's a decent overview of the Mars missions prior to that point, featuring detailed but relatively non-technical descriptions of the Mariner and Viking probes and especially the Mars Pathfinder mission, which featured the first Mars Rover, Sojourner. There may not be quite as many pictures as I'd usually expect from this kind of a book, but there are a fair number, including a few in 3D. (Red/blue glasses are included.) ( )