An astronomer/physicist named J. Overduin bought this book and wrote to the author: "This is the kind of book that I dreamed of as a kid, and the reason I became a physicist and astronomer. This is the first time since the 1970s that I have seen the excitement of space travel conveyed in a way that is both inspiring and plausible."

*"This book will tell you what would happen, and what you would do, if you were the first kid on Mars. O’Brien takes readers through every step of the four-month trip from Earth to Mars: aboard space elevators, orbital stations, landing modules, and more. By involving the reader directly in the story, O’Brien helps insure that they won’t even realize they’re learning all sorts of wonderful things about gravity, distance, geology, and life along the way. As strong as the narrative can be, though, it’s really the visuals that will drop most jaws. The nearly photorealistic scenes are a rare example of warm and immediate digital rendering."
vvv—Booklist (starred review)

"O'Brien takes an inventive leap into the future... Made captivatingly real by stunning, photographlike digital art, this intriguing vision of space exploration should set imaginations soaring."
vvv— Publishers' Weekly