Current Reading - November 2025: A City on Mars and Soonish
I recently finished A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith. Earlier in 2025, I read Soonish by the same authors, and it left a lasting impression. The books are clearly related, but they approach technological possibility from different directions. Soonish asks what may become possible and why it has not happened yet. A City on Mars asks a more uncomfortable question: even if something becomes technically possible, does that mean we are ready to do it? My interest in space settlement is hardly abstract. Falling launch costs, reusable rockets and the expansion of commercial spaceflight have made human activity beyond Earth feel less remote. But that is also the first useful correction offered by the book: improved access to space is not the same thing as a viable settlement. A rocket can transport people and equipment. It cannot by itself keep a population healthy, maintain a closed ec...