Patently alien

In The Secret of Life, Paul McAuley pulls off that rare balancing
act of exploring big concepts while telling an absorbing and entertaining story.
It’s 2026, and the Chinese have found microbial life on Mars. Now biotech
companies are scrambling for the gene patents. Microbiologist Mariella Anders
travels to the Martian polar cap and through the counterculture trying to bring
the data to the scientific community. An impassioned plea for freedom of
information, this is hard science fiction at its best. Published by Voyager,
£16.99, ISBN 0002259044.