THE SUNBORN is Gregory Benford's sequel to THE MARTIAN RACE, first published in 1999. Viktor and Julia are still on Mars two decades after their successful and historic mission. They're content, productive and not planning on going anywhere when the Consortium makes them an offer they can't refuse. After the death of a team member and a near- fatal mishap involving Viktor, the Consortium gives the husband/wife team a choice; a transfer to the moon ("boring" in Viktor's words) or the chance to join a team on Pluto.

Interest in Pluto is at an all-time high. Charon's orbit has shifted and the planet has begun to warm up and form an atmosphere. There are startling reports of newly discovered life from a team already in place. Billionaire John Axelrod financed the first team and is behind the relocation of Viktor and Julia. Again, he sees money to be made in deep space. Currently in charge of the team is Axelrod's daughter, Shanna, a biologist whose team has made contact with the life form on Pluto. As they learn to communicate with the indigenous beings on the planet, the human interlopers experience a life they've never conceived, and answers about Mars, Pluto and maybe beyond are suddenly within their grasp.

Benford's science fiction is well-grounded in hard science and his ideas are interesting. His aliens are different from your usual "humans...only kind of different looking" aliens that most often appear in science fiction. These are completely alien life forms. The book was at times slow going for me and sometimes too technical. The human characters weren't always three-dimensional and their relationships not well-defined. I enjoyed reading it the same way I enjoyed watching What the Bleep Do We Know? . Sometimes the science escaped me, but the ideas he raises and questions he poses are fascinating.