I am defeated: I have finally given up my attempt to plow through a 2,100-page weather report of Mars masquerading as a science fiction trilogy. There are only so many different ways to say "hill", "valley", and "wind"...

I never was a fan of Reader's Digest -- in fact, I think I only pawed through such while waiting in a dentist's office as a kid -- but the Mars trilogy could benefit from the treatment: There are worthy ideas buried deep beneath the sands in those 2,100 pages. I just don't have a big enough shovel.