I am ashamed to say I have not read the book (though I have tried a few times to get a copy at the library, but it's always out; and while it's online, I hate reading stuff that long on screen).

So why not print off an online copy?

You aught to get in the right mindset to read the book as it is written from the point of view that human transport of an high order was the post chase -and Mars was very far away in those day.

Perhaps a quick run through Naysmyth and Carpenter's: “The Moon.”

Let me get something else straight: Tom Cruise is a freaking nutbag. Scientology is nothing but a cult, and very, very scary one. The stuff they teach is not only wrong, and not only silly, but it's dangerous.

I gathered that the mindset of Scientology was one of concentration, the opposite to Hindu trancendentalism. Is it wrong to concentrate all your resources on getting what you want?

Tom Cruise's recent bizarre meltdown on "The Today Show" only punctuates this. I also just found this interesting and hilarious website.

Interesting though this may be it is not proof of the stupidity of a man's religion.

The aliens (we can't call them "Martians", since it's never said where they come from) get to Earth using some sort of weird phenomenon: a giant storm starts with lots of lightning. The lightning strikes repeatedly at one spot, and from that spot a huge war machine emerges.

I'm not sure where to start with this one. Even Cruise's character mentions that the lightning has no thunder. I don't know how'd you do that. The news scenes make it clear this is an electromagnetic phenomenon, which lightning is. Lightning is also very hot (hotter than the surface of the Sun!), and this violently heats the air around it. That creates a shockwave, which we call thunder. Lightning bolts like that without thunder don't make sense.

Actually there are various forms of lightning that have no appreciable thunder. However it might be true that within the required distance, lightning can be heard. I believe that the distance at sea level is within 3 miles or so.