- Another big-picture interchapter.
- The first men on Mars are settlers strong enough to tame a wild frontier, and never mind those Indians—uh, we mean Martians—who were there before.
- And the first women? "Everyone knew who the first women would be" (3). Translation: prostitutes, just like back in the good ol' days of the American West.
- But mostly, this second wave of settlers consists of people from the cities looking for more space. Some of them are "on their way to God" (6).
- Yep, just like the good ol' days.