Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine

Arabella of Mars is clearly an original take on sci-fi. I was blown away by the details of the story, despite the fact that everything about space travel was fictional and unrealistic. David D. Levine was able to merge science fiction, fantasy and steampunk effortlessly in this epic space adventure.

I'm usually a stickler for facts when it comes to space and science in novels, but in this case, because everything was done purposely, I really don't mind the way the author reinvented space travel. The ships that fly between Earth and Mars are very similar to the airships often seen in steampunk. Clearly the author thought long and hard about space travel and I love how much detail was included in the novel. The native inhabitants of Mars, with their insect-like lifeforms, are obviously fictional, but the way they're described and their detailed culture makes them almost believable. The tension between the Mars natives and humans is one of the many conflicts in the book, despite years of a somewhat peaceful co-existance.

Arabella is a wonderful character. In my opinion, she's the perfect new settler of Mars. She adventurous, inquisitive and obviously has tremendous respect for the Mars natives.  She's also a tomboy, and her mother blames this on her being raised on Mars. To make sure Arabella grows up to be a proper Englishwoman, her mother forces Arabella to move to a completely different world: London, England. She clearly isn't cut out for Regency England. As soon as she realizes that her brother, back on Mars, might be in trouble, she leaves everything behind and joins an airship crew under the guise of a boy in order to head back to her home planet. With no experience as an airman she quickly learns her way around the ship.

When the captain of the ship, Captain Singh, discovers her aptitude for automatons and navigation, he takes her under his wing and teaches her how to use the navigation automaton. The relationship that develops between Arabella and Captain Singh, is at first a professional one, but slowly, Arabella starts to develop strong romantic feelings for her Captain, especially while caring for him during a coma. When it comes to romance, the book was clearly written by a man because it felt really awkward and inexperienced. The two of them make a great pair, and despite the clumsy almost non-existant romantic scenes, I still love the direction in which the two characters are heading

This book is a blend of many genres, including steampunk, science-fiction and fantasy. It has pirates, automatons, space battles, a mutinous coup, a siege on Mars, a little bit of romance and so many other great things. Arabella of Mars can definitely be read as a stand-alone but I really hope to see more of Arabella and Captain Singh in the future. They make a great pair and I think their story has only just begun. A must read!

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by Tynga at Sunday, August 07, 2016

 airships, automatons, BEA, David D. Levine, Fantasy, Macmillan, mars, Review, Science Fiction, Science-Fiction, Space, steampunk, Tor Books  2 People left their mark

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Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Red Rising is brilliant. I have no clue why I didn't read this book sooner because it's right up my alley. It's a science fiction and a dystopian book at the same time, but it feels like so much more than that. It's also about how deceitful humanity can be, the lies and the control leaders can have over their people if they don't know any better. The book is also about rebellion and the struggle for power, and how a simple dream can become reality, if only one works hard enough and believes enough.

Darrow was raised in a mining society where he knew he would always end up mining for Helium-3, a substance necessary to terraform Mars. His whole life, he was told he was a pioneer, helping shape Mars into a habitable planet once the terraforming process was done. The conditions of this mining society are unacceptable, but for Darrow and his family, it's all they know. With very little food and even less hygiene and medical products, these mining societies are expected to live out their short lives as slaves. Most of them don't realize that they're slaves. They truly believe they're pioneers, simply living in harsh conditions because they can't have any better. Darrow's wife, Eo, may not have known the whole truth, but she knew how they were living wasn't right.

Strangely enough, I personally live in a mining town where miners actually make a very decent living. Upper-middle class, if not better. They do hard work underground and are rewarded accordingly, so it's a little bit hard for me to associate mining to the low class. Darrow and the rest of the mining society are classified as Red, the colour of Mars, the lowest colour of in the societal hierarchy. Your colour is imbedded in your genetic code and switching colour is unheard of. So when Darrow's wife is taken from him and he's given the mission of infiltrating the Golds, the highest colour there is, he realizes through sweat and pain that switching colours might actually be possible. And this is how Darrow's slow rebellion again society and the Golds begin. After transforming his body and his mind, Darrow  is integrated into Gold society by being accepted in their Institute, where only the best and the brightest of Golds are accepted.

Between the Reds and the Golds, there are multiple colours, like Whites (Law), Greys (soldiers), Pinks (pleasure), Yellows (medicine and science), and so many more. As soon as society is separated into classes such as these, at some point or another there's bound to be a rebellion or a revolution. We've seen it countless times in dystopian books, but for some reason, the way it's done in this book feels original and unique.

I really like the fact that language and lingo was an integral part of this book. Language evolves with any society and I especially liked the fact that different lingo is used by different colours. For Darrow, he has to learn to say prime instead of righto, and gorydamn instead of bloodydamn. Also, weapons and technology are important and are given different names. People's names are also different, such as Darrow's assumed identity, Darrow au Andromedus.

As I said before, this book is brilliant. The author was able to give us an amazing story along with hard lessons and cold truths about humanity. The struggle for power is obvious through the different the colours but the author also shows us the fight for power within individual colours. The story is full of emotions and themes, whether it's love, anger, friendship, duty, and so many more. And everything is so authentic, everything feels real. Red Rising has been compared to many books like The Hunger Games and Divergent but I think it surpasses them all. Honestly, it's the best book I've read in a long time.

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by Tynga at Monday, April 25, 2016

 Del Rey, Dystopian, mars, Pierce Brown, Purchased, Random House, Red Rising, Review, sci-fi, Science Fiction  Leave your mark

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The Martian by Andy Weir

"You should go read this RIGHT NOW!"  <--That right there is what I've been telling nearly anyone and everyone (family, friends, a few strangers....) for the last two days.  Wow!  The Martian is definitely in my Top Ten books of 2014.

The vast majority of the book is told from Mark's point of view, and all of his point of view is presented in the form of trip log entries.  You see, he's part of the third manned expedition to Mars, at some unidentified point in the future.  Shortly after his team lands on Mars, though, there's a huge sandstorm that forces them to evacuate.  The bad news:  Mark's suit was struck by a piece of debris in such a way that it knocked out his biofeedback equipment, his teammates think he's been killed, and they leave Mars without him.  The good news:  they left a large tent and all the remaining supplies that were meant to support the crew through a month-long stay on the planet.  The book opens with the "Sol 6" (Martian "day" 6) log entry:  "I'm pretty much f*cked.  That's my considered opinion.  F*cked... I was the very lowest ranked member of the crew.  I would only be "in command" of the mission if I were the only remaining person.  What do you know?  I'm in command."  This first entry really sets the tone for the whole book.  Mark is a fantastic narrator.  He's very self-aware and smart and has a very dry sense of humor, which is my favorite kind of humor.  He knows from all of his training that even if he perishes, the electronic log of his time on Mars will be picked up by the next manned mission to Mars, so he takes time nearly every day to record his activities to try to survive.  But he also knows that his situation absolutely sucks, and he's not shy about griping a little.  He rags on NASA a bit, good-naturedly, and on his crewmates.  (Turns out every crew member was allowed to bring a flashdrive of personal entertainment, which he pillages for his own entertainment and one crewmate was apparently very fond of the 1970s...)  But underneath it all, Mark is very determined.  He never gives up.  He never wastes a day laying about feeling sorry for himself.   Think MacGuyver with Mitch Hedberg's sense of humor.

So... I was impressed by Mark, and I enjoyed his dry sense of humor.  Also:  spent the entire book on the edge of my seat!  While chuckling out loud at Mark's log entries, I was so tense waiting to see if he'd make it!  I never thought I'd find a humorous suspenseful thriller.  Does that genre even exist?  About 1/3 of the way into the book, Andy Weir begins introducing the occasional segment showing what's going on at NASA when they discover that Mark is still on Mars.  This actually made me more tense!  The scientists would discuss his odds, and I also figured that the author could still reveal that Mark didn't make it if there was another point of view present.  I'm not going to give you any spoilers!  You need to be put through all the same suspense that I endured.  The author never lets Mark off the hook; it felt like he just kept getting dealt a hard hand right to the end.  Laughing while biting your nails... it's an interesting sensation.

You should go read this right now!

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by Tynga at Thursday, December 11, 2014

 Andy Weir, Crown Publishing Group, Fiction, mars, Publisher, Review, sci-fi, Science Fiction, space travel  2 People left their mark

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Red Planet Blues by Robert J. Sawyer

I'm really happy I stumbled across this book. Since I don't read as much science fiction as I would like to, when I do, I feel like it's a major disappointment if  the story isn't amazing. RED PLANET BLUES is one of those science-fiction books that reach out to more than just the science geeks or or the science fiction aficionados. It's in fact a mystery/suspense novel that just happens to be set on Mars. The idea of combining the two genre is very original and clever.

The main character Alex Lomax is your typical private investigator that you love to hate. He is the typical private eye that seduces the ladies, drinks a little bit too much, and is great at what he does because he's willing to bend the rules. A lot. Although I say he's typical, that doesn't mean he isn't original. He has many traits that remind me of other private investigators in mystery novels, but it's the circumstances and the setting that brings out the originality of this character. He does have a mysterious past we don't know much about and that adds another air of mystery to the story. Obviously, he does what he does for the money because he isn't a selfless investigator, and if he has the opportunity to make an additional profit off his clients, he doesn't hesitate to do just that. I kept waiting for him to double cross his latest client and I'm not going to reveal if he does or not, but just the fact that he has the intention of double dipping in order to make extra money adds depth to his character.

The novel is set on a futuristic Mars. People living on Earth's neighboring planet live in city in a dome-like structure that allows them to survive on a planet that would be otherwise lethal to human beings. The below 50 degrees temperatures and the fact the air only has 1% of Earth's oxygen really isn't optimal for human life, let alone any other martian life. In fact, the only proof of life on Mars is preserved in the fossils that have become quite the collectibles and are worth quite a lot of money to people back on Earth. Most people that move to Mars are attracted to the idea of making money off selling fossils and the flood of immigrants is similar to that of the North American gold rush. I think what makes this book so great is the actual science in the novel. You can tell the author has a scientific background because a lot of the details are realistic and science based. The science geek in me was really happy the genre was literally that of science fiction. With all the fossils and archaeological findings in the book, it comes to no surprise that the author's background is archaeology and although I don't know much about that branch of science, the way things are described is easily understandable and detailed. At first I was confused by the unconventional combination of archaeology and science-fiction because when you think about it, one is the study of the past while the other is a theoretical future. The polar opposites work, however, because what better way to understand a new world than to understand and investigate its past and evolution?

Despite all the awards and distinctions the author has, I'm surprised that this is the first Robert J. Sawyer book I've come across. I really enjoyed it and I will definitely be checking out his other novels. His approach to science-fiction is brilliant because it's believable and his characters are easily accessible. Personally, I find science-fiction novels, especially stand-alones like this one, can either be a hit or miss for me. RED PLANET BLUES is definitely not a miss and can undoubtedly be enjoyed by readers of either science-fiction and/or  mystery novels. A distinguishable take on life on Mars that is believable and tangible.

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by Tynga at Sunday, May 25, 2014

 archaeology, fossils, Library, mars, Penguin, Review, Robert J. Sawyer, Science Fiction, Science-Fiction  2 People left their mark

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