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A review by geekcliche
Before Mars by Emma Newman
5.0
It's a good job I'm not a professional book reviewer, as I really don't think I can adequately describe how good Before Mars is.
I can always empathise with characters when I'm reading but, just like [b:Planetfall|24237785|Planetfall (Planetfall, #1)|Emma Newman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1424627926s/24237785.jpg|43823353] and [b:After Atlas|28361265|After Atlas (Planetfall, #2)|Emma Newman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456689269s/28361265.jpg|48430277], I was experiencing the intensity of everything the main character experiences. There's a single word that's repeatedly come to mind whenever I've thought about the impact this book has had on me; raw. Raw emotion just exudes from every page and envelops you. Emma has written about how hard it was for her to write this novel and for it to be released and I can see why. It doesn't quite have the same gut-punch ending as After Atlas, but once again it feels like the book has broken me a little although I might be a better person for it once the book hangover wears off.
Story-wise, this is a tense, claustrophobic thriller. Anna arrives to take up her new job at a Mars colony leaving her husband and baby behind on Earth, but soon makes discoveries that make her question the other team members, the base AI and her own sanity.
The near future of the Planetfall novels seems almost terrifyingly inevitable. The technology, how it is used and influences society is a strand running through all the books and here it is used with great effect, questioning how we trust what we're told and what we see when everything is owned, monitored and provided by giant megacorporations. That this came out just around the time that the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica story was breaking shows just how important great sci-fi like this can be. That it also explores mental health issues in a sensitive and intelligent way raises the bar even further.
If you need any more convincing, think of Planetfall, After Atlas and Before Mars as being up there with some of the best recent TV like Humans, Westworld and Black Mirror (and for any Channel 4 execs reading this, you really need to think about adapting these books ASAP!).
I can always empathise with characters when I'm reading but, just like [b:Planetfall|24237785|Planetfall (Planetfall, #1)|Emma Newman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1424627926s/24237785.jpg|43823353] and [b:After Atlas|28361265|After Atlas (Planetfall, #2)|Emma Newman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456689269s/28361265.jpg|48430277], I was experiencing the intensity of everything the main character experiences. There's a single word that's repeatedly come to mind whenever I've thought about the impact this book has had on me; raw. Raw emotion just exudes from every page and envelops you. Emma has written about how hard it was for her to write this novel and for it to be released and I can see why. It doesn't quite have the same gut-punch ending as After Atlas, but once again it feels like the book has broken me a little although I might be a better person for it once the book hangover wears off.
Story-wise, this is a tense, claustrophobic thriller. Anna arrives to take up her new job at a Mars colony leaving her husband and baby behind on Earth, but soon makes discoveries that make her question the other team members, the base AI and her own sanity.
The near future of the Planetfall novels seems almost terrifyingly inevitable. The technology, how it is used and influences society is a strand running through all the books and here it is used with great effect, questioning how we trust what we're told and what we see when everything is owned, monitored and provided by giant megacorporations. That this came out just around the time that the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica story was breaking shows just how important great sci-fi like this can be. That it also explores mental health issues in a sensitive and intelligent way raises the bar even further.
If you need any more convincing, think of Planetfall, After Atlas and Before Mars as being up there with some of the best recent TV like Humans, Westworld and Black Mirror (and for any Channel 4 execs reading this, you really need to think about adapting these books ASAP!).