Review by laurareads87 - A Rebel's History of Mars

laurareads87 's review for:

A Rebel's History of Mars by Nadia Afifi

4.0

adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

A Rebel’s History of Mars alternates between two POV characters living a thousand years apart. Azad, living in the space colony of Nabatea, escapes his highly controlled life when evidence of his long lost sister arises and he has the chance to join a ship of historians researching humanity’s past journey from Mars to what became Nabatea. A thousand years in the past, Kezza, a circus performer living in a corporate-operated Mars colony, gets swept up in ‘civilizationist’ Barett Juul’s plans to design and start a new society different from the exploitative ‘tiered’ model of the Martian cities. Each soon learns that more is going on than they realized.

This novel has so much of what I look for in a sci-fi novel: multiple POVs that feel distinctive, an exciting plot consistently paced, a few clever twists I did not 100% see coming, and solid worldbuilding that is simultaneously dystopian and wholly believable (with the exception of perhaps some of the scientific components); there are clear ethical and political implications to consider in the narrative and I appreciate the nuance with which they’re presented. I will definitely read more from Afifi.

Thank you to Flame Tree Press, NetGalley, & the author for providing me with an ARC to review.

Content warnings: violence, murder, sexual harassment, classism, racism, gun violence, mass shooting, medical content, medical trauma, pandemic/epidemic, blood, terminal illness, cancer, forcible confinement, death, death of a parent, grief

Content Warnings