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A review by sevskywalker
Before Mars by Emma Newman
4.0
Emma Newman is fast becoming one of my favorite female as well as science fiction author. Her Planetfall novels are some of the best SF has to offer today, but still I don't think they are getting the attention they deserve from the community. Let's hope that will change in the future.
This book is the third one in a series of novels that take places in the same universe or in the same far future, and everything about it is so fascinating. From the leaps in technology to the way the people of Earth are living at that time are very interesting and this shows how well and convincing the author can build a world and weave stories around it.
I still think the second book is the best one. And since expectations are bound to be sky high, I shall have to say Before Mars just falls short of those expectations. It is not a big book, hardly more than 300 pages, but still the first half of the book is a very slow burn. Even though there are some very thrilling scenes in this part, it takes about 65% of the story for the book to completely turn into avalanche mode and the ending itself is very satisfying and heartbreaking for both the characters and the reader.
This book has a few firsts for me. This is the first book from Emma Newman in which I didn't like the main character. Dr.Anna Kubrin is a very fascinating character, but some of the thoughts she has are not exactly what you call pleasant, especially the way she feels about motherhood and being a mother herself. As I said, not very pleasant to read but I think that was the intention of the author, so I don't know how I feel about it. To talk about other firsts will be delving into spoilers, so I will refrain from doing that.
Other than that, the story itself is very good, starting off normal and slow and gradually increasing in tension and ending in a bunch of twists and fucked up resolutions where it feels like everything is gone to shit and world just ended. But the pacing isn't slick in the first half of the book or not enough slick for a thriller, but it is the complete opposite for the second half. To put it in perspective, it took me more than 6 days to get through the first half, but for the second half I breezed through it and finished it in a mere hour and a half.
So, I don't know if there will be another book set in this series, I would love for several other books to be written, but we still haven't any info at this point. Emma Newman has other books available, but I am not a big fan of Urban Fantasy, so I don't know if I will ever pick them up. But who knows, if I was drained of her stories long enough I may end up doing just that.
This book is the third one in a series of novels that take places in the same universe or in the same far future, and everything about it is so fascinating. From the leaps in technology to the way the people of Earth are living at that time are very interesting and this shows how well and convincing the author can build a world and weave stories around it.
I still think the second book is the best one. And since expectations are bound to be sky high, I shall have to say Before Mars just falls short of those expectations. It is not a big book, hardly more than 300 pages, but still the first half of the book is a very slow burn. Even though there are some very thrilling scenes in this part, it takes about 65% of the story for the book to completely turn into avalanche mode and the ending itself is very satisfying and heartbreaking for both the characters and the reader.
This book has a few firsts for me. This is the first book from Emma Newman in which I didn't like the main character. Dr.Anna Kubrin is a very fascinating character, but some of the thoughts she has are not exactly what you call pleasant, especially the way she feels about motherhood and being a mother herself. As I said, not very pleasant to read but I think that was the intention of the author, so I don't know how I feel about it. To talk about other firsts will be delving into spoilers, so I will refrain from doing that.
Other than that, the story itself is very good, starting off normal and slow and gradually increasing in tension and ending in a bunch of twists and fucked up resolutions where it feels like everything is gone to shit and world just ended. But the pacing isn't slick in the first half of the book or not enough slick for a thriller, but it is the complete opposite for the second half. To put it in perspective, it took me more than 6 days to get through the first half, but for the second half I breezed through it and finished it in a mere hour and a half.
So, I don't know if there will be another book set in this series, I would love for several other books to be written, but we still haven't any info at this point. Emma Newman has other books available, but I am not a big fan of Urban Fantasy, so I don't know if I will ever pick them up. But who knows, if I was drained of her stories long enough I may end up doing just that.