Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Martians Abroad by Carrie Vaughn Published by Tor on January 17, 2017
Genres: Science Fiction
Pages: 256
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Goodreads
Amazon, Libro.fm
Well known for her Kitty Norville bestselling series, Carrie Vaughn has written Martians Abroad, a novel with great crossover appeal. Polly Newton has one single-minded dream, to be a starship pilot and travel the galaxy. Her mother, the Director of the Mars Colony, derails Polly's plans when she sends Polly and her genius twin brother, Charles, to Galileo Academy on Earth--the one planet Polly has no desire to visit. Ever.
Homesick and cut off from her own plans for her future, Polly cannot seem to fit into the constraints of life on Earth, unlike Charles, who deftly maneuvers around people and sees through their behavior to their true motives. Strange, unexplained, dangerous coincidences centered on their high-profile classmates begin piling up. Charles may be right--there's more going on than would appear, and the stakes are high. With the help of Charles, Polly is determined to find the truth, no matter the cost.
Since I really enjoyed this author’s Kitty Norville books and I’ve rediscovered my love of science fiction, Martians Abroad seemed like a perfect fit. I was so excited to read it. It was interesting while I was reading and learning about the world and the characters. People are living on Earth and Mars and various other colonies in space. Polly and her twin brother, Charles, are the children of the head of the colony on Mars.
Unfortunately, this was a young adult story and I don’t like young adult most of the time. The perspective of everything was by Polly. As a young adult, she was immature, rebellious and not all that far-thinking. Certainly, she had skills which allowed her to handle some bad situations. But other happenings she caused herself. Polly just felt whiny to me, thinking over and over what she wanted. She didn’t look at options to get there, make goals or try to learn as much as she could. Her efforts went into rebelling rather than progressing.
The other characters, including Charles, are not very clear to me. They mostly don’t feel like anything other then objects in Polly’s life. Looking back, I’m not sure about the purpose of the story. Polly spends a year at school, learns some things about herself and others. It just didn’t take me anywhere. I wonder if there will be more since it seemed unfinished with not enough happening.
About Carrie Vaughn
Carrie Vaughn is best known for her New York Times bestselling series of novels about a werewolf named Kitty who hosts a talk radio show for the supernaturally disadvantaged. The fourteenth installment, Kitty Saves the World, was released in 2015. Her forthcoming novels include a near-Earth space opera, Martians Abroad, from Tor Books, and a post-apocalyptic murder mystery, Bannerless, from John Joseph Adams Books. She’s written several other contemporary fantasy and young adult novels, as well as upwards of 80 short stories. She’s a contributor to the Wild Cards series of shared world superhero books edited by George R. R. Martin and a graduate of the Odyssey Fantasy Writing Workshop.
An Air Force brat, she survived her nomadic childhood and managed to put down roots in Boulder, Colorado.
I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- Anne: 2017 New Release Challenge
- Anne: COYER Winter Storm
How disappointing 🙁 I really enjoyed her Kitty Norville series as well and have really been looking forward to this one. My one hope now is that I do tend to enjoy YA, so maybe I won’t mind? But that there isn’t much of a plot with anything significant happening worries me. I’m sure I’ll still read it, but the excitement factor just went way down. *sigh* great review though!
berls – gah I didn’t mean to be a downer on this. It was interesting while reading I just didn’t like the way they acted young adult but that’s who they were. I didn’t expect it to have romance – it didn’t. It didn’t make me feel enough. thanks for reading and commenting Anne
Sorry to hear this one fell a bit flat for you :(. I got a copy of this one too as it sounded so promising. I do tend to enjoy YA books most of the time, so I hope I will enjoy it more than you did. But I’ll temper my expectations a bit after reading your review.
lola – I really hope you enjoy it more than me. Possibly I reacted badly to the YA characters more than other people would. There’s the possibility for them being important to the world as a whole when they get older. But it’s a possible seed for a future story. This introduced an interesting world but from the limited eyes of one teen.