Dynamic characters and an animated distant-future setting enrich this engaging coming-of-age tale.
A boy grows up on a human-colonized, perpetually restless Mars in Korell’s debut SF satire.
Flip Buchanan is born on the Red Planet to a family that hates being second, like his earthling ancestor Buzz Aldrin had been. At a mere 8 years old, he’s part of a “gang” that steals crypto coins, digital identities, and more. It’s a way to rebel against his father, Buzz Buchanan, who never seems happy with his son, a boy who isn’t first at anything. Buzz leads Mars’ fight for independence from Astral Destiny, the corporation that sponsored the planet’s biosphere colonization but eventually got greedy (“Stores closed. People were forced to squat in warehouses. The cost of living skyrocketed. The hard-earned savings of Martian colonists vanished”). But Flip’s dad isn’t ideal as a potential Director of Mars, as he has shady dealings with clones and the planet’s indigenous species, and even instigates conflict between biospheres. Flip finds solace in his best friend, Pepper, a girl who lives in the apartment below him and shares his birthday, but as the years pass, his never-ending conflict with his father spoils any romantic prospects with her; staying alive is already hard enough, especially with Buzz always ready for war. Korell’s tale, which spans a couple of decades, is quintessential satire. The social commentary (discriminated-against groups, a politically divided society) is impossible to miss, but the book is poignant as well; there are tragic moments, a strained father-son relationship, and obstacles keeping Flip and Pepper apart. The story is brimming with unexpected turns that threaten Mars’ safety or Flip’s emotional state, though the fact that an older, wiser Flip narrates the story eases much of the tension. There is much gleefully silly humor (one of Flip’s favorite TV shows is NCIS: Mars) and sound worldbuilding, both figurative and literal (new Martian biospheres are gradually being added). While the keen final act and fantastic ending make this a standalone novel, a sequel or spinoff remains a distinct possibility.
Dynamic characters and an animated distant-future setting enrich this engaging coming-of-age tale.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 429
Publisher: jk lawls
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
One small step, no giant leaps.
Weir (The Martian, 2014) returns with another off-world tale, this time set on a lunar colony several decades in the future.
Jasmine “Jazz” Bashara is a 20-something deliveryperson, or “porter,” whose welder father brought her up on Artemis, a small multidomed city on Earth’s moon. She has dreams of becoming a member of the Extravehicular Activity Guild so she’ll be able to get better work, such as leading tours on the moon’s surface, and pay off a substantial personal debt. For now, though, she has a thriving side business procuring low-end black-market items to people in the colony. One of her best customers is Trond Landvik, a wealthy businessman who, one day, offers her a lucrative deal to sabotage some of Sanchez Aluminum’s automated lunar-mining equipment. Jazz agrees and comes up with a complicated scheme that involves an extended outing on the lunar surface. Things don’t go as planned, though, and afterward, she finds Landvik murdered. Soon, Jazz is in the middle of a conspiracy involving a Brazilian crime syndicate and revolutionary technology. Only by teaming up with friends and family, including electronics scientist Martin Svoboda, EVA expert Dale Shapiro, and her father, will she be able to finish the job she started. Readers expecting The Martian’s smart math-and-science problem-solving will only find a smattering here, as when Jazz figures out how to ignite an acetylene torch during a moonwalk. Strip away the sci-fi trappings, though, and this is a by-the-numbers caper novel with predictable beats and little suspense. The worldbuilding is mostly bland and unimaginative (Artemis apartments are cramped; everyone uses smartphonelike “Gizmos”), although intriguing elements—such as the fact that space travel is controlled by Kenya instead of the United States or Russia—do show up occasionally. In the acknowledgements, Weir thanks six women, including his publisher and U.K. editor, “for helping me tackle the challenge of writing a female narrator”—as if women were an alien species. Even so, Jazz is given such forced lines as “I giggled like a little girl. Hey, I’m a girl, so I’m allowed.”
One small step, no giant leaps.Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-553-44812-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
An unforgettable story of survival and the power of friendship—nothing short of a science-fiction masterwork.
Weir’s latest is a page-turning interstellar thrill ride that follows a junior high school teacher–turned–reluctant astronaut at the center of a desperate mission to save humankind from a looming extinction event.
Ryland Grace was a once-promising molecular biologist who wrote a controversial academic paper contesting the assumption that life requires liquid water. Now disgraced, he works as a junior high science teacher in San Francisco. His previous theories, however, make him the perfect researcher for a multinational task force that's trying to understand how and why the sun is suddenly dimming at an alarming rate. A barely detectable line of light that rises from the sun’s north pole and curves toward Venus is inexplicably draining the star of power. According to scientists, an “instant ice age” is all but inevitable within a few decades. All the other stars in proximity to the sun seem to be suffering with the same affliction—except Tau Ceti. An unwilling last-minute replacement as part of a three-person mission heading to Tau Ceti in hopes of finding an answer, Ryland finds himself awakening from an induced coma on the spaceship with two dead crewmates and a spotty memory. With time running out for humankind, he discovers an alien spacecraft in the vicinity of his ship with a strange traveler on a similar quest. Although hard scientific speculation fuels the storyline, the real power lies in the many jaw-dropping plot twists, the relentless tension, and the extraordinary dynamic between Ryland and the alien (whom he nicknames Rocky because of its carapace of oxidized minerals and metallic alloy bones). Readers may find themselves consuming this emotionally intense and thematically profound novel in one stay-up-all-night-until-your-eyes-bleed sitting.
An unforgettable story of survival and the power of friendship—nothing short of a science-fiction masterwork.Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-13520-4
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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