REVOLUTION

In this SF debut, native Martians suspect a coverup following a political assassination on their home planet.

By the mid-23rd century, colonized Mars is finally getting its independence. But during a ceremony honoring the red planet, someone assassinates the president of the United Nations Interplanetary Council. Brig. Gen. Keith Brennan of the Protectorate Forces joins the investigation, which quickly identifies the shooter, dead from an apparent suicide. But higher-ups look increasingly dubious, as they subsequently tie a local businessman and his son—two obvious scapegoats—to the assassination. The UNIC puts Mars’ independence on indefinite hold. It further orders Gov. Helena Chu, who was to become Mars’ president, to declare martial law. Meanwhile, pirate attacks on Mars have soared, including an alarmingly successful strike against one of the Protectorate Forces’ elite units. This only exacerbates the planet’s growing civil unrest. Helena, Brennan, and others surmise a conspiracy of some kind that, perhaps, starts with the UNIC. But it’s soon clear anyone questioning the authorities or somehow linked to the assassination will wind up accused, suppressed, or something much more permanent. Fox’s Mars-set series opener is primarily a conspiracy-laden mystery. The narrative centers on a handful of absorbing characters, all with their own stories that connect to the main plot. For example, Cadet Lisa Colt’s peers unfairly disregard her because of her admiral mother, though the military leader often debases Lisa. While the author aptly describes the familiar environment, the characters’ gradual unease and the developing tensions actually propel the gripping story. In the same vein, Fox laces his prose in cynicism: If Brennan “were the beach that was holding back the ocean of corruption,” Helena “was a rock outcropping being eroded away in the breakers. The analogy brought a painful realization, he had always wanted to visit the beaches on Earth.” Much of the tale is unresolved at the end, and a number of uncertain fates will surely leave readers eagerly anticipating the sequel.

A densely plotted and riveting futuristic thriller.