4.0
A Rebel's History of Mars
ByPublisher Description
Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer member's striking new book of time travel and biological science fiction is a thrilling ride.
Kezza, an aerialist in the Martian circus, can never return to Earth – but she can assassinate the man she blames for her grim life on the red planet. Her murderous plans take an unexpected turn, however, when she uncovers a sinister secret. A thousand years into the future, Azad lives a safe but controlled life on the beautiful desert planet of Nabatea. His world is upended when he joins a crew of space-traveling historians seeking to learn the true reason that their ancestors left Mars. Separated by time and space, Kezza and Azad’s stories collide in the Martian desert.
Kezza, an aerialist in the Martian circus, can never return to Earth – but she can assassinate the man she blames for her grim life on the red planet. Her murderous plans take an unexpected turn, however, when she uncovers a sinister secret. A thousand years into the future, Azad lives a safe but controlled life on the beautiful desert planet of Nabatea. His world is upended when he joins a crew of space-traveling historians seeking to learn the true reason that their ancestors left Mars. Separated by time and space, Kezza and Azad’s stories collide in the Martian desert.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesA Rebel's History of Mars Reviews
4.0
“A solid scifi that explores interesting themes of individuality and how people fit into their society. I really liked our two main characters but felt that the pacing was weirdly slow yet all over the place. The conclusion was anticlimatic and a little deus ex machina. The book would have benefited from an expanded page count to fix the ending and pacing issues.”
“This was such an unexpected read! I was ready for a sci-fi on Mars, but this is so much more and I can’t wait to read other books by this author! How the author managed to mix together science fiction, societal and political concerns, all wrapped up in a mystery with a dual timeline is very clever and I couldn’t get enough of it!
I fell in love with Kezza’s character, but also all the rest of the main characters to be fair as they’re so authentic and well written. The story itself is also very fascinating as the author lures the reader in with a mystery and various quests across time and space. On one side Azad suddenly leaves everything behind to find his twin sister, whilst at the same time a crew of historians is trying to find out the truth about the abandonment of Mars so many years ago and the consequent birth of Nabatea.
Needless to say, as humans are humans no matter the timeline we’re in, hidden truths are revealed and history repeats itself. This theme I found to be food for thought and there are a lot of parallelisms with events currently happening, which is always scary.
This story definitely draws you in and traps you with the beautiful writing, world building and the intriguing plot, with the added bonus of a bunch of great characters to side with!
I highly recommend it for those wanting a stimulating plot with underlying socio-political threads.
Thanks Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for a copy and this is my honest opinion.”
“Entertaining, engaging, and enigmatic this is a fun read! I’m bummed I had to read it on my phone, but I will be purchasing a print copy ASAP as this is sci-fi at its best.
Really easy to get into, it doesn’t feel like other sci-fi I’ve read where you have to learn a whole new language to understand what’s happening in the book. You just jump right in and enjoy the ride.
While some of the science (viruses, gene splicing, medical accuracy) leave something to be desired especially if you have a biology/science background, if you suspend belief and let yourself get into it the themes it is a colorful and rich story with virtuous intent.
Speaking of themes, this story explores topics of autonomy, racism, classism, corporate control, nature vs nurture, and what it means to be human.
I highly recommend this book!
Thank you to NetGalley and Nadia Afifi for allowing me to read an eARC of this book, all opinions in this review are my own.”
“I enjoyed following the escapades of this Martian group over two time periods. I thought some of the concepts, which I can't share because of spoilers, were a fun addition to solving a scifi mystery that happened over 1000 years before present day in the book. If you like interstellar mysteries you will enjoy this one. It kind of feels a bit like indiana jones in space, maybe because of the dusty martian landscape.
You do need to suspend some medical science disbelief and hand waving of some science. I don't want to spoil anything, but I would think that people that far into the future would have a better grasp on some concepts than they do in the book. However, the fun and the mystery of the plot still made it enjoyable. I'll be curious to see what Nadia Afifi continues to write in the future, lots of potential here!”
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