From reading the blurbs about the story I thought I was in for a straight-forward girl meets guy, gets on a shuttle to Mars, all heck breaks loose, struggle until a happy ending.
I could not have been more wrong. While the plot does follow the basic tenets of Sci-fi and space colonization it is far more a story about inner space than outer space.
Sarah, the story’s protagonist, resonated with me. At times that quality was appealing, at others not so much. Sarah is in many ways a woman plucked from today. Hopeful, loving, conflicted, selfish, needing and not being able to quantify or explain that need to anyone – including herself.
While we all like to think we would rise to a challenge there is a portion of the population that operates day-to-day within confines they did not define, but which they accepted. They are spectators in their own lives. It is only when all the comforts of life are stripped away, all her securities gone that Sarah is forced to dig for her strengths to combat the danger posed to the mission and her family.
“There’s no going back.”
The phrase, included on the book’s blurb, seems to sum up a great many things about the story as well as life, in general. That simple truth is a pinpoint upon which so many people either change or stumble. The yearning for something which is gone can turn nostalgia into a trap. We are creatures made to unfold over time and Hough produces characters of fascinating origami.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily..