Sent Away to Die

Aman Hiregoudar

Mars One - Jonathan Maberry

       “Mars doesn’t want you,” she said. “I do.”

How would you feel if you were going to be blasted into space to possibly die on Mars? In Mars One by Jonathan Maberry, Tristan Hart, a high schooler, has been chosen to fly to Mars with his family to colonize the planet. He is dealing with all the emotional pain that comes with leaving Earth and everything he knows about it forever. His girlfriend, Izzy, has been dating Tristan for a long time and everyone knows it. When the day finally comes where he has to say goodbye to all of his friends, he doesn’t know what to think except that he has to make his last days on Earth the best. Will Tristan survive the journey to Mars, or will he die with everyone else on this journey to nowhere?

Mars One is absolutely amazing! I love how the book takes a stereotypical boy’s high school life of girls and trying to keep grades up, and completely changes it. The story is unique and different from a lot of other books. At first glance, I thought it would be similar to The Martian, but it is completely different. This book focuses on more of the departure and the emotional aspects, as well as physical problems. Instead of talking about all the mechanical problems, this book focuses on Tristan’s relationship with Izzy. At first, while Tristan is on Earth, they are complete lovers and communicate all the time, but as Tristan is on the spaceship to Mars, they can’t really communicate well, and they become further apart from each other. It is such a unique idea, a teen being removed from life as he knows it and sent away to an unexplored planet, where there is a good chance he will die. Izzy also thinks that Tristan will die, and this adds to his removal from normal life. I also like how the story is a mix of the mystery, science-fiction, and adventure genres. There are a series of problems on the spaceships such as fires and supply issues, that they have to fix and find out what caused it. This is a very mysterious aspect of the story since many conspiracies being considered. In addition to that, there is also the main topic of going to colonize Mars, which is an amazing science-fiction and adventurous topic. This is a nice mix because these genres fit in and work with each other in this story. I also liked how the story was organized into parts and chapters. The parts specify the stages of Tristan’s journey. One of the parts is called Blue Marble, signifying Tristan’s last months on Earth, and all of his final experiences. Another one is called Red Planet, for when they are making the journey to Mars. I really like this because it keeps the different locations clear and separates different aspects of the story from each other. Each section focuses more on different genres which are nice to have since different genres are visible all in one story.

      I would recommend this book to anyone who likes science-fiction, adventure, mystery, and space. If you like the book The Martian, or other space books, then you will like this book. Additionally, if you like books that have a little romance, but not too much, this might be a good read for you. I would easily rate it 5 out of 5.