Ares x L. Neil Smith (DRC)
210 pages.
First published Dec 12, 2023 (Arc Manor/Caezik SF and Fantasy)
Sci-fi.
Rating: 2.5/5
What drew me in? The title, the cover. Mars. Since I read KSR’s Mars Trilogy, I’m an easy target for stories set on Mars—and I had decent hopes for this one, which TL;DR was a nice diversion.
It’s mostly about the political tensions between Earth, and Pallas, where humans have created a new society. Those tensions come to a head over Mars, which Earth (specifically, the Eastern United States, which are run by terrible people, causing the Western United States to separate into their own region) keeps trying to colonise. Pallas intervenes in the form of four siblings who cross Space to save the latest hapless colonists (they keep getting stuck on the planet and dying).
Thing is, this is a book about libertarianism, and it isn’t ever shy about it. It’s a book that goes on—at exhausting length—about knives and guns, presumably because this is a book about libertarianism, and a book that glorifies frontier life, and knives and guns are important to frontiersmen and women.
The women. Sigh. It tries really hard, but frontierswomen are mostly there to make babies, right? It’s all a little gross even when it’s trying 😦
I didn’t not like this book; it was diverting, and I like all of its sci-fi ideas. I even liked reading about the chaos in what used to be the US; and it’s important as it’s the foundation for what’s happening out in Space. But this is probably a book that will be enjoyed most by libertarians, as it serves to confirm that libertarianism is the correct political choice—even though it’s nominally a sci-fi book mostly set on Mars. Fair enough: SF is for exploring ideas about human society and culture, and this one does that. The fact that I found it all a bit much shouldn’t put off any other readers really; I have political views that come from my own perspective (a Black, southern African woman), and those have coloured my interpretation of everything that matters in this book—from the treatment of gender, to race, to the glorification of weapons. It’s not egregious; it just didn’t really suit me in the end.
Many thanks to NetGalley and to Arc Manor/Caezik for access.