Editor's note: This review published in Mountain Times on April 20, 2018. See bottom third for "Before Mars" review section:

Three for now: In the space of 21 days, and return to a cold mountain

With spring just a step away, it won’t be long before a young men and women — and those of us at all other ranges of the age spectrum — turn to thoughts of getting outdoors. But before your fireplace goes cold for the summer, there’s yet time to curl up with just one more book … or two. Here, from across the literary landscape, are three can’t-miss suggestions to ignite your own reading fancy.



‘Varina: A Novel,’ by Charles Frazier

“Varina” is the novel you’ve been waiting for since 1997. It was that year we first visited “Cold Mountain,” the harrowing love story based on the author’s great-great-grandfather. And, it was that story which introduced the promise of Charles Frazier as a significant force in American literature — a promise he has upheld through four novels and the past two decades.

With “Varina” (Ecco), Frazier returns to the time and place of “Cold Mountain” to recount a story you’ve not heard of: that of the teenage Varina Howell and her marriage to the much-older Jefferson Davis, a former Mississippi landowner whose passion diverts to politics.

Frazier’s work, as always, delves deeply into intimate portraits — here of a woman turned fugitive as she tries to take her children and escape south while around her the Confederacy, her marriage and her country divides and falls.

Leave it to a talent as bold as Frazier’s to not only piece together a story of human contradictions — late in life Varina remained a loyal defender of her dead husband’s reputation while publicly stating that the right side had won the war — but make it relevant to the complications and complicities of our own lives.



‘Twenty-one Days: A Daniel Pitt Novel,” by Anne Perry

Note well the subtitle of prolific author Anne Perry’s newest release, “Twenty-one Days: A Daniel Pitt Novel” (Ballantine Books): it’s a major clue that the bestselling author of not one, but two much-loved series set in Victorian England — the William Monk novels, and the novels centered on Charlotte and Thomas Pitt — is poised to launch a new set of stories building on that foundation.

As a starter to a new series, “Twenty-one Days” showcases some of the Scottish author’s freshest and more immediate work to date. With this story, 25-year-old Daniel Pitt, a junior London barrister and the son of Charlotte and Thomas, offers a new generation of storytelling, now set in 1910’s Edwardian era.

As dynamic in its exposition as its execution, “Twenty-one Days” begins with the seemingly unwinnable trial of man accused of a murder he didn’t commit. Through the use of new crime technology, fingerprinting, Daniel Pitt advances both science and the story to the real crux of the novel, a mystery involving yet another client accused of murder, but this one tangled in a web fraught with the choices the young barrister must make between justice and his family’s reputation.

Perry is to be praised here for not only developing an intriguing and well-paced story — the 21 days refers to the amount of time Pitt has to prove his client’s innocence before facing the hangman’s gallows — but one which offers a fresh and cogent voice in the form of a young professional eager to make his mark while struggling to live up to the expectations of honor, duty and family.



‘Before Mars: A Planetfall Novel,’ by Emma Newman

When Mountain Times caught up with Emma Newman nearly a year ago, the author from Somerset, England, had just released a grand urban fantasy, “Brother’s Ruin.” Now, with “Before Mars” (Ace), Newman returns to her Planetfall series and a different universe of her own creation.

A dark tale from the Hugo Award-wining Newman, “Before Mars” uses a strong female lead in the form of Anna Kubrin, a geologist who journeys to Mars amid jealous speculation that she didn’t really earn her place in the AI-based colony.

Part science fiction, part corporate conspiracy thriller, Newman navigates both landscapes while deftly transplanting the myriad social, economic and political struggles which we know on earth but are grossly magnified in the confines of a Martian colony.

Newman never fails those looking for something a bit different. In “Before Mars” that something different is clearly on display as the author channels both Andy Weir and Elon Musk to craft a compelling a space odyssey.

Before Mars is a strong, hard sci-fi novel with real promise in its continuing story, exploring the dystopian, corporate future and how a very small group of people can band together, not to change the world, but to change their small corner of it. Even if it's a cold rock 33 million miles from home.

This may be the best book I've read so far this year. An outstanding work of science fiction - incredibly compelling storyline and three dimensional characters. I haven't read any of the previous books and was frankly surprised there were others - that is too say, this book can definitely stand on its own. The technological advances of society were fascinating and believable; the AI entity definitely gave a "2001" Hal vibe; the question of mental health, internal chip manipulation, "immersive" memory, or someone masterfully controlling things kept me constantly guessing and wondering what it could be. Dr. Anna Kubrin's self evaluation of her depression and disconnect with being a mother were so so refreshing in a world where women are still made to feel that giving birth can be their only purpose and must be the source of supreme happiness.

Everything about this book was fantastic, will look forward to other books by this author.

I'm finding that scifi these days are running together. Its hard for me to get into something that seems like it has been done a million times. With this book, I felt like it was the same old same old. I was neither here nor there with it and frankly, I can't even give a good review, because I wasn't invested in the story.

Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.

Another excellent story from Ms. Newman, set in the same future history narrative as two others, but all can be read and appreciated on their own without confusion. She is very good at creating characters you can care about even when they aren't the most noble or sympathetic.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Upon landing on Mars, geologist/artist Anna Kubrin is immediately suspicious of her surroundings after spotting a series of ominous clues scattered in and around her Martian research facility. She’s unable to ascertain whether she is actually in danger or if it is all a paranoid delusion. Either way, she’s at risk, but nothing will keep her from uncovering the truth.

This was a wonderfully captivating read that I really enjoyed. Author Emma Newman has a masterful way of imbuing her protagonists with vulnerability and emotional depth. It is clear, based on her dedication and acknowledgements, that Newman’s own personal experiences greatly shaped and informed how she painted Anna in this novel, which adds a refreshing layer of authenticity to the narrative. The first half of the novel focuses heavily on Anna and the life she left behind on Earth. At times, the story is bogged down by her internal monologue and crippling self-doubt, but this serves to establish the character and makes way for a strong second half filled with the story beats and action that I knew was waiting to be unveiled.

Although less haunting than Planetfall (2015) and featuring a less complex crime story than After Atlas (2016), Before Mars is a compelling mystery box novel and a worthy addition to the Planetfall universe. With three books released and another on the way, Newman is crafting a superb series of interconnected works, with each subsequent book sprouting a new narrative thread while building upon the stories of the previous books. These books have been excellent and each new one I devour further solidifies their must-read status for me. I hope the story continues well beyond the next installment that is due next year.

What if they are out to get you? What if they are out to get you even on Mars? I rarely request books from Netgalley but this one just seemed so up my reading alley right now that I had to give it a go. Our main character Anna is a geologist and artist whose sent to the base on Mars in order to paint pretty pictures for her boss to sell. We are thrown into it pretty much from the minute she arrives from her solo flight.This is a very middle of the road book. Great premise and mystery. I liked how Anna worked with what she had and what she knew to solve things even though there was a good argument she was essentially losing it.

I liked the technological aspect not just of the Mars mission or the AI that runs the base (I did think his human avatars were really well done creepy but in a good way) but of this vision of the future. Everyone is chipped and can interface with everything. Everything is seriously corporatized, including Mars, and this brings up a whole lot of interesting questions.

Anna's plight on Mars brings up a lot of memories of her father (including a gruesome one) and the question of who are you giving up so much space in your head to and why can you trust them just because their are laws against doing something that no one can stop until its too late.

So what was off?

I wasn't big on Anna. A lot of this story is told through her memories of her childhood and her marriage and since she kissed the base Doctor pretty much the second she was alone with him I couldn't help spend a lot of the story doubting those memories as nothing but her making excuses. In fact I thought there were little things that were really off about some of the human behavior on the base.

Now credit where credit is due a lot of the ending actually made this work. But it was retroactive for me. The pacing was off and I felt like I was being told things as much as anything else and while the reveal and everything worked it combined to make the characters exceedingly hard for me to connect to and, in some cases, like.

There's also a big reveal at the end that I feel like it was... *shrug.*  It should have carried more emotional impact instead I felt like well, she didn't really like them anyway so bow tied and all that.

Okay this might be nitpicking: A+ for having a binary character but I have to admit the use of hir and ze as replacements for the usual in that characters case took me a while to get used to and I never really liked it, as a reader, but I'm not sure how else you would get the point across.

I didn't know when I requested it that Before Mars is the third book in a series. I was able to follow along with it fine and I don't think I missed anything- separate characters- but perhaps it would have had more emotional heft if I had read the rest of the series.

Recommend: 50/50. If you like a good is she losing it or not mystery, or this is the cool stuff we get to play with in the future, this may be for you. Or give a go to the first in the series. There was a ton of potential here it just fell flat for me.

(Disclaimer: I received this free book from Netgalley. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)

This seemed to me very similar in plots to a variety of other books I've recently read. It was like The Martian meets The Girl on the Train. It felt like while it took place on Mars, a lot of the actual action or page time in the book was devoted to the character's mindframe and the suspense. Don't get me wrong, there were some great questions about technology, which I'll get to below, but the suspense and characters sort of over powered the book. Anna is a great character, but I'm totally biased. I love when mothers portray a different image of motherhood than what we expect. For Anna, it wasn't this instant love connection with her child, and there are real struggles and challenges she has with being a mother. I almost skipped from these sections because they were fascinating.

(There's a bunch of "crazy" words thrown around. Mostly because Anna can be paranoid and the suspense. But still seemed insensitive).

My main concern with this book was pacing. It felt like there would be tons of suspense, then all introspection, then a tiny bit more suspense, and then repeat. It didn't feel fluid and it felt more like being jerked around.

At the time I requested this I hadn't realized this was book 3 in a series. I am unable to provide a review at this time.

I enjoyed this space adventure even without having read the two previous books in the Planetfall series. Normally the first person narrative is not my favorite style of novel but in this case it was necessary so readers can follow the thought processes as Dr. Anna Kubrin works her way through her feelings for those she left behind on Earth and her new associations with the crew of Mars Principa. The travel time between Earth and Mars is months long and Anna was alone. She spent much of her time in mersives, maybe too much time for her mental health. Anna cannot understand some of the unusual incidents she begins to experience as soon as she leaves the transport ship and joins the crew members of the base.

Mars Principa is the name of both the base and the AI that runs it for the GaborCorp. Anna and her husband both worked for Gabor when she found herself fast-tracked to a place on the next shuttle to the planet because of her work designation of geologist, but perhaps more as an artist who will paint the Mars landscape and therefore provide more profit for the GaborCorp bottom line. Not everyone at the base is glad to see Anna filling a spot on Mars, but would anyone truly want to harm her? The mysteries around Anna and the footprint she finds in a previously unexplored portion of the Mars surface lead to a very well constructed story filled with one surprise after another. The ending of this book does not feel like it is the final book of a trilogy so I think the Planetfall series will continue.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group Ace for a digital galley of this book.

I've been tremendously enjoying Emma Newman's Planetfall trilogy, and it's possible that this is my favorite book by her so far. The themes of how our mental well-being is influenced by our world, how technology connects us and how far to trust it, and how end-stage capitalism might work all carry through in this novel.

OCD and anxiety were part of her main characters' mindset in the books earlier in the series. This time, we get to explore whether paranoia doesn't mean that they really aren't out to get you.

The main character, Anna Kubrin, is a geologist and an artist. She arrives on Mars to pursue both of these professions, although it will probably be her paintings that will be of most interest to everyone on earth. She's left behind a husband and baby and a lot of ambivalence about marriage and motherhood. Since I've always viewed motherhood with some trepidation, I felt relieved to read about a woman to whom motherhood does not come naturally.

Anna is joining a small crew at the station: the host of a reality show about the Mars research station, a psychologist, an engineer, and a doctor. She's suspicious of the psychologist for reasons both past and current. This uneasiness flares when she discovers a note in her room (in her own handwriting!) warning her not to trust the psychologist. She also discovers that the wedding band she had shipped to Mars with her is not her true ring- it doesn't have engraving inside it. What to make of this situation, especially when the psychologist is warning her that she might be suffering from spending too much of her solo Mars flight in virtual reality and may be experiencing hallucinations?

The reason this is probably my favorite book of the series is that Anna is my favorite character. She's honest about her feelings about her husband and child even when that's unflattering. She's smart, reads people well, and is resourceful. As she tries to solve a mystery that she can't let anyone else even know exists, she utilizes the technology that the author has extrapolated from what we already use- drones, mapping tech, virtual reality, AI- in conjunction with her own logic. Anna has learned to doubt herself and her own perceptions long before the Mars flight. The gaslighting and feeding of self-doubt from her own loved ones makes it hard to trust yourself. And in a world where virtual reality is seamless, how can you really tell if you're seeing things or not? Anna must learn to trust herself again, and that was my favorite part of her journey.

If you're anything like me, the cliffhanger from the last book stunned you. I want so much to find out what happened to the starship- will it reach the planet of God's City? What is happening on that planet?? This book does not move that larger storyline further, but I got interested enough in what was happening on Mars that I was willing to be sidetracked. I REALLY want to see what happens next, though!

This book kept me turning pages until the very end. Emma Newman's writing style brings a possible - and very realistic - future into focus without missing a beat in the plot. I loved it!

A terrific read with a strong complex main character in Dr. Anna Kubrin. Sent to the Mars colony as a geologist and artist things start out badly when it seems that someone is trying to gaslight her. Who or what can she trust and why is someone doing this? Lots of twists and turns, surprises and "whoa" moments. Just a great read.