Another excellent scif-fi from Morden. It's hard to think what else someone might want from a SF thriller. Compelling characters, engaging storytelling, and a pretty fast-paced plot. A very reliable author, I'll read pretty much anything he writes.
Recommended.

I really enjoyed the premise of this story. Convicts being sent to Mars to build the first base station, and then someone starts killing them. A Mars Murder Mystery! We follow Frank, who, while being a convicted murderer, is a pretty okay guy. I mostly enjoyed myself while reading this.
This book was very science heavy science fiction. I tend to enjoy more fiction in my science fiction. That's mostly because the science part is going to go right over my head. There was a lot of focus on the science. There were long sections all about putting the base pieces together. Why this part goes here and the other part goes there. I mean, it was interesting, but it was also a little dull. I probably would have been more into it if I had understood it. The author is a scientist, which you could totally tell. I would trust him to build a Mars base.
There was a weird sort of time jump in the story. All this focus had been on the beginning of building the base, and then I turn a page to find it all done. It jumped ahead a couple of months, which threw me a little.
I enjoyed the mystery part, although it was fairly obvious who was behind it. There was a good amount of tension though. All alone on a planet and your team members are dying one by one. There were some good action scenes.
I also enjoyed S.J. Morden's writing style.
I'm definitely interested to see how the story will continue in the sequel. I'm definitely going to read it. One Way was a good time.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 3.5/5
Mars and Murder!

One Way is a book mixed with many genres. Most prominent being scifi, thriller, and mystery which instantly made it a really entertaining. It felt like "A long way to a small angry planet" and The Martian put together. This book is a combination of a character study and strong action

The basic premise is about the first base on Mars being built and run by prisoners with life sentences, and specific skills needed for the base. I wanted to read this immediately because I'm drawn to stories that following a crew of characters. Frank was my favorite thing about this book, although I feel like Morden didn't go as far with her as he could have. Ironically, for a mystery-thriller, the “mystery” and “thrills” part of the equation also felt a bit lacking. The book struggled to build atmosphere and suspense, and while this may have been a side effect of my inability to connect with any of characters other than Frank, I think Morden also made a few missteps in timing.

I like reading deliciously complicated novels where there are many things happening and grey areas. While I enjoyed reading the bumps along the way, I found myself looking for more. I wish there was more to the story that was part of this novel. Perhaps in the next few books the plot will thicken.

One Way has everything you need for a great science fiction thriller. The thrill of traveling to another planet. The anxiety of braving the elements when everything is geared to kill you. The eventual realization that nothing is as it seems. The novel starts out as this strange mission to Mars and ends up firmly in the thriller/horror genre, creating this constant fear of what’s lurking behind every corner.

A few spoilers ahead!

There’s this terror present every time they leave an airlock. Will there be enough oxygen? Will they suffocate on the way back to the hab? It’s so easy to create accidents and as they start to pile up, it becomes obvious something is amiss. The fear aspect is very real as Frank attempts to understand why his fellow crew members are dying. I’ll admit, I figured out the primary plot point early in the book, but that didn’t take away from the thrill of reading it through to the end. It’s a brilliantly morbid reveal, fueled by corporate greed of the utmost caliber.

Overall, One Way is two stories that perfectly coalesce. On the one hand, we have a hard science Mars survival story, with full details on surviving the journey, creating a habitat, growing food, and living through the day-to-day struggles of being the only eight people on the planet. On the other hand, we have a brilliant sci-fi thriller that slowly reveals itself to be a nightmare. That realistic survival story makes the thrills all the more terrifying. It’s a real nail-biter that I couldn’t stop thinking about.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Many will compare One Way to The Martian; and they would be right to compare a space book to another space book. Both are set on Mars, both include initial phases of scientific set-up or colonization, and both are focused on a guy who is hyper sensitive about all the dangers of Mars and just wants to survive. But past the obvious Mars, space, survival plot points these two books couldn't be more different.

Plot
Given the choice between life in prison and a trip to Mars (from which you will never return), what would you do? For our lead man and his fellow inmates the choice is simply Mars. What S.J. Morden is clearly trying to portray in One Way is a few key things:
1) It costs a lot of time and money to get to Mars and someone has to pay for it. The capitalistic approach to sending inmates to Mars is very, very interesting,
2) When you seemingly have nothing to loose do you really loose anything? Is dying on Mars (presumably for a good cause) better than rotting away and dying in a cell on Earth? This question and the concept of morality is heavily debated in One Way, and
3) Strong men are important men. Yeah men! Bring on the sausage fest...

The Sausage Fest *minor spoilers below*
You may laugh that a space book like this has annoyed me with a gender bias. And normally I would too; but the bias in One Way is sooo bad that I knew (without looking) that S.J. Morden was a man. Because no woman would casually discard EVERY single woman in this book the way Morden does. Whether he likes it or not it's super obvious that this is a sausage fest and he wastes no time in getting us to the penis party.
While it may be considered a spoiler; we know lots of people die based on the blurb, so I'm not tagging it, but the 'murder mystery' component of this book (which is weak at best) is so weak and so poorly done that the order of deaths makes no sense whatsoever. Morden attempts to rationalize it and bring up the exact thoughts I had about why it makes no sense, but we never get the explanation of why that order or why those people. Instead it's as though Morden thinks stating what the reader is thinking is enough acknowledgement to be okay with the plot, even if he can't explain the rationale... for the record it's not enough.

Murder Mystery
To call this a mystery is really, really stretching the truth. For me it was obvious from before they even get to Mars what was going to happen. I may not have known all the hows, who and what order but there was really only one outcome that made sense. Unfortunately that means there was no big twist or moment of wow for me. One Way played out exactly as I expected it to.
However, there was one thing that made up for this...

The Lead Guy
Our lead man, that we experience the story through (Frank), is superbly written. I cannot possibly express how well written he is. He's flawed, he's blind at times, he's sympathetic and he's easy to relate to. Frank 'solves' problems the way many of us wish we could; with a nonchalant, screw you attitude. And yet somehow he still has compassion and isn't a total jerk. Frank is written in such a way that you feel he's been wronged or was even justified for most of his actions. And this happens AFTER you know why he was sentenced to life imprisonment. It's difficult to make clear offenders f the law so relatable and likable; so full props to Morden for creating a character I want to revisit and see more of.

Overall
The first 100 pages of this book are fantastic! The next 100 pages start to wane and annoy (enter sausage fest). The last 100 or so pages are redundant as probably everyone has figured out what is happening and why by then.
The other important thing to note is that while there is a wrap-up ending to this book; there are major things not resolved. One Way is part of a series and you are unlikely to be satisfied by the ending without carrying on with the series. So of course the magical question is: will I read the next books in the series?
The answer: I'm not sure. I need to sit on it a bit and decide if my desire to experience Frank and his rough personality again overrides my annoyance behind the obvious gender-bias that Morden writes with. I think the answer is yes I would. Because One Way is written in a really fast-paced interesting way. I'd like to see Morden understand a little why some female readers (like myself) might be frustrated; and I'd like to see him be a little less obvious in his 'mystery' or disband the illusion of a mystery at all.
But, overall this is a decent read if you like the space cowboy type book. It's not as scientific as the Martian which some people may prefer. It's really a middle of the road read at the end of the day.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

I love a good mystery, and one of my favorite classics is Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, in which a group of people, each with their own dark secrets, are trapped on an island, dying one by one.

It is easy to see how that book was likely an inspiration for this novel.

Frank Kittridge is in prison for killing his son's drug dealer. He has no contact with his now ex-wife and son, and is just existing. Then a man from the company that runs the prison presents him with a way out. But not on Earth. They are recruiting prisoners to go to Mars to build the base for the scientists and astronauts that would follow. Thinking that this would give his son something to be proud of, Frank agrees.

The training is tough, with his only real contact being other convicts being trained, and a guard who is a sadist. And before he really feels they are ready for it, Frank and the others, along with the sadist, are loaded into the rocket as frozen cargo and sent to Mars.

Of course, everything starts going wrong. First, part of the early loads sent to Mars went off-course slighting, and are at the absolute limit of what they can reach, and without those loads, they are dead. Retrieving the first one also results in the death of one of the team due to a fault in her spacesuit. She is the first death, but not the last. The convicts are working hard, and dying one by one until the last few realize that it isn't just accident, but they are being murdered. But on a team of all murderers, who do you suspect.

I did have a couple of little issues with the plotting. No one realizes who the killer is or why until the very end, which is a little silly. No one is that trusting. I also don't know how the company thought that they could cover everything up. Really? And why was there addictive drugs on the ship? One character dies of an overdose, and another develops and addiction, which leaves me wondering how it was that dangerous drugs were sent.

And I get the feeling that the author didn't really know what to do with his female characters. There are two among the convicts, and they both die almost immediately on arrival on Mars, like he couldn't wait to get rid of them rather than dealing with the complications that being female in an isolated, mostly male, group. I wish he could have done more with them.

Still, while I had figured out whodunnit and why well before the still living characters did, the book was a good read, and I look forward to the second book in the series.

ONE WAY, by SJ Morden, is about Frank Kittridge, a convict who is chosen, along with six other convicts and a supervisor, to travel to Mars build and then maintain the first permanent base on the planet. Each person brings a skill set and a desire to commute their prison sentence in favor of this treacherous mission. Every step in the process carries secrets and vague explanations and upon arriving on Mars, the secrets grow bigger and the missing information becomes vaster.
Morden's extensive knowledge of rockets, space travel, and Mars habitation are evident in the book. All the while, though, Morden does a decent job of keeping the jargon to a minimum and not getting bogged down in the science and mechanics more than he has too. The premise of cons in space on a mission fraud with unknowns and hidden truths work well together and the internal struggle Frank and the rest of the convicts have regarding having a purpose in life versus understanding how and why they are on Mars weighs heavy throughout the book. The plot is somewhat predictable, but still carries some edge of your seat suspense and thrilling action sequences. The final moment of the book was great and left me with a giant smile on my face.
Similar to a recent plethora of Mars colonization and exploration fiction that has been released recently, ONE WAY is a entertaining Mars colonization book with some unique twists than keeps the suspense high and guides the reader to a satisfying ending.

_The Martian_ meets the hardboiled crime story. And it's a read, but it could be better.

First, if this book was not read carefully by an American editor before being committed to print, then it has a number of Britishisms that will not ring true with an American audience. For instance, Yanks do not refer to your stuff as "kit." This reads like a British author trying to sound American, but missing a few.

Second, it also desperately needs some maps and diagrams. To envision the movements of the characters around their base, and over the larger area, we need, at the least, an area map of where the ship and all the cylinders landed and the first trips to collect them; a diagram of a single "hab", including airlocks; and a diagram of the finished base.

And we need more technical detail: things that would seem very complicated, just... get done. There even seems to be a technical howler or two: when Frank considers running low on water for the base that includes an extensive hydroponics facility, he reasons that it can be replenished by "a couple of shovelfuls" of the frozen Martian soil. Even if the soil were pure ice, that might amount to a couple of gallons at most.

The idea of a realistic _The Martian_ tale, with an evil corporation and psycho killer thrown in is interesting, but it misses the "realistic" mark.

"One Way" by S.J. Morden marks the first book in what I assume will be a series set on Mars and elsewhere throughout our Solar System. Morden has published several other science fictional series under what I presume to be his full name, Simon Morden, but this is the first to feature the space-faring murderer and family man Frank. Within the larger constellation of new science fictional crime noir books, "One Way" clearly circles close to Polaris, our North Star in that it not only features a hard-bitten, straight-talkin’ unwilling investigator of an ongoing mystery and set of sabotaging incidents which slip quickly into downright crime, it features a criminal as that investigator. Everyone’s a criminal on Mars, it turns out—when corporations are looking for cheap labor which will raise no eyebrows if they happen to meet grisly ends.

And many of them do. Meet grisly ends.

Morden also dedicates a great deal of time to the minutiae of survival. Tellingly, "One Way" is often compared to Andy Weir’s "The Martian" and Richard Morgan’s "Altered Carbon." In many ways this is the perfect comparison, as it shares both the strengths and the weaknesses of those books. On the one hand, "One Way" digs into the pith of all those things which qualify a book as “hard” science fiction, and it also taps into the dispassionate misunderstood-but-unapologetically-criminal mind of Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs. Both of these things are great, in that I happen to adore hearing about pressure differentials and debating the important role of the criminal in underscoring the failures of societal power structures. But "One Way" also struggles to paint characters in the round, just as "The Martian" and "Altered Carbon" did. ("One Way" is, however, blessedly free of Morganesque soft porn sex scenes, and for that alone I give it a bonus star.) Crime fiction as a time-honored standalone genre has long been criticized for failing to develop rounded characters, so perhaps this is a problem of failed source material and inspiration. That said, I was perpetually annoyed by Frank as a person, and not in a way that ultimately paid itself off as a literary device.

Still, I’ll forgive a lot for hijinks on Mars, and Morden pulls no punches in the final fifty pages of "One Way," raising the stakes in unexpected ways. This may be a series which grows on me, and I’ll be checking in on Frank again as future installments are released.

Amazing account of science, technology, corporate bottom line, and the endurance/frailness of human beings. No spoilers. This is the best hard science fiction book of near future - like within 10 years - and a likely scenario for colonisation of Mars, with a bit of mystery thrown in for good measure. Mr. Morden - please keep writing!

Frank, a convict serving a life sentence for murder, is given a potential way out. If Frank agrees to go to Mars and help set up a colony there he will be given more freedom and allowed to be a maintenance worker there. So Frank goes there among with a nine other people.

The beginning and the middle of the novel had me interested but that slowed down by the end. The introduction of Frank, the initial training and life on Mars was good. I liked Frank as a character, minus his constant reminder that him and his fellow co-workers were convicts. I feel he was trying to define himself and everyone around him too much by that one attribute. Granted the decisions that led them to jail were large multiyear decisions it isn't their only feature.

The thing I disliked about this novel and that brought it down by a star was the mystery. I really had no idea how anyone could be so dumb and not see the obvious right infront of them. Frank kept trying to blame everyone else BUT the obvious person, even after evidence get collected. It got super aggravating.

I liked reading about the building of the base on Mars. It felt realistic even if it was slightly repetitive (but then again building and maintenance usually goes get repetitive). I haven't read a book that explores the first Mars colony quite like this.

Thanks to Orbit and Netgalley for this ARC. I plan to read book two next year.

The Martian meets "whodunnit".

I thought The Martian (which got lucky enough to get made into a movie) was good, but not as good as the hype. Though the continuing series of "sciencing" stuff in order to stay alive was interesting, it got old.

In contrast, this book (One Way) is pretty much all The Martian was, PLUS it had an interesting "whodunnit" plot that added to the interest. Plus, it had more interesting characters, with a more plausible set of circumstances.

The main character is that perfect melange of flawed hero. The guy who is fundamentally good, but has his dark side that will prove to be troublesome. There are several possible bad-guys, and good suspense that makes you wonder which one his actually the bad guy.

The end came just a tad bit abruptly, but I can understand why; it's a good setup for the (disclosed) sequel.

This was one of those books I looked forward to reading. If you like plausible science fiction books that actually have an interesting plot, this is for you.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of One Way for review purposes. I love books set in space. This book was good and interesting but was missing a little something to make it great. A solid three star read for me

Mystery meets Science Fiction to create this “edge of your seat” thriller. Plan to burn the midnight oil, you’ll be finishing this one in a single sitting. Simply amazing!

The Martian meets Botany Bay meets a locked-room murder mystery. I really liked this book and couldn't put it down.

Given a choice between life in solitary confinement and setting up the first human base on Mars, the choice seems obvious for Frank and the other convicts. But from the day they arrive on Mars, people start dying under increasingly suspicious circumstances.

In retrospect, the characters could have been fleshed out a little more, but that didn't feel like a problem while I was plowing through the book.

It looks like there is a sequel planned, and I'm looking forward to it.

(I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38256448-one-way?from_search=true

Well written, well paced, and with the perfect amount of introspection! I love the book and thought that the character development was perfectly balanced with the action pieces. I love the science involved as well. All around great!

The book starts out with the main character, Frank, who is a murderer. He killed his son's drug dealer in broad daylight in front of many witnesses., He is offered a chance to build a station on Mars rather than spend his life in prison. The catch is, it's a one way trip. Oh, and one of the group that goes is trying to kill off the others.

This book appealed to my inner nerd. I enjoyed the descriptions of the technology that was being used and found it quite believable. However, the characters could have used more development. Other than Frank, there's no backstory, just a stereotype-ish description of each person. I did not feel a connection to anyone but Frank.

I hated the ending, I always feel tricked when an ending is obviously designed to get you to read the next book in a series.

"One Way" eBook was published in 2018 and was written by S. J. Morden (http://bookofmorden.co.uk/). Mr. Morden has published 15 books.

I categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of Violence and Mature Language. The story is set in the near future mostly on the Mars. The primary character is Frank Kittridge. Kittridge ran a construction company at one time, but at the beginning of the story he is in prison on a life sentence for murder.

Kittridge is approached with an unusual offer. The company, Xenosystems Operations, that runs the private prison he is doing time in is also bidding on a contract to build a Mars base for NASA. Kittridge and a few other prisoners are being given the opportunity to travel to Mars and to build the base there. In return they get out of prison, but will be confined to the Mars base for the rest of their lives.

The volunteers are given training and then are sent to Mars on a one way trip. They arrive and begin to assemble the habitat that has been sent ahead of them. Then 'accidents' begin to happen and prisoners begin to die. Is it just the inhospitable Martian environment or is there a killer amongst them?

I thoroughly enjoyed the 9 hours I spent reading this 368 page science fiction mystery. I thought that the concept of using prisoners to take a one way trip to Mars was interesting. The Kittridge character is very flawed and I think adds to the story, though perhaps he is a little too flawed. I like the cover art, though I am not sure why a space suited figure is shown in space. I give this novel a 4.4 (rounded down to a 4) out of 5.

Further book reviews I have written can be accessed at https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/.

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

Published by Orbit on April 10, 2018

Like The Martian, One Way is about an effort to survive on Mars when things go wrong. Unlike The Martian, all but one of the people on Mars in One Way are prisoners. They have practical skills apart from crime, but they aren’t engineers so they can’t “science the shit” out of their problems. And unlike The Martian, there are several of them, so some characters can die on Mars and the story can continue. S.J. Morden also throws in a mystery plot that takes off at about the novel’s midway point, making One Way something more than a survival novel.

An inmate named Frank Kittridge, serving a sentence too long to survive, is given the option to take his construction skills to Mars. With several other prisoners, he’s trained and rocketed off to space to build a habitat that will be occupied by astronauts and scientists who will arrive later. California has privatized some of its prisons, and the corporation that has the building contract on Mars also owns a private prison, so prison labor is pretty easy to find.

Despite all the cheerleading for the privatization of space exploration, Morden imagines that profit-motivated enterprises will work as they always have, cutting corners and maximizing profits at the expense of human safety. That’s particularly true, Morden posits, when the human workers are prisoners and thus disposable.

The private contractors hired by NASA to build a base on Mars have not been entirely forthright with NASA about the their cost-saving strategies. When Frank and the gang reach Mars, they discover that things haven’t gone according to plan (at least as they understood the plan), because the layers of redundancy that NASA would use to assure safety were deemed too costly by the corporation that sent the prisoners to Mars. And anyway, the corporation has its own employee supervising the prisoners who intends to sort things out for the corporation’s benefit before the astronauts arrive.

During the first two thirds of One Way, the prisoners train and travel to Mars and deal with adversity as they assemble a habitat and worry about producing food and water and oxygen and heat. In its later stages, the plot evolves from a Martian survival story to a Martian mystery novel. Frank learns that someone is driving the buggies at night. Then he learns that containers have been dropped on Mars that the prisoners weren’t told about. Then prisoners begin to die in ways that may or may not be accidental. It falls to Frank to find the clues and solve the mystery.

Morden tells a smart, lively story in One Way, although the story holds few surprises, which diminishes its value as a mystery. Characters have enough personality to distinguish them from each other, and important characters have enough personality to make them seem real. The scenes that take place on Mars seem credible and are vividly described. While I thought the story was working its way to a predictable ending, I was surpised to find that the story isn’t resolved. The ending isn’t exactly a cliffhanger, but there is at least one more novel on the way, and readers who want to know how the story concludes will need to read it. I enjoyed One Way (as a science fiction adventure story more than a science fiction mystery) so I have no objection to reading the next novel, but potential readers should know that One Way does not stand alone.

RECOMMENDED

I really enjoyed the concept and the main character of Frank. I thought the details of the Mars mission were enough to be realistic and ground the story in actual science without being overwhelming. My only real issue with the book is the ending, a cliffhanger that will not be resolved until the next installment in February of 2019.