"What I want is glory and I know that I'm not going to get it here on Earth"

* * * 
3 / 5

The premise of the book? Speed dating. In space. Dang, that's almost as good as "nuns that are assassins" (Red Sister, for reference). But there was a depressing lack of gossip and drama and more background space corporation/business conspiracy. Whilst good, Ascension wasn't quite the light-hearted and overly dramatic book that I was expecting.

The first trip to colonise Mars is made by twelve teenagers: six boys and six girls in a speed dating show. Over the journey to Mars, the contestants in this insane but amazing show live in two separate compartments and have one opportunity a week to meet someone of the opposite sex for 3 minutes. When they arrive on Mars, they have to couple up and live in a pre-made house to begin to establish a colony on Mars. But there's more going on behind the scenes ~

Our main character is Leonor. She's not really up for love, but she is down for getting off of Earth and not coming back. She's also got a secret that she's determined to hide from her fellow women and potential man-dates - she's got a huge burn scar across her back. Like most main characters that scorn love, a couple of the blokes definitely catch Leonor's fancy (though I don't think much of her taste!). But she's also bold, strong-willed, determined, and she's got her weak points. I did really liked Leonor. 

"Life is complicated and it's terribly short"

What I wasn't a massive fan is that somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of the book is taken up with secondary character viewpoints. Secondary characters that I didn't really care about. These are all people back on Earth and surround the conspiracy around the company that has put these kids in space. I found this really detracted from what I really wanted, which was to really get to know the six girls of the Cupido and their male counterparts. 

Ascension is actually a translation from French and it's really well written despite that (translations can often ready very clunkily). But there's a lot going on in Ascension beyond the speed dating premise, but I wish there was more time devoted to the relationships between the six girls. 

My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of this book.

I absolutely loved the idea for this; speed-dating in space on a one-way ride to Mars, fighting for each other's affections over the other 5 girls/guys - all whilst the whole world watches. It's so true to our reality now where people can't seem to do anything without it being all on camera and airing on TV (yes I'm looking at you Love Island, Ex on the Beach, etc.) So this is the first book in a series, I'm so glad this is not a standalone as the first book was left on a complete cliffhanger and the suspense throughout the second half of this story was unreal. Who will marry who? When will the twelve find out about the Noah Report? How will their mission to Mars pan out?

I found this so easy to read and it only actually took me a couple of days to read (on the train to work and during my lunch hours) The last few months I've got more into reading sci-fi books so that, plus the fact this is written in a way that makes it so easy to get hooked meant this was a perfect read. I highly recommend this and I can't wait for the physical book to be released as I will be buying this.

As much as I loved his series on animae that I did not hang at all, I think I read the volume 2 to see.

Here we find six young girls and six boys who have never met and who will have the eternity to love each other. They will have six minutes each week to seduce and choose the right person. They are part of the Genesis program, and make a speed-dating to create the first colony to live on the planet Mars. Eleonor oreline of 18 years to sign with a point of no return.

Captivating premise. Speed dating on the way to populate Mars as a TV reality show, you're hooked just by the description. And even more with the tantalizing tidbits, promising intrigue.

Leonor is down to earth, the determinator she has been nicknamed, but still vulnerable. A person from a hard life, more than ready to start a new one.

Seasoned with betrayal. for which we have to discover the reasons for, we enjoy Leonor's POV and the sinister 'shots' of the guilty parties. One of them you just imagine cackling with evil glee, and you witness what is happening back on Earth in context with the conspiracy.

At 1/3 of the book, the conspiracy part does seem to be overshadowing the story of the Mars travellers. some of things presented just make the book more busy and not in a good way.

The speed dating encounters are done quite well in my opinion. And it ends really great, making me want to read the sequel.

When I was reading this book back at the end of April my husband asked me what the book was about and the only thing I could think to say was ‘heteronormativity in space’. That’s a gross generalisation and leaves out a lot of the things that are genuinely great about this book but at its core, that’s the concept. I was really hoping that this book would subvert that expectation and (overtly) include LGBTQIA+ characters but it didn’t get mentioned. I could try to rationalise that in the setting but honestly, I think that readers of YA and young adult readers (not necessarily mutually exclusive) have come to expect more from books in terms of representation. It would not only have made sense for one of these characters to be, for example, bisexual but I think it would have enhanced this story beyond being ‘reality TV but sometimes people are weightless’.

Rant over.

I must admit that there is something compelling about this story. I’m sure it’s whatever voyeuristic tendency that makes me secretly love terrible reality TV, but I did find myself getting pulled along in this story, getting invested in the characters and wanting to find out what happens. So I would call this an entertaining but not ground-breaking read.

The best parts of this book (in my opinion) are not the romance(s), or the relationships building between the six women in space, but the parts which record what is happening on earth. The idea of NASA being privatised and being used in this manner makes perfect sense for the world we live in now, and all the deception and intrigue that is recorded there is what kept me reading. Had this just been an entire book of twelve people headed to Mars with speed dating and mooning over which boy to choose I would have been hugely frustrated. But this book sets up what could be an excellent second novel if the romance/love triangle angle was taken down a notch.

There will be some people who adore the romance aspects of this book, and I can’t claim to not have known what I was getting myself in for, it’s right there in the summary. For me to have utterly loved this book I think the balance would need to be slightly different but, as I say, it is an entertaining read.

This is a translation from French, originally published in 2015 (I think?) and it is nice to read a YA book like this where the protagonist isn’t American (yes post-apocalyptic versions of America still count). I don’t know that I’d say that Leonor comes across as particularly ‘french’ in the translation, but it seemed worth mentioning in case you’re on the lookout for translated books.

I think there is hope for the second novel (which has already been published in French but I have yet to look up the synopsis) to be stronger than this first book. I feel like this concept and these characters could be pushed to be more than just reality TV and made into much more of a statement.

My rating: 3/5 stars

I received a digital advanced review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Leonor is getting on board a rocket to Mars where she and eleven other young people are tasked with creating a new community on the red planet. Their journey will be broadcast to the masses and includes daily speed dating between the boys and girls to decide who will be paired with whom when they land. What they each don't know is that they all have a secret they want to keep hidden!

The Good: There is so much to like about this book. It is so much fun and I found myself in work thinking of when I could go home and read it. The reality tv game and political elements reminded me of the Hunger Games even though they are set in two very circumstances (murder forest vs dating game). The varying POV's were great, the only first person narrative is Leonor but it is mixed with 3rd person sections that are written in the style of TV voiceover, which reminded me of Beauty Queen's by Libba Bray.

The Meh: There is a lot of exposition in this novel, clumsily dropped into the dialogue and it sounds quite bizarre. Most of it wasn't even remotely necessary. However aside from being a little stiff in these places, it didn't really hamper my enjoyment of the book. The only other thing I found off-putting was Leonor's 'salamander'. She was really obsessed by this imperfection in a way that didn't ring true. So much so that I thought it must become really relevant to the plot later...but the events could have unfolded almost exactly the same way without it.

Overall this was a really enjoyable book and I will be recommending it widely to students. I think they're going to eat this one up.

I had heard lots of great things from friends who read this book in Dutch, but I decided to wait for the English translation. While I enjoyed the story, the whole dating aspect didn't really do anything for me. I loved the space setting though, and the plot-twist that took place. What kind of annoyed me, though, was the botchy translation. To me, it felt like sometimes the sentences were just thrown into Google Translate; I'm sure the sentences must have made sense in French, but translated into English it felt weird. I'm not sure if the translator had someone check the book after translating it, because to me it felt like that really did not happen.

This was a fun read, I really enjoyed the story and the heroine is enjoyable and interesting. I didn't realise this was a translation, which was amazing as I normally pick up on that as sometimes it makes the writing seem off however this book was well writing.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to read the next book as a the story didn't completely wrap up and I can't wait to see where the story will go.

First things first: I didn't realise this was a translation until I was almost finished reading it. There's none of the clunky language and misused metaphors you often get with a translation. This is smooth and reads easily.

It's a very clever idea, this one, and seems eerily plausible, the way TV is going. It sags a little in the middle, when the same things seem to keep happening over and over. And of course, our heroine is so special and amazing that two boys fall deeply in love with her in the space of approximately twelve minutes each. That's fairly normal for YA novels, though.

There were a few storylines that were obviously just laying ground for the follow up novels, but that's fairly normal as well. I'll be looking forward to reading the next ones to see what happens.


Receiving an ARC did not affect my review in any way.

This is the book of my dreams! Written like a Michael Crichton and reads like Blind Date in Space meets Big Brother goes to Cabin in the Woods.

From the moment I started it, to the powerful cliffhanger I was hooked. I read it at every opportunity and I am even contemplating learning French in order to read the sequels.