would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this very strange book

trust no one..
aaron after surviving a crash that killed his family enlist on what he thought would be the end for him the rim,...where the fighting is...

but he is somewhere else...where you cant trust anyone...first night there he is set up and so begins the fight for survival...

but who is the enemy
trust no one..

first in a new series...written really well if a bit confusing but you want to find out what is going on and who can you trust but yourself...

There are shades of the Divergent series here. Young, already emotional, intelligent men and women yet practically children are thrust into a training school that you will wonder if they will survive. Behind that, the officials, instructors, and politicians keep secrets of Mars and the colony on a nearby planet. Suspicions are aroused and plans are made by the young trainees to make things right. Personal relationships are at times shattered and the future is left to be determined at the end of Lakes of Mars. In my opinion, this will be a series for young adult readers as well. Heroes are made at great cost and not necessarily without fault.

There is a graphic heavy language warning in the beginning of the book, and I typically do not enjoy books with heavy language. Despite that this book started off pretty good, with an interesting premise and fascinating characters. About half way the language picked up but it wasn't too bad until the end. That being said it ended almost more like a sci-fi horror book than anything else. For me the book would have had at least one more star without the language. Thank you for giving me a chance with this book.

Merritt Graves is new to the book scene with this, Lakes of Mars, as his debut novel. However, this is not Graves’ first rodeo in writing as a longtime member of the band, Trapdoor Social. In fact, this novel is unique in that he’s created an accompanying sound track to complement the read, which can be found at https://soundcloud.com/trapdoorsocial/sets/the-lakes-of-mars-soundtrack.

Lakes of Mars is narrated by Aaron Sheridan. Aaron has just joined the Fleet in hopes of being placed in the most dangerous deployment zone, the Rim War. Instead, he is sent to the elite Corinth Station to train and enhance his flight skills. The ensuing story sets the stage for what promises to be an action-packed series.

This book is best described as an emotionally charged Ender’s Game as Graves equips us with more fight scenes, charged relationships and battle training on steroids. We are entertained with Aaron’s infatuation for Eve and his loveable “nerdy sidekick,” Sebastian. Buckle up as Graves seems to just be getting warmed up.

*Disclaimer: A review copy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Things I Liked:

- The world. Even though this exclusively takes place at Cardiff station, we get plenty of knowledge on how everything came about and where everyone stands politically. We got history of the terraforming of Mars and the rest of the colonies, the technological advancements, how Earth is doing now and how all the colonies are holding up.
- Most of the characters. Or I guess I like the characters just not one aspect of them, which I'll talk about later. They were at least all well fleshed out and with their own stories.
- The execution of it. So I had a love hate/relationship with this. The part I did love was Caelus character. He is so morally gray and I just love those types of characters, not to mention the whole atmosphere of the station. It was a perfect social experiment set up by the higher ups, and it was fascinating how all the students ended up responding to being thrown in there.
- The ending. Can I get a holy shit? Because I wasn't expecting things to go quite like that. At one point I'm skimming along trying to read faster and just thinking, holy shit can't believe this is actually going on. I don't get that feeling too often so it was great!

Things I Didn't Like:

- Writing/Characters. So, these are all supposed to be teenagers still and young adults, but the way they talk/ed in flashbacks and currently is just so pretentious. It read like they were being filmed and graded in their use of SAT words, and everything became this big philosophical discussion. I'm not saying teenagers can't have these types of discussion, it's that they don't happen very often, and when every single one of them kept talking as such, it was just a bit unbelievable.
- The execution of it. I'm not sure how to go about explaining this one because I'm pretty sure it was the intention of the author to make you feel just as confused/pissed as Aaron was but I sure as hell didn't have to like it. You didn't know who you could root for. Was there even someone to root for?! New chapter came along and suddenly you switched teams, you no longer liked that character, then a few pages in and it's like, they aren't that bad, then BAM, wtf is wrong with these people?! It was such a constant roller coaster that I ended up exhausted *almost* to the point of not caring. When you dangle the carrot out for too long at one point you just end up not giving a shit anymore. Gotta have those breadcrumbs.
- The romance. or more appropriately, what romance. It was romance at first sight and Aaron just jumps all in with eyes closed and it was just wrong! Why was he so given to this girl when he knows how fucked up this place is! He never once doubted her or anything about this girl. She basically shit rainbows and puked butterflies. It was off putting how completely Aaron was into this girl from the start. Was there anything wrong with Eve? Not really no, she was a cool enough lady, I just didn't like how the romance was handled.

All in all, looking forward to this series and more from this author!

Imagine if The Hunger Games took place on futuristic Mars.

Our hero Aaron Sheridan is conscripted to a military academy in deep space run by the Martian Colony. The rest is a psychological thriller of havoc & mayhem.

Dislikes: slow to get going & oddly paced. Battle scenes are an incomprehensible mess that I just skipped in the end, without detriment to the plot. Plot is familiar. Characters all seemed to be Caucasian although I imagined Caelus to be of African descent until he was described as blonde, late in the book. Killing off a main character 60% of the way in incited a rage in me not seen very often, cliffhanger ending 😡

Likes: Soundtrack tie-in, Star Wars like setting, futuristic timeline, Aaron Sheridan - teenage space hero, psychological intrigue, how I was struggling to get to the 50% mark then all of a sudden looked up & I was hooked - like a Zero junkie desperate for my next taste

Read if you enjoy:
Mockingjay
Star Wars
The Maze Runner series
Ready Player One

If one were to judge this book by its cover, one might get the impression that “Lakes of Mars” is derivative of Orson Scott Card’s seminal work “Ender’s Game”. The setting is similar – the primary characters are situated in a harsh military school as mankind finds itself at war with a brutal, inhuman enemy. However, don’t let this similarity fool you – “Lakes of Mars” is a significantly original work, with considerably more potential to its overall story. The potential is there for it to be a good series, however, it's a little rough around the edges. It is a noble effort for his first book. I’m looking forward to the follow-up works to see how the plot and characters develop. Overall, “Lakes of Mars” is a solid, engaging read.

Lakes Of Mars by Merritt Graves starts out like Ender's Game on speed. Throw in some language reminiscent of Boondock Saints, and brace yourself. Aaron Sheridan joined the Fleet in order to die in the war, but to his surprise, he is sent to a mysterious officer's training school instead. Once there, he quickly realizes that things are not as they seem, and it becomes increasingly difficult to know who to trust. Despite the stress, fights, drug sub-culture, and cruel or absent instructors, Aaron falls in love with fellow student Eve, only to discover that her life is in danger. What's more, are all of the instructors in on some kind of grand cover-up or conspiracy against the rest of the Fleet? These questions plague Aaron as he struggles to keep himself and his friends alive.

Lakes Of Mars is a fast-paced read, but it lags a bit in the middle. Part two could certainly be condensed, as there is a feeling of wanting to finally get to part three and figure out what on Earth (or in space) is going on. For the most part, the book was well-described, but there was a lack of character description as far as physical attributes. I often found myself wondering what the characters looked like, rather than just having a name and very little or no “look” at them. There was a lot of telling that could have been replaced with showing, although some of this did give us insights into Aaron's back story and his mind. My pet peeve with the book is that Aaron's name was hardly used, and I had trouble remembering it until I'd read seventy-five percent of the novel. The author, Graves, also uses a lot of less-accessible vocabulary that younger readers may have to look up, but then again, this is sci-fi, and not your summer beach read. The title and the book cover could both be spiced up—it was the tag line and description that caught my attention.

The book ends just short of a cliff-hanger, clearing paving the way for a sequel. Despite the slow mid-point, I read the entire book in only a few days, eager to finally get to the bottom of things. Graves' writing needs some editing, but he did have me in tears at one point, and at the edge of my seat in many other places, leading me to rate this book 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Going on the blurb I was expecting something very different to what I was reading, I didn't finish purely because it's not my kind of thing. (I'm too old to enjoy a "school" type setting)

That being said the writing style is really good, the descriptions are vivid and the characters are well defined.

Will appeal to fans of Enders Game.

There are clear influences of other popular science fiction and YA writers, but it seems like the author is starting to develop their own voice. The first part and last part of the book are very distinct with the last part being a nonstop action movie. One of the main issues that I have is that with any characters besides the narrator, there is so much telling rather than showing (Eve's first appearance is a great example). When the body count starts to rise, I'm not getting as much an impact with anyone besides Sebastian. I think this is also because the descriptive language is weak most of the time. Physical descriptions of both location and character are barely there. I had a difficult time picturing everything. The plot, however, seems like a great start to a larger story.

Fast paced sci-fi book which scores highly through the depth of the characters involved. Each one, be they good or bad, is really well observed adding so much credibility to the plot. The story built to such a crescendo that I found myself reading faster and faster to reach the conclusion. What a cliffhanger too - can't wait to read the next instalment and hope the wait isn't too long.

The Lakes of Mars doesn’t know what it wants to be. On the surface it tells about Aaron Sheridan, 17, a rich kid from Mars, drowning in guilt about his terrible accident that killed his parents and sister. Aaron enlists in the Fleet, hoping to go to the Rim where everyone dies, but is instead sent to Corinth Station where the Fleet trains its officers-to-be.

Corinth is the oddest officer training school, full of bullies, sadistic instructors, top scientists, and virtually no rules. In fact it’s obvious to Aaron that the school really doesn’t care if the students kill each other or even if they learn anything. What Aaron can’t figure out is why the school exists, who are the good guys (more or less) and who are the villains, what the scientists are really doing and why no one seems to care about the students’ drug addiction.



There are jarring moments in the story. The students tie in to Fleet members’ actual experiences, live and fully real. What we see are near mutinies among the grunts, drinking and despair among officers, and universal, painful death. The rest of the novel has plenty of violence, too much really.

The characters are not well developed. Aaron is in a fog much of the novel, and his fog prevents us from knowing him because he doesn’t know himself. The most interesting character is the maybe-villainous Caelus Erik, top student officer, who is maybe trying to kill Aaron, maybe not. I would have liked to see the story from Caelus’ point of view as he was more interesting and on top of things than Aaron.

Several reviews on NetGalley compare this to Ender’s Game with little reason other than the superficial similarity of being on a space station/military school. Ender’s Game keeps us engaged throughout while Lakes of Mars moves in fits and starts.



The plot is full of holes which we can gloss over during the fast paced sections. For instance, does anyone really think that a powerful space fleet wouldn’t simply evacuate everybody and quarantine the planet with the Verex? Or nuke it? The planet is supposed to have valuable minerals but if you add up the financial cost (to say nothing of moral costs, the waste of of lives) to constantly fight as the Fleet does, how can it make economic sense? It doesn’t but we need that constant violent background to give credence to the story.

By far the most objectionable part of the novel is the cursing and blasphemy. I get it that these are kids, desperately tired and frightened and they will swear. I expect the F-bombs and the rest, but there is zero excuse for taking the Lord’s name in vain, which the author does, page after page after page.



Overall I finished the novel – which yes, ends on a cliffhanger with temporary (?) truce and danger staring down at Aaron and the rest. It’s fairly fast read, reasonably easy to follow although the student interactions are convoluted and messy. The romance under story is unresolved.

2 Stars.

I received an advance copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lakes of Mars wasn't the story I thought it was going to be. I was confused with a lot of the book. I guess I've read too many space operas. Fast-paced. I'll probably check out the sequel.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book.

What a totally brilliant read and only the first book in the series. Characters to care about but not all survive to the end of this instalment. Enjoyed every page and the pace of the book was great. Twists, turns, friendships, adversary's, love and hate. I would recommend this great read to anyone who enjoys a thriller set in space. Enjoy.

The story begins with our 17 year old protagonist Aaron Sheridan. Aaron finds himself in a distraught mental state after an accident, he believes he is responsible for, kills his parents and sister. Believing he isn’t worthy of existing anymore, Aaron signs up for active duty in the fleet militia. He sabotages his scores in the hopes that he will be sent to the Rim. A brutal, front line war zone where he is likely to be killed off quickly in the escalating war with an alien species known as Verex.

His plans are sent into a tail spin when he is chosen for the elite, and isolated command school known as Corinth Station. Upon his arrival at the station, Aaron meets a cast of characters who will test Aaron and his convictions to the fullest extent. Aaron also discovers that Corinth Station is a complicated place and it has secrets.

Aaron is also introduced to a new, budding romance with Eve. Eve is also a complicated individual who pushes Aaron and his comfort zones, and helps him grow. All Aaron knows and has come to hold near and dear is challenged when a devastating conspiracy is revealed.

We aren’t told exactly when in time the story is set, but it is evidently far ahead in the future, in a time where humanity has colonized multiple planets, but the wars of Earth have bled into this new world. The author has a gift for descriptive narrative. I got sucked into the story and blew through the book quickly. The last third of the book is fast paced and intense with vivid battle sequences. Story ends on a cliffhanger, leaving open all possibilities for the remainder of the series. Storyline is well conceived and easy to follow despite it being based in the distant future, with technology not available to us now. I did get a little lost when heavy space, nautical lingo was in use, but it wasn’t too bad. There are also some flashback sequences and some imbedded virtual reality sequences that threw me a little, but overall the book flows well and is easy to read. I enjoyed it and look forward to the remaining books in the series.

I posted this review to Goodreads. I would also post to Amazon, but I cannot find this title on Amazon. At least not yet. It was a pleasure, thanks.

Very action packed and the characters (for the most part) are well developed. Reminded me of an "Ender's Game" style story. The only downside is that a couple of sections in the middle drag or veer off course, taking away from the story. Not too long, though. Really interested in the 2nd book now, seeing where everything left off.

Good plot, well developed characters. A true cliffhanger ending that requires reading of the next book in the series for resolution.

I loved reading Lake of Mars.

It is reminiscent of Ender's Game, set in an elite military command school in space. I enjoyed the world building with the depth of politics that come with a dispersed human kind. There was great pace and plenty of action.

The points holding me from giving this a higher rating were small, but fairly continuous niggles. An explanation that did not quite hold up, a subject called space maths, and sometimes the gap between two chapters was jarring.

I did enjoy reading this though, and would recommend it to others. I will definitely give the next book a go when it is available (yes this is the first in a series).

A super fast read! I found the story and the plot super super exciting, it was a fast read but I found the characters kind of flat and one dimensional although they were still interesting for what they were.

♥I got a copy from NetGalley and this is my most honest uninfluenced review♥

Rating: 6 of 7; 5 of 5; 9 of 10

General view: Trust no one. That should be the motto of this book. A lot of times someone said something and I was "you're not going to believe it, right?" but then a few chapters later "oh shit that was real" and guess what a few more chapter later "oh no that wasn't true anyway" and that goes on and on and on. It's just so wild! Everything about that school is fucked up. Everybody is fucked up - or at least looks like it. So many plot twists. honestly, I love it so badly. You can't trust anyone. You'll spend the whole time wondering about everyone. I don't even like sci-fi! No, seriously. The only reason I request it on NetGalley was basically "oh I liked Red Rising and Illuminae and Heart of iron, I mean, I don't dislike sci-fi and it sounds interesting - and it's Mars! I mean, RR right?" and that's the point when I honestly think I do like sci-fi to be honest.


Ending: guess what? Plot twist lol huge cliffhanger, can't explain for obvious reasons, but it changes everything you knew so far. I have no idea when the next book is coming out, but I'll definitely buy it asap.

Downsides: I have two complains about this book. Firstly, the first 20% are extremely confuse. I get that Aaron doesn't know shit so we should not know it, but it was kind of annoying. Secondly, I was expecting the "when he discovers that officer training is not the station’s only purpose, it becomes increasingly clear that risking everything is the safest thing he can do" to show up way sooner. I mean, it's not like it happened in the last 10% of the book, but still I was at least 50% before everything changes.

Side note: I didn't found more about book two or even an author's website or even a twitter (which let's be honest is the best way to get in touch with authors) and that makes me truly sad.