Reading the synopsis of How to Mars had me really excited as the premise of the story was something right up my alley. Contestants of a reality show “Destination Mars” win the trip of a lifetime: a one-way ticket to Mars… Forever.

Sci-fi - check, reality TV show - check, living and colonizing MARS - check check check…. All things I love so much!!

Unfortunately, this was not the story I got. The book opens up a couple of years after the “contestants” are already living on Mars. The reality show is no longer, because it was too boring. The contestants are boring.

The story is interspersed with a handbook from the show’s designer and at first it was quite quirky and interesting. As it went on, it was all I could do to read without skimming through the rest of the handbook bits. The most important part of the handbook and stressed throughout; No sex, ever. No sex for the rest of your lives. Do not have sex.

And the storyline… It became all about a pregnancy on Mars. Yup, two of the Marsonauts had sex. That was pretty much the storyline. Not what I was expecting at all.

The ending was good and I really enjoyed that part. But the rest of it… not so much. If you’re interested in how a pregnancy might turn out on Mars, read this book.

*Thank you to Tachyon Publications and NetGalley for the advance copy. *

Much like the subject of this book, living on Mars, the book feels experimental. It jumps between being a narrative about a group of people living on Mars and being a quirky but useless instruction manual about how to live on Mars. The author says that he first envisioned it as a story about the first child born on Mars.

I suppose the book is an interesting thought experiment, but I find myself not having much to say about it. There were some confusing bits that I never figured out. There was something called "The Pattern" that they talked about that seemed like it could something interesting, but the idea just petered out. And one character starts to hear voices, but we never really learn anything about those either.

The book really feels unfinished. It feels like it wanted to be 3 or 4 different things but decided to have a rush ending suddenly telling about the life of the first person born on Mars in a few paragraphs. This book was going somewhere other that! Wasn't it?

Why did I put this book off for so long?! A life-time mission to mars turns into a reality tv show. At first no one can get enough, but it turns out life is boring after awhile.... until one of crew announces a pregnancy. This book is the soap opera in space you've been waiting for.

4/5 Stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

How to Mars has a fun concept, but the execution just didn’t work that well.

In How to Mars we meet six individuals who are shipped off to Mars with a one-way ticket, to do science while they’re being recorded for a television show back on Earth. But even scientists get bored of doing science, and after only a year the tv show gets cancelled as well. After a while affairs come into being, equipment begins to fail and sanity begins to unravel.

How to Mars is made up of the story of the six scientists that went to Mars, and the book of guidelines they have to follow. The chapters with the scientists are fun enough - we get a look into all their minds and see how they’re dealing with the different things happening.

The chapters that are juist the guidelines, however, are just boring. They’re written with little jokes and funny remarks in them, but they’re still guidelines. I would’ve liked to see more of the scientists, and less of these. They don’t even add that much - a lot of the important guidelines are already mentioned in the actual story because something comes up that deals with them.

I really wished I could love this book more. The concept is a good one, I would’ve liked a funny and light-hearted sci-fi story. But the execution just didn’t do it for me.

Review for publication elsewhere.
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I am a huge fan of Mars mission fiction, I think. I loved a few shows I watched about “first humans on Mars”, and I found How To Mars utterly delightful, so Mars wins, I guess. In this particular voyage to Mars, we meet the gang when they’ve already been on Mars for a second, which was a fun change of pace. These particular Martians have signed up for a one-way trip, none of them having any particular desire to return to Earth. But as you can imagine, life in a very small bubble with just a few other people would have a tendency to have some rocky moments.

And when one of the group members becomes unexpectedly pregnant, things definitely will get shaken up! It’s a very humorous and engaging story. I loved the characters, and how much they came to care for one another, despite their differences. I also enjoyed the thought-provoking moments, the ones where I questioned myself, how would I handle any of these scenarios? Could I ever actually get on a one-way trip to Mars? Probably not, but as the story unfurls, you’ll see that each Martian has their own reasons.

There are also exciting moments of Mars adventure, even though it is absolutely more of a character driven book. The real highlight of the book for me was more how the group handled these various potential catastrophes- and how the Earth folks reacted as well. There are also excerpts from the handbook that the company who sent the team wrote- and frankly, they were hilarious and a quite welcome addition!

Bottom Line: A humorous yet heartfelt look at Martian pioneers, How to Mars won me over with its empathetic characters and entertaining storytelling.

Provided by the publisher, Tachyon Publications, in exchange for an honest review.

If you were offered a guaranteed-safe one-way journey to Mars with a group of other people for the primary purpose of filming a reality TV show, would you go? That's the premise of How to Mars, a "novel-in-stories" where the chapters were written to be standalone short stories that are connected to one another, but separate.

We follow the six astronauts who all bring different skills and personalities to Mars. On top of the six, we have a few chapters from a nonsensical handbook written by the eccentric billionaire that founded Destination Mars! I felt that the characters were interesting and diverse enough to keep the narrative flowing, but it's obvious that a couple of them get more attention than the others. The story felt somewhat disjointed, and although we finally ended up at a destination, we certainly took the scenic route to get there.

How to Mars felt like an experimental novel, one that was more fiction than science. The author, David Ebenbach, wanted to tell a story of humanity and family, and he did so with a Mars backdrop. While it wasn't what I was expecting, I found there to be a few moments of emotion and feeling. And while it certainly wasn't a bad book, it won't be one that I reflect much on or tell many people about. It's just not sci-fi enough for sci-fi fans, and it's too chunky and experimental for most straight fiction fans.

2.50 Stars. A good concept, but the story was not what I was expecting or hoping for. I was really excited about this book. I love sci-fi but I feel like I never get to read enough. It’s not just aliens and space battles, but I also enjoy the more – I guess you could say realistic sci-fi- that involves humans terraforming planets. And while I don’t get to watch as much TV anymore, I still consider reality TV to be a guilty pleasure. When I heard about this book, a reality show about a group of people who will be living on Mars, this seemed right up my alley. I was thinking something like Big Brother meets The Martian. Unfortunately, I had expectations that were just not met.

I had trouble right from the beginning. We start when the people are already on Mars, their reality show cancelled, and with the characters not doing their work because they are bored. This is why one character gets pregnant even with a no-sex allowed decree. The problem is a bunch of bored characters translated into me being a bored reader. I thought there would be some excitement around who got picked for the show, what it was like coming to Mars, some crazy reality show antics, but it had none of that. I soon realized this book was really all about pregnancy, and I didn’t need to pick up a book about Mars if I just wanted to read about pregnancy.

The characters were not very fleshed out, except for Stefan and I’m not going to get much into him here. But even with him, there could have been some excitement or something, but it just felt odd to be in his POV instead. The one character I was interested in, Nicole, an Air Force Captain and MD, but we never get to be in her POV so it was a let-down. There wasn’t really any personal growth to any of the characters and they just felt flat.

About one third of the book is a ‘how to Mars’ handbook that the corporation wrote, that made the show. The author used it to inflict some dry humor on us. While I thought the first few parts were a little funny, and had some potential, I soon grew tired of it and found it to be more ‘dry’ than ‘humor’. I also found it odd that while I was expecting a good amount of science involved in the habitat and what they were studying/goals to accomplish, but there was very little of that. Most of the science, pages and pages of it, was about pregnancy on Earth versus what could be on Mars. For me personally, pregnancy science is just not very interesting.

This book was not a fit for my tastes and it was hard that this was so much different than I expected it to be. I would only recommend this to people who are interested in what pregnancy could be like on Mars. I gave this a 2.50 rating and the reason I rounded up, in the absence of half stars- is because I actually liked the ending. It was the type of ending I wanted for the book, and the last few chapters were the best part of the whole book.

A copy was generously give to me for a review.

This is an unexpectedly odd but enjoyable book. The characters, the story, the way it's all put together... it's a bit off the beaten path. I laughed quite a bit as I was reading and I felt satisfied at the end of it, so I must have enjoyed it, but I'm still scratching my head at the oddness of this one. Still, it was fun, so I do recommend it if you're looking for something different.

{4.5 stars}

"... but it turns out that after a while even scientists can get bored of science."

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No, we can't, right? I mean nerdy space stuff is my jam. I even applied for the Mars One program, but after reading this book, I realize I did not prepare myself adequately for what being a pioneer on Mars meant. I am in love with the idea. Isolated. Focused on science. But would you be bored? Tired of the other five people you're stuck with forever? Would you break the cardinal... and really only, rule of the mission (no sex)? How would you form your society, do you even need rules at all?

This book was so fun. It alternated points of view of the Marsonauts, with chapters from the Mars handbook and also from an additional point of view which I will not name to avoid spoilers. There were laugh out loud moments and really poignant ethical conversations balanced with my growing curiosity of just how things were going to play out. This was the first book I've read in a while that made me not want to put it down to do anything else and yet was super sad when it was over.

I know that I would be the Stefan of my mission, and while I think he’s probably the most difficult for most people to read… I really understood him. I loved that we got a real ending that brought the whole experience around in a contemplative way.

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this novel. All opinions above are my own.

How to Mars by David Ebenbach is a highly recommended amusing science fiction tale about an unexpected pregnancy among the scientists on a reality TV show set on Mars.

After an arduous screening process, six scientists were selected for a one-way ticket to Mars where they would conduct research for the reality TV show following them. The handbook of the Destination Mars! corporation clearly stated repeatedly that intercourse between contestants is prohibited and pregnancy is not allowed. Nonetheless, Jenny, an astrophysicist, and Josh, a psychologist, have a romantic relationship and Jenny discovers she is pregnant. The other scientists on the team, Stefan, Roger, Nicole and Trixie, have various responses as Jenny's pregnancy progresses and odd things begin to occur on the base. The reality TV show, which was cancelled due to low ratings, has started up again with the pregnancy and ratings are high.

The narrative is told through the point of view of Josh, Stephan (the engineer), the Patterns (ethereal life on Mars), Jenny's notes, and through excerpts from the Destination Mars! handbook. Parts of the novel have an absurd, lightheartedness that will bring to mind The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, especially the abundance of towels sent to the base. Other parts are thought provoking and poignant as six very different scientists are living together with no return trip to Earth planned. As with any group, there are conflicts, disagreements, and stress, but the group is also a family. Sure, they are a dysfunctional family, but they are working together doing the best they can.

The plot is really about the characters and their interaction, because Mars is just rocks, rocks, and more rocks. One of the heated discussions is the question if Mars orange or red. The characters are interesting personalities and we learn more personal facts about Josh, Jenny, and Stephan, as the plot follows Jenny's pregnancy and how it affects life on Mars - all life on Mars. This is an interesting, fun take on the establishment of a base on Mars and the interaction of the inhabitants.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Tachyon Publications in exchange for my honest opinion.
The review will be submitted for publication on Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

How to Mars follows six individuals sent to Mars to participate in a reality TV show called Destination Mars! However the show is canceled when people on Earth realize that watching six people stuck in a compound gets old after awhile...until two of the individuals break the number one rule of the program (no sex) and the first baby is about to be born on Mars.

This was such and intriguing premise and I wanted to love it but I couldn't get into the writing style. The book is written like a series short stories compiled of various POVs, reports, and the hand book given to the cast by the quirky creator of the TV show. The story was non-linear at times and it really threw me off and the switching POVs (especially the combo of first and third person) made it difficult for me to get immersed in the story. Still, the book had really interesting characters and commentary on what life would really be like in Mars. I think the book definitely has an audience out there, it just didn't hit the mark for me.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Tachyon Publications for providing the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars.
What a delightfully bizarre novel. The formatting, the plot, and the characters were weird and quirky. I found this to be a slow read, but it did have me laughing out loud repeatedly.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a free advance copy of this book.

How to Mars follows 6 “mars-tronauts” how have been selected for a one-way trip to Mars. These 6 people, a combination of scientists, doctors, and engineers were selected and sent to Mars after a reality show stint that mimicked what life would be like on Mars. The book shows what happens when people stop being nice, and start being real. Just kidding. However, they are being filmed for a reality tv show that helps fund the Mars project. The main plot of the book follows 2 characters that have broken the cardinal rule, no sex.

The book is described as a book styled after Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I agree to a certain extent. There are chapters that taken from the “Handbook for Mars” that the are reminiscent of HGTTG.
Overall, it was an interesting premise to a book but I would give it a 2.5 out of 3.

Welcome to Destination Mars!, a new kind of reality show. One that was first a hit, then got cancelled and now is back again because, listen to this, one of the astronauts... is pregnant!

With this premise, I was not really sure what I was embarking myself into. The cover made me think comedy, but the plot could have also been a potential horror story. (Imagine a pregnancy, with all the pregnancy issues... in Mars!) In the end, it was a light-hearted, quirky novel about some kind of smart but at the same time also silly characters with no much to explain. Which surprisingly ended up being... fun?

How to Mars doubles as a 'handbook' as well, because the readers get to read the same information the characters got before embarking in this one-trip journey to the maybe-not-so-red-but-orange planet. Handbooks about what not to do. Handbooks about what to expect after doing especifically that thing we said not to do.
It was quite a fun addition to the book, because as I have just stated, there's nothing really going on. And most of the subplots never really go nowhere either.

And even thus... it was quite a fun reading. I really liked some of the characters. I had trouble differenciating some of them as well, but I really think this is more due to my incapability to remember names than the fact that the characters being interchangeable.

To sum up, I would recommend this novel to people who are trying to find something very different to what a novel usually is. It reminded me of the Martian, yes, but it's also a completely different, potato-free adventure.

It will be a while before I get to read anything similat to 'How to Mars', and that's always a good thing.

***Thanks to Netgalley and the editor for the ARC***

Synopsis: The Destination Mars! corporation sends six scientists on a one-way ticket to Mars in exchange for a lifetime of research. They are the stars of a reality television which soon gets old for the broader audience. Not instantly, because there was the incidence where one scientist broke two fingers of another one, just because he could. There's no police, judge, or prison on Mars.

The audience comes back after a while when it became public that a pair of scientists, Jenny the astrophysicist and Josh the psychologist, did what they were strictly forbidden to do: they had sex. Not only that, but they became a child!

Review: The novel strives to rebuild Andy Weirs success with "The Martian" by using the same mix of tongue-in-the-cheek humour with Hard SF. 

If you struggled with the science portion in The Martian, then this novel might be your next best choice. It is even softer in science up to a degree where its vanishing completely. Don't come here for the Hard SF part, but for the sitcom entertainment between the six defunct scientists. 

The humour comes often from Jenny's research notes and from the many handbook chapters which are everything but helpful. 

One might wonder how such an obviously unaligned, team-work incapable group of people could be sent to a long-term mission. But it's clear when you've read a couple of handbook chapters and mused about the nature of TV entertainment. 

It's an entertaining, quick read, but nothing to write home about. Enjoy!

I think i wouldn't have read this book if i really knew what it was about. I was expecting, as the synopsis indicated, a reality TV show on mars and it was far from it. The main focus being a pregnancy wasn't interesting to me but it's a totally personnal thing and would interest many people. Also i wasn't a fan of the writing style as i thought it really repetitive.

Unfortunately, this book didn’t really stick with me and didn’t really give me what I was hoping for. Being that the story is around 6 people that were chosen to go to Mars as part of reality show, I really thought there would be some sort of reality show antics. But there wasn’t really anything like that. Yes, it turns out Mars is pretty boring. There isn’t much to do except continuing to check your machines and your readouts and then just sitting around and eating or whatever. But we didn’t even get any really good interactions between the individuals either. There wasn’t really any character growth shown and none of the characters were really fleshed out. I don’t even know the personalities of any of the characters except for Stefan. He’s the only one that really stood out and that appeared to have any depth. My favorite parts of the book were the excerpts from the Destination Mars! Handbook and the chapters from Stefan’s POV. But that still wasn’t enough to take this above a 2-star read. Honestly a book that basically 100% revolves around an accidental pregnancy, whether it’s on Mars or not, is just not enough to hold my interest.

Releases May 25, 2021

Received from Tachyon Publications via Netgalley

Six scientists win a reality show competition, and the prize is a one way ticket to Mars. That’s the basic concept of How To Mars, an entertaining and off-beat book. This is not your usual sci-fi novel, no science lessons and no spacewalks. The story is not about the journey, but about how 6 divergent people with no formal training go about the business of settling on Mars, and the screening process that got them selected. It’s humorous, witty and poignant, and if you’re looking for something different in this genre, then this is it. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

“You could think about something without doing something.”

How to Mars is David Ebenbach's first science fiction book. A news article about a now-defunct organization named Mars One that planned to send 12 people to Mars on a one-way trip sparked the idea for the novel. Ebenbach was interested in learning more about the concept, such as who would choose to do it, who would suggest it, and how the people who would be sent to Mars on the mission would live and prosper.
I'd like to express my gratitude to Tachyon Publications for providing me with an ARC in return for a fair review.
The story is a somewhat provocative, sometimes sarcastic, and thought-provoking book about what it would be like to be one of six people selected for a one-way journey to Mars paid for and shown on a reality television program. This is a story about a fictitious corporation named Destination Mars! Even though they were all specifically banned from having sex, but one of them became pregnant. So, what's next?
Jenny, the mother-to-be, tells some of it in journal mode, while the father-to-be tells some of it in the first person. And there are the third-person scenes, which include the resident engineer, who despises people and has begun hearing voices urging him to do dubious things. The funniest bits, though, are taken from the unofficial Destination Mars! handbook, which was written by the project's (seriously kooky) founder.
There isn't much of a storyline, but that is part of what makes this book so good. The plot is very take-it-as-it-comes, but it is not the main focus of the book. We get witty takes on theory and science culture together with a nice laugh.
I enjoyed learning about the characters and seeing how their various identities aided and hampered the quest. It's easy to see how a single person could derail the entire thing. It's crazy that, among all of the potentially life-threatening situations that might occur, boredom is a real problem that you must face. The only thing I wish there had been more of was learning more about the Martians, which seemed to be taking off but then fizzled out towards the end.
And there were times when I was reading that I felt that life on Mars didn't sound so bad. Rockets delivering all of your supplies every few months and at a much slower speed of life. Unless you irritated the reality TV show's makers and they punished you by leaving out essentials like freeze-dried ice cream.
You don't fully understand why those chapters are there or why there is an emphasis on those characters in the beginning and middle of the novel. It all came together in the end and made a lot of sense, which I really enjoyed. Even at the end, there is some suspense and intrigue, which adds an interesting aspect to the book.
If you're looking for something light, entertaining, eccentric, and just a little bit different, this is the book for you.