Spoilers included.
Blue Sunset tells us of the possibilities when man finally lands on Mars. The base is just being established, food is being planted and they are awaiting supplies from Earth while they are just trying to survive. Back on Earth, man fights man and manages turn their backs on Mars, while expecting the colonists to sacrifice themselves. The colonists figure out they cannot depend on Earth, meet some Martians and visit a new planet, saving a species from extinction. This being said, I can say I truly enjoyed Blue Sunset. It has almost everything you could hope for in a science fiction story. It gets your imagination going and you can see some new possibilities, both positive and negative for finding new life. It takes you to new places and gives you a start as to how life could be, but allows you the freedom to develop your own ideas at the same time. The only thing I didn't care for was the ending, but it's not really the end as the next book is coming.

In this gripping sci-fi adventure, the author introduces readers to a galaxy on the brink of annihilation at the hands of relentless alien invaders. Fueled by determination and a Martian "Scout Bug," two men embark on a perilous journey to defy the fate that has befallen countless civilizations. As they navigate treacherous landscapes and encounter unexpected allies, their quest for survival becomes a battle against the forces of destruction. Will they succeed in turning the tide against the relentless onslaught, or will they become the next victims in a long line of casualties? Prepare for a thrilling ride through the cosmos in this action-packed tale of resilience and defiance.

A strong five stars. (See my rating guidelines at the end.) Blue Sunrise was good; Blue Sunset makes the pair fabulous.

I read Science Fiction to encounter authors writing imaginative things, and pair it with a good story. This book is chock full of both, and they're well constructed.

Maybe it's best for me to compare Blue Sunset (BSS) with a book many SciFi readers hold in high regard: The Three Body Problem (TBP) by (Cixin Liu).
- In both books, we are presented with alien races that seek to annihilate earth. In TBP, this is presented as the Dark Forest dilemma, meaning it's named, principled and well thought out. But, it's cold, and mental. In the prequel to Blue Sunset, the same annihilation choice is more animal, easier to accept; it's the product of one race that thinks it's necessary in order to be fully dominant. The latter is presented in a way that connected better with me as a reader.
- In both books, we have Earth government leadership acting in stupid ways. But in BSS, the things happening on Earth are just more believable. In TBP, all the earth acts too-uniformly, and in ways that would take forever to come about, yet they're posited to happen in just a short time. In BSS, the actions taken are by a more select group, and arise from more believable prior actions.
- In both, the alien cultures are well-developed. But in BSS, I actually *like* the aliens - even the bad ones. We're given a rich set of details, enough to create in us a connection with them. But in TBP, I'm just frustrated by the overwhelming volume of details Liu posits.
- I couldn't put down BSS; I grabbed for it every chance I had. I stayed awake too-long at night because I couldn't put it down; I had to basically read TBP as penance; it took effort, and I didn't leap to read it.

Leaving the comparison aside, I thought this was wonderfully done. I love the creativity of the aliens! The martians are so interesting, and the Trees are clever & wonderful. I appreciated the cleverness of the difficulties that the author put them in, the ways the characters thought to get out of the situations,

And yes, as usual, wormholes permit instant travel through the universe. But I want it; it is rare the space story book(s) that don't use them, and are still good. (The Expanse series did it well.)

I think the pair of these books would make a great pair of movies. Hollywood, has anybody optioned these yet?

My rating criteria:
- Five stars is when you read a book to the end, put it down, take a deep breath, pick it up and start reading it all over again - or you would if you weren't so anxious to read the next book in a multi-book series. Or, it's simply really good.
- Four stars is when you tell yourself : ”This is good, this is well-written, this is full of interesting ideas/characters/plot points”, but you know you will never read it again.
- Three stars is when you read it to the end, put it down and proceed to forget all about it in the next instant.
- Two stars when it's so bad that it makes you laugh, or sigh, and want to write a review, but you can't remember the name of the book or dislike it so much that you don't.
- One star when you can't read past chapter 3, even as penance for your sins.

This was orginally shelved because the beginning of the novel was stilted. This novel grows on you with great character development and intrigueing aliens. Really detailed world building.

Gregg Overman https://www.bluesunrise.net is the author of two novels. Blue SunSet was published on the first of the month and is the second novel in his Blue Sun series. It is the 105th book I completed reading in 2023.

Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! Due to scenes of violence and mature language, I categorize this book/novel as R. The year is 2061, and the first manned mission to Mars has landed and established itself. Multiple locations have been established on the Moon. Humanity has barely survived an attack from alien forces (that story told in the first book of the series, Blue Sunrise).

The plot is somewhat complicated. Seven of the original eight Mars Mission crew survived the first attack. They struggle to survive with diminishing resources at their disposal. The Koombar live on the planet Harmony. Their paranoid nature leads them to destroy every intelligent life form they discover. Also on Harmony, and subjugated by the Koombar, are the Trees. The Trees are very intelligent but reluctant to take a stand against the Koombar.

The Mars mission has found evidence of previous life on Mars. Unbeknown to the crew, Martian life has begun to reemerge. Most of the species look like bugs. Controlling each Martian colony is a Director. They are a special, extra-intelligent member of the species that issues the orders. The Martians are advanced in some ways but primitive in others. A Martian colony is growing beneath the Mars Mission habitat. On Earth, there is chaos. Following the alien attack, a radical religious group has gained power in the US. Further support of the Mars Mission by NASA is unlikely.

The Koombar launched another flight of missiles to destroy the humans. One of the Trees, Kismayan, sabotages the missiles even though she knows it will cause her death and possibly the end of her species. Her only hope is for the humans to survive and finally bring the reign of terror by the Koombar to an end.

The Martians detect the humans but only see them as oxygen-breathing feed animals from their own ancient past. Judging humans to be inefficient, the Martians use their advanced genetic manipulation abilities to improve the humans.

Will the Mars Mission team survive the Martian improvements? Can humanity somehow escape annihilation by the new flight of Koombar missiles? Will the Mars Mission be able to survive without support from NASA? Will humanity be able to put an end to the Koombar?

I enjoyed the 12 hours I spent reading this 507-page science fiction novel. It was great to have a short synopsis of the first novel at the beginning of this book. All authors of series should do that. The book started out a little weird, but quickly settled down to a good story. While it is the second novel in the series, it reads well stand-alone. I like the chosen cover art. I give this novel a rating of 4.6 (rounded to 5) out of 5.

You can access more of my book reviews on my Blog ( https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/).

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

The book captivates you from the first chapter, I love the idea of being "trapped" in space, I think that in the first chapters Carlos is the most endearing character for me, that is, I identified a lot with his personality, Evelyn is a goddess, I wish I had your intelligence and analytical skills, in chapter 3 I was a little confused, to be honest, I didn't understand what was happening until I continued reading, there are small errors, such as repetitions of dialogue in certain parts that should be edited, out of That's it, the book is an excellent sci-fi story. I haven't read the first book, but I don't think there's any need to, the truth is I loved it, the 4 stars are more than anything because on some occasions it was hard for me to read and the repetitions of the texts, other than that it is a great book, I hope to be able to buy it upon its release.