Thank you Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley for an E-ARC of Exilesby Mason Coile in exchange for an honest review.

If you like reading science fiction and about astronauts in Mars to lead a mission with some robots and an ending with the alien, then have you ever tried this one?

I followed the praise from W1LL1AM and I look forward to reading it since many readers of Exiles's derive from it. I believe in its praise based on Exiles's narration, characters, and its writing, but I also believe a longer book would have benefited more to tell the story. Instead, it felt coming all at once in a short book.

This was a departure from my typical read but it was gripping and quick. The story of three people and three bots on a Mars mission quickly turns into a dark, locked room mystery. The author does a great job setting the scene and there are some hard hitting surprises. Gives you a lot to think about in terms of interpersonal relationships.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

One of the later chapters emotionally broke me. I had to stop and regroup my thoughts. I see all the 5 star reviews about it being a great scifi mystery thriller. Which it is, but it’s also so much more than that.

I searched afterwards to look up Andrew Pyper. Mason Coile is his pen name for scifi books; it’s the same person. I found out that he died in Jan 2025 of cancer. Which makes the themes of grief in this book hit even harder.

Knowing now the plot twists, I would absolutely read Exiles again in a couple years to see how the character backstories affect the course of the book and how the themes of grief and isolation affect their decision making. What a phenomenal book with a strong ending.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and especially the late Andrew Pyper for this poignant scifi thriller. All opinions are very much my own.

"Hurt is fear. and I'm not afraid."

HOLY MOLY! This blew my mind! I don't give out 5 stars lightly but this one absolutely deserves every one!

3 humans on the way to Mars. They are the 2nd layer of a mission, the first being the 3 bots that were sent before them to create the first base. These 3 humans are sent with the understanding that this is their last mission - to set Mars up for the next layer of the mission.

This one kept me guessing until the very end. I loved Gold, our MC and sole POV. She was a steady narrator, one willing to analyze and try to see everything from each side.

The setting - this inhospitable planet - felt like an actual physical thing. Not only was the base limiting, but the suit was too - everything kept them in little containers meant to keep them alive but to also remind you of just how fragile a human is in space and on a planet without oxygen. Each chapter made my jaw drop and I didn't pick it up off the floor until the very end.

It's a race of a story - one that I couldn't stop until I knew how it concluded. This author is definitely now one of my favorites and being added to that auto-buy list!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

I want this story to be longer.

The book is readable in a single sitting, though I portioned it into two because I was enjoying it and wasn’t quite ready for it to end. I want to know more about all of it-especially Mission Leader. She stays in the background throughout the story as a sort of omniscient, omnipotent being running the entire operation, and I wanted to delve into her lore.

I did not care for Blake’s character, especially how disrespectful he was to the bots, Shay and Wes. I get it, they’re robots that appear to have become sentient and he’s treating them as the machines they’re supposed to be. But I started to really see them as people and characters in their own right, and wanted them treated as such. In spite of all the…things….that happen.

I really loved the ending, and the reveal about Gold and why she is who she is. I was not expecting it, and it added another layer I wanted to know more about as well!

If we could get an epilogue, or a few more chapters, or a lot more chapters, etc, this would be a five-star read. But I have to give it for 4 stars (really 4.5) for leaving me wanting more and feeling annoyed about it!

This is a story about leaving on a jet plane, and never coming back again.

I love sci fi horror and really enjoyed another by the author, so I was looking forward to this. In the end, I thought it was excellent but not very enjoyable? This book was super bleak. The writing is propulsive and I could feel my anxiety rising with every page. The mystery element added a nice layer to the narrative, but where this book really shines is the character work. It's a locked room thriller- except the room is an inhospitable planet. The bots are charming, and the author did a good job of somehow making them feel both human, and not in contrast to the protagonist. My only real critique is that it felt like a particular character died too soon and I think it would have been a more interesting choice to have him around.

Thank you so much G.P. Putnam's Sons and Netgally for the eArc!

This was my first book by this author (Mason Coile who also writes as Andrew Pyper) and it was a fantastic experience! I am not a particularly fast reader, but I finished this novel in two days. I couldn’t put it down and when I did, I would think about what might happen next in the story. This short scifi horror thriller novel was very well written with some interesting human and non-human characters. The story has some surprises and does a very good job of keeping the reader guessing. I look forward to reading more stories by this author and highly recommend this title to all fans of good scifi thriller stories!

I would like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for allowing me to read an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have read several other books by Andrew Pyper, but this one is my first of this genre, and I requested it purely based on the description. I am a big fan of space horror/thrillers, and this one did not disappoint!

Exiles is the story of 3 astronauts heading to Mars: 2 men, Blake and Kang, and 1 woman, Dana (Gold). Even before they land things start to go wrong. They lose comms with the 3 worker bots sent ahead to set up their base "Citadel" and their forced to manually land the pod themselves. They have a rough landing and have to find Citadel on foot with limited air, only to find it damaged. Additionally, one of the bots is damaged (Wes, the leader), one is deactivated (Shay, the female), and one is missing and considered dangerous (Alex). There also may or may not be a dangerous alien life form lurking outside the base intent on killing the humans.

There are a lot of conflicting stories between the robots, and a lot of distrust between the humans and the bots. Also, due to the long trip and extreme environment with weak oxygen, the humans experienced hallucinations insomnia and other concerning symptoms. You never knew who to trust or what was really real at any point in the story. There were a lot of good twists and turns and a good share of grotesque violence and gore.

I did not anticipate the ending and was in for a good surprise for who the (true) villain turned out to be! It was a very bleak, morbid, raw and brutal ending, but also kind of fittingly beautiful. It was a fast read, but very well written! It kept me on the edge of my seat! I kind of wish it had an epilogue of something at the end, but I really enjoyed this one! I will definitely be recommending it!

The book felt like it was trying to do too many things at once, and it suffered for it. I am intrigued by the premise, but by the time we get to where I wanted to be, the book only has a few chapters left. Fun for mystery fans, but perhaps not for the average horror fan. Plot is uneven, and the pacing was off. There were times I was on the edge of my seat only to be bored out of my mind the next chapter. The central mystery, what is destroying the base, was great, but it got bogged down. The book was a very quick read, could probably be finished in a single sitting, and I wonder if might not have been more enjoyable if it had been more flushed out.

I rated this novel 3.5 stars. I didn't click with it. I enjoyed the idea of it, and was very interested in digging into it, but there was nothing there for me. I never understood the point of the story. I know the ultimate goal was a universal takeover, but eh, I didn't care.

This book started off with a bang, and even had so many insightful emotional nuggets to chew on. But then it took a strange turn into the MC's background that felt unnecessary. I would have much rather the author use that word count that was used to unnecessarily explore the MC's past to instead build out the setting of this (literally) new world, Mars. There were several times I had to read a passage over again because there weren't enough details to allow the reader to effortlessly envision what living on Mars would be like for the time they were there. It could have been an amazing book if it hadn't taken that weird turn and had focused on the threat lurking outside instead. Still decent though.

Exiles by Mason Coile is a quiet, emotional story that really sticks with you. It follows characters who feel lost physically and emotional and explores how they try to find their way back to something that feels like home. The writing is simple but powerful, with a lot of moments that hit harder than expected.

There’s not a lot of big drama or fast paced action here. Instead, it’s all about the small moments like conversations, memories, and the regrets that shape who these people are. It’s beautifully written, and the mood lingers long after you’ve finished the last page.

The ending left me looking for more, not because it didn’t work, because I kind of saw it coming. But I felt like it just needed a little bit more in the end. If you like quiet, character driven books that dig deep into emotion, this one’s worth picking up.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was having a hard time getting in to this book. It all felt so obvious. And then there it was, an absolutely unnecessary description of something comparing it to a penis. DNFing at 48%. I’m sad cause I really liked William.

I am always on the lookout for a clever locked room whodunit. In this case, the “locked room” is the planet Mars and the suspects are three androids sent ahead to establish infrastructure for colonist arrival. This was a quick and enjoyable read that I read in almost one sitting. On one level is it a simple mystery but on another level it tackles themes of isolation and existence. I was sorry to hear that the author passed away this year. I will absolutely be checking out his backlist of books. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book!

My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for an advance copy of this science fiction story about a group of astronauts who travel to the Red Planet in search of a new start and to forget the past, but find that something is waiting for them, and not with the best of intentions.

Years ago people used to go to the sea to lose themselves. To find new ports, new homes and lose themselves in strange places. Many of the people we call famous for their acts of exploration were sometimes on step ahead of their best, or always driven forward into the unknown, for the known was too dark for them. Space might be the new sea. The lure of leaving the Earth behind, with its memories, with its fears, and finding new worlds to explore. That and the lack of other humans around, that can be a draw to people. Unfortunately new doesn't mean safe, and new places bring new dangers, from expected and unknown dangers. Exiles by Mason Coile is a little bit science fiction, a little bit psychological horror, and a whole lot of creepy, about a group of astronauts who have planned for everything, except for what they find on Mars.

Dana Gold is part of a three person team heading to the Red Planet. Their mission is to prepare a colony dome for further explorers, and to serve as a test case for humans living on another planet. Their base has been built by robots, and should be waiting for them when they land. Awakening out of a four month sleep, they find only troubling news. The base is not in contact, and they will have to land blind, something that might put them all at risk. The landing is rough, but upon arriving at the base they find a chaotic scene, with lots of damage. And their codes won't let them enter the base. They are rescued at the last minute by a robot, who has taken a name, something that was not in the mission notes. The other robot has a strange story about something out on the planet, something that moves to quick to be recorded, something that made the the third robot lose its programming. And with that something begins to scratch at the dome walls.

A very spooky story that will leave readers guessing well past the end. This is a horror, a look at trauma, science fiction, and some cosmic weirdness. All told in a story that moves quite quick. The characters all have their reason for leaving Earth, and probably never returning, Dana especially. There is a lot of atmosphere, not just the life support, but a feeling or claustrophobia and danger on every page. Coile adds little things too to flesh out his narrator Dana. Comments from her past, comments noticing things her fellow astronauts do. And how she wonders about the robots doing what they do, taking names, taking genders. And what this might mean.

A very good story, one that ticks a lot of buttons I didn't know I wanted to read in a book. Sadly this is the last book by the writer, Mason Coile who was a pen name for the author Andrew Pyper. I did not know this until the end, which gave me a totally different view of the book and how it unfolded. A really good story, one with a lot to think about and one that still makes me think about things.

I read William by Mason Coile last year and loved it. So when I saw that he was publishing a new book this year I had to have it in my hands as soon as possible. I knew that I would absolutely eat it up and I did. In this story we are following three astronauts who travel to Mars as a pre-colonization team. In advance of their arrival, three robots are sent to Mars to prepare build their habitat/lab and wait for them to arrive. However, upon their arrival, they discover that the robots are not behaving the way that they are expected to. They have named and gendered themselves. This book is fast paced, exciting and I absolutely ate it up! The twist at the end will blow your mind. I loved it!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and Putnam for the eARC.
I read and really enjoyed William by Mason Coile and so I was really excited for his next book and boy did it not disappoint.

AI robots and their way of adopting human nature is still a relevant theme in this book as it was in William. Coile had me guessing and on my toes with this book and it was much more violent. Some descriptions were hard to comprehend and picture but I got the gist.

The characters aren’t likeable but they were realistic and I couldn’t help routing for them, even the robots I was sympathetic towards as they were thrown in to a world beyond their programming. I liked that it touched points of sexism, trauma, grief, and isolation. This was a very well done psychological thriller.

I didn't click with Exiles. I enjoyed the idea of it, and was very interested in digging into it, but there was nothing there for me. I never understood the point of the story. I know the ultimate goal was a universal takeover, but eh, I didn't care. I give it three stars because I finished it.

While I didnt get to finish this I enjoyed the initial parts I read. Fans of Mason Coile will enjoy this. Although this leans more sci fi than horror unlike his last book. Timely story about rogue AI and it's ramifications.

A brief but enjoyable read, "Exiles" by Mason Coile packs a lot of drama in a handful of pages. With a lightning pace that adds to the feeling of things continually being out of control, the story focuses on Dana Gold, team doctor and psychologist for the first three-person team attempting to colonize Mars. The team's arrival in orbit of Mars finds that the automated landing system is not functioning...and things don't tend to go any better from there as it seems the three robot construction and mission assistance team are suffering from various issues. The race is on to deal with difficulties and disasters that just won't quit for the first human team intent on inhabiting the Citadel station.

I absolutely loved the way the book portrayed the human characters as slavishly following the rules/operation manuals while the robots were a little more "free" in their thinking and reactions -- an interesting role-reversal. Perhaps, part of the "moral of the story" so to speak was how the very personality types chosen for this mission were apt to create as many problems as their extensive training was meant to solve. The only negative I have is the ultimate ending of the book. I could have done without the last 2-3 pages, and more fully enjoyed the book. That said, the journey was far more important than the destination, so I can in good conscience recommend this for a quick read.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam | G.P. Putnam's Sons for the opportunity to read this eARC.

This kind of went the direction I expected based on the cover/title, but not exactly! I like how there are short chapters and it was a pretty quick read. Some of the choices made by 3 people who are so smart they were chosen to be the first people on Mars were pretty questionable and a few times I was rolling my eyes because no one would ever act this way. However, it made for a good story and I would recommend this to horror fans.