I am known to be a sucker for a good suppressed history story, and I’ve enjoyed Nadia Afifi in shorter form, so when I had the chance to read an advance copy of A Rebel’s History of Mars, I was excited to give it a try. 

A Rebel’s History of Mars is told in two timelines, with the perspective alternating each chapter. The first timeline features a rebel on Mars: a circus performer with an axe to grind against the wealthy, powerful civilizationist whose rhetoric had convinced her parents to abandon Earth in the first place. The second is set on a distant planet well into the future, one that’s divided into one race of people with freedom to move and to explore and another that’s expected to perform their mundane jobs and be satisfied with a stable life of restricted choices. But when the latter starts to dig into the history of his civilization, he finds their genius founder may not have had such clean hands, and the first-timeline protagonist’s story is crucial to understanding why. 

In setting up the second timeline as dystopian, A Rebel’s History of Mars signposts from the beginning that its founding is not as utopian as the characters believe. And there’s never much secret about the central figure responsible for all the good or ill involved. So any mystery about the history cannot be about the existence of scandal or the perpetrator of it; the characters may seek evidence of any scandal at all, but from the reader’s perspective, it's purely about the details—exactly what went on, and how bad was it?

With the focus on discovering the suppressed history and a hand-wavy sci-fi device that allows for the reconstruction of past events, the second timeline almost becomes a frame story for the first. Make no mistake, there’s still danger to escape and character development in the second timeline, but the main goal is piecing together the story from the first. The state of society in the future gives some hints—often ominous—about the tone of that story, but in many ways, the book stands or falls on the Mars timeline. 

And while the Mars timeline probably looks like a lot of other crappy dystopias, it’s well-written and pretty entertaining. The future knowledge can cut both ways at various times, with some instances in which details about the new society adds disturbing overtones to developments on Mars, but other times where knowing the identity of the ultimate betrayer leaves the reader merely waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

But even in those times where the reader is merely awaiting the inevitable, an engaging writing style keeps the story from dragging, and the alternating perspectives keeps any one timeline from wearing out its welcome. And when it does come time for the final confrontation, it’s truly thrilling, delivering an emotional punch and filling in enough details to make it feel revelatory and not just matter-of-course. The “what’s to be done in light of the revelation” story gives the second timeline some time in the sun, paying off its slow development into an ending with enough progress to feel satisfying and enough ambiguity to feel real. 

Ultimately, A Rebel’s History of Mars is a well-written piece of dystopian fiction that’s elevated by a high-quality ending with plenty of emotional payoff and glimpses of messy progress. 

Recommended if you like: sci-fi dystopias.

Overall rating: 15 of Tar Vol's 20. Four stars on Goodreads.

A Rebel's History of Mars weaves between a (future) past and present as the origins of the human society on the planet Nabatea are slowly revealed. I found the transition from the story told by the future-present day character Azad, a human from Nabatea, back to the story of Kezza, a woman living on Mars before the founding of the new planet, to be jarring at first, but I quickly adjusted to these two different perspectives and time-periods. The overarching theme of the novel is about who gets to shape the official version of history, and as the Nabatean characters seek to learn the truth of their origins and the origins of a more advanced species of human, Kezza's narrative fills in some of the gaps for the reader. It's more on the hard science fiction side of things, but the novel also explores familial relationships through Azad and his sister Ledo, and what it means to form a community that leaves behind it the mistakes of the past. The novel is not overly optimistic about the ability of humans to completely overcome capitalistic greed and hierarchy, but the ending suggests a slow revolution, starting with smaller communities. I would recommend this novel to any reader of science fiction interested in questions of social justice.

Hmmm I did like reading this as it had all the hallmarks of good space opera read. It had intergalactic politics, female heroines with acrobatic skills, intrigue, conspires and all tied up with varying POVs.

In the distant future, humanity has colonised Mars and another planet, Nabatea, as Earth has been destroyed by environmental and political cataclysms. The first Martian colonies have also collapsed and the new Nabatean system is a hierarchical society religiously following the principles of its long-dead founder. Humanity has evolved and is now divided between two subspecies, one orthodox and the other Vitruvian. When an orthodox doctor witnesses a concerning Vitruvian death, a thrilling chase for the truth is set in motion.
This search for historical truth about the development of the Nabatean society and the emergence of the next genetic step in humankind is clever and gripping. A Rebel's History of Mars questions science, religion, philosophy, morals, and the very core of what makes a society.

Like many books I read these days, Nadia Afifi's A Rebel's History of Mars follows two separate story strands and weaves them to a unified conclusion. The initial plot is a quest story, involving a doctor living in a regimented future interstellar colony, where humans like him are a underclass, subservient to more Vitruvius, evolved humans who developed after evacuating Mars. After witnessing the death of one of the supermen from a mysterious illness, he discovers a link to his missing sister and goes in pursuit, joking a band of rebel historians who seek to understand how their oppressive world came to pass. Afifi then segues to the story of Kezza, the titular rebel of Mars, who in an earlier time also contracts a mysterious illness (aha!) and sets off the events that bring the two timelines together.

This is a somewhat slow but satisfying book. The characters are well drawn, Afifi writes strong prose, and there is a good sense of cultural difference from today's standard Western European-driven tropes. I'm glad Flame Tree Press is out there, finding new authors and promoting their works. This is interesting, sophisticated, adventurous, and recommended.

4 Stars!

I have read Nadia Afifi's works before so I knew I was in for a treat with this one. While hard science fiction is not my normal genre anymore, I used to be a big fan of the genre and still enjoy it when it is well-written. I had taken a chance on Afifi a couple years ago and am happy that I did. When I saw A Rebel's History of Mars was coming out in June from Flame Tree Press, I wasted no time in requesting a review copy and diving in.

Kezza knows that she can never go to Earth. She is an aerialist in Martian circus and is trapped on the planet forever. Her life is not an easy one. It is a constant struggle to get by as well as to maintain her weight at a specific level in order to keep her job. The one thing that keeps her going is the anger within her and the thirst for revenge against the man who caused her to have to live this way.

Azad lives 1000 years in the future from Kezza but their fates are soon to be intertwined. He seemed to live an idyllic life on the planet of Nabatea, but he was not happy. His life was too controlled. Too regimented. Seeking adventure, he joins a group of space-traveling historians and finds his way to the Martian desert in search of the reason for his ancestors abandoning the planet. It is here that he encounters Kezza through the use of technology and learns the hidden past of his people.

Afifi knows how to build a world and A Rebel's History of Mars is a great example of this. It takes a special talent to make science fiction feel real. Since the story takes place in a world far from ours in both time and space, it can be difficult for the reader to become completely drawn into the story. This is not the case with this novel as Afifi creates such a vivid and "realistic" world that it is easy to fall in step right beside the characters. The world in this novel is a flawed world much like our own, and that is what makes it so real. From the pomp of the circus to the dusty wasteland of the desert, I never once felt as if I was watching a story unfold so much as taking part in the story. Great work and masterful world building by Afifi for capturing the setting so exquisitely.

As for the story, this is well put together as well although there can be some confusion and even repetition at times. Some of this is by design as the historians use a "time projector" to explore the past, so their visions of the past overlap, but it can make the story a little tedious and repetitious in small intervals. I also got a little confused at times as the past and present overlap and strongly reflect each other requiring some work to keep the events straight. Overall, though, this is an exceptional science fiction novel that is sure to appeal to those who enjoy "hard" science fiction but may be a little too much for the casual sci-fi fan. Quite simply, Afifi is an amazing writer and A Rebel's History of Mars is another testament to her talent. This book is highly recommended.

I would like to thank Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for this review copy. A Rebel's History of Mars is scheduled to be released on July 15, 2025.

Sometimes when I’m reading science fiction I don’t understand what is going on. I find the best strategy is to continue reading until my brain adjusts to the concepts being presented. Sometimes I give up. The Rebel’s History of Mars kept me going, even though I kept getting mightily confused with the change of timeline. I’m not sure what might be confusing about Kezza on Mars in 2195 or thereabouts (date and location at each chapter heading), and Azad from Nabatean in 1200 (founding years).

Except… Kezza is very like Ledo, who Azad is searching for, and a whole load of people that Azad falls in with are searching the historical record for Kezza, and using a very interesting time projector to see what actually went on at various points in the past (but without sound). These leads to some repetition of events or significant features, that have different interpretations in one timeline and the other. I think.

The world-building is superb, save only for the confusion of names and similarities of symptoms, which make the reader think they’ve misunderstood. In fact, it’s only on reflection that I realise I wasn’t being stupid, there really were differences in the two strands which were down to different points of view and misinterpretation of available data. But it all comes well at the end. Exceptionally well, in one final respect.

Nadia Afifi has wrought an excellent unreliable narrator into her engrossing tale of the founding of Mars colonies by rich oligarchs who want to build a world of their own design. I’m only just beginning to realise just how good this book is, and I think I’ll go and read it again.