Martian Blood

It's honestly been a really long time since I've read a Sci-Fi that made me so excited! Made sure to set aside time to read this because once you start you won't be able to stop. This really has everything, good characters, people in Mars, action, some political intrigue and the repercussions socially and environmentally of space missions. The writing is so good that at times you feel you're actually on Mars. But the most interesting thing about this book is the world building and technology, the author made me, a huge fan of science fiction, not be able to stop reading until I was finished. I can't wait to see where the series goes. The only problematic thing I found was the relationship between two character: Sophia and Ricardo, the way she thinks after not accepting to take drugs offered by him made me feel concern. Overall a really interesting read, at first I thought it would be a book like The Martian by Andy Weir but I was pleasantly surprised by how much depth and how complete this read was.

Martian Blood: Noctilucents Volume One is an exciting read. Most YA Sci-Fi novels take a while to get into as it's a lot of world-building. Not with this book, you are hooked from the first page, it's fast-paced, original and well worth a read.

I really enjoyed this book. Tom's journey with JP really drew me in and kept me glued to my screen as I read through. The whole premise is engaging because we'll be at the point of space travel and colonies on other planets in the not-so-far future. As for what held me back from giving it 5 stars- I felt like the beginning of the book was slightly hard to get into. You're put into this new world with new slang and jumping between two (soon to be three,then back down to two) characters. It took an adjustment period to find a groove but once I did I feel as if it went by quickly. I'm also curious to why we lost Alejandro's narration? At the end he's still a character referenced by Sofia and others but he kinda drops out of telling the story. We have him narrating for maybe 3 or 4 chapters and then he becomes background again. I hope in the next book we're given a reasoning as to why his narration is gone/the on-going drama with him and his dad. I'm excited to continue this series and see how everything plays out. I'll be keeping my eyes out for Noctilucents #2!

"Martian Blood" is a debut novel by John Pahl. It is the first book in a series - "The "Nocilucents" series However I dont really know where the series title comes from. I liked the cover.
The plot is about a small colony from earth which is trapped on Mars. Their rescue ship exploded while taking off to rescue them 15 years earlier. Tom was born on Mars and would do anything to get to Earth. And this story tells us how he got back to Earth.

"Martian Blood" is aimed at the YA market and as such it held my attention. It is well written, the characters are likeable and real. It includes a teenage love story, of sorts. However it does lack dept - but as a YA read it is perfectly adequate. I would love to have one of those "MakeIt machines" - it would be very useful.

I the excitement at the end I got a bit lost. It might not be Anthony Horowitz but it was OK. I enjoyed it.

I gave it 4 stars.

Thank you to netgalley, the publisher and the author for sending me this ARC.