Red State Mars

by Travis J.I. Corcoran

A sweeping epic of Mars’s fight for freedom—an unforgettable saga of war, family, and civilization on the red frontier.

For generations, the Newcastles, Mackenzies, Atkinses, Hyltons, and Hollinses have endured the hard red soil of Mars—surviving by individual grit, intense family loyalty, and free market trade. Scarred by World War III and Earth’s long, violent aftermath, they built farms, raised domes, forged alliances, and carried old grudges to a new world. Together, the Martians have forged a frontier society that is complex, ornery, and rooted in the freedom of the Texas soil from which many of the clans sprang.

Trade with the nearby Chinese enclaves brought prosperity for a time. But as Beijing’s reach lengthens, trade becomes tribute—and tribute becomes force.

When Chinese armored columns grind across Karl’s Ramp and convoys are torn apart in the Chaos, Mars is plunged into war. Robinson City’s dome falls in fire and blood. The Burrows holds out under siege until supply convoys break through beneath burning skies. At Lowell and Meltwater, city shields collapse and the red Martian soil melts and flows like blood as the Martian plains are seared with plasma fire.

The clans face an empire pressing down from above and rivalries tearing them apart from within. Senators brawl in council halls, mobs surge through the streets, and old feuds erupt—even on the football field. Out of devastation, a fragile coalition is uneasy, volatile, but fierce enough to strike back. Freightliners become fortresses. Drones become weapons. Family honor hardens into resistance.

From isolated domes to the vast Martian plains to the black sky above, war sparks into revolution and a desperate struggle to forge a nation on an alien world men now call home.

A vast chronicle of clans and civilizations, of families too proud to yield, too divided to trust, and too determined to be ruled.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

Audible Audio

Published May 26, 2026

About the author

Travis J I Corcoran is a Catholic anarcho-capitalist, a software engineer, and a business owner. He is an amateur at farming, wood turning, blacksmithing, cooking, throwing ceramic pots, and a few other things.

He lives on a 50 acre farm in New Hampshire with his wife, dogs, livestock, and a variety of lathes and milling machines.

Travis has had non-fiction articles published in several national magazines including Dragon, Make, and Fine Homebuilding.

The Powers of the Earth is his first novel.

Reviews

[Justin Miller]

After a ten plus year hiatus from contemporary fiction, the premise of Red State Mars was enough for me to request an ARC from the publisher.

I found the story to be an intricately woven tale with elements of country western, sci-fi, and the Revolutionary War blended into a fast paced tale full of suspense. I really enjoyed the subtle world building and the POV switches kept things exciting and made this hard to put down. The dialogue felt natural and authentic, with each families personality really coming to life.

Additionally, I really enjoyed the idea of Americans conquering a new frontier on Mars. The pioneer spirit is a core part of the American identity and it was really cool to see the story breathe new life into it.

Lastly, the afterword definitely gave me an appreciation for how much thought was put into so many different details throughout the story, so definitely don’t skip that.

Overall Red State Mars is a very fun ride and well worth picking up.

[Jonathan Koan]

*I recieved an advance copy of the E-book by Ark Press in return for an honest review*

This is a refreshing, positive, action packed Sci-Fi adventure. It reminded me in some ways of a mix of Tom Clancy, Timothy Zahn, and even John Grisham, but told from a very optimistically pro-America/American culture worldview. The military action was oftentimes abstruse unfortunately, but the political story elements were well done; and there are some great characters and themes present.

The story is mainly about the American colonists and the Chinese colonists, who previously had lived in peace, now threatened with war. We follow the American characters as they try to figure out if they go to war, how to do it, who should fight, and whether they should be part of America itself or if they should be free and independent.

This book's strengths lie in it's political thriller elements, as well as its creative way it incorporates the ideas of the founding of America and the founding of the Texas republic as well. These are most prominent in the beginning 200 pages and the last 150ish pages.

The book also has some pretty great protagonist characters in the Newcastle family. I particularly enjoyed the three generations of Benji (founder colonist), Jim (current leader) and Will (the next generation kid). They were all quite entertaining to follow and had interesting character journeys. I will say that my overall favorite character was Rutts Hollins, who just felt like a specific Tom Clancy character that I enjoy.

There are some really creative visual moments in the book that really captured my imagination, as well as some scientific ideas about terraforming Mars that I found fascinating and made me remember my favorite Kursgesagt videos.

This book's weaknesses, however, lie in its military sequences. When the book gets into some military and space scenes, it slows down to much, includes way too much technical jargon, and becomes very abstruse to the reader. This is most prevalent in the middle 200 pages of the book. This kept the book from being top tier for me.

Overall, I did enjoy the book. It feels as if you mixed Tom Clancy, John Grisham, and Timothy Zahn books together. I really loved the politcial elements of the book, and enjoy the hopeful attitude it portrays. 7.5 out of 10!

[Tom]

Think a fun SF retelling of the Texas Revolution, only on Mars, and with a totalitarian future China subbing in for the Mexican dictatorship. I previously enjoyed Corcoran's Aristillus books, which are more "American revolution on the moon." Next up, French Revolution on the moons of Jupiter? I'd be a buyer.

That's a lot of revolutions in space. I get that. But the first two both work well. Each has its own memorable characters, settings feel quite different, and different technical and philosophical concepts come into play. I bet Corcoran can do it again, and why get off a winner? (Also, things do tend to revolve in space .)

I'm an engineer with some breadth (mechanical, electrical, chemical, software...) who tends to nitpick technical stuff, and I felt like that side of the book held up well. Corcoran has obviously done quite a bit of research, and even where he's hand-waving, he seems to have thought it through. A lot of the political maneuvering in the book also rang true to me, which I guess may be Corcoran's experience in that arena coming through.

Highlights for me, without spoilers, included the whole Phobos sequence, Space Cowboy, background political string-pulling by a certain character, and the ending.

I received an ARC, which I appreciated! The fact that I got hooked despite reading this on my phone in the form of an annoying PDF (vs. on my Kindle like a civilized person) is perhaps the strongest endorsement I can give.

[Graham Bradley]

Branded as "Mexican-American War in space" and it lives up to that hype. A gritty frontier story in a high-tech setting in the future. Corcoran put together a story that sits on a couple of genre intersections and has a lot of imagination behind it. I like Jim Newcastle the best, but let's be real, we're all a lot more like Waylon Atkins.

[Les Dulunch]

I'm not really good at writing book reviews, but when I requested an advance copy of Red State Mars by Travis Corcoran, I said that I would.
I'm not giving the book five stars because I got a free copy, though. I asked for the ARC because from what I've read of his before, I knew I wanted to read this as soon as possible, and this was everything I expected and more.
If you like land battles, space battles, political intrigue, heroes, villains, needs, rednecks, geology, and love stories (ok, that surprised me a little) in your science fiction, you're in luck, because they're all here and well written. I won't go through the plot since other folks will do that better than I would, but I will say that you should buy this book. I've pre-ordered a physical copy from the publisher and plan to read it again as soon as I get it.

[Charles Haywood]

The great civilizations of mankind, few in number but everything that really matters in the history of our species, always require an internal common goal to bind them together and pull them forward. Bare life is not enough; what impels a civilization to the heights, what inspires its accomplishment, is the drive to create splendid works of Man under the eyes of God. It is therefore a pleasure to come across a book which shows how we Americans, the only great modern civilization, now falling back in confusion from our own achievements, might get our society back on track with such works.

Red State Mars is a compelling work of fiction with a serious, but not didactic, message. You will not find Ayn Rand-type rants here, rather well-drawn characters behaving in the way that normal men and women behave, although under particularly dramatic conditions. To be sure, these people are on and around Mars, for the most part, and that is certainly different than America today. But for the nature of mankind, there is no thing new under the sun, and this truth is well illustrated in Travis Corcoran’s book.

The basic frame of the story is straightforward. While this is “hard” science fiction, Corcoran avoids excessive exposition about technology. It is 2126. China and the United States fought a limited nuclear war, around 2050, after China unleashed an engineered plague that killed one-third of the American population. Following thirty years of chaos and local conflict, both countries re-built themselves. The Chinese veered heavily toward technology interlocking with their traditional culture, including by introducing a severe caste system based on mandatory embryonic modification. The Americans, it is shown through the plot (though without going into much detail), adopted a system which mixes advanced, but liberating, not totalitarian, technology with a rationalized political system.

Similar to many remade empires, American political structures have the same names as before, even if the federal government sits in Pittsburgh, but those structures sit atop a changed society. Here, it is not that the structures have lost power and become shells under an authoritarian leader, the more usual path of such changes. Rather, a cultural renewal has given the country back its moral fiber and realistic approach to societal structure, allowing the old systems to work well again. Mostly this is implied rather than shown. For example, no women appear in national politics at all, which is as it should be, for the public life of any society that wishes to accomplish anything must be totally dominated by men.

In any case, little detail is offered about Earth; this is a book about Mars. Both nations—the Americans first, the Chinese after—have established modest colonies on Mars, some decades old. Terraforming is a distant dream; these are pressure-domed towns, not unlike small towns in America, complete with bars and high school football. Most of the Americans seem to originate from Texas, which it seems has assumed outsized importance in the new United States, in part by defeating Chinese-backed Mexican invaders in the vicious “cartel wars.” Each of the nine American towns is independently run by an extended family, although one family, the Mackenzies, is the most powerful, because it owns and operates the three American spaceships that orbit Mars, crucial for any number of activities. The families differ markedly in personality—some rougher Scots-Irish types, some highly religious, some just average Americans, or rather average Americans of 1850 or 1900 transposed to the future (they even engage in dueling).

Corcoran sketches plausible technology of a century from now. Three core technologies make getting to, and life on, Mars possible—a type of fusion engine; sophisticated quasi-nanoscale matter printers; and artificial intelligence. All of these are certainly feasible in a hundred years, at least in an America where we return to unfettered freedom of association and end the boundless parasitism of the old and shiftless (which hopefully will not require a nuclear war, although that’s certainly a way to get there fast). Corcoran posits a very believable form of artificial intelligence, unlike a great many commentators in 2026, essentially ubiquitous always-available forms of customized LLMs which are advanced versions of today’s statistical text-predictors. They are not conscious, merely tools which each family maintains for itself alone in a secure form (the Mackenzie AI is “TradeNet”). They are forms of agentic AI making possible extremely rapid collective action, not true intelligence.

The core of the story is war between the Americans and Chinese on Mars. Until the story begins, the two groups have gotten along well, trading and sometimes intermarrying. The Chinese have been very loosely controlled by the Chinese government back on Earth; many of them came to Mars to avoid the forced embryonic modification program. Then the Chinese government decides to impose its will, both on its own people and on the Americans, whom they see as divided and weak. And the Americans are in fact divided and weak—they have no central government, rather what amounts to an informal discussion group of town leaders, and they are totally independent of the American government, which therefore has no obligation to protect them. When the newly-arrived “genemod” Chinese military arrive and try to forcibly confiscate essential American trade goods and transport vehicles, the Americans respond with violence, using, among other weapons, missiles dropped from AI-controlled drones. “Somewhere behind him, Liam issued the command, ‘TradeNet, designate all, kill, kill, kill.’ TradeNet said, ‘Heaven brings forth innumerable things to nurture man.’ ”

No surprise, the Chinese don’t take this sitting down. I won’t spoil the plot; suffice it to say it is gripping. I read most of this fairly long book in one sitting. It is a quintessential story from long-ago American history—how a few tough men struck out in a hard land, and found that only by coalescing together, despite their differences, and by taking existential risks, could they establish and defend a new society against the enemies and challenges that inevitably arose. The characters are drawn incisively; the central personal frame of the story is the coming-of-age of a fourteen-year-old Mackenzie boy, which ties the story together very well. The battle scenes are realistic and compelling. The social scenes, from individual decisions regarding the war to fashions in clothing, are equally so, and Corcoran also accurately depicts incessant political maneuvering, a constant of every human society. And again, something almost never found in modern books or shows, sex roles are realistic (with a few exceptions, such as a woman spaceship pilot—but that’s the basis of a romantic subplot, so it doesn’t seem wildly out of place).

You will not regret reading this book. Mulling over it, the only question I really had at the end is—why are the Americans on Mars? It makes some sense for the Chinese to spend enormous resources on settling Mars, as a matter of national pride for the “Unitary Sovereign State of China.” Their functionaries have little choice in the matter; they are, for example, indoctrinated to recite “Cheerful in battle, we serve the state,” and that attitude pervades most Chinese activities here. They are not stupid, but they most definitely think differently from, and perceive the world differently than, the Americans. But the Mackenzies are portrayed as consummate capitalists, almost anarcho-capitalists, obsessed with accounting and choosing to invest huge sums in spaceships and their colony towns. Yet all Mars seems to produce is cattle and crops, primarily grain, to feed the locals. The planet is utterly dependent on “feedstock” for the matter printers that can only come from Earth, and there appears no ability in the foreseeable future to manufacture this material on Mars. Nor can they manufacture other crucial technologies, such as fusion engines. Unlike Phlebas the Phoenician in T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” the Mackenzies as a family never forget the profit and the loss, and there is no profit visible here, even in the future. What’s the play for the Mackenzies on Mars?

This gap is fine for the plot, because this isn’t an economics textbook, so a question like this doesn’t detract from the reader’s enjoyment. But we should give some thought to why, other than the quest for glory, America might expand beyond Earth. David Gress said, “Hernán Cortes conquered Mexico for God, gold, and glory, and only a mundane imagination would distinguish these impulses, for they were one and the same.” Yet God is absent in the motivation to conquer Mars; there are no Martians to convert (although religious belief has assumed its normal historical importance for the local Americans), and there is religious freedom in America, which means that traditional driver of voluntary exile is not a motivation. Gold also appears lacking; there is no talk, for example, of mining anything, and life back in America appears pleasant, with opportunity for everyone, such that there is no reason for men to go to Mars simply for a better life. And while there is certainly glory, most of that is in the fighting the Chinese—the daily life of the colonists is really not all that different than a 1950s Texas town. There is not even that much danger to measure oneself against, because the technologies, especially the AIs, are able to sense and rapidly respond to physical threats such as dome ruptures. Moreover, even were there glory here, glory is not enough as the single driver of achievement, except for a handful of men. If neither God nor glory is a driver, gold, or the hope of gold, seems essential to drive expansion beyond Earth.

Certainly there are men today who see Mars as an overriding goal, the only goal that matters. The most prominent, of course, is Elon Musk, who it was recently reported has received a potential giant pay package from SpaceX, contingent on his establishing a permanent human colony on Mars with at least one million people. Most sane men, even those fully supportive of the goal, would see this as extremely unlikely in Musk’s lifetime, but who knows? Arguably Musk seeks glory by going to Mars, in the form of being the savior of mankind by making us multiplanetary, so perhaps glory is enough, if resources are funneled to the right man, and he is unleashed, not tied down by the Lilliputians. That’s not likely on our current trajectory, but as George Orwell said, one should never merely predict the continuation of the thing that is happening.

Along those lines, the key limitation that might be removed on settling Mars is energy. A well-run society with access to essentially unlimited energy, something that has never existed, has nearly incomprehensible options. Combine that with the tools that AI might give us, many possibilities open up. Perhaps, in that case, all it would take is enough adventurous men to settle Mars. Their descendants would see it as home, and not need to make the continuous choice to remain. I suspect something like this is what Musk contemplates—but there is no visible source of essentially free energy on the horizon.

On the other hand, upon reflection, it seems like there is no real need to begin with human settlement on Mars. That might arise naturally, if we instead began with colonies on the Moon. Such have been talked about for decades, to the extent they are nearly a joke. But colonies on the Moon, because it is possible to much more easily launch mass from the Moon, would allow us to obtain materials such as metals and other minerals from the asteroids, and use those resources to colonize Mars. Maybe, just maybe—if our society is first totally remade to reward extreme accomplishment that benefits all Americans, the opposite of America today. I’m not terribly optimistic, especially that this can be done without great suffering and pain, but this book sketches a plausible path, and that alone makes it very much worth reading.

[Luke]

This is a review of the ARC copy, provided by the publisher. I was asked to post an honest review.

This book captures the author's typical excellence in conveying life (and combat) on an inhabitable planet, and explores what happens when rival colonies and families have to deal with significant issues.

I really don't want to give spoilers, but if you like Aristillus, you will like this book.

[Joseph Tranfo]

DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary Advance Reader Copy of Travis J.I. Corcoran’s Red State Mars from the publisher for review purposes. Other than committing to post a review I made no other representation as to what I would say.

Red State Mars is a smart, sophisticated, and thoroughly satisfying novel that delivers realistic action and intelligent world-building (I would actually say “culture-building”). Highly recommended for fans of hard military SF, frontier epics, and thoughtful colonization stories.

Some readers will come to Red State Mars aware that it is the debut release from Ark Press — a new publisher with financial backing from Peter Thiel’s investment group — and of its’ authors’ sometimes controversial political profile. However, anyone expecting partisan preaching, culture-war gotchas, or thinly veiled commentary on 2020s American politics will be grossly disappointed. The novel steadfastly avoids hitting the reader over the head with contemporary hot-button issues or simplistic “TEAM RED good / TEAM BLUE bad” framing. Instead, Corcoran explores bigger, more enduring themes: the pioneer spirit of self-reliant families carving out a free society on a hostile frontier; the friction and strength of clan loyalties; the messy realities of democratic self-governance under pressure; and the eternal struggle between individual liberty and distant authoritarian power. The result feels like classic frontier literature and hard military SF in the tradition of Heinlein, Pournelle, or Michener — timeless and big-picture rather than ripped from today’s headlines.

Given recency bias and the success of the film, I believe many reviewers will instinctively reach for Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary as a comparison for this book, but the far closer parallel is actually Weir’s earlier novel The Martian (also a successful movie). Both The Martian and Red State Mars are rooted in the same gritty, boots-in-the-regolith reality of human beings simply trying to exist on a lethally inhospitable Mars, with the same meticulous planetary science and engineering tension. Corcoran simply expands that lens into an epic multi-generational clan saga with political depth and large-scale conflict.

As for the plot: For generations, the Newcastle, Mackenzie, Atkins, Hylton, and Hollins clans have endured the hard red soil of Mars — surviving by individual grit, intense family loyalty, and free-market trade. When trade with nearby Chinese enclaves turns into tribute and then outright invasion, Mars is plunged into war. What follows is a sweeping saga of domes under siege, freightliners turned into fortresses, Senate brawls, desperate space battles, and a fragile coalition fighting for self-determination.

One of the standout moments for me was Corcoran’s deep-dive aside on the ancient history of water on Mars — four billion years of planetary geology, lost oceans, solar wind stripping, and buried ice reserves — that unfolds right in the middle of the Battle of Meltwater. Far from feeling like a lecture, it’s a riveting, perfectly timed piece of hard-SF world-building that directly fuels the Martians’ ingenious victory. It reminded me strongly of the late Dan Simmons, whose info-dumps on everything from Arctic expedition history in The Terror to literary, philosophical, and technological layers in the Hyperion Cantos I’ve always loved. Like Simmons, Corcoran doesn’t just dump facts — he weaves well-researched science and history into the narrative so it feels alive, purposeful, and essential to the story.

Corcoran’s portrayal of the Atkins family — the rowdy, hard-drinking, rock-crawling, loose-cannon cousins whose hot-headed independence keeps testing (and ultimately strengthening) the Martian clans — brought James Webb’s Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America to mind every single time they appeared. The Atkinses feel like living, breathing descendants of that exact same ornery, “born fighting” Scots-Irish stock transplanted to the domes and red plains of Mars.

One of the smartest choices Corcoran makes is the complete absence of any non-human aliens. By keeping the focus entirely on human characters, cultures, and politics, the stakes feel immediate, plausible, and emotionally resonant — more like a 22nd-century Western than typical space opera.
Finally, the author’s afterword on how the novel came to exist and his transparency as to sources and inspiration was just terrific. I always appreciate getting clues and suggestions as to books I might be interested in adding to my “to read” stack.

A very strong start for Ark Press. And Corcoran is an author who I will look to read more from.

[Daniel Bensen]

Red State Mars is the best new science fiction book I’ve read since Project Hail Mary, and not for lack of trying. I’ve searched desperately for years for an alternative from the industrial slurry extruded by Tor, Daw, and Ace. Yes, I have found a few indie gems, such as Corcoran’s Aristillus books, which describe how a single breakthrough technology can threaten even the most entrenched of powers. They were good books, but now Corcoran has an editor. This, Ark Press’s first book, is beautifully polished.

Red State Mars follows the formation of the first Martian state, founded by a coalition of five Texan clans, which themselves coalesced in the anarchic aftermath of World War III. Now, after three generations of peace, they find themselves in another violent Turning, as foretold by Strauss and Howe. In response to the ever-escalating demands of the technocratic eugenicists of the Unitary Sovereign State of China, the Martian clans must put their differences aside and fight together.

Corcoran shows us the war through the eyes of three men: Will, a teenage boy with a dog who goes on Heinleinian adventures as he becomes a soldier; his nerdy uncle Brian, who wins the love of a good woman through feats of engineering; and his father, Jim, who is so used to leadership he’s gone soft, and is forced to admit that even he is not done growing up. Corcoran has been paying attention to many Thanksgiving-table arguments.

In the afterword, the author says he planned Red State Mars as a family saga, but that isn’t how it turned out. Under the guidance of editor Tony Daniel, the older generation’s stories were moved to a separate novella, resulting in a tighter, quicker-launching book. I actually think they could have gone further in this direction and brought more out of Will, Brian, and Jim, but that’s a quibble.

Here’s another: there were some dropped threads. What happened to the young Mormon guy with the wire-rimmed glasses? Why did they use the tainted feedstock? Maybe I missed his answers, but I got the impression that Corcoran had too many balls in the air, and dropped some.

Anyway, the battle scenes were exciting, suspenseful, and technical in the best tradition of Clive Cussler. Satellites, molten salt cooling systems, and missiles all get their chance in the point-of-view spotlight. LLMs are ubiquitous in the 22nd century, where every armored fighting vehicle quotes doctrine and every valve has a opinion. It makes sense for the machines’ voice to be close third person.

As in the Aristillus books, Corcoran is conscientious with his future technology. There’ve been incremental advances in AI, 3D printing, and genetic engineering, but there’s just one black swan: the force field generator. There were chapters of Red State Mars where I alternated between reading about space-explosions and furiously imagining force field tactics. Can you batter through a force field? Yes. Can you reshape it at will? Yes. Can you thrust or see through it? No. But you can flick it on and off rapidly in sync with your cameras or engines. Of course, if you do that, weapons can sneak in. Beautiful stuff. And don’t get me started on what impermeable, immaterial walls mean for nuclear fusion. Leave that up to Corcoran.

There’s quite a lot of town-hall politicking, which was gripping even compared to the coming-of-age-through-microgravity-combat scenes. I was never more emotional a reader than during those debates. Stop interrupting each other!

This is a book about people’s love and loyalty to a place and each other. It gives us what a good story should: a perspective on ourselves, and a view of where we might go from here.

I am delighted, inspired, and even hopeful having read this book. It seized me, it pushed me, it scintillates with the possibilities of the future. It’s exactly the sort of story I couldn’t find for a bleak, censorious decade. And it’s only Ark Press’s first. May there be many, many more.

[Mike]

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was a very easy read, but I found certain parts to be a little bloated; though your mileage may vary depending on how much you value the active narrative versus the sidebars about the Sci-fi surrounding the current events.

The Pros for me were the vision of what a future Mars may look like and the futuristic border war aspect in a (relatively) lawless, frontier land. The technology felt convenient, but not unreasonable and the territorial skirmishes combined with the advanced technology effectively evoked both a futuristic landscape and a historical western feel.

Somewhere between a pro and a con are the characters. Characters are largely siloed into the same behavioral pattern as their "families," with families encompassing entire cities within the nine cities (nine cities, nine families, nine broad personality types). Due to this, many characters are caricatures, and it seems clear that certain family types are more preferred than others. There is an interaction where one of the redneck, low-brow, rough-around-the-edges type is clearly correct in his challenge to the leadership family, but rather than address the argument and accusations the character is leveling, the author has the character book-end his speech with a social faux pas that sidesteps what is clearly a foundational crack underpinning the entire martian civilization. It's jarring in the moment, even though the scene that follows is good, and it seems like the author is afraid of where that particular thought may lead if it is explored too far. I believe the author also self-describes as an anarcho-capitalist so it's unsurprising that the Mackenzies in the book are the most well-fleshed-out family group, but they cross over the line into caricature when nearly every member of the group speaks in ancap jargon.

There are two major cons for me in this story.

All of the Republic of Mars, senatorial discussions seem simplistic and forced. At some point, you have a character specifically going, "we have the pro-peace side, the pro-war side, and the third-way side." It's not particularly interesting, and it's certainly not subtle, and two-thirds of the arguments aren't explored or challenged other than by the aforementioned red-neck family, who the author attempts to dismiss by painting them as too stupid to take seriously, and their ally, who is a charismatic preacher who the author paints as a religious fanatic. The politics are also intermixed with a lot of ham-fisted modernisms that seem more appropriate to social media discussions than where they are in the story.

The second major con for me is a spoiler for something that happens in the third act. There is an entire chapter devoted to spycraft in which a sabotaged material is traded to the Martians by a neutral-to-sympathetic Chinese national whom the Martians have had friendly dealings with in the past. The Martians are warned about the sabotage in what seems like it's going to be an important means of information asymmetry in a future battle, with the Chinese believing they have an advantage that they don't actually have. During the climax, the fact that the Martians have been warned about the sabotage seems to be a forgotten point, and the sabotaged material ends up being used in a missile system that gets turned against the Martians. It was jarring and distracting to keep expecting the fact that the Martians knew about the sabotage to come into play only to have the sabotage succeed.

Ultimately, the book was worth the read and enjoyable. It just feels a little rough around the edges, and it could've used a bit more editing; maybe a bit more critical feedback could've been utilized to smooth over some of those rough spots.

[Msouth]

I received an advanced reader copy of this. I recommend it without reservation.

Do you like adventure books like Treasure Island? It's in here.

Do you like hard science fiction like Asimov? Let me introduce you to the fusion drive, orbital mechanics and a surprise appearance of actual retro tech.

Want generational family-driven fiction like L'Amour's Sackett saga? Got'em in spades.

Want political theory in an off-world experience like Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress? Have I got the book for you!

Want Miyazaki-like situations where co-protagonists have to work with each other against a greater evil despite strong fundamental disagreements between the allies? Also here.

Oh, and on top of that--it's a great story. Heroism, sacrifice, white-knuckle risk taking, even a bit of awkward nerdy romance, and a plot that keeps the "what happens next" part of your brain active and anxious.

It's the story of people who are a few generations away from actual, kinetic, fight-for-your-freedom times that suddenly and unexpectedly find themselves thrust back into that, and all of the pain, resolve, tension, and hope that comes out of it.

A thoroughly satisfying read that will stick with you.

Bonus review of bonus material:

For a while, I was picking up all the different editions of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 that I could find at used bookstores because each edition would have different interviews or other material from the author (reminiscing about the creation of, inspiration for, and societal impact of the book, etc). Eventually I found one edition that collected all of it.

Well, Red State Mars comes with what would be years of snippets here and there from interviews, pre-packaged, at the end of the text. All the in-jokes explained, the impetus for the whole thing, which parts were hard science and where poetic license was taken with the physics, etc. Honestly, after reading that, I was tempted to immediately read it again with the advantage of that background knowledge. A very pleasant surprise at the end of the read.

[Willard Cilvik]

As a disclaimer, this book was provided by the publisher, Ark Press, as a pre-release with the expectation of review, good or bad, being left for the book before the actual publication date.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It was hard to put down at points and not easy to come back to at others, I will get to this later. There are aspects here that will appeal to fans of the Expanse series of novels or to fans of For All Mankind or just hard sci-fi in general. Space opera fans may find themselves a little bogged down in the science and detail. Which leads me back to my earlier comment about being hard to come back to at times. The military action sequences can drag on with the description and details involved. A sequence that should've taken maybe a page or two of a satellite being destroyed, drags on for 1 or 2 pages too long. A more succinct form of writing goes a long way sometimes when theres action and adventure. But this is my major criticism here overall.

The world building and character development are superb. You want to know about the characters, their families and their history's. You understand their motivations, their dynamics at play with the other characters and families and you are just involved. I want more of this particular universe. I want more details of WWIII, the founding of the colonies, the development of technology, etc. This is a lived in world with so much back story and feel.

And this brings me to my last point in favor, the feeling of independence and adventure, exploration and living on the ragged edge frontier spirit calls to me. It ropes me in and hopefully will with you. And it does it all without current day nonsense getting dragged into it.

Well done Mr. Corcoran. I enjoyed this book and hope others will to. I will be adding a physical copy to my book shelf!

[Jeffrey A]

Red State Mars is like the lovechild of Heinlein, Andy Weir, and Neal Stephenson in the best way possible. It's equal parts near-future sci-fi, military sci-fi, and character drama, with a gripping plot that never feels like it overstayed its welcome.

Much like Corcoran's earlier works, the Aristillus stories, the science is laid out in a plausible way without being dry, adding a level of reality that brought me in rather than making my eyes glaze over. Most importantly, the world of Red State Mars felt lived in, where you can see why the characters are the way that they are, where the world is so unlike our own, but the motivations and reasons for their culture makes perfect sense.

RSM is about pioneers trying to carve out a living on the edge of what is humanly possible, namely the lifeless planet of Mars. Then an outside force decides to upset the delicate balance of disparate people, leading to possible calamity or to triumph. The lives of the families of Mars are beset on all sides by a much more powerful foe, who wishes for total hegemonic domination of the planet.

This book is great if you like underdog stories of smart, competent people rising to the occasion and overcoming a seemingly unstoppable enemy.

[Christine Jones]

DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary Advance Reader Copy of Travis J.I. Corcoran’s Red State Mars from the publisher for review purposes. Other than committing to post a review, I made no other representation as to what I would say.



What an incredibly bumpy ride. Political intrigue, running space battles, and sociological insights of cramped quarters, family clans, and cultural issues, woven together into a story that reminded me of some of the old classics that I have loved, but with a completely new voice. The characters felt relatable and familiar, the setting wove nicely between Mars and orbit, and I loved how much I related to the annoyance of the AI and the story of a boy and his dog. My friends know that I am less a hard-core sci-fi reader, though I have been known to love Asimov, Heinlein, Niven, and Pernell, but this is a great story, no matter where it might have been set. More than enough action to keep me riveted and enough cultural color to keep me entertained. I am buying a copy for my husband to enjoy. This is more up his alley than my own, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

[Erasmas]

I had the pleasure of receiving an advance reader copy and greatly enjoyed the book. This story reminded me of a cross between Heinlein and Crichton and had the hallmarks of great sci-fi by combining cool technological developments and the corresponding evolution of humanity to adapt to the future and life on Mars. There was just the right amount of technical asides that added the hard sci-fi flavor to stay grounded, but the heart of the story is in the realpolitiking between the different factions on Mars. Corcoran did a great job creating real ideological and philosophical motivations for each of the characters so that their interactions felt organic and fresh. The action was great and I thought the tactics described felt real to the terrain and weapons. It was paced like a thriller and I never was dragging on any passages. I also thought the niche references of the ship names were especially humorous. Overall great read and a good glimpse into a world I hope to get more of in the future.

[Gavin]

Red State Mars is an odd cross of genres being very much a science fiction novel, but with a western frontier feeling. It has a pre-1980s sci-fi sense of hopefulness with things being new and open to exploration instead of the more modern "humans are the real baddies" flavour. The science is on the harder side as opposed to "space magic" and things like the nods to specific events in the space program help make the fictional world feel grounded. At the same time, there aren't overly long passages about dry technical details. Politics are a part of the story and fortunately in the form of universal themes as opposed to the author weighing in on current-day issues. The book clocks in at a helfty 624 pages, but never feels bogged down.

I received an advance copy with the promise to write a review, which I'm happy to do. It's a solid 4.5/5 sci-fi western that's very modern while retaining an old school hopefulness.

[Tamahome]

I read the 2nd half pretty fast, maybe 4 hours a day. It has great scifi action set pieces with lots of scientific detail a la the end of Peter F. Hamilton's Neutronium Alchemist (not Samuel Delany's Nova ending). More politics than I'm used to, including 3 types of families. The redneck Atkins clan are fun, and so is the teenage boy hero. It might be tempting to look at the Afterword first for his intentions. Maybe I'll try the first Atillus novel next, since that one was created without Ark Press editing, but won a Prometheus award (as did book 2). And they have uplifted dogs but no thumbs.

Note that AI is disabled in the kindle ebook, and there's some occasional early line breaks in the text.

[Ryan]

Surprisingly good Mars book, a new series running in parallel with the author's moon/mars Aristellus series.

This one is about a fairly near future (22nd century) group of US-origin Mars colonies in multiple city-sized colonies, and how they interact with other colonies from other countries. Also notable for how it incorporates very reasonable-seeming AI and other technologies.

Remarkably plausible and "realistic" in the human and political motivations, and there were multiple places where something "dumb" or illogical happened, which with a lesser author might have been a mistake, but where the character identifies the problem immediately and comments on it.

Quite entertaining, and hopefully there will be future books in this series as well.

[MD Estes]

Think “How the West Was Won” on Mars. This story embodies the same spirit with the addition of plenty of political intrigue in a multi-generational story. Mars has been colonized, primarily by Texans and a futuristic China, that bring some of the same cooperation and competition one would expect, when the competition evolves into forceful, and violent, measures. A hard-SF war story that celebrates self-reliance and the frontier spirit. Loaded with a lot of true-to-life characters, Red State Mars is a tale free people who refuse to bow to empire. As a bonus, it looks like there will soon be a prequel explaining the backstory of the colonization of the Red Planet.

[Mark Lambert]

I received an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review.

This was a decent story about colonists on Mars in conflict with their neighboring Chinese colonist's government as well as their own as a SF retelling of the Mexican-American war.
There wasn't anything particularly bad in the writing or story, but nothing super compelling either. Some of the slang was cringe-worthy and none of it felt particularly compelling. I did find some of the combat to be refreshingly unique but it wasn't enough to propel this to 4 stars for an established author.

[Christoph Weber]

Captivating military science-fiction.

While there were to passages, that dragged out some technical expertise, they weren't too long and couldn't distract from the great pacing of the rest of the rest of the book.

It started with a lot of characters, but it didn't devolve into too many more, so you could easily follow the action and the characters after that.



[Drosfix]

Thanks for the arc.

No of the characters grabbed me. And in some chapters we switch pow Little to offend for my tastes. But the book was fast pase and the story was interesting. I felt there could be less pow and little shorter.
If you like hope full sci-fi and character (about 5 pow) base story with drone battle this may be for you.

[William Walter]

DNF, read only 30 pages, but feel obligated to comment on the character of this story. It reads like an old W.E.B Griffin tale (not a good thing), the outdated dialog is a mismatch with the storyline of a Martian saga, and the early sense of xenophobic us versus them (American versus Chinese) made this unreadable. Travis, do not quit your day jobs as a woodworker and rural New Hampshire farmer.

[Seth]

This is a great scifi book. The world building of the history of the US in the 22nd century is really good. The vision of how AI will be normalized is super realistic. The pacing of the book is really good too. It is a good change up compared to the Aristillus Series.

[Tyler Tarter]

Amazing Sci-fi story! This is a thrilling story, filled with intrigue that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I would absolutely recommend this to any Sci-fi fan.

[Book Guyson]

Great book! 4.5 stars

[Ryan]

Fast past without skipping details

Fast past without skipping details of Life and War on Mars
Great action scenes and drone warfare.
Really had the details down.

[bill]

Great read

Very good science that made sense. Wonderful characters that were easy to follow. The battles were intense. Very well written overall. Thanks.

[Christian Hejl]

I received this book as an eARC from the publisher – what follows is my honest review and my own personal opinion.

Short version: Did I like it? Yes – but I am the target audience.

Longer version:
First off, this story is written from a very US-patriotic point of view – whether this is praise or a warning depends on your personal standpoint.

What does it have going for it?
Characters you root for, innovative ways of overcoming shortfalls, exciting battles, a little bit of political maneuvering, and it is well written.

What goes against it?
Not much, but I have to mention the mostly flat villains and (for me) a major plot hole about the tainted feedstock.

Overall, it was an engaging and fun read, if you can handle the overbearing patriotism.