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Asteroid Savage
A high-stakes science fiction thrill ride perfect for fans of The Expanse, Titanborn, and Altered Carbon!
On the Red Planet, oxygen is free. The truth will cost you everything.
Rosa Lakhani is a legendary Martian investigator, known as the "Ripper" for her uncompromising tactics and high-end clearance rate.
She's investigating a wave of terrorist attacks on Mars when her partner is nearly killed by a bomb meant for her.
With the help of an AI system built by her comatose partner, Rosa ignores her bosses and keeps chasing the money that’s funding the attacks, leading her all the way up the political food chain.
It also leads her to Parrish, an underworld fixer from the asteroid belt, or "savage," posing as a corporate lawyer on Mars to extract a dying informant who knows the dark truth about the Mars Terraforming Initiative.
These two natural enemies must forge an uneasy alliance as they uncover evidence of corruption that will shake the entire solar system — something the most powerful interests on Mars will do anything to keep hidden.
Rosa vows to bring them down, but Parrish might just be convinced to help them bury it . . . for the right price.
Asteroid Savage is a gritty, high-stakes science fiction thriller perfect for fans of The Expanse and Altered Carbon, where the line between hero and criminal is as thin as the Martian atmosphere.
On the Red Planet, oxygen is free. The truth will cost you everything.
Rosa Lakhani is a legendary Martian investigator, known as the "Ripper" for her uncompromising tactics and high-end clearance rate.
She's investigating a wave of terrorist attacks on Mars when her partner is nearly killed by a bomb meant for her.
With the help of an AI system built by her comatose partner, Rosa ignores her bosses and keeps chasing the money that’s funding the attacks, leading her all the way up the political food chain.
It also leads her to Parrish, an underworld fixer from the asteroid belt, or "savage," posing as a corporate lawyer on Mars to extract a dying informant who knows the dark truth about the Mars Terraforming Initiative.
These two natural enemies must forge an uneasy alliance as they uncover evidence of corruption that will shake the entire solar system — something the most powerful interests on Mars will do anything to keep hidden.
Rosa vows to bring them down, but Parrish might just be convinced to help them bury it . . . for the right price.
Asteroid Savage is a gritty, high-stakes science fiction thriller perfect for fans of The Expanse and Altered Carbon, where the line between hero and criminal is as thin as the Martian atmosphere.
388 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 2, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 29, 2026
Asteroid Savage is my kind of science fiction: it paints the challenges of modern living on a larger canvas. It's also a thrilling, fast-paced crime drama that will keep the reader continually engaged through the final page. Set on Mars, Trang's drama follows a tough-as-nails woman cop and a mysterious fixer/corporate lawyer (maybe) as they circle each other and frequently cross paths while pursuing their own goals.
Both Rosa and Parrish (aka Washington) are fascinating characters in their own rights, and they absolutely sizzle when they are working together. But the real star of the show is the Martian settlement itself, with its rich history of triumph and upheaval, its industrial-government complex (rife with corruption), its organized and spontaneous crime, and its distinct and divergent districts and neighborhoods.
I wouldn't call this story cyberpunk, but it has the same sorts of attitude-driven vibes, violent action, and fun technology associated with that genre. If I had to sum it up, I'd call Asteroid Savage a wildly entertaining, character-driven, complex crime story set in the midst of an extremely rich and imaginative sci-fi setting.
Highly recommended. A hundred stars!
Both Rosa and Parrish (aka Washington) are fascinating characters in their own rights, and they absolutely sizzle when they are working together. But the real star of the show is the Martian settlement itself, with its rich history of triumph and upheaval, its industrial-government complex (rife with corruption), its organized and spontaneous crime, and its distinct and divergent districts and neighborhoods.
I wouldn't call this story cyberpunk, but it has the same sorts of attitude-driven vibes, violent action, and fun technology associated with that genre. If I had to sum it up, I'd call Asteroid Savage a wildly entertaining, character-driven, complex crime story set in the midst of an extremely rich and imaginative sci-fi setting.
Highly recommended. A hundred stars!
July 21, 2026
Rosa "Ripper" Lakhani, Fedway PD, meets her pistacho-addicted partner Rodney Corso, posing schlep coding mastermind, at the scene of what acts like a diamond heist. Jurisdictional tension ensues. Then the world explodes. Welcome to the ORC. Organic Repair Center.
We leave Corso in an induced coma and follow Rip on her chain-of-command busting journey to find Suarez—the architect of the heist.
I would follow Lakhani anywhere. No wait, no. I'd follow Andre Washington anywhere. Quexon. Pallas City, The Dome, Drum Zone, Netanyu, New Chengdu, The Belt, Kandla. Two moons in synchronous orbit. For now.
Data breaches, vendattas—personal, maniacal, corporate—bloody regime change, characters scooting in and out of locations I needed to draw in my head. (I want a map!) Malfeasance on a galactic scale, sociopaths, razor blade smiles (love that) all lined up against just trying to do the right thing. Humans.
And wardrobe. I'm a fan of what the bad guys are wearing. Sets the context, and makes it more OK when somebody gets his head shot off. I mean, really, those shoes!
And Hibiki and Basquiat and the Antikythera Mechanism.
I told a friend that reading this book took me back to laying on the floor on my stomach, feet in the air, nose 5 inches from the book, turning pages with glee, twirling my hair until it was a mop of twisted strings, and then unable to tell my parents how the siblings I was supposed to be babysitting had been in their absence. How should I know?
If you've ever been in the grandstand at a Formula One Grand Prix race, you'll understand the anticipation/adrenaline of Asteroid Savage. The wait. The ear-hammering rush of power on wheels. Ferrari's signature engine noise was patented. No other team could imitate it. Now EV Ferrari: the maker patented a sound reproduction device. Think of an acoustic guitar—the system amplifies the sound and plays it back for the driver, and for us. Same for this author. The dialogue is Ferrari's engine sound.
If you're thinking of buying this book, you will want to have the 2nd book, Late Night Mars, too. I blundered not getting both, ordered the second when I finished this book, got a late delivery email, and suffered an entire weekend without this world.
I've since discovered that Killing A Perfect Beast isn't out yet.
And here I sit. In the stands. Waiting for the rush.
We leave Corso in an induced coma and follow Rip on her chain-of-command busting journey to find Suarez—the architect of the heist.
I would follow Lakhani anywhere. No wait, no. I'd follow Andre Washington anywhere. Quexon. Pallas City, The Dome, Drum Zone, Netanyu, New Chengdu, The Belt, Kandla. Two moons in synchronous orbit. For now.
Data breaches, vendattas—personal, maniacal, corporate—bloody regime change, characters scooting in and out of locations I needed to draw in my head. (I want a map!) Malfeasance on a galactic scale, sociopaths, razor blade smiles (love that) all lined up against just trying to do the right thing. Humans.
And wardrobe. I'm a fan of what the bad guys are wearing. Sets the context, and makes it more OK when somebody gets his head shot off. I mean, really, those shoes!
And Hibiki and Basquiat and the Antikythera Mechanism.
I told a friend that reading this book took me back to laying on the floor on my stomach, feet in the air, nose 5 inches from the book, turning pages with glee, twirling my hair until it was a mop of twisted strings, and then unable to tell my parents how the siblings I was supposed to be babysitting had been in their absence. How should I know?
If you've ever been in the grandstand at a Formula One Grand Prix race, you'll understand the anticipation/adrenaline of Asteroid Savage. The wait. The ear-hammering rush of power on wheels. Ferrari's signature engine noise was patented. No other team could imitate it. Now EV Ferrari: the maker patented a sound reproduction device. Think of an acoustic guitar—the system amplifies the sound and plays it back for the driver, and for us. Same for this author. The dialogue is Ferrari's engine sound.
If you're thinking of buying this book, you will want to have the 2nd book, Late Night Mars, too. I blundered not getting both, ordered the second when I finished this book, got a late delivery email, and suffered an entire weekend without this world.
I've since discovered that Killing A Perfect Beast isn't out yet.
And here I sit. In the stands. Waiting for the rush.
July 28, 2026
Imagine James Ellroy set a story in outer space.
Asteroid Savage has that type of sprawling plot, attention to detail, and wicked crisp dialogue.
The characters are hardnosed cops, corrupt politicians, and gangsters with gravitas that bide their time in the shadows until they can step forward to reclaim power lost during an event known as the Unrest.
Its a lot, and I mean that in a good way.
Parrish, aka Washington, is a fixer with skills from growing up a refugee in one of the toughest neighbourhoods in the galaxy. Rosa Lakhani is a rogue cop famous for her propensity to get into trouble.
Are Parrish and Lakhani good or bad?
Its not that simple, and truth be told, they’re a bit of both.
In Asteroid Savage, regimes rise and fall, and history hovers in the background, influencing the present. Alliances. Handshake deals. Political maneuvering. Assassination attempts. It’s all here.
A great read, and I’ve already ordered book 2 in the series.
Asteroid Savage has that type of sprawling plot, attention to detail, and wicked crisp dialogue.
The characters are hardnosed cops, corrupt politicians, and gangsters with gravitas that bide their time in the shadows until they can step forward to reclaim power lost during an event known as the Unrest.
Its a lot, and I mean that in a good way.
Parrish, aka Washington, is a fixer with skills from growing up a refugee in one of the toughest neighbourhoods in the galaxy. Rosa Lakhani is a rogue cop famous for her propensity to get into trouble.
Are Parrish and Lakhani good or bad?
Its not that simple, and truth be told, they’re a bit of both.
In Asteroid Savage, regimes rise and fall, and history hovers in the background, influencing the present. Alliances. Handshake deals. Political maneuvering. Assassination attempts. It’s all here.
A great read, and I’ve already ordered book 2 in the series.
June 14, 2026
Thomas Trang's Asteroid Savage delivers a futuristic story of crime, government, and financial machinations on Mars and the asteroid belt. Trang keeps this Sci-Fi story grounded in realism. Even with the advanced technology and space-age settings, I felt very at home with the author's worldbuilding. The many fleshed-out characters kept me constantly on my toes, never sure what their motivations were or which way they might turn. The main characters, Parrish & Rosa Lakhani, crash into each other's orbit and pull the reader through this complex often violent world. It's an expansive tale with a large cast of characters of shifting allegiances, but the pacing and Trang's crisp, intelligent writing managed to keep it all coherent and exciting. A fun and thought-provoking read.
I am eager to read the next installment.
I am eager to read the next installment.
Review of advance copy received from Author
If you're lucky enough to have known Trang's crime writing, you'll be grateful to know it not only thrives in a sci-fi setting but flourishes in unique ways and with his unique voice. While Asteroid Savage encompasses some sci-fi elements you might recognize - fast moving ships, colonized hunks of extraterrestrial rock, futuristic weaponry, shifting alliances among nation-states and quasi-crime syndicates - it includes others that may not be as deeply mined as Trang does here; the personal, the relational, the character-driven pot boiling you may associate more with crime writing. If you're thinking John Le Carre meets William Gibson and Jean-Patrick Manchette in The Expanse while Elmore Leonard and Alan Furst look on approvingly, you'll be at the right rainy, neon-lit intersection, and you'll love the way Trang merges these inspirations and makes them his own in the cauldron of his page-turning prose style. Highly recommended. That this is the first part of a trilogy is thrilling.
June 24, 2026
This novel has well thought out settings on Mars with mature characters fighting through political conflicts.
July 29, 2026
Complex and highly original.
This review should be 4.5 stars, but I guess that isn’t allowed. So why isn’t a brilliant book like this deserving of a 5? If I had a criticism, it would be how the reader is not grounded for some time—the surroundings and geographical location is not clear. Because of this, the narrative feels foggy, as if the details were covered in a mist that was either meant to obfuscate, or intrigue. I alternated through those feelings, but I never thought of stopping.
Great books teach us how to read them. And Asteroid Savage is indeed a great book. I haven’t really read anything like it before. It demands a lot of the reader, that is, if you go below the surface. There were times it read like a DeLillo book to me, notably Underworld. Not in the similarity of story, but more in the complexity and depth within. This is a book not to be rushed through; lots will be missed.
Rather than hit plot points and summary, I’d rather talk about what I think Trang is doing in the novel. Those misty details do begin to emerge as the book progresses, and I can see that this is a way of avoiding the info dump. It is more authentic for characters to not go on about what happen the last 500 years, or what the exact nature of the asteroids, the dome cities, the terraforming, means or even look like. This is simply the world the characters live in. Trang drops some clever Easter Eggs, like the Staunton chess board, that hint to the careful reader the time they are in—same goes for naming structures after historical characters.
And what characters they are. Immediately I was drawn to Rosa the cop (or whatever her actually title). She’s tough, gritty, and with a number of bleeding flaws that made me like her right away. Washinton/Parrish is a tougher sell. So much of his story is hidden. This is where I was frustrated, like the writer wasn’t giving it to me fast enough. But that is more a sign of my impatience. The novel is a long complex dance, and when followed carefully, the final Grande Jeté is awe-inspiring.
That may all seem quite heady for a sci-fi-noir story. But for me, none of those genre markers suffice. Sure, there are times where you think you’re reading an Ellroy book or even Joseph Wambaugh… it just happens to take place just off the coast of Mars, or on an asteroid, or in a dome, or it doesn’t really matter where. There are times when the details seem anachronistic for a story set so far in the future. But hey, ever heard of Bladerunner? Same deal here—so let’s add Steampunk to the mix. As well, there are explosions of violence that remind me of Willeford or Tarantino. Like the whole book, those fight scenes and gun battles are finely crafted; the prose is tight, muscular, and says exactly what it needs to say.
And the backstory does arrive, more in the last third of the book. Trang holds out the fictional carrot on a string, tugging me along with salacious info on not just the characters, but the history of how they all got there. Here again are echoes of a P.K. Dick world with Chinese, Russian, Arabic and African cultures melding together into a neo-earth settlement where guns still kill people and AI is just part of the scenery. Speaking of AI, there is a character that uses AI in one of the cleverest ways, and I was delighted whenever he (them, it?) showed up.
This novel is still reverberating in my head, and I know I’ll read it again. It kind of deserves it. Are there themes to be talked about? Sure, but I’m not quite sure what they are. The usual suspects of revenge and redemption are there. But there is something else that I can’t grasp. I’m hoping that as I read the rest of the trilogy more will emerge.
I’ve already bought the second one, which I have a feeling is going to be even better.
This review should be 4.5 stars, but I guess that isn’t allowed. So why isn’t a brilliant book like this deserving of a 5? If I had a criticism, it would be how the reader is not grounded for some time—the surroundings and geographical location is not clear. Because of this, the narrative feels foggy, as if the details were covered in a mist that was either meant to obfuscate, or intrigue. I alternated through those feelings, but I never thought of stopping.
Great books teach us how to read them. And Asteroid Savage is indeed a great book. I haven’t really read anything like it before. It demands a lot of the reader, that is, if you go below the surface. There were times it read like a DeLillo book to me, notably Underworld. Not in the similarity of story, but more in the complexity and depth within. This is a book not to be rushed through; lots will be missed.
Rather than hit plot points and summary, I’d rather talk about what I think Trang is doing in the novel. Those misty details do begin to emerge as the book progresses, and I can see that this is a way of avoiding the info dump. It is more authentic for characters to not go on about what happen the last 500 years, or what the exact nature of the asteroids, the dome cities, the terraforming, means or even look like. This is simply the world the characters live in. Trang drops some clever Easter Eggs, like the Staunton chess board, that hint to the careful reader the time they are in—same goes for naming structures after historical characters.
And what characters they are. Immediately I was drawn to Rosa the cop (or whatever her actually title). She’s tough, gritty, and with a number of bleeding flaws that made me like her right away. Washinton/Parrish is a tougher sell. So much of his story is hidden. This is where I was frustrated, like the writer wasn’t giving it to me fast enough. But that is more a sign of my impatience. The novel is a long complex dance, and when followed carefully, the final Grande Jeté is awe-inspiring.
That may all seem quite heady for a sci-fi-noir story. But for me, none of those genre markers suffice. Sure, there are times where you think you’re reading an Ellroy book or even Joseph Wambaugh… it just happens to take place just off the coast of Mars, or on an asteroid, or in a dome, or it doesn’t really matter where. There are times when the details seem anachronistic for a story set so far in the future. But hey, ever heard of Bladerunner? Same deal here—so let’s add Steampunk to the mix. As well, there are explosions of violence that remind me of Willeford or Tarantino. Like the whole book, those fight scenes and gun battles are finely crafted; the prose is tight, muscular, and says exactly what it needs to say.
And the backstory does arrive, more in the last third of the book. Trang holds out the fictional carrot on a string, tugging me along with salacious info on not just the characters, but the history of how they all got there. Here again are echoes of a P.K. Dick world with Chinese, Russian, Arabic and African cultures melding together into a neo-earth settlement where guns still kill people and AI is just part of the scenery. Speaking of AI, there is a character that uses AI in one of the cleverest ways, and I was delighted whenever he (them, it?) showed up.
This novel is still reverberating in my head, and I know I’ll read it again. It kind of deserves it. Are there themes to be talked about? Sure, but I’m not quite sure what they are. The usual suspects of revenge and redemption are there. But there is something else that I can’t grasp. I’m hoping that as I read the rest of the trilogy more will emerge.
I’ve already bought the second one, which I have a feeling is going to be even better.
September 5, 2026
This was a very competent cyberpunk. I finished it quite some time ago, so I don't recall a lot of the detail, but I do recall that I thought it compared favorably to Morgan's Kovacs books. I will definitely be on the lookout for more from Mr. Trang. I think I recall seeing that there are other books in this series.
June 5, 2026
Bracing political and physical action on Mars
A combination of physical action, a police investigation, and a political revolution. Set in Mars in the not-too distant future, this story has something for everyone.
A combination of physical action, a police investigation, and a political revolution. Set in Mars in the not-too distant future, this story has something for everyone.
July 31, 2026
Had a great time with this. A sprawling tale (this is book one of three) and an excellent blend of crime and science fiction. Set on Mars, but humans are humans. Ready for the next one!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews