Escape to Phobos

by K. Van Kramer

Set two hundred years into the future, a quiet agricultural engineer finds herself entangled in an exodus to Mars and its station on Phobos. Faced with impending cataclysmic conditions on Earth she can no longer deny, she is joined by her son, a savant genius, who guards a secret called Evolution--a batch of genetically altered seeds that hold the key to plant life on Mars and the future of the human race. As the fate of the two planets hang in the balance, she enlists the aid of a colleague and close friend named Xanders, who uses his powerful connections in space exploration to ensure their escape.

220 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2015

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

the year 2205, Earth has been ravaged daily by earthquakes and
devastating weather conditions, leaving nearly 60% of the planet’s
surface in a severe drought. Global warming and Coronal Mass
Ejections from the sun have reached critical levels and scientists
believe that the Earth is facing cataclysmic conditions.

Scientists have been tasked with finding a way to overcome these
drastic food shortages for the sake of humanities survival. Lirren
Lamaar, an agricultural scientist, believes she has the solution
with her creation of genetic mutant seeds that will flourish
in drought conditions. But living in California, ground zero
to the devastating earthquakes, any moment could be her last.

Lirren desperately wants to believe that the Earth can be saved,
but finds herself torn in a world less interested in saving plant life
in favor of a synthetic vitamin. She warns her colleagues against
the synthetics, but her fierce individualism and deep moral courage
causes others to view her as a threat, and with life hanging in the
balance, Lirren is in for far more than she ever imagined.

Lirren’s savant genius teenage son, Logan, also becomes a target
as others seek to exploit his research and ideas. Lirren struggles to
uncover the truth about what is going on and to protect her son.

Just when Lirren sees no way out, she finds an ally in Xanders
Pierson, the Director of Operations and projects for a nearby
commercial space flight company. With conspiracies and plots
against Lirren mounting, is humanities survival, and that of Lirren
and her son, not on Earth, but in the stars

What did I think'
5 stars
First off I once again want to think the author for send me a singed copy of her book, and I'm glad that I picked it up, the story pulls you into it and shows you what our future might be like since we'll already dealing with some of the stuff that is mentioned in her book, as I was reading it all I could think of is alot of this is all ready happening which is a scary thought to have , but the story is still a good one to read, her characters are very believable and I can actually see this as a TV show or movie if they would do it the right way, can't wait to pick up the next book and see what happens.

[Book Nerdection · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I like about Escape to Phobos is its futuristic yet realistic plot. In hindsight, we all know that Earth is going slowly toward its doom. Climate changes, global warming, and earthquakes, though natural, are increasing day by day. By using problems that are already becoming prominent in real life, the writer did an amazing job of creating fiction that seems relatable.

I loved the future world-building. The way the houses are shown to be automated, the irises, body odor, and other scans all seemed to come straight out of a movie.

Lirren Lamaar was a brilliant character. She was optimistic, full of humanity, and emphatic. How she stood up against the bad is exemplary and she is a model to follow.

Her son, Logan, was a smart and relatable character too. His behavior and personality complimented him nicely. The way Logan wanted to reach the core of any problem, and solve it was what made his character likable. He was different from other teenagers as he seemed attached to his mother which I really adored.

The action in this book was quite easy to imagine due to the writer’s detailed narratives. The suspense and how the story unfolds was keeping me hooked to the book.

The twists, how some people wanted to mess with the seeds for their own small gains, the way Xanders was there to handle things, Lirren’s role for Earth, and Logan’s research, all made this book an absolute delight to read.

I also loved the unpredictability of the story. I look forward to reading the sequel of the book.

However, the sequence of the writing and the excessive details throw me off a bit while reading. It seemed one paragraph was narrating something about Lirren and the next told something about Logan which got me a bit confused at times. Nevertheless, the extraordinary plot, the predictableness, the living characters, and the uniqueness make up for it, and you become hooked!

[Laquinda Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read

Good read. I can't wait for the next book to find out more about life on Mars and how everyone will survive.

[Vkmk1988yahoo.Com · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a surprise from my husband. Not normally a science fiction reader but I enjoyed the futuristic plot and strong characters especially Lirren, a female scientist. The introduction of the characters during the first chapters helped build a bond with their adventure to gets to Mars to secure their survival. I’m looking forward to finding out if the family and friends of Lirren are able to come together to survive.

[Martin Berman-Gorvine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Escape to Phobos is a good old-fashioned science fiction tale, full of adventure and hair-breadth escapes in the quest for the human future in deep space. Van Kramer's heroes are genetic scientists struggling to create new food sources for a starving human race at the apocalyptic start of the twenty-second century, an all-too-plausible scenario of runaway climate change and social collapse that is finally hitting America along with the rest of the world. Protagonist Lirren Lamaar is passionately devoted to this work and to her autistic-spectrum son Logan, a teenager who is already a brilliant scientist in his own right. But Lirren's boyfriend Xanders Pierson (and how many science fiction heroes are single mothers with special-needs children, even in this day and age?) believes the only hope for the human race lies in the new colonies on Mars, and is determined to bring Lirren and Logan there, with their invaluable life-giving research, to forge a new future. But first they must escape greedy and violent enemies who are determined to steal their scientific secrets...