Mars Nation 1

Mars Nation #1

by Brandon Q. Morris

NASA finally made it. The very first human has just set foot on the surface of our neighbor planet. This is the start of a long research expedition that sent four scientists into space.
But the four astronauts of the NASA crew are not the only ones with this destination. The privately financed ‘Mars for Everyone’ initiative has also targeted the Red Planet. Twenty men and women have been selected to live there and establish the first extraterrestrial settlement.
Challenges arise even before they reach Mars orbit. The MfE spaceship Santa Maria is damaged along the way. Only the four NASA astronauts can intervene and try to save their lives.
No one anticipates the impending catastrophe that threatens their very existence—not to speak of the daily hurdles that an extended stay on an alien planet sets before them. On Mars, a struggle begins for limited resources, human cooperation, and just plain survival.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Space, Ebooks, Amazon

364 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 29, 2018

About the author

Brandon Q. Morris is a physicist and space specialist. He has long been concerned with space issues, both professionally and privately and while he wanted to become an astronaut, he had to stay on Earth for a variety of reasons. He is particularly fascinated by the "what if” and through his books he aims to share compelling hard science fiction stories that could actually happen, and someday may happen. Morris is the author of several best-selling science fiction novels.

Reviews

[reherrma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meiner Meinung markiert diese Geschichte (Ob des Umfangs eher eine Novelle als ein Roman) den Höhepunkt der schriftstellerischen Arbeit des Autors. Ein Marsroman, der irgendwie ein Zwischending zwischen "Der Marsianer" von Andy Weir und "Roter Mars" von Kim Stanley Robinson ist. Der Mars wird besucht, eine NASA-Expedition mit 4 Personen richtet eine Marsbasis ein, bis nach einem Jahr die Ablösung der Crew stattfinden soll. Außerdem ist die (nach dem Vorbild von Mars One, die von dem holländischen Fernsehkonzern Endemol ins Leben gerufen wurde) private One-Way-Expedition Mars für Alle (MFA) unterwegs zum Mars um ihn zu besiedeln. Allerdings kommt das Raumschiff in Schwierigkeiten, offenbar durch Sabotage, 5 Raumfahrer sterben. Um das Leben der restlichen Besatzung zu retten, müssen die NASA-Leute ihr Raumschiff vom Mars starten und die Leute aus der Raumnot retten, obwohl sie dabei selbst die Möglichkeit zur Rückkehr zur Erde verbauen, weil der Treibstoff dafür nun verbraucht wird. Aber mit ihrer Ablösung sollte sich das Problem lösen lassen. Aber die Erde verstummt. Was genau passiert ist, bleibt bis zum Ende der Geschichte im Dunkel, somit ist auch die NASA-Besatzung auf dem Mars gestrandet. Die MFA-Leute wollen, trotz aller Probleme, den Plan ihre Mars-Station durchführen, auch wenn sie dabei die Resourcen ihrer Retter entwenden müssen, zumindest denkt ihre Anführerin das...
Brandon Q. Morris, bzw. Matthias Matting schafft es, wie seine Vorbilder Andy Weir und Kim Stanley Robinson, die faszinierenden Landschaften des Mars zu beschreiben, eingebettet in einem Thriller mit den unterschiedlichsten Charakteren, einer unbekannten Bedrohung innerhalb der Gruppe, viel glaubhafter Hard Science um das Überleben auf einem lebensfeindlichen Planeten und dem Versuch, ihn zu terraformen. Der Horizont über die nächsten beiden Bände der Trilogie ist gelegt, weil zwei weitere Raumschiffe auf dem Weg zum Mars sind, eine, von Milliardären finanzierte, private Expedition und eine chinesische Expedition, die offenbar in letzter Sekunde die Erde verlassen hat. Warum die Erde schweigt, das wird auch Thema der nächsten Bände sein. Auf jeden Fall hat Morris ein faszinierendes Setting für seine Mars-Trilogie geschaffen, ohne den Humor von Andy Weir und ohne die schriftstellerische Qualität und die politisch-soziologischen Aufarbeitungen von Kim Stanley Robinson, trotzdem aber eine (für deutsche Verhältnisse) herausragende Mars-Besiedelungs-Geschichte...

[Elena · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was bullshit.
It was really horrible. The beginning was intriguing and the concept was an interesting idea. But the more time we spent with the characters the clearer it becomes that they are all immature cry babies that regularly have temper tantrums. As well as being sexist, rude and unbelievably horny. Non of these people would ever get sent to Mars. They would never survive the qualifications.
The mystery storyline, that should have been the main storyline, was important for maybe 50 pages throughout the book. And it got resolved by saying that it was all a mental illness. No wrong - two mental illnesses that do not work like that in real life. The diagnosis got just thrown around out of nowhere. It happend so fast that I almost got a whiplash. So that storyline died.
And the storyline that endeup being the main one was a romance -  WHY?! I'm reading sience fiction for a reason. And it wasn't even a good story. They were not in love they were horny and basically alone on the planet.
The science in this was also bullshit. And everyone should know that. Wrapping animals in foil and moving them over the mars surface like that - are you kidding me?! You better be joking! What bullshit.
Another plot point drowned along the way and never resurfaced. So I read the book and still don't know what happened to earth. And I know that that's probably on purpose so you read the second book. But it was literally mentioned five times after it happened so it wasn't even really important to the characters. All that happend was that one of the main characters realised that if he had sex with someone from the mission now it wouldn't be cheating anymore. Are you kidding me?
Another thing that the authdid to make you read the second book was ending this one in the middle of a sentence. I'm sure he tried to do a cliffhanger. I'm also sure he doesn't know how to write a cliffhanger. The ending was bullshit.
Everything was bullshit.
Unsurprisingly I'm not gonna read the second or the third book. The only reason why this is not a one star rating is because I liked the first quarter and because reading it was free for me. Had I paid money for this - I would be pissed.
Because *say it with me* THIS WAS BULLSHIT!

[Frank Wolffe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anthropomorphized goats

A brief, but complete chapter, about a goat thinking about his heroic escape from the “two legs” holding him and his mate captive is this fellow’s idea of hard sci-fi. The goat should have peed on this manuscript, not just the panel in the story.

[Topher · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book, but not a series I intend to read more of - having read the preview of book 2 at the end, and then the blurbs online for books 2 and 3 it seems this is going in a direction I don't want to follow.

All communications with Earth is lost except for a ship here or there, and yet no one can tell them what happened?

Don't mind me, I'm just going to steal all your stuff? Oh, and kill people. Because the program psychologists were just that awful at their jobs..... So far as I can tell, there are multiple characters with mental health issues. It's a bit odd that these are the people selected to go to Mars.

[Miguel Rey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Si te gusta leer Ciencia Ficción puede ser un buen libro, aunque la historia al comienzo tenga un buen inicio a medida que avanza el libro se vuelve casi solo problemas personales entre los protagonistas dejando un poco el género de lado.
Personalmente me gustan mucho los temas del espacio y la terraformación de otros mundos por lo que le daré una oportunidad al segundo libro.

[Gernot1610 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gute Unterhaltung!

[William Remsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Going from regular science fiction to this real world version was a bit jarring, but after a couple chapters I was hooked!

Already into Book 2 and it just keeps getting better!

[Nancy Caron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Très bon premier tôme

J'adore cet auteur.
L'histoire est très bien écrite et elle nous est bien introduite dans ce premier tôme.
L'intrigue déjà bien en place nous fait saliver et j'ai très hâte de lire la suite.

[Pere · Rating 1 out of 5]

No me merece la pena ni dedicar tiempo a reseñar este libro, me parece malo a todos los niveles y aunque forme parte de una trilogía (creo) no es motivo para cerrar de la forma tan abrupta en la que lo hace. Solo deja preguntas sin resolver.
Mi interés en saber la solución no pasa por leer el segundo libro, lo siento Marte, en esta ocasión te quedarás donde estabas.

[Kawana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was hab ich da gehört...hätte ich nicht Hörbuchmangel gehabt hätte ich das definitiv abgebrochen. Die Geschichte an sich war nicht schlecht, würde ich auch gerne noch weiter erfahren (dieser Teil 1 hat quasi mitten im Satz aufgehört) wären da nicht diese furchtbar grauenhaften charaktere. Mein gott sind die ätzend,sexistisch und bescheuert. Gut dass das Hörbuch geschenkt war....

[Nicol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Que fuerte. Por algo me gustan los juegos como Stardew Valley. Eres tú, un montón de tierra, recursos, herramientas y tiempo... Muuucho tiempo. Por eso me gustó Project Hail Mary o Seveneves. Buena leche y mucha construcción. Esperaba algo así, pero me sorprendió.

La NASA finalmente lo logró: Consiguió los recursos para montar su primer equipo en Marte. Sharon, Lance, Mike y Sarah son lo mejor de lo mejor, y se les envía el mejor equipo disponible. Su misión seria tranquila y puramente actividades tediosas para desarrollar su asentamiento temporal hasta que regresen a la Tierra en un año. Todo muy profesional. Si no les cayeran literalmente del cielo los peores vecinos del mundo.

Como lo diríamos... Marte no está exenta de las Karens del mundo. Para demostrar que NO SOLO la NASA puede conseguirlo, y con un presupuesto 10 veces menor, la iniciativa Marte para Todos, por medio de donaciones, pone a 20 "Locos" (asi los llama la Tierra, no yo) con lo mejor de lo peor (cosas baratas y justas que funcionen), propone su llegada a Marte.

Ahora, si bien una novela con solo cuatro personajes (Equipo Nasa) puede encontrar la manera de ser interesante, con 20 personas más en la licuadora (Marte para Todos), las cosas pueden avanzar mas rápido o desmadrarse.

Y sin ninguna supervisión en Marte, con recursos limitados, coctel de emociones... ¿Como creen que acabara todo?

Después de todo, todos los tripulantes estaban lo suficientemente locos como para haber abandonado la seguridad de su planeta sin la posibilidad de un billete de vuelta. Algunos de los tripulantes no solo habían roto sus contactos personales, sino que estaban hartos de la vieja raza humana en general, que estaba representada en la expedición internacional Endeavour a Marte. A eso se le sumaba la mentalidad de «nosotros aquí arriba, ellos allá abajo». MpT , Marte para Todos, había sido financiado con todo cuidado a través de donaciones, mientras que los cuatro astronautas que habían dado el primer paso en Marte antes que ellos recibían dinero a través de fondos de impuestos.

Está es una de las pocas novelas, digamos de supervivencia que leo, que no están del todo aislados. Al final, tienen contacto con la tierra. Al final, pueden enviar más módulos con combustible, recursos, etc. O eso pensamos al inicio, que sucedió al final con la Tierra?
Lo que inicialmente parece una misión temporal, se convierte en una carrera para asegurar recursos a largo plazo. Tan lejos, con el pellejo a la mínima posibilidad de morir de inanición, frio, asfixia, envenenados y ahora asesinados, deben conseguir ser autosuficientes y conseguir lealtades.

Seria un gran spoiler narrar o juzgar decisiones, porque un gran interés de este jueguito de construcción, es saborear como los personajes toman sus decisiones, pero puedo decir que tengo un montón de comentarios venenosos.


De alguna manera tendrían que seguir adelante. Francamente, nada había cambiado mucho para su propia tripulación. Todos ellos habían comprado billete de ida. Cada uno de ellos sabía que no volvería a ver a sus padres, a sus hermanos y otros parientes, ni a ninguno de sus amigos; se habían despedido para siempre. ¿Por qué era que para algunos de ellos esta noticia todavía suponía una gran diferencia?


Literalmente NO HAY NADIE MAS, cuando XXX decide que deben salvar su propio pellejo, quizás a costa del otro equipo, aunque ellos estén medio asentados, porque preferir traición y robo? Repito: LITERALMENTE no hay nada más, ni habrá nada mas. De verdad quieres enemistarte con el unico otro equipo que hay?

Detallar en tantos personajes es un poco largo, pero se que lo voy a necesitar para el resto de la trilogía:

Endeavour, la NASA.
Mike Benedetti, lider de la misión de Marte de la NASA, arqueólogo
Lance Leber, ingeniero.
Sharon, la química.
Sarah Jaeggli, algo

Marte para Todos, MpT. Los Locos. Nave La Santa Maria
Ewa Kowalska, líder interina. Química y encargada de los animales.
Theo Kowalska, tatuado, llevaba pendientes
Nancy, una las dos miembros más jóvenes de la tripulación juntos con Ellen
Andy, o Andrej, era el mejor ingeniero de datos de la tripulación. Problemas de circulación
Rebecca, algo
Ellen Blake, es una planificadora extraordinaria. Parece que cobrará importancia más adelante
Guillermo
Ketut

Spaceliner
Rick Summers, administrador de la Spaceliner


¿Qué les pasará a los involuntarios colonos en los próximos años? Aunque Lance, Sarah, y los demás creen que averiguar el destino de la Tierra es su mayor problema, el peligro real se acerca desde dos direcciones completamente diferentes.


Al final, esta fue una novela difícil de leer para mí principalmente por las decisiones moralmente cuestionables. Creí que todo el elenco haría difícil seguir el hilo, pero nos centramos principalmente en unos cuatro personajes. Es más, al final creo que seguimos sin saber el nombre de unos cuatro personajes.

Hay unas partes lentas pero no tediosas, es una lectura rápida que puedes intuir cómo va acabar, pero no sabes cómo van a llegar ahí. Estás curioso pensando: ¿Todo puede joders* más?
Desafortunadamente, no hay ningún componente alienígena, enfermedades, marcianitos verdes, que influyan en la trama: todo es 100% humanidad.

Sin embargo, tuvo un final satisfactorio y curioso. ¿Quién diría que las cosas pueden acabar así? Hay un amargo en la punta de la lengua, por la tranquilidad que no sabemos cuánto tiempo va a durar.

Una de las mayores preguntas que espero responder más adelante: que se supone que significa el refrán ¿El pescado se pudre por la cabeza?

[Robert E. Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard Science Fiction? Where?

An okay book, the storyline is full of twist and turns and proceeds along at a reasonable rate, but I only found one brief section that could be called hard science fiction and that was early in the book.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It is written more in the style of the traditional sci-fi authors, and reminds me of Bova or Kim Stanley Robinson. It is definitely not YA, so readers who like that sort of thing might not like this one so much.

The basic story line is three separate expeditions are sent to colonize Mars. The first to arrive is a NASA expedition, the second a private group that calls itself Mars For Everyone, and is running on old, out of date equipment, and the third, yet to arrive in this story, is a private colony ship funded by a Billionaire (a la Musk sort of thing.

Two expeditions have arrived, when all contact is lost with Earth. The story is then very much a day in the life story as the two expeditions learn to cope with each other, and survival on Mars. A lot of exploration, a few dirty tricks, and quite a few deaths in the private organization.

In general, I liked this story because it portrays a reasonably believable view of what people might experience when colonizing Mars in the near future (and it is near.) I have taken of one star however, for a few things that concern me.

The first of these is that several members of the private MfE expedition seem to be psychologically unbalanced. This should not happen on this sort of expedition as people with problems should be filtered out beforehand. However, I accept that MfE is a private, low budget expedition of what Nasa might call crazies, and in that circumstance, this is believable to an extent.

The second was that contact was lost with Earth and everyone assumes the human race is gone and they are the last survivors. I mean, get real. There is virtually nothing except a global extinction event could wipe out humanity, not even a nuclear war. Such an event would be seen coming, and with adequate warning. It would not happen instantly with all communications cut off. That is far more likely to be caused by a communications satellite failure or the like. Humans are infinitely adaptive, and in the case of something like nuclear war, someone would figure out how to get the word out.

There were a few other things that jarred me a little, but I don't let little things get in the way, and I did enjoy this book enough to want to see how it continues, so I have bought the second book. Perhaps not the best scientifically researched, but for those of us who just want a good read, quite enjoyable.

[Javier Delgado Rosas · Rating 5 out of 5]

En un futuro cercano, los primeros humanos llegan a Marte. Un grupo de la NASA aterriza para quedar la primera base permanente en el planeta rojo, todo parece ocurrir conforme lo planeado hasta que llega una señal de auxilio.

En la tierra hay un grupo que piensa qué Marte no debe ser conquistado ni por los gobiernos cómo lo que representa la NASA, y por las empresas qué es lo que representa el grupo de spacex, que también planea una misión a Marte.

Hay un grupo de listas logra obtener recursos suficientes para colonizar Marte, con donativos, equipo de segunda mano, y soportando las condiciones.

Sin embargo algo sale mal al llegar a Marte y se ven en la necesidad de solicitar ayuda a la NASA.

Así comienza la colonización de Marte. Con dos grupos de ideas opuestas.

cuando apenas comienzan a intentar trabajar juntos ocurre un desastre en la tierra de causas desconocidas. Y los nuevos colonos se dan cuenta de que están completamente aislados, y no cuento con nadie más para sobrevivir.

Pantallas hay un traidor que no desea que la colonia sobreviva.

Y poco después recibí una llamada, el grupo patrocinado por spacex y Qué representa intereses corporativos también está a punto de llegar a Marte, y con los recursos que cuentan parece sentirse dueños del lugar.

Esta es una muy interesante novela de Morris, que nunca deja que nos olvidemos de la importancia de la tecnología y de los pobres y capacidades que nos da. Y de los frágiles que somos los seres humanos sin ella.

El ser humano no sólo debe enfrentarse a la naturaleza, sino también a otros seres humanos para poder sobrevivir.

[Harmen de Jong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Die Geschichte fängt an auf dem Mars, wo die ersten Menschen gelandet sind. Es war eine offizielle NASA-Mission. Es ist jedoch auch eine inoffizielle, aber idealistische Mission unterwegs. Es ist eine Mission, die durch Crowdfunding mit nur einer Einwegreise finanziert wird. Die Besatzung bleibt auf dem Mars. Dann passiert ein Unfall, die Hälfte der Besatzung wird getötet. Eine Landung ist nicht mehr möglich. Das NASA-Team hilft dabei, die verbleibende Besatzung auf die Marsoberfläche zu bringen. Ein weiterer Fall von Manipulationen scheint aufzutreten. Während alle daran arbeiten, alles in Ordnung zu bringen, geht der Kontakt zur Erde verloren. Das ist kein technischer Fehler, die Erde sendet einfach nicht mehr. Die Menschen müssen sich auf einen dauerhaften Aufenthalt auf dem Mars einstellen. Dann zeigt sich ein von einem Milliardär finanziertes Siedlerschiff das kein Geheimnis davon macht, dass es die Macht auf dem Mars übernehmen wird. Am Ende des Buches scheint noch ein anderes Schiff anzukommen. Ich werde den Verlauf der Geschichte nicht verraten. In dem Buch ist nicht klar, was mit der Erde passiert ist, es wird in Teil 2 kommen. Die Beschreibungen der Landschaft sind wunderschön. Eigentlich musste ein Bilderbuch hinzugefügt werden. Es sind unweigerlich Elemente des Films "ThevMartian" enthalten. Außerdem sehe ich auch Elemente aus einer viel älteren Mars-Trilogie: Red Mars, Green Mars und Blue Mars.

[Thomas Riddell · Rating 5 out of 5]

For any Mars enthusiast, this series is a must have. As I was reading through the first book in the series, questions began to surface in my mind. The most prominent one was: Are humans really equipped to take on the colonization of a new world, when they obviously have failed so miserably down here on Earth? As Mars Nation Part 1 points out, it takes a lot of cooperation to pull off such an endeavor and that’s not even factoring in the extreme dangers of interplanetary space travel.

The challenges that face the characters in the book are enormous but their resolve is to tackle everyone of them. However, the decision to go on comes with a price and that price is having to deal with the complexities and ugliness of human nature, which threatens to undermine and doom the mission. The plot is exciting and when the conflicts begin to pile up, the author holds you tight to the tale and it soon becomes a page turner that you can’t possibly put down.

As the author strives to communicate all of the “what if” scenarios of a Mars colonization, he leaves us wondering if we’re up to the task but we’re a species who has exploration built into our DNA and it’s my guess that we’ll somehow find a way, even with all of the obstacles that will overwhelm us along the way.

This book will leave you happily scratching your head and you’ll be considering all of the challenges that face these colonists and if you’re like me, you’ll want to rocket on to Mars Nation Part 2.

[Curt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh, it was okay.

I don't know, I just found it difficult to buy-in to the series. It wasn't the science that I doubted, but rather the attitudes and behaviors of the people that struck me as odd. Instantly, the story becomes an "us versus them" story between the two groups. People in the MfE group behave as if a gang or mob mentality has taken over. The group follows its leader blindly - and damn the consequences. Just doesn't feel like people would behave like that - call me naive.

Still on the mindset of the characters, some entertain the fantasy of one day being able to be outside on the Mars surface without a suit or maybe their children or grandchildren. Seriously there are less than 20 people on Mars, albeit a couple of ships coming, no contact from Earth, and they are somehow going to be able to terraform the planet? Not really what I would expect knowledgeably scientists to be pondering.

While the science is good, some of the actions like going on trips using a rover, described as not much more than a couple of quads put together, for thousands of KMs is not much more difficult or risky than going to the local variety store, makes this a bit much to swallow.

An okay book, but I won't be continuing to book 2.

[David Burns · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars is a kind of a "Meh" reaction and in addition, I must admit that I could not finish the book. It is well written, but the handling of the subject is almost sophomoric in my estimation. Of course, when we were on horseback and covered wagons, perhaps someone wrote about mechanical devices which were powered by some magic device named a "Boom-Bang" power source. Well, I would not have finished that book either and here we are with "Boom-Bang" powered things we call cars.
Often, by looking at the stretched mind of our past, we can see where magical things were supposed to be real and now they are.
I am trying to give the author credit for his imagination and not disparage him too much. On the other hand, both the subject and the suppositions, mandatory for this type of writing, did not capture my imagination.
I am now back to reading about things that are known, if not abhorrently crazy as well. That being politics and how we got where we now are in this nation. We are a fool-hardy bunch and in some ways, I truly hope that some will go to Mars, or any where in the universe and begin a better civilization.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise is interesting enough: Two Mars colony expeditions from very different backgrounds, one from NASA and another privately funded with civilian volunteers and bargain-basement equipment, converge on the Red Planet at roughly the same time and have to learn to cooperate with each other where there are no social, legal, or government structures to guide them. And clearly the author has a solid handle on the science of Mars.

But it seems that the author is more interested in telling us facts about Mars than telling a story. Things happen -- really important things! -- that are pivotal events, but are given bafflingly little room to drive the narrative. In particular one very major event happens on Earth that is never explained or even explored; just a few pages after it happens, there is instead a multi-page discussion of how the inflatable tent works. Similarly, characters never grow or learn, but instead continue to act in one-dimensional ways, doing things for no reason.

Science is great, but even in so-called "hard" sci-fi, the story trumps the science.

[Trudy Preston · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was all set to write an absolutely scathing review of this book, until I found out it was originally written in German, so I'm going to blame the stilted language and absolutely appallingly wrong vocabulary on the translator. Despite the serious faults (which would usually make me give up on a book) I kept going because the plot was interesting. But the dialog was awful and there were some sentences I had to read over and over and over again because they made absolutely no sense. Finding out the book wasn't written in English helped me understand what may have gone wrong. Now, maybe I'm wrong and the original was as bad as the translation, but I'll give Morris the benefit of the doubt (and encourage him to find a WAY better translator!). Even though I would like to know what happens next (this book is the first of a trilogy) I'm not going to subject myself to the next two books. Which is too bad because it's an excellent premise.

[D. Jensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read

. . . except for all the advertising at the end for all Morris' other books.
I kept getting interrupted (you know: the need to nap, feed the cat and so on) so it took longer than usual to finish the book.
Good story about surviving in a hostile environment. One group, the four sponsered by NADA are short timers who are trying experiments and then going home. The second group, a cartel of people looking to start a new life on Mars expect to Spend their lives on the Red Planet. The group from NASA are shocked to discover there might not be an Earth to return to. Now it is about survival.
There is more, but I don't want to give too much away. Suffice that reading the next in the series is a must.

[Patrick Tunkl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Is this a book for children?

Wow, what a crock of shit. I have to admit I didn't read the whole book - when they wrapped living animals in plastic wrap to transport them through the Martian atmosphere, it was the straw that breaks the camel's back for me.
The astronauts are portrayed as highly emotional and sexist jackasses who would never have made it through a program with their behavior. The logic errors are so glaring. Plastic wrap as a space suit, armor tape as a possible welding seam, USB plugs are changed from Type A to C "with a little time and a pair of pliers". Nah, even kids know that's not how it works.
Too stupid to keep listening to it.
If you want to read smart science fiction (with logic and humor) you should rather go to Andy Weir, Blake Crouch or Dennis E. Taylor.

[Kissu · Rating 2 out of 5]

En realidad, 2.5 estrellas.

Los libros de este autor suelen parecerme dinámicos, fáciles de leer y llenos de acción científica. Este primer volumen de esta trilogía no es la excepción. Sin embargo, hacía relativamente poco que había leído la famosa trilogía marciana de Kim Stanley Robinson y me resultó un poco difícil no comparar el punto de vista, la riqueza de información y la complejidad.

Pese a ese detalle, me gustaron los aspectos técnicos de los asentamientos en Marte y los elementos de rivalidad entre MpT y la NASA. La situación de Ewa también me pareció interesante (sumamente interesante incluso).

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fast read as Mars Nation quickly grabbed my attention. Having read many Mars-related science fiction novels, I was a bit surprised that this storyline still sparked my interest. The author provided several new twists for such interplanetary excursions thus I enjoyed thinking about those possibilities. On to book #2!

Spoiler alert...
The new twists were several different groups (not all governmental) competing to get to Mars and colonize it. Also, thinking about leadership succession planning, an earth communication blackout, human violence/threats to the mission, etc, all kept me guessing about how I'd respond to such contingencies.

[Mmonchi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Me ha parecido un libro muy flojo, con poco rigor científico comparado con otros que ha escrito. Por ejemplo, cuando hacen el trasvase de combustible. ¿En serio? Se supone que la diferencia de velocidad es de miles de metros por segundo, pero están conectados medio minuto. Para que eso fuera así, la diferencia de velocidad debería ser de un metro con segundo, algo que podían igualar y quedar juntos sin ningún problema. Absurdo.
Por otra parte los comportamientos de los personajes son infantiles. ¿Estos son los mejores astronautas seleccionados por la NASA? Y en cuanto a los otros, los detalles de la nave con que viajan a Marte son simplemente ridículos. Podría ser un error de traducción alemán-inglés-español, pero me parece que no.
Es mejor tomarlo como una novela de aventuras que transcurre en Marte como podía haber transcurrido en el lejano oeste o en una isla del Caribe.

[Kerry Hennigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

What happens when a NASA expedition to Mars finds itself in competition with a private colonising party intend on making it their forever home? Mars Nation 1 (first in a trilogy) poses such a scenario and then tosses a few spanners into the works to make things doubly interesting.

It took me a while to become engrossed in Brandon Q. Morris' tale, but engrossed I was as the different groups and individuals therein were forced to grapple with matters of conscience and loyalty as they work for survival on an unforgiving world.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel presents several factions that are each striving to establish a presence on Mars. There is a great diversity of characters. The author does a great job at describing scene and environment. Spoiler alert: This novel follows the frustrating (at least to me) idea that Earth is not going to support the colony due to a common SciFi trope. The next few novels will determine the validity of this storyline.

[David Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

More excellent "hard science fiction" from Brandon Q. Morris. I enjoy his work because the characters are well-written and develop over the course of the story like they should in any good novel, and while the scenario is set in the future with advanced technology, it's all plausible based on what we know today.

[Catherine Chant]

Just couldn’t hold my attention. Little suspense. Right away a major event happens with people dying and it’s off screen. I couldn’t understand why it would be handled like that. I tried for four chapters and it felt like little was happening. I have too many books on my TBR pile to keep reading a book that isn’t grabbing me.

[Nancy Shaffer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seriously, BQM is no Shakespeare, most writers aren't. But having all your characters jump to the same extreme conclusion like it's fact just because you need to create drama off that conclusion?

"Have lost contact with Earth."

All characters: "OMG, the human race has been destroyed!!"

Or... EMP disrupted the DSN, maybe?