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The Near-Earth Mysteries #2
The Last Campaign
A colony on Mars becomes home to a killer conspiracy in a Near-Earth Mystery by the award-winning author of The Last Dance.
Brazilian investigator Rosalia Morais, and her husband, revered American spacer Nicolau Aames, are building a life together in Mars’s Maxwell City, the fastest-growing settlement on the planet. Good news: there are no natural predators. Bad news: there are humans. That means the crime rate is growing, too.
To ensure public safety, Rosie’s appointed by the mayor as the Red Planet’s first chief of police. No sooner does she build a law enforcement squad than the biggest challenge looks to be internal. Policing the police for graft and corruption is one thing. But when an industrialist is found among the chars of an arson, it’s murder.
The fire leads to questions that can be answered by only one man—Nick’s former officer on the Earth-to-Mars vessel the Aldrin. And Nick is still duty bound to keep the officer’s secrets. As loyalties shift, trust breaks, and the tide of a political conspiracy rises, Rosie must solve a mystery that could doom the future of humanity on Mars.
Brazilian investigator Rosalia Morais, and her husband, revered American spacer Nicolau Aames, are building a life together in Mars’s Maxwell City, the fastest-growing settlement on the planet. Good news: there are no natural predators. Bad news: there are humans. That means the crime rate is growing, too.
To ensure public safety, Rosie’s appointed by the mayor as the Red Planet’s first chief of police. No sooner does she build a law enforcement squad than the biggest challenge looks to be internal. Policing the police for graft and corruption is one thing. But when an industrialist is found among the chars of an arson, it’s murder.
The fire leads to questions that can be answered by only one man—Nick’s former officer on the Earth-to-Mars vessel the Aldrin. And Nick is still duty bound to keep the officer’s secrets. As loyalties shift, trust breaks, and the tide of a political conspiracy rises, Rosie must solve a mystery that could doom the future of humanity on Mars.
318 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 6, 2020
180 people are currently reading
819 people want to read
About the author
Martin L. Shoemaker
114 books89 followersMartin L. Shoemaker has dual careers as a software programmer and as an acclaimed, award-winning short story writer. He’s also the author of two novels, The Last Dance and The Last Campaign, installments in the Near Earth Mysteries science fiction series.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
September 22, 2020
This sequel to The Last Dance, a mystery on board an Earth-Mars transport ship, follows two of the main characters from that book, Mars Founder Nick Aames and ex-Admiral Rosie Morais, as they settle into married life in Maxwell City on Mars. Together they run a business as incident investigators with dreams of building their own homestead and opening a school one day to teach advanced survival skills. Maxwell City has grown to around 50,000 inhabitants with a growing crime such that the Mayor decides to start a police force, appointing Rosie as Sheriff. While Rosie expects to mainly be training her new recruits to deal with petty crime, a lab fire, murder and insurance fraud soon put paid to that idea.
I mostly enjoyed the novel, however, felt it got bogged down too much in the politics and bureaucracy of the place with an upcoming election, politicians and journalists all getting in the way of Rosie and her team doing their job. While this might be realistic it felt a bit cliched and overdone and I would have liked to have seen more investigation of the crimes that occurred (particularly the murders) and less of the politics. The world building was good, given that most of the action takes place in a large city complete with shopping malls and restaurants and there wasn't a huge scifi element, although there also some scenes on the surface of Mars that were well done.
While it would be best to read the first book to learn about the characters' backstories, there is sufficient information given about previous events to read this on its own. However, I felt the characters were a bit wooden, particularly Rosie, who is the narrator. Despite this I didn't get a good feel for her character at all apart from her official persona as Sheriff, even when her marriage started to undergo some stress due to her job and Nick acting like an immature teenager. The plot also lacked suspense with only one scene towards the end raising any tension, however the plot does all come together, making all the elements slot together quite well.
With thanks to 47North and Netgalley for a digital arc to read
I mostly enjoyed the novel, however, felt it got bogged down too much in the politics and bureaucracy of the place with an upcoming election, politicians and journalists all getting in the way of Rosie and her team doing their job. While this might be realistic it felt a bit cliched and overdone and I would have liked to have seen more investigation of the crimes that occurred (particularly the murders) and less of the politics. The world building was good, given that most of the action takes place in a large city complete with shopping malls and restaurants and there wasn't a huge scifi element, although there also some scenes on the surface of Mars that were well done.
While it would be best to read the first book to learn about the characters' backstories, there is sufficient information given about previous events to read this on its own. However, I felt the characters were a bit wooden, particularly Rosie, who is the narrator. Despite this I didn't get a good feel for her character at all apart from her official persona as Sheriff, even when her marriage started to undergo some stress due to her job and Nick acting like an immature teenager. The plot also lacked suspense with only one scene towards the end raising any tension, however the plot does all come together, making all the elements slot together quite well.
With thanks to 47North and Netgalley for a digital arc to read
March 21, 2021
While this wasn’t quite as good as the first book, I still really enjoyed this SF/mystery novel, set in a human colony on Mars. The colony has grown to the point where it needs a formal police force and the mayor turns to a familiar character from the first book to head it up. It’s not long before they have a murder to solve.
This book suffers from one of my personal bugbears, which is when an author decides to give a character a unique voice by making them never use contractions in their speech. In my opinion, this just makes them sound like Robbie the Robot and totally unrealistic. It’s bad enough when it’s a supporting character but the author chooses to do it with the main protagonist in this book and it really became tiresome after a while.
Despite this gripe, this was a very enjoyable read and I’ll definitely be reading more by Shoemaker.
My next book: Electric Light: Poems
This book suffers from one of my personal bugbears, which is when an author decides to give a character a unique voice by making them never use contractions in their speech. In my opinion, this just makes them sound like Robbie the Robot and totally unrealistic. It’s bad enough when it’s a supporting character but the author chooses to do it with the main protagonist in this book and it really became tiresome after a while.
Despite this gripe, this was a very enjoyable read and I’ll definitely be reading more by Shoemaker.
My next book: Electric Light: Poems
January 26, 2021
This book started out with a bang for me… lots of intrigue in a death which turned into a murder. I savored all the world-building details of living on Mars, as well as the cultural references to Brazilian food, terms of endearment, etc. as well as Jewish ceremonial rites transplanted off of Earth and onto Mars.
It’s nice to see a kick-ass female chief of police!
The pacing dragged a bit in the middle for me. Once the first murder was set aside and more cases compiled, I felt a bit bogged down by the details of setting up the police force and other internal and external challenges. But, I think these details do show Rosalia’s character development and how she leverages her experience and history, as well as connections, towards her objectives. It also shows the complexity of the setting and the various parties involved.
3.8/5
A list of quotes I noted and some of my thoughts in response to them:
9 "All organics had to go through the city cycler for reuse. And that included human bodies."
—>I liked the compromise, the acknowledgement of how people need to keep traditions to feel fully human, to retain a sense of human culture. Thus the importance of burial and dirt, and these rituals of social significance and existentially what it means to be human and to care and show regard for other humans, including those who have passed. There’s a sense of anthropological recognition that I appreciate in a book.
10 "But it is wrong to assume that your immediate perceptions are correct. The mind does not work that way. Sometimes you notice something at the moment, but you only get the context to make sense of it later. That is when it connects in your mind."
—> I like this notion of processing and how it’s not immediate, and sometimes not linear. And it takes a while to understand all the nuances and have the epiphany, the aha moment. It’s not (always) through delving into it and really thinking about it--sometimes it’s really when you shower, exercise or do something else. I think of it as when you’re trying to think of the name of a song or the name of a character in a book and it’s at the tip of your tongue but you forget. And suddenly, when you’re doing something completely different and seemingly out of nowhere, it comes—and with the strangest of connections or ostensibly none at all.
In terms of the potential fallacy of "immediate perceptions," I'd agree. Sometimes what is mistaken as gut understandings or intuition is actually a deep-seated fear or anxiety playing out--or perhaps relying on familiar tropes or modes of thinking that isn't the case here. Both are somatic experiences or intuitive/immediate experiences, but they diverge greatly in terms of how to respond to them (i.e. ignore/contradict the gut feelings as they are misleading or misguided [strong signals from a place of fear--or complacent familiarity] or take them into account as warnings [as steady intuitive nudges]).
12 "vat-grown roast beef wit cultured mozzarella"
—> yay for future food talk
17
"On Earth stone pews might have been uncomfortable to sit on; but in the low Martian gravity, they were more comfortable than any wooden pew back on Earth, even without cushions."
—> Great world-building details here.
20 "a large batch of kosher Brazilian cheese bread, pão de queijo, or at least kosher as far as Nick knew. It was hard to tell sometimes with Martial ingredients."
—> Again great details on culture and future food. How to maintain dietary restrictions that were in place on Earth and transplant them to a place where origins and traditions might not play out in the same way. Great world-building details here.
70 “And then you know what your reward will be?”
“No, ma'am,” Ammon said.
“I shall break this command squad up and send you out to lead other squads and have you train them and prove to me that you are better trainers than I am.”
—> Something really struck me about this.
About being a mentor, and guiding people to be better people than you. In my experience, some martial arts instructors are like this and so are parents, too—they hope you turn out to have even richer experiences and become even more skilled and more impassioned than them, to become fuller, in a sense. But, some other people don’t see that in teaching… they hold things back because they don’t want to see their “mentees” excel more than they do, like they have an insecure sense of their own self. They don’t want to feel obsolete. But, I really think as humans, we progress over time, and with each coming generation people adapt to the changes going forward. So, there’s nothing “unnatural” in becoming obsolete, it’s just how things go. I think we should push to have our mentees supersede us (or do things their own way influenced by you, or have strengths in areas you are weak on) because that would mean you did your job as an instructor.
145
“But I knew that was not to be. Mars was at a crucial stage of human settlement: we had growing pains, and we could not run away from them, or the whole project would collapse.”
--> Sometimes it makes sense to forge on through problems during "growing pains" and work them out and resolve them, as it's the process of growing, of developing, rather than take an easy way out.
(I extrapolate more widely in general terms, but here Rosalia was contemplating how nice it would be to be out with Nick exploring, in her old role, but decided that societal complex issues were worth resolving at this stage in her place of responsibility and position as chief of police.)
162
“Getting personal is a bad idea in an investigation….You put the personal in a little box, and you take it out later…”
“You’re not a machine, Ms. Morais.”
“No I am better than a machine. I am a professional.”
185
“It felt like events were moving faster than we can possibly keep up. I knew from my days in Admiralty that that was when mistakes happen. People think they can handle it, think they can keep pace, and do not see what they are missing.
“My impulse in that sort of situation is almost the opposite: I slow down, I double-check everything. I fear those mistakes and they can cascade. In an emergency, moving too slowly can be deadly; but my experience taught me that most emergencies are nothing of the kind, and you can figure that out if you take time to catch your breath.”
—> I like this sort of even-keeled approach to things progressing too quickly. I know at least some of my martial arts instructors have said to me that when you get cocky, you go too fast, and then someone gets hurt. (And not “hurting” on purpose… even if you’re learning combat, you don’t want to hurt your training partners in a simulated situation, because you want to be able to continue to train with them.) I think it’s smart to take a step back and reevaluate—and see that generally things are reparable or have solutions to… “emergencies are nothing of the kind.” Yes, these emergencies turn out to be not so dire when you take the time to sort them out, as long as you can be calm about them. In martial arts training (and in the military), they say Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. Better to proceed slowly until you can get to a place where things are smooth. Then the smoothness will naturally lead to speed. (And sometimes a return to fundamentals is also necessary.) A victory in tactics can be a loss in strategy—you can win a battle but lose a war. So, it’s good to be deliberate and go at a pace that makes sense. Too slow isn’t good either, because you can be paralyzed or stagnant. So, it’s about finding a pace that makes sense and proceeding from there.
203
“Because nothing is ever 100 percent sure!”
--> A commentary on uncertainty in everything and appropriate levels of risk-taking
236
“Trust is not transitive. It does not work that way.”
--> I enjoyed this aphorism that takes human values and turns them into a math/algebra construction.
It’s nice to see a kick-ass female chief of police!
The pacing dragged a bit in the middle for me. Once the first murder was set aside and more cases compiled, I felt a bit bogged down by the details of setting up the police force and other internal and external challenges. But, I think these details do show Rosalia’s character development and how she leverages her experience and history, as well as connections, towards her objectives. It also shows the complexity of the setting and the various parties involved.
3.8/5
A list of quotes I noted and some of my thoughts in response to them:
9 "All organics had to go through the city cycler for reuse. And that included human bodies."
—>I liked the compromise, the acknowledgement of how people need to keep traditions to feel fully human, to retain a sense of human culture. Thus the importance of burial and dirt, and these rituals of social significance and existentially what it means to be human and to care and show regard for other humans, including those who have passed. There’s a sense of anthropological recognition that I appreciate in a book.
10 "But it is wrong to assume that your immediate perceptions are correct. The mind does not work that way. Sometimes you notice something at the moment, but you only get the context to make sense of it later. That is when it connects in your mind."
—> I like this notion of processing and how it’s not immediate, and sometimes not linear. And it takes a while to understand all the nuances and have the epiphany, the aha moment. It’s not (always) through delving into it and really thinking about it--sometimes it’s really when you shower, exercise or do something else. I think of it as when you’re trying to think of the name of a song or the name of a character in a book and it’s at the tip of your tongue but you forget. And suddenly, when you’re doing something completely different and seemingly out of nowhere, it comes—and with the strangest of connections or ostensibly none at all.
In terms of the potential fallacy of "immediate perceptions," I'd agree. Sometimes what is mistaken as gut understandings or intuition is actually a deep-seated fear or anxiety playing out--or perhaps relying on familiar tropes or modes of thinking that isn't the case here. Both are somatic experiences or intuitive/immediate experiences, but they diverge greatly in terms of how to respond to them (i.e. ignore/contradict the gut feelings as they are misleading or misguided [strong signals from a place of fear--or complacent familiarity] or take them into account as warnings [as steady intuitive nudges]).
12 "vat-grown roast beef wit cultured mozzarella"
—> yay for future food talk
17
"On Earth stone pews might have been uncomfortable to sit on; but in the low Martian gravity, they were more comfortable than any wooden pew back on Earth, even without cushions."
—> Great world-building details here.
20 "a large batch of kosher Brazilian cheese bread, pão de queijo, or at least kosher as far as Nick knew. It was hard to tell sometimes with Martial ingredients."
—> Again great details on culture and future food. How to maintain dietary restrictions that were in place on Earth and transplant them to a place where origins and traditions might not play out in the same way. Great world-building details here.
70 “And then you know what your reward will be?”
“No, ma'am,” Ammon said.
“I shall break this command squad up and send you out to lead other squads and have you train them and prove to me that you are better trainers than I am.”
—> Something really struck me about this.
About being a mentor, and guiding people to be better people than you. In my experience, some martial arts instructors are like this and so are parents, too—they hope you turn out to have even richer experiences and become even more skilled and more impassioned than them, to become fuller, in a sense. But, some other people don’t see that in teaching… they hold things back because they don’t want to see their “mentees” excel more than they do, like they have an insecure sense of their own self. They don’t want to feel obsolete. But, I really think as humans, we progress over time, and with each coming generation people adapt to the changes going forward. So, there’s nothing “unnatural” in becoming obsolete, it’s just how things go. I think we should push to have our mentees supersede us (or do things their own way influenced by you, or have strengths in areas you are weak on) because that would mean you did your job as an instructor.
145
“But I knew that was not to be. Mars was at a crucial stage of human settlement: we had growing pains, and we could not run away from them, or the whole project would collapse.”
--> Sometimes it makes sense to forge on through problems during "growing pains" and work them out and resolve them, as it's the process of growing, of developing, rather than take an easy way out.
(I extrapolate more widely in general terms, but here Rosalia was contemplating how nice it would be to be out with Nick exploring, in her old role, but decided that societal complex issues were worth resolving at this stage in her place of responsibility and position as chief of police.)
162
“Getting personal is a bad idea in an investigation….You put the personal in a little box, and you take it out later…”
“You’re not a machine, Ms. Morais.”
“No I am better than a machine. I am a professional.”
185
“It felt like events were moving faster than we can possibly keep up. I knew from my days in Admiralty that that was when mistakes happen. People think they can handle it, think they can keep pace, and do not see what they are missing.
“My impulse in that sort of situation is almost the opposite: I slow down, I double-check everything. I fear those mistakes and they can cascade. In an emergency, moving too slowly can be deadly; but my experience taught me that most emergencies are nothing of the kind, and you can figure that out if you take time to catch your breath.”
—> I like this sort of even-keeled approach to things progressing too quickly. I know at least some of my martial arts instructors have said to me that when you get cocky, you go too fast, and then someone gets hurt. (And not “hurting” on purpose… even if you’re learning combat, you don’t want to hurt your training partners in a simulated situation, because you want to be able to continue to train with them.) I think it’s smart to take a step back and reevaluate—and see that generally things are reparable or have solutions to… “emergencies are nothing of the kind.” Yes, these emergencies turn out to be not so dire when you take the time to sort them out, as long as you can be calm about them. In martial arts training (and in the military), they say Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. Better to proceed slowly until you can get to a place where things are smooth. Then the smoothness will naturally lead to speed. (And sometimes a return to fundamentals is also necessary.) A victory in tactics can be a loss in strategy—you can win a battle but lose a war. So, it’s good to be deliberate and go at a pace that makes sense. Too slow isn’t good either, because you can be paralyzed or stagnant. So, it’s about finding a pace that makes sense and proceeding from there.
203
“Because nothing is ever 100 percent sure!”
--> A commentary on uncertainty in everything and appropriate levels of risk-taking
236
“Trust is not transitive. It does not work that way.”
--> I enjoyed this aphorism that takes human values and turns them into a math/algebra construction.
July 31, 2020
This was a really great sequel to The Last Dance! There was plenty about the story and the mystery that I enjoyed with only a few minor details that felt like they could be improved, but overall I had a really great time with this.
To start off, I'm finding that I just really enjoy the world that Martin L. Shoemaker is putting together in this series. Mars feels like the next frontier in this series and I am here for it. There is definitely more emphasis and a sense of greater importance involved with the politics in this book and I know that may not be everyone's favorite thing, but I enjoyed it. Plus it gave me time to get to know an adult Anthony and see the person he has turned into since his introduction in the first book which was great.
Moving on to the characters, Nick Aames is someone I have really loved getting to know through this series and even through all his flaws, I love getting to read more about what he's doing post-Aldrin. There are plenty of nods to the previous book and those characters which kept my nostalgia alive and well. It made me want more information on what everyone on the Aldrin was up to and how they were holding up, but I did love getting to know Rosalia and see how the Nico/Rosie relationship was getting along.
One of the biggest reasons I enjoyed The Last Dance as much as I did had to do with how much I loved reading all the little stories that played into the bigger picture of that book. The Last Campaign follows basically the same idea. It was a little different because there was no need to go back in time to tell off-the-record accounts and stories from the past during an investigation, but it still followed the same pattern.
In terms of any negatives, I only had smaller complaints. One was that some of the conversations felt a little off and unnatural to me. This had to do with the use and non-use of contractions at times. I know that seems nit-picky, but everything just didn't feel as completely realistic and natural as I would have liked because of it. For the most part I could overlook it, so it wasn't a huge deal. Another thing that felt off was the ending. Not what happened or anything like that, but it did feel a little rushed to me.
Overall, I really liked this! I couldn't help but to compare it to the first book which is probably why some of the little details got to me a little more, but it was good. I really love this world and the characters, so hopefully Martin has more ideas and stories to tell in this universe because I'm excited to read them.
I would like to give a big thank you to Netgalley and 47North for an advanced e-copy of The Last Campaign in exchange for an honest review.
To start off, I'm finding that I just really enjoy the world that Martin L. Shoemaker is putting together in this series. Mars feels like the next frontier in this series and I am here for it. There is definitely more emphasis and a sense of greater importance involved with the politics in this book and I know that may not be everyone's favorite thing, but I enjoyed it. Plus it gave me time to get to know an adult Anthony and see the person he has turned into since his introduction in the first book which was great.
Moving on to the characters, Nick Aames is someone I have really loved getting to know through this series and even through all his flaws, I love getting to read more about what he's doing post-Aldrin. There are plenty of nods to the previous book and those characters which kept my nostalgia alive and well. It made me want more information on what everyone on the Aldrin was up to and how they were holding up, but I did love getting to know Rosalia and see how the Nico/Rosie relationship was getting along.
One of the biggest reasons I enjoyed The Last Dance as much as I did had to do with how much I loved reading all the little stories that played into the bigger picture of that book. The Last Campaign follows basically the same idea. It was a little different because there was no need to go back in time to tell off-the-record accounts and stories from the past during an investigation, but it still followed the same pattern.
In terms of any negatives, I only had smaller complaints. One was that some of the conversations felt a little off and unnatural to me. This had to do with the use and non-use of contractions at times. I know that seems nit-picky, but everything just didn't feel as completely realistic and natural as I would have liked because of it. For the most part I could overlook it, so it wasn't a huge deal. Another thing that felt off was the ending. Not what happened or anything like that, but it did feel a little rushed to me.
Overall, I really liked this! I couldn't help but to compare it to the first book which is probably why some of the little details got to me a little more, but it was good. I really love this world and the characters, so hopefully Martin has more ideas and stories to tell in this universe because I'm excited to read them.
I would like to give a big thank you to Netgalley and 47North for an advanced e-copy of The Last Campaign in exchange for an honest review.
August 20, 2022
Shoemaker is impressive. I don't like either mystery-thrillers or political intrigue, and therefore don't have the skill set to appreciate or understand them... and I still really enjoyed this story. A lot of what I enjoy is the characters, and of course the setting, but a lot is the writing. He makes it look easy, not fancy, not poetic, just straightforwardly fully engaging. And I like the way he writes women, and married couples.
I just wish he were more prolific.
I just wish he were more prolific.
June 17, 2020
3,5 - 4
A good mystery. Better than the first book in this serie.
A good mystery. Better than the first book in this serie.
November 11, 2020
Good sequel; interesting to read about how life on Mars would potentially work. The main focus is the rocky start of a police department and a massive conspiracy.
February 26, 2022
I enjoyed reading this, but I didn't remember very much of plot from the first book (The Last Dance), which would have helped some with this one. .
The main character is a woman who used to be an space admiral and is now a settler on Mars. She is tapped to be the first police chief in one of the major cities. What she originally sees as the opportunity to train others becomes more serious as crimes seem to be related to the political situation.
The main character is a woman who used to be an space admiral and is now a settler on Mars. She is tapped to be the first police chief in one of the major cities. What she originally sees as the opportunity to train others becomes more serious as crimes seem to be related to the political situation.
couldn-t-finish
November 12, 2022I enjoyed the first book in the series but don’t remember many details or the style. I made it about 1/4 of the way through this and am giving up. Maybe I am just tired and grumpy right now, as this is the second book I’ve quit this month. The author really needed much more support from the editors, who could’ve helped with the writing sounding less stilted and tightened up the story. The main character generally didn’t use contractions and said “shall” constantly, which felt very awkward and odd. The crimes seem kind of interesting, but the pace was choppy and it was getting bogged down with predictable and overused “She’s spending too much time at work” tropes and other unnecessary plot contrivances.
Another minor note: she’s the Chief of Police. Why are the mayor and others addressing her as Ms. rather than Chief? In the cop shows I’ve watched (granted, not infallible evidence sources) , Chief would see to be the standard address.
Another minor note: she’s the Chief of Police. Why are the mayor and others addressing her as Ms. rather than Chief? In the cop shows I’ve watched (granted, not infallible evidence sources) , Chief would see to be the standard address.
February 11, 2021
Interesting story location
Today, there is a large interest in Mars, since there will be several earth ships beginning to circle and land on the planet. But this book is about the colonialization of a harsh planet environment with political factions fighting to be the controlling party. There are several twists and unexpected turns to keep the reader on the edge of each page.
Today, there is a large interest in Mars, since there will be several earth ships beginning to circle and land on the planet. But this book is about the colonialization of a harsh planet environment with political factions fighting to be the controlling party. There are several twists and unexpected turns to keep the reader on the edge of each page.
September 30, 2020
The Last Campaign by Martin L. Shoemaker is a highly recommended political thriller/murder mystery/procedural science fiction novel set on a Mars. This is a sequel to The Last Dance.
Rosalia Morais and Nicolau Aames are a couple who have established a life together in Maxwell City on Mars. The city is fast growing and with that crime is on the rise. When Rosie accepts the position as the first Sheriff of Maxwell City, she immediately begins to build a team and install in them a sense of responsibility and accountability, but can she get her team ready for arson, insurance fraud, political conspiracies, and murders? Suddenly Rosie has a murder and a huge mystery to solve that could affect the future of colonists on Mars.
Essentially The Last Campaign is a political thriller/procedural/mystery set on Mars. The science fiction aspects are basically the setting which put some limitations on actions and movements as they go through their daily lives on Mars and the background of the characters. It also feels in some ways like it is the story of a new Sheriff in town in the Old West, albeit a strong female Sheriff. But there are a whole lot of political machinations going on in this novel, so if you like political thrillers this may be a good choice for you. The interconnected cases are all tied into politics. The reelection shenanigans and muckraking reporter in the plot feel rather pertinent today.
The plot is solid, descriptive, and interesting. Descriptions of living on Mars are simply the background to the mystery. I haven't read the first book in the series, The Last Dance, which meant I was lacking some background stories and details that might have made my experience with the novel filled with a richer understanding of the characters and the colony. Personally, I didn't quite connect with the characters. Although they are developed, I didn't feel I knew them as well as people who read the first book. I also felt like the dialogue could have been written to flow more smoothly and in a realistic, conversational style.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of 47North.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2020/0...
Rosalia Morais and Nicolau Aames are a couple who have established a life together in Maxwell City on Mars. The city is fast growing and with that crime is on the rise. When Rosie accepts the position as the first Sheriff of Maxwell City, she immediately begins to build a team and install in them a sense of responsibility and accountability, but can she get her team ready for arson, insurance fraud, political conspiracies, and murders? Suddenly Rosie has a murder and a huge mystery to solve that could affect the future of colonists on Mars.
Essentially The Last Campaign is a political thriller/procedural/mystery set on Mars. The science fiction aspects are basically the setting which put some limitations on actions and movements as they go through their daily lives on Mars and the background of the characters. It also feels in some ways like it is the story of a new Sheriff in town in the Old West, albeit a strong female Sheriff. But there are a whole lot of political machinations going on in this novel, so if you like political thrillers this may be a good choice for you. The interconnected cases are all tied into politics. The reelection shenanigans and muckraking reporter in the plot feel rather pertinent today.
The plot is solid, descriptive, and interesting. Descriptions of living on Mars are simply the background to the mystery. I haven't read the first book in the series, The Last Dance, which meant I was lacking some background stories and details that might have made my experience with the novel filled with a richer understanding of the characters and the colony. Personally, I didn't quite connect with the characters. Although they are developed, I didn't feel I knew them as well as people who read the first book. I also felt like the dialogue could have been written to flow more smoothly and in a realistic, conversational style.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of 47North.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2020/0...
April 26, 2020
This book was very interesting. I didn't realize immediately that it's the 2nd book in a sequel, and that made it hard to understand the dynamic between Rosie and Nick, and Marcus. And to some extent, Anthony. I think I may have to go back and read the first book now, just to see how that all unfolded. And the concept of a spaceship becoming a sovereign nation sounds very interesting too! Anyway, here we were in the present, and now the sovereignty in question is of a city on Mars. Or really Mars in general. There are some surface jaunts in a rover, with camping, but that's about as sci-fi as this got. The rest is more like a police procedural. There are a string of murders, all connected, and the new, politically appointed sheriff in town has to figure it all out under pressure since it's also an election year. It all tied together in the end very nicely. What stuck in my mind to ponder after finishing the book was the relationship between Rosie and Nick. It felt very much like it was unraveling. Rosie does a really unfair thing, accepting an all-consuming job when the two of them were just about to start new business together. Nick is understandably upset, and is incredibly difficult to get along with. Rosie lives on eggshells to accommodate him. Somehow she manages to keep it all from blowing up, even though he is so self involved and withdrawn that he can't be supportive of her at all. Or maybe Nick cares enough about her to make an extreme effort to reconcile, though it's outside his nature. My experience in and observing these kinds of relationships is that they are continuously fraught and rarely end well. It seems like the author has some experience with this as well, and it was good to see that it sometimes can work out, for a time. So - a bit light on the sci-fi, heavy on the politics, an interesting and satisfyingly resolved mystery, and a very intriguing character study of a difficult but loving relationship.
July 21, 2020
I really enjoyed this book. It was a departure from the style and premise of the first book, and could ultimately be treated as a standalone if there was a bit more backstory put into a prologue or throughout the book.
The pace and story of this book were engaging. There could be a bit more in the character development around the team that Rosalia assembled for her command squad. I felt like their development was very thin and I never really felt connected with them. This normally is not a problem in books for secondary or tertiary characters, but they played a larger role than most throughout this book. It would have been nice to dive a bit deeper into their personalities and develop them a bit more so you could more fully understand what took place.
My only other issue with the book is around the plot development. There seemed to be focus given to areas that really didn't affect the overall storyline, while major plot points were glossed over without providing detail or development of the plot. Without giving anything away, some of the arrests and corruption were just presented as if it were obvious. Maybe I missed it, but it was as if Rosalia had no idea what was going on or who was behind something on one page, but then on the next she is solving the case. Also, the ending seemed rushed as well. There was no build-up, just a sudden revelation (if you can even call it that) and then a conclusion to the story.
I would have liked a bit more development in the plot to bring some suspense and build up to the turns of the book, but overall it was a good read. I am not sure if there is a planned sequel to this book, but I will pick it up if/when it is released.
The pace and story of this book were engaging. There could be a bit more in the character development around the team that Rosalia assembled for her command squad. I felt like their development was very thin and I never really felt connected with them. This normally is not a problem in books for secondary or tertiary characters, but they played a larger role than most throughout this book. It would have been nice to dive a bit deeper into their personalities and develop them a bit more so you could more fully understand what took place.
My only other issue with the book is around the plot development. There seemed to be focus given to areas that really didn't affect the overall storyline, while major plot points were glossed over without providing detail or development of the plot. Without giving anything away, some of the arrests and corruption were just presented as if it were obvious. Maybe I missed it, but it was as if Rosalia had no idea what was going on or who was behind something on one page, but then on the next she is solving the case. Also, the ending seemed rushed as well. There was no build-up, just a sudden revelation (if you can even call it that) and then a conclusion to the story.
I would have liked a bit more development in the plot to bring some suspense and build up to the turns of the book, but overall it was a good read. I am not sure if there is a planned sequel to this book, but I will pick it up if/when it is released.
August 17, 2020
(Review crossposted from Reanne Reads)
This is the second book in the series, which I didn’t know when I picked it up. There are references to things that happened in the past—at least some of which I’m assuming are from the first book. I didn’t exactly have trouble following anything, since things were explained, but I felt like I would have gotten more out of it if I’d read the first book.
The book starts with some nice humans-against-environment action, then quickly gets into some more personal stuff with the characters. It did a good job of pulling me in and getting me connected with them so that I cared about them and what was happening, even if I still didn’t super understand everything yet. There’s a politician who shows up and acts like an expletive, as politicians do, which I didn’t love—but that’s a personal thing because I hate politics, even fictional politics.
Unfortunately, my interest waned considerably around 20% into the story, when the actual police stuff started, for reasons I’ll explain farther down.
I liked the main character at first, but I grew to like her less as the story went on. She’s capable, confident, smart, and has integrity. But she risks her marriage for the sake of her job, which is wrong. And she makes some choices regarding her ex which she should have known were bad decisions.
There were times where I thought the pacing was a bit off, where most of a chapter would go by with the characters basically doing busy work without anything substantial (either plot-wise or character-building-wise). Or where the author would summarize events rather than showing them, which could make the developments feel oddly abrupt and meaningless. For example, early in the book, there’s a confrontation that happens between the main character and another guy. The confrontation is written well, with plenty of detail and emotion. But when they make amends, it’s skipped through with basically just a few paragraphs of summary description. I felt like actually having some kind of written-out conversation between the two of them would have been a more satisfying conclusion to that particular story beat.
This book wasn’t what I expected it to be. I thought it would be a police procedural or detective story in space, where we’d get some good mystery, investigation of crime scenes, tense interviews of witnesses, and peril/fighting/action sprinkled throughout. There is a certain amount of most of that (though very little action, except at the end), but the book has a whole lot of politics. (Fictional politics about fictional issues, at least, but still very much politics.) Mostly, it has politics and bureaucracy getting in the way. Also, journalists who are not even attempting to convey impartial truth but are blatantly pushing certain agendas, including trying to help the campaign of a certain politician while pretending to be impartial. And I . . . just kind of hate all of that stuff. It’s too realistic, and I read fiction for escapism. But maybe people who like that sort of realism and who like politics in their crime/police novels will like those aspects.
The setting of being on Mars was fairly interesting. Mostly, it takes place in a certain Martian city, but because of the facts of being on Mars, things are different in mostly fairly minor ways which build an interesting overall backdrop.
Personally, there isn’t enough criminal investigation or action in this story for me, and way too much politics. I found myself, at various points, not even remembering what exactly they were investigating or why certain developments were important—because so much time was spent dealing with issues of politics that I lost track of the rest of the plot.
I think this book has a real problem with stakes. For at least half the book, the main crime being investigated is insurance fraud. Sure, there are a few murders, but whenever a body appears and things look like they might be getting more interesting, nothing really comes of it. The murder is basically swept aside and it’s back to the insurance fraud case. This was a very strange choice, since it should be obvious to anyone that murder is a far more interesting crime to hang a plot on than insurance fraud. About 70% in, another criminal scheme was revealed, one which amounted to large-scale . . . building without a permit. In the very last part of the book, things get more exciting, but it came so late in the game that I’d stopped caring and had started skimming.
There’s also a problem with the way the investigation (such as it is) is conducted. The discussions and theories are very vague, such that the reader in some cases doesn’t actually know what specifically the characters are thinking happened. Discussions are vaguely summarized as having taken place, and new directions are said like, “But what if we pursue the simple option?” I don’t read a lot of crime/detective stories, so it’s hard to put this critique into words, but the book just wasn’t written in a way that let me follow along with the investigation very well.
I really had high hopes for this book when I started. I liked the main character right off, I liked that her husband was a major character and the dynamic they had, I got pulled into what was happening (though that first 20% of the story ended up being nearly irrelevant to the rest of it). But the whole police investigation part was just not what I wanted, since so little time was spent on investigating, even less of that time was spent on investigating the murders, and a huge majority of the time was spent complaining about politics, politicking, doing interviews with the press, figuring out how to spin things politically, etc. etc. It’s a book about a sheriff trying to do her job and the primary antagonist is politics. And the primary stakes are the main character's marriage (where the two of them mostly refuse to actually talk anything out), the mayor’s political campaign, and (what appears for most of the book to be) insurance fraud. It just completely missed the mark for me.
This is the second book in the series, which I didn’t know when I picked it up. There are references to things that happened in the past—at least some of which I’m assuming are from the first book. I didn’t exactly have trouble following anything, since things were explained, but I felt like I would have gotten more out of it if I’d read the first book.
The book starts with some nice humans-against-environment action, then quickly gets into some more personal stuff with the characters. It did a good job of pulling me in and getting me connected with them so that I cared about them and what was happening, even if I still didn’t super understand everything yet. There’s a politician who shows up and acts like an expletive, as politicians do, which I didn’t love—but that’s a personal thing because I hate politics, even fictional politics.
Unfortunately, my interest waned considerably around 20% into the story, when the actual police stuff started, for reasons I’ll explain farther down.
I liked the main character at first, but I grew to like her less as the story went on. She’s capable, confident, smart, and has integrity. But she risks her marriage for the sake of her job, which is wrong. And she makes some choices regarding her ex which she should have known were bad decisions.
There were times where I thought the pacing was a bit off, where most of a chapter would go by with the characters basically doing busy work without anything substantial (either plot-wise or character-building-wise). Or where the author would summarize events rather than showing them, which could make the developments feel oddly abrupt and meaningless. For example, early in the book, there’s a confrontation that happens between the main character and another guy. The confrontation is written well, with plenty of detail and emotion. But when they make amends, it’s skipped through with basically just a few paragraphs of summary description. I felt like actually having some kind of written-out conversation between the two of them would have been a more satisfying conclusion to that particular story beat.
This book wasn’t what I expected it to be. I thought it would be a police procedural or detective story in space, where we’d get some good mystery, investigation of crime scenes, tense interviews of witnesses, and peril/fighting/action sprinkled throughout. There is a certain amount of most of that (though very little action, except at the end), but the book has a whole lot of politics. (Fictional politics about fictional issues, at least, but still very much politics.) Mostly, it has politics and bureaucracy getting in the way. Also, journalists who are not even attempting to convey impartial truth but are blatantly pushing certain agendas, including trying to help the campaign of a certain politician while pretending to be impartial. And I . . . just kind of hate all of that stuff. It’s too realistic, and I read fiction for escapism. But maybe people who like that sort of realism and who like politics in their crime/police novels will like those aspects.
The setting of being on Mars was fairly interesting. Mostly, it takes place in a certain Martian city, but because of the facts of being on Mars, things are different in mostly fairly minor ways which build an interesting overall backdrop.
Personally, there isn’t enough criminal investigation or action in this story for me, and way too much politics. I found myself, at various points, not even remembering what exactly they were investigating or why certain developments were important—because so much time was spent dealing with issues of politics that I lost track of the rest of the plot.
I think this book has a real problem with stakes. For at least half the book, the main crime being investigated is insurance fraud. Sure, there are a few murders, but whenever a body appears and things look like they might be getting more interesting, nothing really comes of it. The murder is basically swept aside and it’s back to the insurance fraud case. This was a very strange choice, since it should be obvious to anyone that murder is a far more interesting crime to hang a plot on than insurance fraud. About 70% in, another criminal scheme was revealed, one which amounted to large-scale . . . building without a permit. In the very last part of the book, things get more exciting, but it came so late in the game that I’d stopped caring and had started skimming.
There’s also a problem with the way the investigation (such as it is) is conducted. The discussions and theories are very vague, such that the reader in some cases doesn’t actually know what specifically the characters are thinking happened. Discussions are vaguely summarized as having taken place, and new directions are said like, “But what if we pursue the simple option?” I don’t read a lot of crime/detective stories, so it’s hard to put this critique into words, but the book just wasn’t written in a way that let me follow along with the investigation very well.
I really had high hopes for this book when I started. I liked the main character right off, I liked that her husband was a major character and the dynamic they had, I got pulled into what was happening (though that first 20% of the story ended up being nearly irrelevant to the rest of it). But the whole police investigation part was just not what I wanted, since so little time was spent on investigating, even less of that time was spent on investigating the murders, and a huge majority of the time was spent complaining about politics, politicking, doing interviews with the press, figuring out how to spin things politically, etc. etc. It’s a book about a sheriff trying to do her job and the primary antagonist is politics. And the primary stakes are the main character's marriage (where the two of them mostly refuse to actually talk anything out), the mayor’s political campaign, and (what appears for most of the book to be) insurance fraud. It just completely missed the mark for me.
September 9, 2020
https://book-bucket.com/2020/09/09/th...
This was a very enjoyable follow up book to The Last Dance. I was very glad I had read The Last Dance first, because if I had jumped straight into reading this I would not have had the understanding of Rosalia Morais and Nick Aames' characters and back story, both of which are very important to know who they are now. I wasn't keen on the first person narrative from Rosalie's POV, not because I don't like her but because I couldn't feel her and therefore think it would have been better told in third person. The plot was very good. I love the politics and Rosalia's character arc and, although everything tied together well at the end, there is plenty of scope for the continuation of the series. I really like the writing style, and even though there were technical terms I am not familiar with, they were used in a context where I could at least grasp what I needed to know.
I'm looking forward to the next book in the series!
This was a very enjoyable follow up book to The Last Dance. I was very glad I had read The Last Dance first, because if I had jumped straight into reading this I would not have had the understanding of Rosalia Morais and Nick Aames' characters and back story, both of which are very important to know who they are now. I wasn't keen on the first person narrative from Rosalie's POV, not because I don't like her but because I couldn't feel her and therefore think it would have been better told in third person. The plot was very good. I love the politics and Rosalia's character arc and, although everything tied together well at the end, there is plenty of scope for the continuation of the series. I really like the writing style, and even though there were technical terms I am not familiar with, they were used in a context where I could at least grasp what I needed to know.
I'm looking forward to the next book in the series!
September 9, 2020
I received an advance copy for review. Martin takes an entirely different tack from the first book in the Near Earth series, this one follows Nick and Rosie as settlers in Maxwell City on Mars. It can be read as a standalone book, but the references to the backstories may confuse those that didn't read The Last Dance. No spoilers here, but it is an excellent read. Part police procedural, it also has Rosie as a strong female protagonist who is not without fault, and deals with the stresses of married life while holding a stressful position in the middle of conflicting directions, power players, and people with plenty of things to hide. Good characters, well fleshed out and believable, the science is good, and the digressions into space law are well done. Less science fiction than the first book, but highly recommended.
November 10, 2020
Martin L. Shoemaker has a nice police procedural set on Mars’s Maxwell City. One murder proves that the growing city of 50,000 needs a sheriff. Former admiral Rosalia Morais who helped solve the first murder and realized the problems of recycling a corpse that had been poisoned is picked for the job. After hiring the police force for a place that hadn’t needed police before, her husband, Nicolau Aames, leads her to a case of massive insurance fraud. There’s also
The Last Campaign (paper from 47North) of a mayor who’d been mayor for decades and the political implications of the investigation. But there’s worse. A conspiracy in which the insurance fraud was used to hide something much worse. Life on Mars is well described and believable. Very exciting.Review printed by Philadelphia Free Press
The Last Campaign (paper from 47North) of a mayor who’d been mayor for decades and the political implications of the investigation. But there’s worse. A conspiracy in which the insurance fraud was used to hide something much worse. Life on Mars is well described and believable. Very exciting.Review printed by Philadelphia Free Press
May 12, 2020
Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and revies this book. The Last Campaign is more of a whodunit than scifi, even though it takes place on a recently colonized Mars. It is the second book in the series but the author does an adequate job in describing what happened previously so that this is a fine stand alone novel. There could have been a better description of the science involved with colonization and the background poiticla situation could have been clarified better. That may have occured in the first book but i did not read it. The action is first-rate and the characters are believable but the story sometimes moves along ploddingly. Not bad, just not great.
April 19, 2020
The second book in the "The Near-Earth Mysteries" series. This is an exciting continuation of the characters from the first book. The events of the first book are now behind them, they are building a life for everyone in Mars’s Maxwell City when a significant situation unfolds that could end much of the life already established. A mixed murder and arson mystery. Martin Shoemaker brings a unique skillet to his writings. definitely one to watch.
September 1, 2020
A free copy of this book was provided to me so I could write an honest review.
I love strong female protagonists and this novel did not disappoint.
I love the relationship between Rosie and Nick!
I kinda got lost in all the political manuvering.
I was bummed that there were no Martians.
I will read this one over and over!
I want more stories starring Rosie. I love her!
I love strong female protagonists and this novel did not disappoint.
I love the relationship between Rosie and Nick!
I kinda got lost in all the political manuvering.
I was bummed that there were no Martians.
I will read this one over and over!
I want more stories starring Rosie. I love her!
October 11, 2020
A good continuation of the world created in the first book with some of the key characters playing slightly more mature and nuanced roles. The action and story move along fast but in the end get tied up a little too neatly and quickly, straining the believability, even with the reputations of those involved. Overall a fun read.
October 20, 2020
4- Very enjoyable follow-up to The Last Dance, which you should read first, featuring two of the characters from that book as the protagonists. It was fun to read the pserpective of the narrator, a woman former admiral. A little more like a standard off-planet SF plot, though, so I enjoyed the first book more.
But I would certainly read more by this author.
But I would certainly read more by this author.
November 29, 2020
SF mystery
This is a highly enjoyable science fiction mystery set on a Mars that has mostly passed through the colony stage. There are multiple murders, fraud, theft, blackmail. Believable characters. Believable science. If you like a bit of mystery in your SF or a bit of the future in your mystery, this novel is for you.
This is a highly enjoyable science fiction mystery set on a Mars that has mostly passed through the colony stage. There are multiple murders, fraud, theft, blackmail. Believable characters. Believable science. If you like a bit of mystery in your SF or a bit of the future in your mystery, this novel is for you.
January 16, 2021
This was a real page turner for me. So much going on--political intrigue, marital strife, creating a police department (full of spies and traitors), taking the job of directing said police department with one day's notice, multiple homicides, missing people, ex-lovers--just to mention the big ones. This follows characters from The Last Dance, but is fine as a stand-alone story.
May 1, 2020
This is from a fairly prolific author. He knows how to tell a tale. It has good pacing, interesting characters and decent dialog. There's some good mystery as well. I suspect this will fly off the virtual shelves once released. Recommended.
Thanks very much for the ARC for review!!
Thanks very much for the ARC for review!!
February 2, 2021
I thought that the first book, The Last Dance, in this series called The Near-Earth Mysteries, was fantastic. It introduced us to the brilliant but demanding character of Nicolau "Nick" Aames. Aames returns in this second novel, The Last Campaign, but he is no longer captain of a spaceship. Instead, Aames is now a private citizen living in a colony called Maxwell City on the surface of Mars. With Nick is his wife, Rosalia Morais, who is also now a private citizen after a career as admiral in the Space Fleet. In the opening chapter, Aames and Morais have found a dead explorer at the bottom of a Martian ravine. Did the man die in an accident - Mars is a dangerous and hostile environment - or were there more sinister forces in effect?
I did not enjoy The Last Campaign as much as I liked The Last Dance. The action in The Last Dance took place on a Mars Cycler, a giant spaceship called the Aldrin, which was in service as a Mars Cycler - the cycler is a neat idea and the science fiction elements are crucial to the story. But for the majority of the action in The Last Campaign, Aames and Morais are indoors in Maxwell City, and the story becomes a police procedural - yes, it is a competent story, but the science fiction aspect recedes into the background. A lot of the story might as well have taken place in an Earth-based town. The plot revolves the upcoming election in Maxwell City between the Saganists (who want Mars to be treated as a scientific preserve), the Realists (who favor unconstrained development of Mars), and the Libertists (who want Martian settlements to develop slowly in accordance to guidelines defined by Earth authority). There are tensions in Maxwell between these various factions, and the media personalities stir the passions with deliberately provocative reporting. It turns out that the dead man found in the ravine was indeed murdered. Crime is rising, even a population as small as Maxwell City (I think the story said there were about 100K inhabitants) needs a police force.
Rosalia Morais, who is a dedicated citizen trying to do the right thing, takes the thankless task of forming the initial police force. This is the disappointing part of the novel - the reader learns of the struggles to get the new policeman to act professionally, to not accept favors from supportive citizens, to work smartly and with discipline. Morais must find trustworthy lieutenants .... and while all of this realistic, it isn't that interesting. The reader is told about that stacks of paperwork the Morais must wade through. Morais must answer to the politicians who need the murder quickly solved before the election. One trouble with all of this focus on Police Chief Morais and her workload is that Nick Aames is shunted to the side. It seems that most of the novel, Aames and Morais hardly have time to speak to each other. Aames operates on the peripherary, he doesn't disappear from the plot entirely, but he is not in the limelight.
It is clear from the end of The Last Campaign that there will be at least one more tale in this series; set on the Martian surface. Hopefully Nick will become the center of the story again and hopefully there is plenty of description of the rigors and wonders of the Martian environment. Shoemaker has proved he can write a good story, so I am looking forward to the next book. I suspect he deliberately held back some good ideas from this book, planning an epic tale for the next book.
I did not enjoy The Last Campaign as much as I liked The Last Dance. The action in The Last Dance took place on a Mars Cycler, a giant spaceship called the Aldrin, which was in service as a Mars Cycler - the cycler is a neat idea and the science fiction elements are crucial to the story. But for the majority of the action in The Last Campaign, Aames and Morais are indoors in Maxwell City, and the story becomes a police procedural - yes, it is a competent story, but the science fiction aspect recedes into the background. A lot of the story might as well have taken place in an Earth-based town. The plot revolves the upcoming election in Maxwell City between the Saganists (who want Mars to be treated as a scientific preserve), the Realists (who favor unconstrained development of Mars), and the Libertists (who want Martian settlements to develop slowly in accordance to guidelines defined by Earth authority). There are tensions in Maxwell between these various factions, and the media personalities stir the passions with deliberately provocative reporting. It turns out that the dead man found in the ravine was indeed murdered. Crime is rising, even a population as small as Maxwell City (I think the story said there were about 100K inhabitants) needs a police force.
Rosalia Morais, who is a dedicated citizen trying to do the right thing, takes the thankless task of forming the initial police force. This is the disappointing part of the novel - the reader learns of the struggles to get the new policeman to act professionally, to not accept favors from supportive citizens, to work smartly and with discipline. Morais must find trustworthy lieutenants .... and while all of this realistic, it isn't that interesting. The reader is told about that stacks of paperwork the Morais must wade through. Morais must answer to the politicians who need the murder quickly solved before the election. One trouble with all of this focus on Police Chief Morais and her workload is that Nick Aames is shunted to the side. It seems that most of the novel, Aames and Morais hardly have time to speak to each other. Aames operates on the peripherary, he doesn't disappear from the plot entirely, but he is not in the limelight.
It is clear from the end of The Last Campaign that there will be at least one more tale in this series; set on the Martian surface. Hopefully Nick will become the center of the story again and hopefully there is plenty of description of the rigors and wonders of the Martian environment. Shoemaker has proved he can write a good story, so I am looking forward to the next book. I suspect he deliberately held back some good ideas from this book, planning an epic tale for the next book.
April 1, 2021
I picked up The Last Campaign because I recently finished The Last Dance - the first book in the series - and found that the second was available to borrow with Kindle Unlimited. The Last Dance was pretty good, so I gave The Last Campaign a shot.
It was a really good book. Set some time after the events of The Last Dance (the investigation and the eventual verdict that gave The Aldrin status free city status, though her former captain, Nicolau Ames, was barred from holding a position of authority there), Ames has settled into semiretired life in Maxwell City on Mars, married to Rosalia Morais, the former admiral who sacrificed her career to swing the verdict in The Last Dance toward freedom for The Aldrin and to protect Ames. The Last Campaign is her book. The story follows Morais as she accepts the job as Chief of Police for Maxwell City's brand new police force and proceeds to tackle multiple murders, an insurance fraud conspiracy, and something a lot bigger during Maxwell's election season. With pressure from the mayor about how things will look to the media, questions from the media about her objectivity and standing, and stress on her relationship with her husband (who's jealous that his wife is spending so much time with her ex-fiancé; that the man is the coroner, makes no difference, apparently), Morais untangles a web whose secrets will have ramifications for everyone on Mars.
Where The Last Dance was a slow-burning character study told through a series of flashbacks, The Last Campaign is more a traditional mystery (bordering on thriller, in some places), just set against the backdrop of the red planet, and all the twists and turns kept me guessing until almost the last page. I liked the change in pace and did enjoy the book. If a third entry in this series comes out, I would be happy to read it.
It was a really good book. Set some time after the events of The Last Dance (the investigation and the eventual verdict that gave The Aldrin status free city status, though her former captain, Nicolau Ames, was barred from holding a position of authority there), Ames has settled into semiretired life in Maxwell City on Mars, married to Rosalia Morais, the former admiral who sacrificed her career to swing the verdict in The Last Dance toward freedom for The Aldrin and to protect Ames. The Last Campaign is her book. The story follows Morais as she accepts the job as Chief of Police for Maxwell City's brand new police force and proceeds to tackle multiple murders, an insurance fraud conspiracy, and something a lot bigger during Maxwell's election season. With pressure from the mayor about how things will look to the media, questions from the media about her objectivity and standing, and stress on her relationship with her husband (who's jealous that his wife is spending so much time with her ex-fiancé; that the man is the coroner, makes no difference, apparently), Morais untangles a web whose secrets will have ramifications for everyone on Mars.
Where The Last Dance was a slow-burning character study told through a series of flashbacks, The Last Campaign is more a traditional mystery (bordering on thriller, in some places), just set against the backdrop of the red planet, and all the twists and turns kept me guessing until almost the last page. I liked the change in pace and did enjoy the book. If a third entry in this series comes out, I would be happy to read it.
July 31, 2022
A less enjoyable book than the first one. I get that the mysteries are the hook for the series, but the novel only started to get interesting two thirds of the way in. There was too little sci fi involved up to that point - it seems like a hardboiled story with some sci fi sprinkles like walking out in a spacesuit. My main gripe, really, is that I did not like the unmemorable description of Maxwell City, the main venue for the book, as opposed to a location later in the book. The author did not do a good job of establishing a character and aesthetic identity to the place, as compared to the (much more different) Aristillus Series by Travis Corcoran, which leans a lot harder on libertarian ideology, or the Luna New Moon series by Ian McDonald. There, the cities were given much more character and texture. The drawings that the author provides are supposed to help in imagining the place, but it muddled things more. I wish authors splurged a bit on getting a professional illustrator to make an attractive cut-out, map or just illustration of the place they have in mind. Too many rely on MS Paint and some schematics and it doesn't work of their skills at describing things are not up to the task.
Nevertheless, the book had a nice ending and a very good last third, providing also some redemption for a main series character. I would definitely read the next novel, if the author can crank it out faster. Despite the nice ribbon to tie the story with, there are hooks for future entries, like the Mars independence movement, the new colonies mentioned in the Jupiter system or maybe the main characters' pet project settlement (with a banal name like Sao Paulo, when Ian McDonald's Brazilians in the Corta Clan at least had the sense to call their places Joao de Deus and Boa Vista - still exotic, but not jarring for someone who knows a bit of geography).
So, in conclusion, the book stumbles, but it finishes strongly!
Nevertheless, the book had a nice ending and a very good last third, providing also some redemption for a main series character. I would definitely read the next novel, if the author can crank it out faster. Despite the nice ribbon to tie the story with, there are hooks for future entries, like the Mars independence movement, the new colonies mentioned in the Jupiter system or maybe the main characters' pet project settlement (with a banal name like Sao Paulo, when Ian McDonald's Brazilians in the Corta Clan at least had the sense to call their places Joao de Deus and Boa Vista - still exotic, but not jarring for someone who knows a bit of geography).
So, in conclusion, the book stumbles, but it finishes strongly!
February 22, 2022
The Last Campaign is an excellent sequel to The Last Dance that maintains its predecessor's distant orbit around Nick Aames. He has since returned to Mars and married his sweetheart (our new main character) to live out a life of service to the colony he laid the groundwork for. Shortly after recovering the body of a scientist who died on the surface the seedy underbelly of this martian colony starts coming to the surface. It is everything that Rosalia and Nick and other residents of Maxwell city can do to keep things from turning upside down in the face of an oncoming election that could decide the future of the colony.
Martin continues to write very engaging sci-fi in which the fantastical sci-fi elements somehow become the backdrop for much more interesting interpersonal and intrapersonal events being presented to the reader. The story here feels like a very natural step in the growth of an expanding martian colony but the beats could just as easily have played out on an Antarctica which humans are colonizing and it would have felt just as natural. This I think is a tremendous strength of Martin's storytelling, with a few minor tweaks you could tell many of his stories in almost any setting and they would be just as interesting.
I do have one small gripe: the main character's dialogue feels a little robotic or overly formal when compared to the rest of the cast. For example, she never uses contractions; everything is "cannot" instead of "can't" or "I am" instead of "I'm." She also often uses the word "shall" where it seems like "will" would have been more natural. E.g. "I shall do my job." I might not have noticed if I had chosen the text over the audiobook but it started to grate a little as I continued listening, though not enough to turn me away.
Martin continues to write very engaging sci-fi in which the fantastical sci-fi elements somehow become the backdrop for much more interesting interpersonal and intrapersonal events being presented to the reader. The story here feels like a very natural step in the growth of an expanding martian colony but the beats could just as easily have played out on an Antarctica which humans are colonizing and it would have felt just as natural. This I think is a tremendous strength of Martin's storytelling, with a few minor tweaks you could tell many of his stories in almost any setting and they would be just as interesting.
I do have one small gripe: the main character's dialogue feels a little robotic or overly formal when compared to the rest of the cast. For example, she never uses contractions; everything is "cannot" instead of "can't" or "I am" instead of "I'm." She also often uses the word "shall" where it seems like "will" would have been more natural. E.g. "I shall do my job." I might not have noticed if I had chosen the text over the audiobook but it started to grate a little as I continued listening, though not enough to turn me away.
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