Series
Description
Fiction. Literature. Science Fiction. After months of travel, Anna Kubrin finally arrives on Mars for her new job as a geologist and de facto artist-in-residence. Already she feels like she is losing the connection with her husband and baby at home on Earth-and she'll be on Mars for over a year. Throwing herself into her work, she tries her best to fit in with the team. But in her new room on the base, Anna finds a mysterious note written in her own handwriting, warning her not to trust the colony psychologist. A note she can't remember writing. She unpacks her wedding ring, only to find it has been replaced by a fake. Finding a footprint in a place the colony AI claims has never been visited by humans, Anna begins to suspect that her assignment isn't as simple as she was led to believe. Is she caught up in an elaborate corporate conspiracy, or is she actually losing her mind? Regardless of what horrors she might discover, or what they might do to her sanity, Anna has to find the truth before her own mind destroys her.… (more)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2018-04-19
Physical description
352 p.; 7.72 inches
Publication
Gollancz (2019), 352 pages
Pages
352
ISBN
1473223903 / 9781473223905
Local notes
Set roughly simultaneously with "Planetfall" and "After Atlas", but following a character who is living on Mars during the same period.
Library's review
Another great entry in the "Planetfall" series of standalone novels by Emma Newman. Where "Planetfall" was a science fiction drama gradually turning into psychological thriller and "After Atlas" was dystopian detective noir, "Before Mars" somewhere in the middle. This novel's protagonist (the book
I'm impressed by Newman's ability to make each of these novels utterly self-contained and yet enriched by each other's widening and deepening of the universe they take place in (they literally each occur on different planets, albeit in a roughly equivalent time frame). Whichever of the three novels you read first, the later ones will benefit from the added context you now can bring to casual mentions of shared backstory and societal concepts.
I also quite like how she is able to write easy, gripping narratives where the reader is very gradually realising what is actually going on. In all three of these books, the final few chapters are quite different from the rest, as the reader (and often the protagonist) at that point finally knows what the book has been about this whole time. And yet, there's none of the directionless feeling in the earlier chapters that such a structure might make me expect. I'm entertained throughout, a testament to Newman's ability to place me in the head of her (always troubled, if in different ways) protagonists.
My sole note, perhaps, after three novels, is how all the protagonists have conveniently agreed with the reader's intuitive dislike of many of the dystopian future's facets that everyone around them seem so fine with. It would perhaps be more interesting at this point to see a protagonist who is actually happy to live in this world, rather than quietly resisting it, and as well-adjusted as many of the secondary characters do seem to be. Certainly, it would be more challenging for me as a reader to see a protagonist be so used to concepts that to me are horrid and upsetting, rather than read about the odd ducks who still have antiquated notions of privacy, freedom, self-reliance, distrust of AIs, etc.
But this is a terribly minor thing, and really only something I considered once all three books had been read and this pattern started seeming apparent. I'm very pleased with these books, and eagerly looking forward to the fourth one. And will no doubt be thoroughly entertained by that one, too, even if the protagonist there yet again turn out to be a secret luddite of some shape or form.
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is told in first person the way the other two were) struggles with trauma and depression like the one in "Planetfall", but of a different (and less severe) kind. She is also, as the story progresses, trying to get to the bottom of a mysterious conspiracy, like the one in "After Atlas", but unlike him, it is not her job to do so.I'm impressed by Newman's ability to make each of these novels utterly self-contained and yet enriched by each other's widening and deepening of the universe they take place in (they literally each occur on different planets, albeit in a roughly equivalent time frame). Whichever of the three novels you read first, the later ones will benefit from the added context you now can bring to casual mentions of shared backstory and societal concepts.
I also quite like how she is able to write easy, gripping narratives where the reader is very gradually realising what is actually going on. In all three of these books, the final few chapters are quite different from the rest, as the reader (and often the protagonist) at that point finally knows what the book has been about this whole time. And yet, there's none of the directionless feeling in the earlier chapters that such a structure might make me expect. I'm entertained throughout, a testament to Newman's ability to place me in the head of her (always troubled, if in different ways) protagonists.
My sole note, perhaps, after three novels, is how all the protagonists have conveniently agreed with the reader's intuitive dislike of many of the dystopian future's facets that everyone around them seem so fine with. It would perhaps be more interesting at this point to see a protagonist who is actually happy to live in this world, rather than quietly resisting it, and as well-adjusted as many of the secondary characters do seem to be. Certainly, it would be more challenging for me as a reader to see a protagonist be so used to concepts that to me are horrid and upsetting, rather than read about the odd ducks who still have antiquated notions of privacy, freedom, self-reliance, distrust of AIs, etc.
But this is a terribly minor thing, and really only something I considered once all three books had been read and this pattern started seeming apparent. I'm very pleased with these books, and eagerly looking forward to the fourth one. And will no doubt be thoroughly entertained by that one, too, even if the protagonist there yet again turn out to be a secret luddite of some shape or form.
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Similar in this library
Awards
British Science Fiction Association Award (Shortlist — Novel — 2018)
User reviews
LibraryThing member bluesalamanders
Content warnings: child abuse, domestic violence, gore, gaslighting, birth control sabotage, reproductive coercion, misogyny, specifically motherhood-related misogyny, nonconsensual drug use, computer chips in brains, indentured servitude/slavery, surveillance state, memory wiping, suicide attempt,
Before Mars is about a geologist and artist, Anna Kubrin, who is sent to the Mars outpost to, well, do geology and art. Except when she arrives, something seems off. People are acting strangely, the AI that runs the base is behaving oddly, and she finds several objects that make no sense at all.
The book is creepy and unsettling from the start as Anna slowly unravels the mystery of what is happening on Mars, all while questioning her own sanity as she vividly recalls the psychotic break her father had when she was a child.
I think this is my favorite of the three Planetfall books, though I like all of them. I thought it was going to be a trilogy; now I’m hoping there’s going to be a fourth book, because this one leaves things wide open in ways I didn’t anticipate. I also thought this book took place before After Atlas, but it actually takes place concurrently, which makes some events from the previous book shocking and horrifying all over again.
While I really like this series and genuinely recommend it, I also recommend looking at the content warnings if reading about characters with mental health issues would be a concern for you.The first book deals heavily with anxiety and hoarding; the second book deals with PTSD, including trauma related to child abuse, and also I believe OCD, though it’s not explicit; and the third book deals heavily with gaslighting.
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nuclear holocaustBefore Mars is about a geologist and artist, Anna Kubrin, who is sent to the Mars outpost to, well, do geology and art. Except when she arrives, something seems off. People are acting strangely, the AI that runs the base is behaving oddly, and she finds several objects that make no sense at all.
The book is creepy and unsettling from the start as Anna slowly unravels the mystery of what is happening on Mars, all while questioning her own sanity as she vividly recalls the psychotic break her father had when she was a child.
I think this is my favorite of the three Planetfall books, though I like all of them. I thought it was going to be a trilogy; now I’m hoping there’s going to be a fourth book, because this one leaves things wide open in ways I didn’t anticipate. I also thought this book took place before After Atlas, but it actually takes place concurrently, which makes some events from the previous book shocking and horrifying all over again.
While I really like this series and genuinely recommend it, I also recommend looking at the content warnings if reading about characters with mental health issues would be a concern for you.
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LibraryThing member Alsephina
A well written story of regret and new beginnings. Before Mars is set in Emma Newman’s Planetfall universe, and is a character-driven and thought-provoking story.
LibraryThing member rivkat
This is set in the same universe as a previous book which I have not read but will now. The protagonist, an artist/geologist, arrives on Mars with a mission to paint landscapes on behalf of her corporate employer, but things start out very strange from the beginning: one of the current mission
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members is inexplicably hostile, another inexplicably intimate; she might be experiencing psychosis from too much virtual reality; her wedding ring is wrong—oh, and there’s a note waiting for her, in her own hand, telling her not to trust the mission psychologist. As the mystery unfolds, she also engages with her past trauma (her father was abusive and her mother keeps wanting her to forgive) and her possible rejection of her marriage and her infant child. The characters were complex and the situation was engaging, though there is a lot of tragedy. Show Less
LibraryThing member reading_fox
Nowhere as interesting as the previous volume, although your millage may vary. A significant chunk of the book is composed of the main character rehashing an incident in the author's background, which while obviously personally painful, is of little interest to those who aren't effected. This
This time we follow one Anna Kubrin, who works in a small geology lab trying to secure funding to still do novel science, which relies on convincing gov-corps that there's a profit to be made. As a counterpoint she's also an artist of note. She's estranged from her Father who started acting very oddly when the family lived in a rustic almost technology free commune similar to the early Circle without the religious overtones. This upbringing left her feeling somewhat isolated and out of touch with the technology reliant populace, and hence hard to fit into a profitable work community. She forces herself to try harder, and ends up married with a young daughter whom she loves, but without a special nurturing bond. The story starts as she's accepted a 2 year commission to Mars, as part of the Gabor corporation, to paint some unique art, and perhaps edge a little science in as well. However nothing really goes well even from the arrival - she discovers a note telling her to distrust the base psychologist, with no indication of why, or who wrote it, other than that it appears to be with her own paint on her own handmade paper. This does nothing to ease her mental stability after six months of watching family 'mersives where she mostly bemoans the lack of empathy she suffers for her husband and daughter.
This sense of mental unease continues for a substantial portion of the book, and comes across as self indulgent whining., especially as neither her husband or daughter are there, and there is a lot of work to be done, the other residents of the base to get along with, and then the mystery of the AI to unravel (which isn't aided by the physiological doubt). I'm aware that it is a very real, and very under-reported issue that struggles to gain the attention it deserves in the picture perfect world of today's celebrity couples. I'm sure it was hard for the author to write and possibly cathartic too, But at the same time, it's a very discordant topic within the theme of the rest of the trilogy, and doesn't endear the narrator to anyone other than those who may have similarly suffered.
I probably will read any future works set in the this world, but I hope the interesting socio-political technological advances retain the main narrative thrust.
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significantly detracts from the rest of the book, where the central story is relatively brief and obvious, but well disguised behind a clever twist. There is far more reference to events in the prior books, and unlike book 2 I wouldn't recommend this being read as a standalone - the opening two thirds will be fine, but the ending heavily relies on prior knowledge of events and characters that are otherwise not referenced. There seems to be plenty of scope for the series to continue yet further, although how they author will keep introducing new characters remains to be seen.This time we follow one Anna Kubrin, who works in a small geology lab trying to secure funding to still do novel science, which relies on convincing gov-corps that there's a profit to be made. As a counterpoint she's also an artist of note. She's estranged from her Father who started acting very oddly when the family lived in a rustic almost technology free commune similar to the early Circle without the religious overtones. This upbringing left her feeling somewhat isolated and out of touch with the technology reliant populace, and hence hard to fit into a profitable work community. She forces herself to try harder, and ends up married with a young daughter whom she loves, but without a special nurturing bond. The story starts as she's accepted a 2 year commission to Mars, as part of the Gabor corporation, to paint some unique art, and perhaps edge a little science in as well. However nothing really goes well even from the arrival - she discovers a note telling her to distrust the base psychologist, with no indication of why, or who wrote it, other than that it appears to be with her own paint on her own handmade paper. This does nothing to ease her mental stability after six months of watching family 'mersives where she mostly bemoans the lack of empathy she suffers for her husband and daughter.
This sense of mental unease continues for a substantial portion of the book, and comes across as self indulgent whining., especially as neither her husband or daughter are there, and there is a lot of work to be done, the other residents of the base to get along with, and then the mystery of the AI to unravel (which isn't aided by the physiological doubt). I'm aware that it is a very real, and very under-reported issue that struggles to gain the attention it deserves in the picture perfect world of today's celebrity couples. I'm sure it was hard for the author to write and possibly cathartic too, But at the same time, it's a very discordant topic within the theme of the rest of the trilogy, and doesn't endear the narrator to anyone other than those who may have similarly suffered.
I probably will read any future works set in the this world, but I hope the interesting socio-political technological advances retain the main narrative thrust.
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LibraryThing member SamSattler
"Before Mars" is part of Emma Newman's Planetfall Novel series, something I didn't realize before I began the book (it is actually book three in the series, I think). I'm happy that I didn't let that fact discourage me from reading "Before Mars," however, because "Before Mars" turns out to be the
This is the story of a four-person team located on the face of Mars to do scientific investigation for one of the richest men on planet Earth. When the man sends an artist/geologist to do paintings on Mars that he will be able to market for a fortune back on earth, the team seems to come apart at the seams. And Anna, the artist, becomes more and more certain that the four are conspiring against her - and that if she doesn't figure out why she is so resented, her very life may just be in danger.
"Before Mars" is combination mystery, psychological novel, and science fiction novels - and it takes the best aspects of each genre to come up with one of the best science fiction novels I've read in years. If your favorite science fiction does not require flesh-eating monsters, little green men, and flying saucers, you will like this one. "Before Mars" really is very, very good.
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kind of science fiction novel that I most enjoy: one that is about much more than its setting and futuristic inventions and the like.This is the story of a four-person team located on the face of Mars to do scientific investigation for one of the richest men on planet Earth. When the man sends an artist/geologist to do paintings on Mars that he will be able to market for a fortune back on earth, the team seems to come apart at the seams. And Anna, the artist, becomes more and more certain that the four are conspiring against her - and that if she doesn't figure out why she is so resented, her very life may just be in danger.
"Before Mars" is combination mystery, psychological novel, and science fiction novels - and it takes the best aspects of each genre to come up with one of the best science fiction novels I've read in years. If your favorite science fiction does not require flesh-eating monsters, little green men, and flying saucers, you will like this one. "Before Mars" really is very, very good.
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LibraryThing member JudyGibson
Seemingly straightforward at first, with a geologist-artist joining a small scientific outpost on Mars, it quickly becomes a psychological mystery. Why are there mysterious hints that she's been there before? Enough of her past supports the fear that it might by her own mind cracking. But is
Would work as a stand-alone but is part of the Planetfall series.
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it?Would work as a stand-alone but is part of the Planetfall series.
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