Ares

De: Jayson Adams

Narrado por: Rylee Kuberra

Grand Prize Winner, 2024 Chanticleer CYGNUS Book Award
Distinguished Favorite, 2024 Independent Press Award (Sci-Fi)
Winner, 2024 Canadian Book Club Awards (Sci-Fi/Fantasy)

A dark mystery ensnares the leader of the first manned mission to Mars.

Commander Kate Holman is on the verge of her life’s dream as the leader of the first manned mission to Mars. Minutes before setting foot on the red planet, her world comes crashing down when she’s abruptly relieved of command. Replaced by the mission’s security officer, she learns that a secret military objective is the true reason for their journey.

What military purpose could Mars possibly hold? The question takes Kate to the fabled “Face on Mars” and a mysterious discovery excavated from deep within. Is it an exotic, new element? Evidence of life? An alien artifact? Scurried away by the security officer, she can only speculate.

An astronaut dies. Systems malfunction. Some claim it’s the result of a rumored Martian “curse” that won’t lift until the unearthed item is returned. Kate seeks a more rational explanation for the problems befalling the mission, but suffers under debilitating headaches and the fear of their possible connection to her past.

When Kate uncovers the nature of the item, a secret some would kill to protect, can she overcome the powerful forces allied against her and make it back to Earth?

Ares is a riveting science fiction novel packed with sabotage, secrets, and the darker side of human ambition. If you’re looking for hard sci-fi rooted in engineering manuals and orbital mechanics, this probably isn’t your ride. But if you crave tense, character-driven thrillers in space, then buckle in.

Perfect for listeners who love:

* Missions gone wrong and trust betrayed

* Conspiracies buried behind official orders

* Space survival under psychological strain

* Strong female leaders facing impossible choices

* Science fiction that reads like a thriller

©2023 Jayson Adams (P)2025 Jayson Adams

Some good hard science fiction

Overall good story. Found the character development good yet dry and long winded. Story was predictable yet entertaining. Seem like in real life keeping a killer around and alive when your already struggling to get home is just begging for continued misery and further trama. Some plot holes yet as I said before entertaining and a good listen.

Melodramatic and Just Wrong

OK so if you like books where the worst possible group of people are selected by NASA to go to Mars this is for you. Not only the wrong people, but the “secret mission” is ridiculous. Not to mention the things that just wouldn’t happen on an actual mission to Mars. The main character the mission commander comes across as overly dramatic and honestly lacks basic leadership skills. The other characters are also very melodramatic and again display personality traits that wouldn’t get any closer to a space mission than the NASA visitors center. Just awful, I mean seriously a natural gas explosion on a Mars mission habitat, and copper pipes that leak because they were poorly designed. You know copper pipe is super light and flexible so the natural choice to blast over to Mars as part of a prefabricated habitat. Mining gold from Mars as the evil plot? I’m pretty sure gold is heavy and lifting anything into orbit, then boosting it from orbit to an earth intercept course would probably cost more per pound than the value of gold per pound. Finally, evil Space Force, was this supposed to be a comedy? Space Force does battle from computer terminals and I am pretty sure none of them have actually been to space.