Denver Moon

The Minds of Mars, Book 1

By: Warren Hammond, Joshua Viola

Narrated by: Amanda Day, Nicholas Cain

Book One in the Denver Moon Series

Earth is dying. Luna is uninhabitable. Mars is our last chance.

Once considered humanity's future home, Mars hasn't worked out like anybody hoped. Plagued by crime and a terraforming project that's centuries from completion, Mars is a red hell.

Denver Moon, P.I., works the dark underbelly of Mars City. While investigating a series of violent crimes linked to red fever - a Martian disorder that turns its victims into bloodthirsty killers - Denver discovers a cryptic message left by Tatsuo Moon, Mars City co-founder and Denver's grandfather. The same grandfather who died two decades ago.

Twenty-year-old revelations force Denver on a quest for truth, but Tatsuo's former friend, Cole Hennessy, leader of the Church of Mars, has other plans and will stop at nothing to keep Denver from disclosing Tatsuo's secrets to the world.

Hell-bent on reclaiming her grandfather's legacy, Denver - along with her AI implant, Smith, companion android, Nigel, and shuttle pilot, Navya - set out on a quest to find the answers they hope will shed light on the church's true agenda, the origin of red fever, and the mysteries surrounding Tatsuo's tragic death.

©2018 Joshua Viola (P)2020 Joshua Viola

Fast adventures on the red planet

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review. The story hits the ground running and never stops to take a breath. It's a thrilling detective story, following the main character and her collected fellowship of friends along the way. While it would have been nice to see the world fleshed out a bit, enough references are certainly made that there is an untold history there, it stands alone quite well and makes a great start to a series.

Very cool story

This is short, but packed with excitement. Great writing and narration makes this a very entertaining tale.

Fantastic Mars Adventure!!

Denver Moon by Warren Hammond & Joshua Viola
This was a terrific futuristic, sci fi, dystopian adventure!! Really well written and great world build. I just loved Denver and her stubborn determination. I was hooked from the first chapter, really great read!!

Pretty good!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This was a great sci-fi and a rather different from what I am used to reading. There were lots of twists and turns in the story and I was always anticipating what was to come next. The pacing was good and the world building was phenomenal. Very well written and well performed

highly recommended!

i loved this story! I loved every second of the adventure! they take you on a ride make you think you know what is going on then twist it on you! it was great!

Pretty good but not satisfying

I was given a free review copy of this audio book, at my request, and am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.

If you're the type who doesn't like that the bad guys will give away their plans, this book is for you.

This book is about a detective on Mars. A disease is hitting the planet, and its a bad time to be a human.

The setting is done, fairly well. I got the sense I was there, but it wasn't vivid, more of a vague idea. It's good enough for the story, but it could have been more in depth. Rock color, floor dirt or some sort of paving, etc. The general things that change the story from "I remember" to "I was there!"

The main character was well done. Denver felt like a true person, in emotion, back ground, thoughts, preferences, etc. Her AI, Smith, was almost as well done. He was given a proper presence and purpose, with emotions and thoughts. The secondary characters, were introduced later in the book and were not as well gone into, however they didn't feel hollow. The antagonists were fairly complex, and while motivations were not well explored, the characters did show depth and thoughts and were not just there to pin the blame on.

The biggest problem with the story was the plot. It was well thought out and paced well. However, it wasn't satisfying. None of the antagonists really revealed anything, even by the end of the book. Parts and pieces are revealed, but not enough of the story is explored to really feel satisfying.

The voice narration by Amanda Day and Nicholas Cain is fairly well done. Amanda takes care of the main character, as well as the other (limited) female characters, while Nicholas Cain does the male voices. The conversations between Denver and Smith are done with a synthetic sound effect, which is a nice touch. Both do a good job of giving each character a unique voice. Its an oddity to do 2 narrators, simultaneously, and it is done well.

All in all, a pretty good book, with an interesting story and some good voice narration. The ending/mystery solution wasn't satisfying, and a lot of the issues could have been solved by characters just telling each other what they knew.

I likely wont actively seek the subsequent books, but if i come across them, I will like continue this series.

Enjoyable Mystery

I enjoyed this story. It reminds me of something from Outer Worlds/Fallout. The narration was awesome, a true performance and it pulled me in. I would absolutely recommend this to sci-fi fans!

I received an audiobook for review; all opinions are my own.

Mystery of Mars!

I really enjoyed this story! Had a lot of twist and turns! Wonder what it would be like to live on Mars! Narrator was good!

Not really sure why this failed to grab me

There were ingredients of things I enjoy, like noir mysteries, gritty sci-fi, and sentient robots. This story failed to hook me, however.

Perhaps it was the shallowness of the characters, including lackluster antagonists and scarce, cliche supporting characters. Or perhaps it was the mystery revelation, which I didn’t find particularly credible. Or perhaps it was the lack of detail. It wasn’t awful. It passed the time. But, I won’t be listening again.