One Way

By: S. J. Morden

Narrated by: William Hope

Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Stranded on Mars with seven other convicts, one man must fight for survival on a planet where everyone's a killer in this edge-of-your-seat science fiction thriller for fans of The Martian.

Former architect Frank Kittridge is serving life for murdering his son's drug dealer, so when he's offered a deal by the corporation that owns the prison - he takes it. He's been selected to help build the first permanent base on Mars. Unfortunately, his crewmates are just as guilty of their crimes as he is.

As the convicts set to work on the frozen wastes of Mars, the accidents multiply. Until Frank begins to suspect they might not be accidents at all...Dr. S. J. Morden trained as a rocket scientist before becoming the author of razor-sharp, award-winning science fiction.

Perfect for fans of Andy Weir's The Martian and Richard Morgan, One Way takes off like a rocket, pulling us along on a terrifying, epic ride with only one way out.

©2018 S. J. Morden (P)2018 Hachette Audio

overall good, but a little alow

I enjoyed the story line and narrator was decent. I was hooked, but it just felt slow, especially the beginning third of the book. I'm jumping right into the 2nd book because I need to know the outcome. The pace, even listening at 1.2, kept me from giving 5 stars.

The story kept me wanting so much more

After every chapter the was always the urge to listen to One more no matter what time it was

good book, but unsatisfying ending

overall this was a great book. the storyline was unique and plausible, and I really like the fact that there was so much scientifically correct information in it. however, the ending was rather abrupt and unsatisfying. I also think there was much more opportunity to embellish the reasoning behind the decisions the company XO made.

Excellent Pacing, Great Plot

Title says it all. The story draws you in quick and gets you more and more invested.

It was okay

Lots of going round and round. Not a very good narrator not sure why people think he’s so good.

A New Twist on a Space Murder Mystery

4.5 out of 5 stars

One Way has been on my radar for some time – I ended up picking this book up to read (non-requested review) which I have very little time for anymore. My wife and I started another book on a drive home from DC and we just couldn’t get into it. We put One Way on and were instantly hooked. Literally the first 3 minutes were more intriguing than the hour we had given another book.

Morden knows how to build both suspense and intrigue as he builds the world, the characters, and the mistrust throughout. You follow one main character but are introduced to numerous others. Frank is one of those characters that in the beginning you don’t know if he is going to be a good or a bad guy – and you’re told right away that he’s a convict. You’re also told pretty early on why he’s a convict. While I’m not a parent – I could completely understand the crime that Frank committed.

Once the Earth part of the story was over – this entire book read like the synopsis said. It combines And Then There Was One and The Martian. And it references and I think pays a little homage to The Martian a couple times (there was at least one scene where duct tape was mentioned. I thought for sure one of them was going to mention Mark but they didn’t. I kept thinking to myself that this could have honestly been the prequel to The Martian. It was built in such a way that the convicts sounded like they were building the HAB that the characters in The Martian were going to live and work in. While I understand that the science and technology needed to power a Martian base would be the same – it felt so similar.

So, that bodes well for fans of The Martian. And if you like a good “whodunit” murder-mystery an are looking for something set in a new and unique environment you should check out One Way.

Overall, I thought that One Way was a well thought out and paced combination of a science fiction and murder mystery book. It has elements that a lot of people would enjoy and will have me thinking about it when it comes time to vote for my best books of 2018.

Not Much of a Mystery

There is an interesting concept at the core of this book. The future exploration of the solar system will be built with very little supervision from NASA. And the companies getting the contracts for the building will, unsurprisingly, be far more interested in cutting costs than they are in ethical behavior or human rights. So when XO figures out that it can’t have robots assemble the research station it is contracted to build on Mars, it decides to use human convict labor instead. And since the corporation owns/controls a privatized prison system in California, it has a ready pool of convicts to draw upon and a big hammer to make them do what it wants. (Solitary confinement forever is the big punishment threat for failure to meet expectations in the very brief training program.)

Enter Frank. He’s serving something like 120 years for shooting his son’s drug dealer. The dealer was the son of a sheriff and he believed the only way to save his son was to get rid of the man. Not very well thought out, obviously, but it makes him a sympathetic convict. He ran a construction company before his crime and has critical skills that XO will need on Mars as do 7 other convicts who make up Frank’s team.

The most obvious flaw in XO’s plan is that there is no way to make certain the convicts do the job once they get to Mars. Enter Brack. He’s the thug that XO intends to keep their convicts in line. There’s just one problem. Once on Mars, what’s to keep the convicts from killing him? The answer was obvious and frankly the convicts were seriously stupid not to consider it. I knew the answer when Brack made his pitch to Frank. Brack tells him that he is making a deal with him because he’s the only trustworthy convict in the group. If he watches Brack’s back, Brack will bring him back to earth and get him his freedom. It was blatantly, embarrassingly, obvious from moment one that Brack was making this deal with every convict, but apparently none of them ever consider this possibility.

Then they get to Mars and people start dying. By the second death it was also obvious that the people who were dying were the ones whose usefulness had ended. Again, I immediately suspected Brack but he’s the one person no one considers, even when it becomes obvious that the convicts are being murdered. The reason is obvious. The convicts are a liability. There is no way that NASA would have approved using convicts for this mission so they need to be killed, preserved, and shipped back to earth where they could “die” in prison. It takes an incredibly long time for Frank (or anyone) to consider this possibility and their stupidity hurts the story which is sold as a big mystery.

So let’s be clear. There is no mystery, but it’s still an exciting story. Watching the convicts overcome their problems and establish the base was enjoyable—not The Martian level enjoyable, but enjoyable none the less. Perhaps the big difference between the two books is that Frank doesn’t have much of a personality. He’s amazingly low key and the rest of the cast is two dimensional at best. Still, I’m glad I read it.

Fun story, low quality narration

The story was an entertaining, if obvious, romp. The premise was great, and the action was fun.
The narrator either regularly bumped the mic or had horrible plosive sound from his mic. He also did not enunciate well. He had a few distinct voices, which was good though. Narration really took away from the story for me.

Implausible fun

Using convicts on Mars as expendable labor is not too much different from using slaves in the Americas, but the harsh reality is that the extreme environment makes it cheaper and better to use trained and willing labor. Once you get past the initial conceit, this story does a good job of describing the trip to Mars and the events there. The characters are given unique voices and are well written. The soulless corporations willing to hurt and kill others for profit are sadly believable. We’ll see if the future holds the exploitation of space or its exploration. I look forward to the next book in the series.

Good but little surprise

Early on the ending was easy to see. Nice concept; but add a twist or two would be nice. I will try the next book.