Heirs of Mars (edition 2010)

I happened upon 'Heirs of Mars' on Goodreads and I'm glad I did. Well-drawn characters, compelling storylines, new concepts and twists on such standard sci-fi ideas as colonisation and cloning. All this plus car chases on Mars? What's not to like!

Heirs of Mars is set on a planet that has lost its Martian dream: successes are increasingly few and far between, and the streets are certainly not paved with gold. To try to buoy up the failing Martian population, cloners secretly make 'ghost' clones - the minds of the dying copied into synthetic bodies that can carry on their essential work, e.g. as doctors. Meanwhile this technique of effectively overwriting a robot with a human brain has a group of sentient AI robots worried that this could be used as a weapon against them and they are waging a war against the Martian cloners.

These sorts of ideas are all cleverly combined - since the clones are essentially part-human, part-machine, neither fully one nor the other, they are caught in the middle of the fight between the robots and the human cloners. These sorts of ideas make you think, but at the same time they are tied together in a thrilling plot. Oh, and did I mention the car chases on Mars? Fantastic! ( )

This was a fresh approach to many sci-fi novels. Even the cyborgs have individual personalities. This book could easily have been longer but perhaps the author is waiting to share more in the next book. If so, I'm looking forward to reading it. ( )

Another awesome book by this author. I rarely buy books, but I have bought the ones I did not win through librarything.com. Loved every one of them. Waiting for the next one to come out! ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel-it moved very quickly and I was constantly wanting to find out what happened next. The first few chapters were hard to sort out due to the mass array of characters and events, but by chapter four I really understood the flow of the novel. One of my favorite things about Heirs of Mars is that there are so many plot lines and characters but they work together seamlessly to build one great novel instead of six different stories. Each character had his or her own voice and motives behind their actions. It would have been nice to hear more from each character though. Just when I felt like I was getting to know or understand a character, their plot line ended. I also liked that there was more than one strong female character.

The author also eased us into the Sci-Fi nature of the novel. It is pretty far out there, but I was able to understand what was going on and get a solid feel for life on Mars. The enviornment was well developed and I feel as though there could be a whole series developed using it. The same thing goes with the characters-there could be a lot more. Speaking on the cloning aspect of the novel, I really appreciated that the author did not inject his personal opinion on cloning or use the novel to make a statement, but instead created what would be the Martian debate on cloning. Overall, I thought the book was great. It was enjoyable, fun, and interesting. ( )

A new take on a science fiction theme. Admittedly I know very little regarding the actual science behind cloning but it didn't make a difference in this story. The characters are likable and the action keeps the pace going. It's an easy read. There is some filler but I don't think it distracts from whats happening. I would like to read more from this author. ( )