Review: Life, or an attempt at it, on Mars
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 17, 2014
British author Andrew (AJ) Marshall began his obsession with aviation by joining the Royal Navy studying aeronautical engineering then transferring to flying duties serving as a Search and Rescue pilot in the west of England. Having completed his military obligation he joined the commercial airlines where he is now corporate pilot flying the advanced Dassault Falcon 7X long-range business jet. His years in the skies nurtured his passion for writing "science fiction at its most believable". Originally published in 2005 THE OSIRIS REVELATIONS is Book One of a quintet of novels collectively called The Kalahari Series, the series since completed finding the author onto other novels. According to his available biographical data Andrew lives in the United Kingdom, works all over the planet, and his favorite place is Mauritius with an Ian Fleming novel at his side.The year is 2049, set mildly enough in the offices of Admiral Ghent, sleepless from pondering over `The salvation of humanity ... a discovery of truly universal proportions ... the return to global stability ...' , readying himself and his private secretary to meet with the President over some crystals purportedly from the planet Mars. From his quiet opening Marshall plunges us into a highflying science fiction thriller that sets in action a particularly startling account of our exploration of space. As with all savvy Sci-Fi thrillers the requisite derring-do incidents of criminal activities, puzzling cryptic signs and texts, with locations placed on the moon, on space stations, but primarily on Mars - the origin of the crystals mentioned above. Attempting to condense in excess of 600 pages of plot finds the accompanying capsule gratifying: `The Earth is at the edge of cataclysmic doom. The only hope, a slim hope is the discovery of a very few crystals on Mars. These crystals when excited with RF waves produce spectacular energy. The first problem being that they're still on Mars. Second there are multinational corporations that will do anything and everything to gain control of the crystals. An experimental spacecraft with an international crew is sent to retrieve the crystals. Unfortunately some of the crew and the ships advanced AI (Level 9 artificial intelligence) have there own divergent agendas. Fortunately there are good guys, the most prominent hero being veteran pilot and Astronaut Lieutenant Commander Richard Reece discoverer of the crystals. Dr Rachel Turner MD Mars base Osiris' CMO (Chief Medical Officer) and somewhat romantically link with Richard. The struggle to return to earth with the crystals is complicated further by adversaries among the Osiris base staff as well as the personal enmity of the base operations Chief Security officer Greg Searle. The adventure picks up when two of the Osiris' personnel are murdered on the last semi-successful crystal retrieval excursion. With the culprits unidentified the tension mounts and the real race begins!'Sci-Fi fans will find much to absorb their attention in this very long novel. For this reader the pleasure comes from the prose skills of the writer - a very British (and that is a compliment!) manner of describing the interrelationships between the characters and crises and space exploration. And this is only volume 1! Grady Harp, May 14