Review: Great read
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 13, 2011
I've had this novel sitting on my computer for awhile now, had been saving it for this challenge and also for when I got my Kindle. For some reason, it didn't show up when I transfered it initially, but once it was there, I launched right into it and devoured it in a couple of days! Here is the blurb from Amazon:The dream that was Mars has become a nightmare for the children born there.Asher Radescu was the last human to come to Mars, but he didn't find the romance and adventure he craved. Instead, he lives in a truck delivering supplies to frontier habs and secretly builds neural clones to keep civilization from collapsing. When an android bounty hunter discovers that Asher is one of the people responsible for the dangerous cloning technology, the entire population of Mars is threatened with annihilation. With the help of underground cloners, resurrected colonists, android defectors, and one gorgeous racing celebrity, Asher must end the first war on Mars before the violence consumes them all.Doesn't that sound fun?? Well, it IS. I think the world building for this book is fabulous - I can really picture life on Mars as Lewis has imagined it. I love that the characters aren't inherently good or evil; they have pasts, they have made mistakes, they are all just people.Or not.There are humans, clones, and androids. All sentient, all intelligent beings - but what makes someone a person? Where is the line? I love this question and stories which bring it up, and I enjoyed how Lewis dealt with it in his book. In the same way that his characters are all a little grimy, so are the distinctions between the three beings in the book.There is a lot of action in this book including car chases and fights, lots to get you pumping, and people die. I love it when an author doesn't shy away from killing of characters when the story line calls for it. It makes perfect sense in the world Lewis has created and I appreciate that a lot.This is a great read. Fast, and gritty, and engaging and just plain fun (in a violent kind of way). I gave it 5 stars on goodreads, as I believe in rating up when you'd give half a star. It definitely fell somewhere between 'it was really good' (4 stars) and 'it was amazing' (5 stars) for me.