Blurb:

Earth has fallen into chaos and Mars is a collection of bickering city states. Chris Halley, an introverted teen, is left bereft of family in an uncaring world. He must navigate

through the murky world of Martian smugglers while seeking vengeance for his father's murder. Both are deadly propositions.

Children of Mars, Book One

Review:

This book arrived in the mailbox around the same time I was running around the states, and since that point, only since last week have I really had the time to sit down and read “The Halley Traveller”. Since all the books written by Mike Mollman prior to this one were fantasy, I didn’t know what awaited me besides the various small snippets I picked up on the internet from others who’ve read “The Halley Traveller”. And by the time I set it down, I knew I’d be interested to see where the rest of this series goes, if it does continue.

If I had to intrigue you with this novel, I’d give you this quick spiel:

“Chris lives aboard a spaceship with his father, eking out life with mundane tasks. Yet, when a job goes sideways, he’s fatherless and in a bind.”, 

alongside my customary asking if you’d like more information. However, like all novels, that quick spiel doesn’t do much besides set the premise, the briefest glimpse, into the overall story. It doesn’t illuminate the other factors, the pitfalls and the tribulations that the character goes through. Just the bare necessities.

First off, we have the characters, or in this case, just Chris Halley, since the others are obscured from the actual blurb. Needless to say that the nameless characters for now are just as complex as this young Halley and two of them have their own PoVs as well. 

As for Chris Halley, he’s almost in his 20s, and he and his father take tourists out to Phobos from time to time. Besides the tourist business, his father is also smuggling items for that one store that looks suspiciously like a front for illicit activity. 

Throughout the first half, we learn more about Chris and get to see how he grows as a human. He was on meds, and has stopped with them, living without and doing well. Unlike his father, Chris also knows how to properly fix parts of the ship, yet to his dismay, his father tries anyway. So that leads to an accident early on. Then, later through the book, he has some moral dilemmas and learns to live with some baggage. I liked how he tried dealing with it and how that growth continued at a janky, uneven pace, much like actual life.

The unnamed characters that also have their own chapters also have some character growth, one more so than the other. One of them is no more than a thief, the other a hardened criminal.

After that, we have the world building of “The Halley Traveller”. Mike Mollman has taken our solar system and has crafted an interesting set, reminiscent of both western novels and space opera. I say this because Mars is lawless, with no real central government, with the rich controlling most of everything and the law of the strong plays out more than the law of the just. Aside from that, Earth has packed up its belongings and joined the choir invisible, as far as the Martians are concerned. But it is far from finished, just chilling out with no space travel and eking out a living using normal technology, with substandard tech, compared to what the Martians have. 

Martians, due to Mars being full of various metals, have no trouble producing all the high tech devices people could ever want or need. For example, synthetic arms and legs, complete with fake skin, or communique devices affixed to the arm via screws. It's not an easy life though, one wrong mistake could kill an entire community. One small hitch in the ecosystem could mean death for hundreds, if not thousands of people.

Lastly, there’s the plot. It trails Chris and the two unnamed characters, winding their fates together. At first, it’s Chris and his father, his father gets shot, and so he goes on a revenge spree, meeting with people he at first didn’t know existed until his father told him so before getting shot. From there, he sinks down into smuggling, shenanigans happen, he doesn’t have to smuggle anymore, and is somewhat happy by the end of it. That’s the easiest way to explain it without spoiling half the book, anyways. The more complicated way includes a few deaths, a few spacings, and at least one case of “wait, there’s a disease that could kill us all?”. 

Finally, if I had to go into what I didn’t like about this novel, I’d have to say that Chris behaved a bit too maniacally, maybe it was the lack of meds or the amount of stress, but it didn’t feel too human. It was almost to the point of having to laugh with him because of the behaviour. However, each person could read into that differently, and it might be just the right amount of insanity or too little for someone else.

If you like light space opera, with a lawless wild west feel to it, and a “we’re going on a revenge spree” main character, this novel is for you.

As always, thank you for reading this review, and I hope I’ve helped nudge you towards your next read. If this doesn’t sound like something for you, don’t fret, there’s reviews for high fantasy, low fantasy, cosy fantasy, science fiction in general. There’s something for anyone, to some degree.

Wherever you are reading this review, have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night.