Review: The Martian Incident by Ryan M. Patrick
Blurb:
John Cameron is a NASA engineer, working as a spacecraft accident investigator as humanity expands throughout the solar system in the late twenty-first century. When a mysterious UAV crashes in the American sector on Mars, he joins an interagency team to investigate the downed aircraft. But what starts as a simple mission turns into anything but when they make an astonishing discovery deep beneath the sands of the red planet...
A standalone science fiction thriller that's perfect for fans of Michael Crichton, Andy Weir, or James Rollins!
Review:
I hadn’t read sci-fi for a long time, with fantasy, mystery/thrillers, and horror taking up the major chunk of genres that I dived into over the past few years. So, when the opportunity to snag a review copy of ‘The Martian Incident’ came along, I just had to try and grab one! With a very intriguing description to start with, and the label of a sci-fi “techno-thriller” to add to it, this was the perfect chance for me to break my streak. And hence, I would sincerely like to thank Ryan for providing me with a review copy.
Failure back then was expected, even common. Now, going to space was as common as flying on an airplane, just a lot more expensive and decidedly slower. But, one could get from Earth to the Moon, Mars, or beyond.
This could well and truly become a reality in the next 50 years or so, don’t you think?! And that’s when this story takes place too. The year is 2074, and NASA, who had been at the forefront of space exploration and technological development once upon a time, has now taken a back seat. The United States of America are still at the forefront of human expansion into space, but NASA’s role has fallen by the wayside. The organization’s duties now include spacecraft safety and regulation, and very little research, development, and exploration. That latter part is now firmly in the realm of the private sector.
The term “astronaut” had a different meaning nowadays, Cameron thought. The early Apollo and Shuttle explorers were minor celebrities; the chosen few able to slip past the atmosphere and into space. Now, it simply meant someone who spent most of their time either flying or crewing spaceships.
Meet John Cameron, a 25-year-old NASA mishap engineer who, as the title goes, investigated spacecraft accidents. And while he wasn’t particularly useful in the field, he was an expert in aerospace, with math, data reduction, and analysis being his strong areas. And as usual, life just went on with him stuck in his normal day-to-day routine at work. But that was about to change… not only for John, but for humanity as a whole…
Mars, the red planet. Will it be humanity’s next home? Well, it already is right here in 2074! The U.S. and other competitive nations (rivals in the race for the Moon, Mars, Venus, and the asteroid belt) have already set up their bases. The colony of Columbia is America’s very own, located in the Tharsis region on the red planet. The city, a hodgepodge of prefabricated buildings, habitats, and below-ground structures, is home to over fifty thousand people.
He watched the planet from the viewscreen. There were mountains and valleys, deep canyons, and the bright lights of human colonies along the dark side of the terminator. Just fifty years ago, no man or woman had ever set foot on the red planet. Now, over a million people called it home.
Mitchell Air Base – the first U.S. military installation on Mars, is on hand to make sure that everything is under control, and that the U.S. stays one step ahead of their rivals. But one fine day, a mysterious and unknown UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) is spotted across the skies. The threat of other nations spying is not unusual given the “race for space” and the overall competition to be the best and first in every step, but something about this aircraft is very unusual and odd. And when it crash lands in the American sector pretty much in the middle of nowhere, everything is about to break loose…
Just hours ago, multiple time zones away, he had been ready to leave for another day at his boring, humdrum office job. Now, he was ready to blast off into space on a top-secret mission for his country.
John is roped into an interagency team who are tasked to not only investigate the aircraft, but to get to the bottom of its strange nature before anyone else. Their objective, titled as “Project Cerulean”, is a highly classified and top secret mission that needs to be carried out with the utmost caution… but time is not a luxury that any of them can afford. One single slip up, a misstep, and things could get really, really bad. As potential enemy forces start converging on the downed aircraft, John and team must brave the red and brown dust that had a tendency to get on everything, the severe windstorms, and the cold nights of the red planet to outsmart and outrun an unknown and deadly threat that will stop at nothing to protect a secret… one that has been buried deep into the Martian soil for ages, and whose discovery might just change humanity’s perspective of space and time… forever.
“… I hope everyone is ready for the greatest intelligence coup of the twenty-first century.”
The good:
A sci-fi techno-thriller that lives up to its name and hype? HECK. YEAH.
Once John and the team land on Mars, the pace is pretty much relentless with loads of stuff going on, and some pretty good twists and turns along the way.
The plot is really engaging and will keep you guessing, curious, and suspenseful till the end.
The writing altogether is easygoing, and you can tell straight away that the author is well-versed with what he’s talking about, especially when it comes to all the military and space stuff (he’s an active-duty Space Force officer and engineer… so, yeah!).
The characters are pretty well-written too.
Multiple POVs are present, including the Chinese perspective to the whole ordeal, which was really good to read.
There are various space-related names/organizations present, along with loads of military terms.
Lastly, there are some cool pop culture references present, like Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, etc. The sci-fi nerd inside me approved that!
The “not so” good:
My only criticism was that the start (excluding the opening sequence) was a little bit slow to get going. But as I’ve mentioned above, once you step foot on Mars, it’s a non-stop thrill ride!
Final thoughts:
Fast-paced, full of thrills plus intrigue, and totally befitting the “sci-fi techno-thriller” label, ‘The Martian Incident’ is definitely something that you don’t wanna miss. I mean, the author is an active-duty Space Force officer and engineer himself. Need I say more? The overall military and space aspects really do stand out very well. This book got me out of my sci-fi reading slump, and I certainly recommend that you have a look too!
