Should be filed under "Young Adult Litrature".

I struggled to complete this book and was not rewarded for my efforts.
Wooden characters. Implausible plot and staged dialogue.
Reads like a school competition entry in the "young adult literature" category (scraping a 3rd prize win).
The story begins slowly, grinds down to a crawl then ends.
The narrator does nothing to improve this poor effort. His accents and characterizations are cringe worthy and his presentation shallow.
I won't be buying the second book.
Refund please.

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2 people found this helpful

A great idea ruined

Chris Woods

The subject material for this book suggests many great story scenarios, but on this occasion, the author has written it in an immature, childish style, forgetting that even science fiction has to be vaguely plausible. It is an entertaining yarn, as long as the listener doesn't think too much about the details.
I understand that this book, (Red Hope) is book 1 of a series; the only way I shall try any subsequent efforts, will be by accident.

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2 people found this helpful

More Mars, Less Earth Please ...

Red Hope is an interesting story and like others before in the genre,
tantalizes the reader with the evidence of intelligent life having existed
on Mars at some distant past time. Ben Bova's series of Mars stories deals
with the same issues as for those interested in Mars related fiction that
haven't read his books they are a worthy read. Red Hope has that bang up to
date contemporary feel of a recently written book and so paints a picture
of everyday life that people will feel familiar with.

The narrator is a new one to me and is competent and fluid in his rendering
of the story. In the early stages of the book though, I did think his
reading of narrative sections was a little too fast. He is able to portray a
range of accents but when not having to differentiate characters in that way
and dealing with those of the same sex, I did find that, for example, the
male Americans pretty much sounded the same as did the female Americans.
Only those with a Russian or Texas twang had more distinct voices. I also
felt that the narrator, though very good on the whole, didn't have the
gravitas in his voice to convey the danger, mystery and wonder of some of the
book that I felt was needed. I smiled to myself thinking at one point how
his youthful and enthusiastic voice would lend itself to a character in a Scooby Do cartoon
or something similarly lightweight. That's not to say that the narrator was
in any way a poor one, just perhaps not the best for this type of material.
Still, he gave the prose a flowing and natural reading without any pauses or
other unneeded breaks in the rhythm.

The author did manage to give the reader a series of unpredictable
occurrences and I was surprised at how things turned out so full marks for
that. I did, however, feel that not enough time was spent painting a picture
of life on Mars so that the reader was immersed in the inherent dangers of
the alien environment. This is where I think Bova did a better job in
bringing Mars to the reader. This Mars novel seems more to be a story
platform rather than the setting.

Red Hope is the first of a two part series and so we are left with a cliff
hanger of sorts that will make anyone who liked this story want to get the
concluding part. I am also left wondering just how much the red planet will
figure in the follow up to this story given the circumstances leading to the
end of this book..

Red Hope shows its more contemporary feel in the way it places its key characters in more dire situations than perhaps those in Ben Bova's Mars books but I'd have to say that I prefer Bova's series because it places the reader onto that alien planet in a more immersive way and spends more of his books in that environment than this one does which gets the reader there in perhaps the final third.

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2 people found this helpful

unusual story

I enjoyed the story and go on to the second. The narrator was a good choice.

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1 person found this helpful

Weak Storyline

I found this to be a fairly predictable book with a very weak storyline and dubious characters

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1 person found this helpful

nice start to the story, but major plot issues

You'd never relay signals via Internal Space Station as its behind earth about 50% of the time and doesn't have the power to amplify signals, pi described wrong, bad focus on video call to name a few and then it starts to get really silly

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Great plot but drags like hell

very slow to get going and focus is onntheings that cone to nothing and are irrelevant. Very rare that I butnthey skip button and shiut8ng BORING as I fwd past bla bla. I tried very hard to stop reading and get refund but couldn't. Grrr. I there felt I had to try and stick with it bit fwd became my friend! however, once we finally got off the ground, more than half way through the dam book, it actually picked up and was great! Expected a bit more excitement once we were off the ground but it seemed to jump and skip over perf3ct opportunities for excitement then. frustrating to say the least. Action is scarce but great once it happens! will buy book 2 but only because the excitement was so late I now want to know if anything more exciting happens though it is a 50 50 gamble I know. I would not recommend.

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Should be called Captin Stupid and the Stupiteers

Don't waist your time with this one it's no "Martian"
Premise is good but it is written in a childish way with characters who are arrogant, (very) stupid and unbelievable.
He has not done his homework on the science either!
Sorry to say after an hour I stopped listening.
With any luck I will see if I can get my money back on this one.
Its a Turkey!

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