Published By: John Murray
Pages: 224
Released On: 18/09/2025
It is 2030, and a three-person human crew are on a ship travelling to Mars as part of a colonizing mission.
Four years earlier, three robots were sent to the planet to build the base for the humans but when the human crew arrive, they discover a third of the base has been destroyed and only two of the three robots remain.
When the humans question the robots, the robots offer two overlapping but different stories: the first believes they were attacked by a hostile extraterrestrial “other,” the second attests the attack was the result of a violent malfunction on the part of the third robot – a being that still stalks the Martian desert.
As the mystery slowly unravels, the humans and the robots play a deadly game of cat and mouse to find out the truth of what has happened at the base. As secrets are revealed – about both the humans and the robots – the truth about what has happened at the base comes to light in a horrifying and gruesome climax.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and John Murray for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I came to Mason’s books relatively recently with his novella William, and it was so good and really quite terrifying.
It is an odd book, but in a good way. It’s claustrophobic and eerie and scary, without being too full-on in the horror department – which I appreciate as I’m a wuss.
It’s a futuristic, dystopina, fantasy, sci-fi type story, and yet the concept of colonising other planets in our solar system is becoming closer and closer to reality than we might be comfortable with.
Its a short book and, for me, there’s not much in the way of plot. This is about characters and atmosphere which Mason has managed to write in a captivating way.
It wasn’t my favourite book in the world. I don’t read much sci-fi and so I don’t have much to compare it to. It’s not a five star read for me, and I think William was better, but I still enjoyed it and it has great depth and atmosphere.
I am not a fan of short stories, nor am I a fan of overly long books. This is closer to a short story than an epic, but I actually wanted more. I needed another chapter or an epilogue to ensure it finished in a more satisfying manner. What is there is good, but I am unsure about the ending. I mean, if someone asked me to describe how it ended, I couldn’t tell you, as it was just a bit……lacklustre, I suppose.
I know that Andrew Pyper (Mason Coile is a pseudonym) recently passed away and so unfortunately there won’t be any more books from him, but I am intrigued to take a look at his back catalogue, especially his longer stuff.
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