The Red Planet Trilogy

Three Novellas

De: William Graham

Narrado por: Richard Wilson

This collection of three novellas chronicles the dramatic events from the founding of the first Martian colony in the middle of the 21st century to the first election of the Martian Republic in the 22nd century.

From Vermont to Mars tells the story of ecological disasters on Earth that are the catalysts for the first emigrants to head to Mars.

The Red Planet Murders continues the story by telling a compelling tale of murder and the reluctant investigator, Achilles "Ace" Sloan, who must solve the crime amid social unrest on Mars.

The Martian Republic describes the political struggle between warring factions on Mars leading up to the first presidential election.

Together the three novellas are a sweeping cautionary tale of a grand social and economic experiment on Mars.

©2013 William Graham (P)2015 William Graham

Creative and interesting

Although there are elements to these stories I do not agree with................. the series is creative and interesting.

Most listeners who enjoy this genre will be entertained and will feel their time is well spent.

The Narrator did a good job with the material.



This Book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Super trilogy

This is the second to fourth books I’ve read/listened to by this author and I would love to finish this entire series. I listened to The Red Planet President first. Each book seems to have overlapping characters or events to tie them all together. I had no issues listening to them out of order, but it might offer continuity they could be listened to in order.

This is the second to fourth books I’ve listened to by this narrator ( Richard Wilson) and I would listen to another. The character voices were distinguishable. his pacing made me realize I was being read, but emphasis made the book even sound more like an historical account than an active story. I liked it.

There are no explicit sex scenes, excessive violence. There is minimal swearing.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily left this unbiased review.
Please feel free to comment on whether you found my review helpful.

A future with planet colonization

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, it's mainly 3 short stories about a world in which Mars is colonized.
The first one describes earth left behind by mars colonization. It is strangely not far from our reality, still the same crooks that want to make profit over all...
The second one is following some murder investigations. It was presenting a society on Mars. Again the environment in which the story is placed is well structure and one could imagine himself inside the story.
The last story was more politics and was less captivating.

What did you like best about this story?

The writting was "down to earth", which is good for a story written about mars.

Which character – as performed by Richard Wilson – was your favorite?

Some characters sounded similar. I wouldn't say I preferred one.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Nop. But I could see someone doing it, since it was short.

Any additional comments?

"This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review."

Politically charged sci-fi.

Fantastic political sci-fi, with a murder mystery threw in for good measure.
Listening to the political aspects of these stories really makes you think about our own political system. Politicians are shady and big business has there hand in everything. This book really gets into the dark side of government. Anyway, I loved it. I absolutely recommend this.

At my request, I received this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Not bad, it sprawls abit but is worth the time .

Would you try another book from William Graham and/or Richard Wilson?

Likely, although I might think about it. Overall they make a reasonably good team, although Wilson's performance can be abit thin at times. On balance, it's decent.

If you’ve listened to books by William Graham before, how does this one compare?

No background so cannot comment.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes, although I feel a performer like RC Bray could really bring this story to life.

Did The Red Planet Trilogy inspire you to do anything?

I laughed abit, and did some research.

Any additional comments?

I did receive this copy for free from the author in exchange for this review. On balance this is a reasonably good trilogy, that moves along logically and has originality and at times compelling characters. The performance is professional, and it is likely worth a credit, but it doesn't "jump" like similar offerings can. Recommended with reservations.

Not as enjoyable as I hoped

Any additional comments?

Everyone has different preferences when it comes to science fiction, so I'm not surprised or disgruntled that other readers enjoyed this trilogy of short stories while I didn't. It just wasn't to my taste, I discovered as I listened.

(*spoilers in the next paragraph*)

Here's why I didn't find the stories as enjoyable as I had hoped.The first story didn't take place on Mars at all and my takeaway was that corporations are evil and it's honourable to vandalize other people's property if their views on the environment don't align with yours and lawsuits don't result in your favour. The second story mostly didn't take place on Mars and my takeaway was that corporations are evil while unions are great and noble.Funny thing is, I'm not anti-environment and I'm not anti-worker rights, but I found the protagonists in the stories to be... idealistic? naive? .. and so I didn't engage emotionally with their perspectives. As a result, I gradually become more disengaged as the trilogy progressed. (end of spoilers)

It's too bad, because I was looking forward to hearing three stories about Mars! I've enjoyed other novels about Mars that incorporated political issues (Kim Stanley Robinson's 'Red Mars' comes to mind), so perhaps I'm discovering that my preference is for lengthier Mars stories with richer world-building and character development. I think I need deeper context so that I can be more sympathetic when the focus of the story turns to political issues.

The narration wasn't bad; he had a neutral tone of voice. The narration wasn't bothersome, but I feel that it didn't contribute to the escalation of tension or drama in the story, either.

I provided my opinion in exchange for a complimentary copy of the audiobook from the author, narrator, or publisher.

Drama with sci-fi backdrop, let down by narration

Story: 3.5 / 5

Presented here are three interesting short stories/novellas regarding the early period of colonisation of Mars. Starting on Earth we see the reasons - the ecological disasters - that force man off of Earth. We then move to Mars and see the 'street view' of the planet, before moving to the final story covering the politics that flow out of the things shown in the previous two stories. The three stories flow into each other well. The ending of the third story, while being complete in itself, does open the door for the next step and new stories (of which the first part of Story #4 is included here)

While this is definitely science fiction - set in the future, ecological disaster, living on mars, etc - the books are not heavy on the science fiction. They are more dramas - a story of an environmentalist and a developer, a police officers, and a politician. In some cases the location of Mars doesn't really play much of a part. It's an instigator - the "new world" provides opportunities to tell stories - but it isn't really about Mars. This is not in any way a bad thing. And it is not so say there is no sci-fi. There is time spent on spaceship through to Mars and an interesting approach to what a transport to a new planet might actually be like.

The characters and the location are interesting but I feel are both more of a vehicle to tell the "what if" type story - what if the rules around the environment on Earth changed? What if we had a new world and had a chance to do something completely different politically? These are interesting questions and the stories delving into them in an enjoyable manner.

The book is not perfect, but it is enjoyable. I would be interesting in other works by William Graham.

Early on the narration is almost like listening to William Shatner narrate. There is a slight pause every 4th or 5th word, breaking up the flow and actually making it hard to follow. It also makes the characters sound robotic.This does improve over time, as the narrator gets into it and eventually flows fairly well (either that of I got used to it).

However there is near zero attempt at putting any emotion or character into any of the characters. The narration is flat. Either way it makes the stories less engaging and harder to follow.

I wonder if my enjoyment of the story wouldn't have been greater if I was able to listen and enjoy rather than struggle to put together the broken sentences into a complete flowing sentence.

Probably better to pick up the ebook.

Good Political Sci-Fi stories

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
First off I actually liked these stories for what they were. The book is supposed to be just 3 short stories but I think the first one could actually be considered two separate stories. This book is only about 4 hours long and these stories are extremely short so you’re not going to get too involved in particular characters.
I have to say this book is very political with a strong slant towards socialism and anti-corporationism. If that bothers you this book may not be for you. I personally do not care about politics in books as long as the story is decent. There’s also really not too much sci-fi involved besides the back drop of a new colony being established on mars. This is somewhat similar to some of Scalzi’s books in my opinion, where they are technically sci-fi but that is just a backdrop and they are more of a different genre such as a detective story.
The first story actually takes place on Earth with a corporation trying to buy up land in a country like community to build a gated area for the upper class. The second part of the first story is a diary of the granddaughter of one of the characters from the first story moving to mars.
The second story is a murder mystery. I don’t want to give too much away since that ruins a mystery but it definitely has a political twist to it.
The third story is about electing the first president on mars. One of the candidates is part of the corporate world and the other is part of a workers union.
Richard Wilson was a good narrator as well. I did have to speed him up a bit as he reads a little too slow for my tastes but overall he did a decent job.

The red planet

Any additional comments?

The first novella is form Vermont to Mars. It is a small town in rural Vermont who is about to have a large development built on protected land. Follow a 71-year-old man’s journey to save this land. All while this is happening his daughter has decided to break off her engagement and go to Mars to teach.

William Graham never dissappoints in this trilogy!

First, I have to start off by stating that I got this book free of charge in exchange for a review, but as I always state, this does not in any way impact my review. My reviews are always honest and my own.

While better than The Red Planet Murders, this novella is disappointing. It follows the election of the first Martian President and it felt very much like extreme left vs extreme right. It wasn’t a good election and for the most parts neither seemed to help the poor of Mars, which was the aim of the extreme left candidate. A lot of this focused on the use of a spin doctor, rather than the actual politics. I think the key phrase in this novella was “if we repeat a phrase enough times, people will start to believe it.” It had weak execution and weak follow through.

I did really like the narrator. He’s narrated this trilogy extremely well.