Finding Life on Mars

A Novel of Isolation

By: Jason Dias

Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya

When the last man on Earth reveals he has a nuclear weapon pointed at the tiny Martian colony, the colonists can only survive by working together. Jaye, a Trueborn Child of Mars, isn’t like her father, Merlin. Like all the Trueborn, she is cursed with perfect memory and deep sensitivity. But not even the knowledge that Merlin killed her mother can change the fact: They need each other for more than survival.

©2018 - Jason Dias (P)2019 Jason Dias

Eulogy for Earth

Earth is dead, one of the last residents is wanting the rest of the colonists to be destroyed with them. Life was never supposed prosper on Mars. Especially human life. Also, what does it mean to be human. This book is has philosophical and emotional tones that weave an interesting narrative. I definitely enjoyed the deep thoughts this provoked and recommend a listen.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Good story the unfolds naturally

This is a good book which develops in a logical, yet not totally predictable fashion. It does make you think about where we as a world are headed. The narration is great! It doesn't detract from the story at all. It adds to it. I was expecting a bit more science than it had. This is the first book (which I requested promising to review it) from this author, so I'm not completely sure what genre he typically writes from. I read it in 2 days, so that should help you know how that I enjoyed it.

Autism on Mars - a unique story

This was a very interesting Mars colony story. I do love Mars as a setting and have enjoyed many stories set there, yet this tale had a new spin to it. A colony ship filled with middle-aged humans made their desperate way to Mars, hoping to start a colony there, expecting more to follow them. However, Earth was too far down into it’s final death spiral. Yet the new colonists were surprised to have children, yet all of those children aren’t like them; all are autistic to some degree and none are sure why.

The story is told by Jaye, a woman in her early 20s and one of the first Trueborns (those born on Mars). She doesn’t do well with emotions; in fact, she’s in denial of her own deep feelings. Her ability to feel and yet to also shove those feelings aside and think critically make her a formidable character. And that is exactly what this tiny colony needs now, with an unexpected threat looming over them all.

Then there’s the mushrooms – hooray! Fungus will save us all! Well, it will save a few humans on Mars at any rate. I did find it odd that the colonists weren’t jumping up and down at the Mars mushroom more; after all it appears to be the key to terraforming. So I would have enjoyed having this part of the story expanded upon and seeing more reaction from the colonists. After all, not much happens on Mars (as long as things are going well). So this would be a novel, new thing.

My one real complaint for the story is the cover art. Really, it’s the big band of pink on the side of the audiobook cover that bothers me. It’s like using a pink ribbon to mark babies as female, because we might not otherwise notice a female on the cover of a science fiction novel.

Pretty good story. 4.5/5 stars.

The Narration: Jennifer Jill Araya was great at this tale. She had a good range of voices and put them to great use. She voices Jaye perfectly. Her male character voices sounded masculine. The pacing was spot on & there were no technical issues with this recording. 5/5 stars.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review courtesy of Audiobookworm Tours.

Interesting concept but difficult to connect with

Finding Life on Mars tells the story of the last men alive, who traveled to Mars escaping from a devastated Earth. The second generation, or true born, as the ones born in Mars are known, have very different behavioral and cognitive patterns than the ones of their parents. Jaye is one of these true borns, and the story is told from her perspective. They one day discover that there is still one man left on Earth, but in his madness, he only seeks the destruction of the Mars colony.

I really wanted to like this book. I think the idea of creating a whole generation with autistic traits was a great idea to make us understand how autistic minds work. I just had troubles believing it. For somebody who has lived abroad, these differences and the attitude of wanting to be different from their parents do not feel realistic. On the other hand, I wanted to find an explanation to why many (but not all) of the true born were autistic, but this was not clear.

I also had issues with the madman wanting to annihilate the last survivors. I know it is a figure often used in post-apocalyptic stories and thrillers, but it does not feel credible to me.

I found very difficult to connect with Jaye, and her detached view of the world. I wanted to understand her and justify her actions but I was just not able to.

Jennifer Jill Araya did a great job narrating this book, providing a quite plain speech for Jaye, which was what the text just needed, although this made it hard to focus on the book. I

It was an interesting book, but no the easiest to get into. It was okay, but there were too many issues preventing me from fully enjoying it.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

very good book

cant wait for the sequel. this book stands alone, but I'm anticipating more to come.

Odd and endearing

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Overall I enjoyed this, there were some odd points or hangups, but I ended up finding them more endearing to the book than a problem.

Avoiding spoilers this book takes place on Mars, with an end of the world style backdrop. They're trying to find ways to survive and come to grips with their life on Mars.

I'd call this more a character piece in a Sci-Fi setting than a straight Sci-Fi novel. I got a far better feel for the characters than I did for the overall world, not a problem per-say by different from other Sci-FI novels.

The narrator is great, varied voices, and makes for an enjoyable listen.

If you're looking for a change of pace, while maintaining the Sci-Fi setting this would be a great pick-up.

cool story

the story was really good I'm glad I picked this one up cant 2aot from more from this writer

An interesting concept

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This book seems to answer the question, "what if a Vulcan told a story?"

In the not too, too, distant future humans have sent colonists to Mars to carve out an existence and get settlements ready for future colonists. Unfortunately, that was before Earth fell on desperate times. The Mars population is small, and Earth is no longer responding to messages. Worst of all, the children of the colonists are different, very different.

So, whats good about this book? Well, a lot really. It is well thought out, well written and well narrated. It is an interesting story about the fate of the human race, when the human race doesn't seem to exist any longer. Most of the characters are complex. The situations are believable. The story flows fluently and progresses organically. It is truly a good book about the beginnings of space exploration and colonization of other planets.

What makes it only a 3 star book? Well, everything else. My comment about the Vulcan derives from the fact that the story is told from the POV of one of the children of the colonists. The first true Martian. Unfortunately, the main character acts as a a hypocritical Vulcan. She hides all emotion, and tries to only show logic all of the time. Even her inner monologue describes everything in a emotionless monotone. What this does, is leave the story flat. Once all emotion has been drained out of a situation, what you are left with is a text book. It makes a good source for information, but makes for a less than exciting read.

The Vulcan like main character does, of course, have emotions, but denies they exist and the story is really about her journey to find her humanity. And for this, I applaud the author. But as there are stories within the stories, which are told in the same bland monotone, This makes sense in the narrative, as the stories are supposed to be the recounting of the story by the main character. However, as this is all supposed to be past tense, it would be more compelling if there was more emotional weight to the events.

There are some minor technical errors though out, but they do little to take away from the overall story. However, the main character is very hypocritical in her dealings with others, for example, she mentally chastises the original colonists for "wasting words, like they cost nothing." when they state the obvious. The fact that she constantly does this, herself, though out the book is fairly annoying. It could be used to show that she really IS human, as hypocrisy is human trait. However, I don't get the impression that was the authors intention.

The work by Jennifer Jill Araya is well done. However, as she was forced to speak like a robot through most of the book, its hard to tell what kind of range she has.

All in all, a good book, but it lacks the emotional depth that would have made it gripping. Very good concept and well planned out, though.

Very well done

I was very much impressed with the way the whole book played out. Seeing everything from the point of view of a colony new "Martians" with the little changes the planet brings out. The Narrator did a good job of keeping me involved in the story and bringing it all to life. Definitely an author and narrator I will seek out in the future. I received a free copy of this audio in return for an unbiased review.

Finding Life - Discover Yourself

Jason Dias has created an excellent story with deep characters. This book is very engaging with great storytelling.
Jennifer Jill Araya does an excellent job bringing this story to life. I really felt invested in the characters.

Would highly recommend this story. Well worth the price however you need to pay.

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.