Review - Livid Skies by SI Clarke

The years of planning, meetings, and after-work discussions in the White Hart pub are over, and now it's almost time for the remainder of the colonists to land on Mars to put their plans for a self-sustaining Mars colony into action. But while the team may have left Earth behind and planned for a queer-friendly cruelty-free society, they're still bringing all their human faults with them. Not only do they face harsh conditions and natural disasters, there are also the kinds conflicts that come all to easily to humanity.

Like the first book in this White Hart series, the narration of this book is from multiple points of view, like entries in a diary or journal of several of the colonists. For the most part, it's the same cast of characters as the first book, including Devon, Lisa, Georgie and Gurdeep. You'll definitely want to have read the first volume before tackling this one.

The characters and situations of this book are entirely believable. As in the first volume in the series, the science is well researched, so it takes almost no imagination to make the events of the story completely plausible. However, while the science behind the colony is very sound, it's good old human emotions that provide most of the dramatic drivers. While there is an over-arcing plot to the book, it's mostly told as something like a series of slice-of-life vignettes relating specific events.

The author suggests that there are plans for more books in this series, and while the story feels “complete” for the most part, you can definitely see room for more episodes from life on Mars.

“Livid Skies” is available from Amazon.