Rebels of the Red Planet

This is a 3.5 star story. I had a debate with myself, and decided to go with 3 stars.

First, there is an interesting story here. I wanted to continue reading until the end, and the ending wasn\'t really a let-down. So, for entertainment purposes, this gets a thumbs-up.

As for the bad, simply too many major plot points happen out of convenience for no particular reason. A major character suddenly switches sides in a conflict because of suddenly falling out of love with one character and just as suddenly falling in love with another. Yeah, right. That\'s believable - not. There are stupidities along the way. And the \"twist\" at the end is just way too convenient and unnecessary to be included. Throw in the sudden appearance of ESP and telekinesis, and you have a recipe for fluff. Additionally, I found the superficial treatment of the definition of humanity to be, frankly, repulsive.

This is the story of the attempt to colonize Mars permanently and economically. There\'s quite a complex play of interests involved, but it kind of boils down to the rebels and the government fighting for their respective control of the planet.

A good multi-layered sci-fi novel; the characters keep turning into new people as aspects of their character become revealed. Pretty good descriptions, and the author has a good imagination.

A few characters are important for a few chapters, then disappear, and one I was most interested in--Shadow--never got explained. The final coincidence was a bit too much to believe, but a twisting, surprising story until the end.

Human genetic engineering experiments to facilitate colonization of Mars take some tragically wrong turns. Include the obligatory 1950's space romance and you have - pulp - but good pulp. Very entertaining.

Love this, its great pulp sci-fi. Bought it for a pound in a second hand bookshop in a small town in County Wexford years ago. Always reminded me of Total Recall, right down to the rebels training in psychokenesis. The imagery is great and occasionally creepy. The characters have weird names that reflect something about them (Goat Hennessy, Dark Kensington). Not the kind of thing you'd get in bookshops anymore!

A ripping good space yarn. Some similarity to 'Total Recall':
>Takes place on a newly colonized Mars
>A wealthy and powerful powerful company vs. rag-tag rebels
>An attactive yet dangerous heroine.

Also includes a feature I always enjoy in 50's, 60's, and 70's sci-fi. They smoke cigarettes! (Example; not from this book)

Star Pilot Kral Drevl relaxed after landing his cruiser on Asteroid X-242 and lit a cigarette. He blew out a long stream of blue smoke into the cabin of the cruiser.

'Hey.' said the busty blue-skinned Princess Qwillia. 'How about giving me one of those.'

'Sure baby, sure.' replied Kral, lighting it for her.