Title: Last Day on Mars
Author:  Kevin Emerson
Publisher/Year:  Harper Collins 1/9/18
Length:   352 Pages
Series:  Chronicle of the Dark Star #1

Overview

It is Earth year 2213—but, of course, there is no Earth anymore. Not since it was burned to a cinder by the sun, which has mysteriously begun the process of going supernova. The human race has fled to Mars, but this was only a temporary solution while we have prepared for a second trip: a one-hundred-fifty-year journey to a distant star, our best guess at where we might find a new home.

Liam Saunders-Chang is one of the last humans left on Mars. The son of two scientists who have been racing against time to create technology vital to humanity’s survival, Liam, along with his friend Phoebe, will be on the last starliner to depart before Mars, like Earth before it, is destroyed.

Or so he thinks. Because before this day is over, Liam and Phoebe will make a series of profound discoveries about the nature of time and space and find out that the human race is just one of many in our universe locked in a dangerous struggle for survival.

My Thoughts

There have been a few books/series that i’ve read in the recent past that have centered around Mars, or space, or the notion that Earth can’t be the only planet for anyone to live on for much longer as a result of many many events. (YES, we are all very familiar with global warming, the effects that we’re having on the planet, the increase in severe weather etc). Anyhow, this story takes us on an interesting journey where there is so much that is unknown and so much that is uncertain, but it’s also a time when unfortunately people can’t wait to be certain to make decisions.

We’re teased at the very beginning of this story – even before the actual chapters start, with the notion that there are obviously far more intelligent beings out there, and those beings are able to not only show off their superior intelligence, but they are able to time travel to see what will happen and perhaps set themselves up to either change or benefit from the future. What’s even more interesting here though, and not entirely unexpected, there are different groups of these other beings that are absolutely not on the same side, and it’s because of their actions that things are put into motion. Yet the ‘humans’ are not aware of any of this and are the ones who will be on the receiving end of it all.

So like the book summary said, we’re years in the future when Mars was colonized because Earth became nothing but a dried up desert that wasn’t able to sustain human life. Colonies were built and developed on Mars as a stopping point while researchers worked to find another suitable planet to relocate. The time on Mars isn’t a long one, perhaps 20 years or less, but luckily they’ve discovered another planet that seems like it could be ok, however they don’t have enough information on the geography, geology, etc of this planet to be sure. The luxury of time is against them as the sun is going supernova far faster than expected and off they go.

Liam and Phoebe become our main characters, our heroes perhaps but the focus of the story no less. They are teens who are among the last to go to the starliner – a ship that’s going to take the entire population of the planet to their new home. As teens often do, they don’t listen, during critical times especially and when there’s an early arrival of a solar flare store, they steal away with a friend to watch it and they end up seeing more than they bargained for. In the form of an interesting structure that’s not on maps, and was never disclosed to anyone.

That’s where this story takes it turn for drama. There’s no time to really find out what the structure is, yet there are so many questions. Liam’s parents, who are the key researchers with the task of ensuring that there’s the ability to create moisture and clouds to sustain life on the new planet, they don’t even know what this structure is and deem it his imagination. So no one knows what’s there and that means that the trouble that Liam and Phoebe got themselves into once is only just the beginning.

The story feels like it’s pace quickens here – the timeline to departure has to speed up because the solar flare storms are getting worse and are occurring faster. Research is not yet completed and there’s no time to do so. there are catastrophes and damage being done on Mars that no one understands why and where that leaves us is with the death of a few key people, the departure of the Starliner without Liam, Phoebe and their parents, and so many open questions.

Add to that, we encounter a pair of other beings that we think are human but are clearly not – who are working against the humans. Who have the intention to kill them all, and we don’t know who they really are and what their motivations are. Liam got a hold of a device that foreshadows death and harm, and these beings seem to trigger it, but Liam and Phoebe haven’t figured out exactly how to avoid all this.

When they almost reach safety, it’s ripped from their hands. When they almost have a chance at survival, it’s also pulled away. We are left with so many questions on what will happen, who’s behind what, who can be trusted etc. And the LAST bit of this story – the Epilogue makes your jaw drop because something is revealed. A tie that links back to the saboteurs is raised and everything that we thought we knew, likely isn’t real at all.

I can’t wait to get the second book since i’m honestly shocked by where we were left off, and i really want to see how this will end! Enjoy!