T.A. UnerReseñas

Disclaimer: the author provided a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Doctor Mars is an interesting mashup of a police procedural, Frankenstein and, say, colonial outpost sci-fi. It's again one of those stories where the main premise is actually quite engaging, but the whole execution of it could have gone better.

In the near future, Mars is colonized and therefore needs a police department. Our heroine, Liberty Rise, is a very young member of the Mars Colonial Police Force's Mindcop division, which is a section of the force containing policemen with mutant abilities. Specifically, Liberty possesses the ability to Mind Meld, which enables her to get flashes of past events connected to people or objects, by touching the same.

Unsurprisingly, she uses this gift to solve crimes. In this instance we're talking about a murder of a medical study test subject. The story morphs into a blend of futuristic whodunit and action, with Frankensteinian overtones and the author even manages to get some romance in there. This blend of genres is probably what I liked the most about the entire experience.

Now, on to things I liked less. The characters are a bit stereotypical - your young and coming go-getter cop, your evil doctor, your devoted monster and such, although I wouldn't necessarily call that problematic. Doctor Mars is a short story and the use of stereotypes is pretty much a standard, since there isn't time to go into character development. However, since this is just the first volume in what looks to be a series, I would encourage that additional chapters explore character arches a bit more.

Secondly, the setting. I was excited to learn that the setting was Mars, but again, this goes a bit unexplored. What I'm saying is that the uniqueness of Mars as compared to Earth doesn't get through in the story. There's no reason that the story couldn't have gone on on near-future Earth - the only allusions to any differences between the two are hints that mutants are tolerated on Mars, but shunned on Earth. This is an interesting fact in itself, but I did have hopes that more of Mars' unique features could have been in there.

Seeing as how a major component of Doctor Mars is a whodunit, I also miss some major twist to the plot. The resolution does not take you by surprise and there is no aha! moment to give the reader the satisfaction of all coming together nicely at the end. A sort of teary-eyed ending also did not agree with me, especially since it was obviously announced with the romantic saying-goodbye moment before the final scene.

There seem to be some missing comas, as well, in several places.

All in all, though, an entertaining read that has quite a bit of potential if some of these rough edges are addressed. I think an episodic format suits it well.

Disclaimer: the author provided a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The second installment of the futuristic police procedural/colonial sci-fi mashup Mindcop Dossiers improves on the first one in many aspects. Most notably, I am glad to see more world-building, actually showing off more of Mars and Phobos, whereupon it finally makes sense that the events take place somewhere off-Earth. The way these societies are run is also showcased, with the government and military meetings on Mars and with the labor organization in the mines of Phobos. This is all pretty good stuff, the universe has a very interesting feel to it and I'd love to explore it a bit more in future installments.

The length is more appropriate, as well, at approximately twice that of the opening volume. It gives a chance for both the plot and the characters to develop a bit more and there's even some room to showcase the relationships between the characters, which were kept at the stereotype level in the first volume.

The dialogues are a bit awkward at times and the plot could use some more work - I think it's missing a twist of some kind. Basically, our heroine Liberty and her friends from the Martian Colonial Police Force decide to do something, then they do it, without too much unexpected stuff crossing their path. Although this is not a classic whodunit, it's still a police procedural, at least partially, so adding a "cracking the case" element to the plot should give more feeling of closure and satisfaction to the readers.

I also thought that Liberty's mutant abilities keep changing, or rather, growing, too much. By this rate in the next book she'll nearly become an omnipotent deity with her ability to read minds and manipulate levers without ever touching the person or object in question.

One thing I did not appreciate is that in the closing notes, the author felt the need to educate his readers about the need to use their imagination more, instead of clamoring for more details about the world and the characters. Dude, so unnecessary. The people provided the feedback based on how they experienced the first volume and the truth is, it felt a little bland without any world-building and only sketches of characters. I would suggest taking that out, as it doesn't serve any other purpose than patronizing the readers and telling them how they should read your book, which is totally superfluous. These people know how to read.

In short, though, this all shows a lot of promise, particularly with the setting.

I, Mars is the second installment of the Mindcop Dossiers (series?). Back when I first read Doctor Mars, I was intrigued by the story itself as well as where it was headed. Though I gave Doctor Mars 3 gears (stars) out of 5, I give I, Mars a 4. Why?

The author did a great job with detail -- it was just perfect; not too much that I became bored with it, and not too little where I would have given it the same rating as Doctor Mars. The action was great, as was the continuation of the story. I have to admit, I totally did not see Cal returning. That was a good thing, because I was just surprised as Liberty was when she found out.

So, 4 gears it is. The author did a wonderful job improving in this story and I look forward to hearing if there is more to come or if this was it for Liberty.

Doctor Mars is a great story for the sci-fi lovers out there. Before we get into the good, I like to point out the bad. I didn’t take a lot of writing classes, but I did pay attention to what works and what doesn’t when it comes to writing an engaging story. First of all, the plot was dull within the forty pages, and there was little to no character development....

Note: While this book reads just fine as a stand alone, it does contain some major plot spoilers for Book 1 (Doctor Mars).

Set approximately one year after Book 1, Liberty Rise is still a Mindcop and she’s still partnered with the smoking Muir. Things are brewing at the mining colony Javelin on Mars’s moon Phobos. Slow Fly has worked hard over the past year to take over the colony. Now, he’s putting on the finishing touches, getting his master computer up and running, and nearly ready to declare his superiority over Mars and the other moon Deimos. Liberty and Muir will have something to say about that!

This book was just as fast moving as Book 1 but was nearly twice as long. I really loved Book 1. The author did a great job in that book creating the setting, the Mindcops, the characters, and the plot, all swiftly and concisely. Here, we already have the setting and many of the characters, so I felt things could slow down a bit and have a bit more detail. The plot wasn’t as neat and tidy as Book 1. There was only a smidge of character development.

With that said, this is still brain candy. It moves along swiftly, so I was never bored. Liberty Rise continues to be interesting. We learn a bit more about her upbringing as a mutant as we get to meet her mom. Then we also have Mr. Bose, Liberty’s and Muir’s boss. He’s an interesting character, being mostly calm and yet decisive. He does a great job of holding the team together when the crap starts flying. Meanwhile, Slow Fly, our evil one, continues to be interesting, though not as thoughtful and sinister as in Book 1. He’s out there, not hiding in the shadows. Folks on Phobos know who he is and that he is trouble.

So we have this mystery with Liberty’s old boyfriend Cal Murray. There’s been no word of him this past year. But now she has questions for Slow Fly about him, forceful questions. Then Slow Fly is trying to build some world domination scheme involving his super computer Regulator and a nuclear arsenal. In this regard, he reminded me a bit of Brain from that cartoon Pinky and the Brain. I don’t think he understands what it takes to build nuclear pits and then to install them in space worthy warheads, even in the 22nd century. Lastly, we have some miner rebels that want to overthrow Slow Fly and banish him. He finds this annoying and the executions will continue until he is no longer annoyed.

There’s a bit more humor, albeit dark humor, in this book than in Book 1. Also, the story continues to be diverse, having several female characters and various ethnicities. I love seeing this in SF. Over all, it’s still a worthy series. I enjoyed my time reading this book and I plan to continue on with the series.

Set in 2137, Mars Colony, Liberty Rise is a member of the local police force, and a mutant with psychic abilities. She can read the recent memories of folks and any other organic material if she puts her mind to it. Her partner, Detective Muir, is one of the very few humans on Mars who smokes and Liberty finds the habit disgusting. Doctor Mars is the mysterious evil mastermind behind some recent scientific experiments that left a few dead. Slow Fly, an excellent fighter, is his greatest achievement to date.

For a novella, there is plenty going on here. This book is part scifi detective and part Mars Colony super hero story. There’s several interesting characters and that coupled with the murder mystery made this book a winner for me. Liberty Rise is our main protagonist. She’s been on the force for some years and lived through the change in politics and law towards mutants. However, there is still some cultural stigmas against them. Out of the two of them (Muir and her), she is the one in charge and calling the shots. Muir seems quite OK with that in his laid back way. He’s a little bit of a slob and a smoker, but I think he acts that way sometimes to shock people.

Meanwhile, we have a few interesting bad guys. Doctor Mars (who has a real name but if I tell you what it is then we enter spoiler territory) is driven in his work, even if much of what he does is distasteful. Slow Fly is the really interesting side character. He’s a dedicated fighter, but I am not sure what he is dedicated to. This makes him mysterious. Later in the story we learn a touch more about him and it becomes apparent that he is a tortured soul. Now this makes him very interesting because he becomes a bit unpredictable.

The murder mystery was fun. Mostly, Liberty and Muir solve it through her special talents and the usual digging up info and cross-checking the facts. The pacing was good with a nice mix of sleuthing, action, and a touch of humor. I’m hooked on this series and look forward to Book 2 in audio.

I won a copy of this book from the author.

The Narration: Elizabeth Phillips was a good fit for Liberty Rise. She had that no-nonsense good cop voice. I also enjoyed her sloppy Detective Muir voice. Phillips did a good job imbuing emotion into the dialogue when required.