T.A. Uner

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.
… (plus d'informations)

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.… (plus d'informations)

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.… (plus d'informations)