Before Mars - Emma Newman - goodbook.reviews

Emma Newman's Planetfall was the story of the first human colony on another planet, founded by The Pathfinder, a visionary who received a "message from god" with both the coordinates of where to go and the tech know-how of how to get there. The novel took place years after the colony's founding. It was brilliant.

The second book in the series, After Atlas, took place on earth, 40 years after The Pathfinder's ship, Atlas, left for the stars. A time capsule containing her last message is due to be opened, and a detective with a murky past has a murder to solve. It was even better.

Now comes the third book in this very loose, but also incredibly precisely crafted series, which takes place on Mars, at roughly the same time as the second book. An artist is sent to the Mars colony by its ludicrously wealthy owner so she could paint pictures that would later be sold for a bundle as the first art made on Mars. She's also a geologist, and her reason to go is to do some actual science. But things are weird from the get go, when she finds a note painted in her own unique style telling her not to trust the base shrink. It is even better than the first two.

All three books are, in different ways, about mental illness and trauma. All have meticulous worldbuilding and puzzles within puzzles, and wonderful characters. The series is intensely political, as the latter two books paint the picture of a terrifying post-democracy earth. The first two were on my Hugo ballot. I can pretty much guarantee this one will join them.