Monday, August 17, 2009

Offworld - Day 1


Science fiction thriller Offworld by Robin Parrish is this month's entry in the CSFF Blog Tour.

I confess. Though I've seen his name often in recent months, until Offworld, I hadn't read anything by Robin Parrish, so I went into the book unbiased and ready to be entertained.

So, was I entertained? Yes.

Are there things I didn't like? Yes.

Will I read more by this author? Absolutely.

The book opens with a tense sequence: Christopher Burke is lost on Mars, low on oxygen, cut off from communication with the rest of his crew.

He wakens aboard the Ares as the ship races back toward Earth. Turns out the events of his dream happened eight months prior, when he became the first man to walk on Mars, but he's safely back with the crew now, and all is well. Right?

Yeah, if he doesn't consider the fact that there are no transmissions from Earth, or from Tranquility Base on the moon, or that there are eighteen hours he can't remember from his time on Mars. Sure. Everything's good.

But then Ares starts breaking apart, the stars and Earth disappear, the atmosphere threatens to burn up the ship, and the crew--

Nope. Not gonna tell ya.

Want to know what happens next? Enter to win a free copy of the book! (If you're like me, the words "free" and "book" get your attention!) Shoot me an e-mail (KeananBrand at yahoo dot com), or leave a comment any of the three days of the tour, and you're entered in a drawing for a free copy of the novel!

I'm reserving more expanded discussion of the book for tomorrow and Wednesday, but visit these stops on the tour for more reviews of Offworld:

Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Gina Burgess
Canadianladybug
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Linda Gilmore
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen (posting later in the week)
Nissa
John W. Otte
Lyn Perry
Steve Rice
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Stephanie
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Elizabeth Williams

6 comments:

Eric said...

I'm in the process of reading this book, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I may even see if I can wrangle an interview with the author when I'm done. I agree with you though, that based on what I've read so far, I would definitely read more by this author.

Pappy said...

We have a lot of bad science fiction out there today. Much of it written by the U.N. Pappy

Keanan Brand said...

Eric -- I'm out of shelf space, and I can't keep buying more books, but I keep stumbling across stuff that catches my interest, dagnabbit!

Tex - Yeah, the whole global warming thing, despite the fact that scientists are now telling us the world is actually entering a cooling phase? Or the whole overpopulation myth? Go figure.

Anne said...

Keanan -

I hadn't read any of Parrish's work before, either, and also found myself well entertained. Looking forward to what else you have to say about the book.

Jason said...

Good to leave them guessing, drawing them in! You'll have to check out his Dominion trilogy. Quite different type of story.

And there's no such thing as too many books (unless you're moving, which I recently did)

Keanan Brand said...

Kerani - I've been busier than expected, so further comments on the book (which were supposed to appear on Day 3) are going to have to come later, if at all. I wish a few things had been different about the book, but that doesn't spoil my enjoyment of it.

Jason - Moving is something I may be doing soon, as well. At least, it's in the plan. I've been weeding out books from my library, and selling them online or giving them away, but I still have a few hundred that will need packing. NOT looking forward to that bit.