Review of "Republic of Mars" by Dr. Sam Sammane

Score: 92+/100 (9.2+ out of 10)

Republic of Mars by Dr. Sam Sammane unfolds in Port Hope, a highly regulated, subterranean colony presumed to be on Mars. It was established by billionaire Edward Moss through SpaceX after he took over following Elon Musk's retirement. This self-contained society thrives underground due to Mars's inhospitable environment, relying heavily on strict rules, advanced technology, and constant surveillance.

This book surprised us in a lot of ways, sometimes pleasantly, sometimes unpleasantly.

Let's start with this: this book really turned around and won us over in its second-half.

We found the first-third of this book to be dull and flat. It's not something we like to say (or experience), but it's true. The beginning of this book is flatter than a soda that's been sitting open on the window sill for a week. The book struggles to gain traction. The pacing is sluggish, and much of the dialogue and exposition come across as stiff or overly mechanical.

There's something that seems really low-energy and lifeless about the first 70 pages or so. We were really concerned that this book might be just another version of Brent and Edward Go to Mars by Richard Jeffery Wagner, a very similar book with a very similar concept but one that decided to focus heavily on describing the technology and science stuff in excruciating detail rather than developing the plot or characters.

We were also concerned, based on the author's other book heavily celebrating AI technology and applauding its many uses, that this might just be an experimental novel seeing if AI could produce an award-winning story. That may or may not be the case. We have no proof of that being the case, but the beginning of the book did seem really generic and familiar like deja vu—like we've read this space colonization story numerous times before.

Another thing that really bummed us out about the beginning of this book is that it gave us that ugh, this again? feeling, specifically in becoming a murder mystery/crime drama. We're honestly becoming numb and a bit jaded on murder mysteries and crime dramas, especially when they're mixed into other generes where they arguably don't belong. It seems like everyone wants to turn their werebear-shapeshifter-romance into a murder mystery. Fantasy is great at being fantasy. Sci-fi is great at being sci-fi. Not everything needs to become a murder mystery.

Anyway, all of that really disarmed us for the turn in the second half of this book.

Indeed, this book really picks up in its second-half!
It really salvages itself and hits several new gears.

This is especially true when the character of James Leno is introduced. Why?

Well, besides being one of the book's main suspects and potential antagonists, Leno is also one of the folks in the book who seems to know what's really going on. He's at least somewhat aware of all the secrets that society and the government is keeping from everyone. He's also very skeptical and critical of what's going on—the narrative, the way the investigation is going, the government, and society as a whole. Oddly enough, he's one of those characters that thinks the things the reader is probably thinking and asks the questions that the reader is probably asking. This makes him oddly relatable. He probably hated the first-third of this book and thought it was flat and boring too.

Furthermore, Leno always has something interesting to say, constantly teasing and hinting at many of this book's deeper and more interesting mysteries.

Anyway, we got ahead of ourselves.

This book primarily follows Detective Peter Dash, Officer Farah Ram (Dash's partner), and Marko (Dash's AI assistant robot) as they attempt to get to the bottom of two high-profile murders: one of Edward Moss, the founder of Port Hope (the Mars colony), and Owen Cornell, one of the leading programmers at AVSoft, which produces most of the technology that keeps Port Hope functioning.

Now, like a lot of this book, Dash, Ram, and Marko took a long time to grow on us, but they eventually did. Dash, like a Neo-like protagonist (from The Matrix trilogy), is a bit of blank-slate character full of questions despite serving in a job where obligation and duty are paramount. In other words, he's used to erasing his mind, setting his personal conscience and feelings aside, and just getting cases solved.

But this series of high-profile murders—compounded with Leno challenging his world-view—makes him start to question things, perhaps for the first time in his career.

In fact, in one of the most incredible moments, Dash admits to himself that he agrees with a lot of what Leno is saying.

Here's a excerpt:

“'Intriguing points, Mister Leno,' Dash mused, his expression more thoughtful than his partner’s. The truth was, he couldn’t disagree with much of the man’s sentiments. Hell, he secretly agreed with many of them. But instead of voicing even any remote agreement, he said, 'Some restrictions are necessary to maintain order and preserve the progress we’ve made here on Mars.' That was the party line anyway, and he was charged with enforcing it."

The "party line" essentially implies that Dash has become so hypnotized, brainwashed, and indoctrinated by the government and society of Port Hope that he has lost a lot of his individuality and the ability to think for himself—to believe what he wants to believe or at least to express what he truly thinks.

Until this point, he had seriously stopped questioning or expressing.

Why don't we ever get to see the surface of this planet?
Why does this colony feel like a prison rather than a home?
Why do our leaders keep promising us that things will get better if we just wait and see?
Why doesn't anything seem real, genuine, or authentic?

Dash is even able to come to the conclusion: "The fewer people who know the truth, the easier it is to manipulate them." He starts to question if the investigation itself isn't being manipulated from the shadows.

All the while, strange evidence keeps building up like why Owen Cornell's wristwatch was missing, why Cornell would even wear wristwatches when humans have implants that can tell time, why his ID was found in a different location, and why he was electrocuted (of all things).

We also get interesting tidbits like how autopsies in this world are performed by droids, which supposedly can't make mistakes. But that really makes you question what would happen if someone in power or some centralized computer program controlled and could manipulate those droids.

Gradually, not only does the plot get more engaging, but the characters do as well. They go from being relatively generic and one-dimensional caricatures of archetypes we've seen to becoming quite interesting and appealing. Ram actually started to remind us of Sgt. Iris Davis from Deadly Game by Michael Caine. Ram, like Iris, comes across as a very hot and very capable female partner-in-crime-fighting.

As Dash smartens up to what's really going on, he also becomes a more likable character. He also has this cheesy, dry dad humor. For example, he tells Ram: "Alright, Ram... To Fear and
Panic we go, where hopefully the only thing frightening will be the calories in our meals!"

Such cringe! But we can imagine him actually saying this.

Marko, the AI droid, also becomes interesting because he really points out some of the pros and cons of this kind of technology. One thing to note is that he actually seems to be programmed with some humor, which reflects Dash's personality. When Dash points out one of Marko's flaws and asks why they even keep him around, Marko replies: “Because of my irresistible charm and wit, of course."

What we found fascinating about Marko is how he kind of behaves like AI as it exists today: bogged down by guardrails, restrictions, and limitations that have been imposed on him by some unseen force (or his programming). He can't use X-ray vision and he can't kill or fight other officers even if the context seems to call for it. He can't spy on anyone without a proper warrant or security clearance. He also can't enter restricted zones.

One last thing we found interesting about this book is how it highlights the erosion of constitutional and human rights over time. For example, when Dash and Ram are performing their investigation, they actually bring up that it's against the law to lie to police officers. Dang! No Fifth Amendment!

This book does have a huge twist, which we won't spoil for you, but we did rather like it (despite it being done before in sci-fi; then again, what hasn't?).

Check it out on Amazon!