Molly of Mars and The Alien Syndicate Book Review by Roan Reedling author of the Rocket McGee series

Molly of Mars and The Alien Syndicate Book Review by Roan Reedling author of the Rocket McGee series

Molly of Mars 1 Book Review by Roan Reedling author of the Rocket McGee series.

Molly’s a brave, young, human inhabitant of Mars, full of heart and fire, who cares deeply for her friends and her planet, and takes full and personal responsibility for defending them. My kind of kid character. My kind of hero of any age.

The book’s an easy read and an excellent study in show-don’t-tell storytelling. The author does a very nice job of helping us share – feel – the anxieties, misunderstandings, hurts, hopes, and vindications experienced by Molly and her friends through their deeds and reactions – and those of the people around them. We witness the kids’ growth, as they wrestle with their experiences, gain insight from them, and mature in their deeds and reactions. But they’re kind of mature to begin with, and the daily challenges of being a grown-up kid, unnoticed or dismissed in a grownups’ world, are portrayed in credible ways that feel real.

The author does a great job, too, of weaving the friends’ backstories and the history of humans on Mars into the story at just the right moments, without disrupting the story’s flow, while the kids unravel the mystery – even as it deepens – so there’s rarely a lull in the action as the kids charge headlong through a gauntlet of sleek, cinematic action sequences.

Sure, I had to yank myself out of the story a time or two and put the book aside, but whenever I did, I couldn’t wait to get back in.

Too vague? Hey, I’m trying to write a spoilerless review here, yet give you enough information to know this is a fun and well-built book about a group of young heroes, not unlike any of us, whose love of family, friends, and planet drives them to brave a perilous mission in a race against time and rayguns, to solve a dangerous mystery and expose a nefarious plot before it’s way too late.

I bet, if you read it, you’ll be glad. I am. And then you’ll want to read the next one. I did.