blog/content/reviews/books/one-day-on-mars.md

+++
title = "One Day On Mars - Travis S. Taylor"
date = 2019-12-13

[taxonomies]
tags = ["books", "reviews", "travis s taylor", "scifi", "mars"]
+++

[GoodReads Summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20638066-one-day-on-mars):
A nonstop futuristic thrill-ride, through the critical events which were the
breaking point for the underclass of Martian citizens and precipitated a
revolution to break the Martian colonists free from the formidable Sol System
government. The formerly red planet—now in danger of again becoming red, blood
red—would never be the same, nor would the human race.

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{{ stars(stars=2) }}

Ok, let's try something different here:

* (-) Long paragraphs, that just make things hard to read and with lots of
  useless information, sometimes, running out of topic.
* (-) Macross, without acknowledging Macross or the Macross world or anything
  Macross, really.
* (-) Super-powerful rebellion, which manages to be even stronger than a
  super-country army + navy.
* (-) MURRICA, FUCK YEAH!
* (+) Good descriptions of the action, even with the huge amount of cruft in
  them.
* (=) Weak sci-fi, even if the world is "sci" in a way -- which could be
  related to the Macross-but-not-Macross thingy.

Mars, under the influence of the huge "UNITED STATES OF FUCKING AMERICA" (not
actual title, but actual feeling given by the author), is being terraformed.
But rebels, which think America diverted from the forefathers ideals, think
it's better to move to somewhere else and make the "REAL AMERICA" (again, not
actual title in the title, but feeling given by the rebel characters).

What happens is a clusterfuck of information and lack of information at the
same time: It starts with one event, in which the backstory is giving in long,
incredible tiring paragraphs of text, and then some action happens and the
initial event is mostly ignored. What did happen? Oh, a glimpse! And then...
nothing.

"Incredible, tiring paragraphs" is a nice way to put "wall of text". Instead
of focusing in some point, the paragraph starts and then derails on into some
backstory, character development or some stupid description of something
instead of focusing on what it started. So the next paragraph -- which is,
again, another wall of text -- picks up and then derails again.

In those walls of text, there is some Macross, and by that I mean there are
actual descriptions of the Valkyries robots, which turn from plane to robot
and an "in between" mode. But they are never called Valkyries, the world of
Macross is never acknowledged or mentioned. Simply, the design for the massive
weapons are "borrowed" from the series, without ever making any connection
with it.

And, while we are talking about the weapons, the descriptions put a massive
army of robots against another huge army of robots. Now, think we me: You have
an army. A well funded army. By a country that loves the army. And then you
have some rebels, that don't have the proper tech or research for creating
such weapons. Which side do you think would amass a larger numerical
advantage? THE REBELS, OBVIOUSLY! /facepalm Sure, they found a way to
interrupt the well-funded, well-researched army communication at the start,
but even with that, the well-funded, well-researched army would simply be too
large for that to even be a problem. But, then again, the well-funded,
well-researched army gets almost completely obliterated in the end. Suuuure.

There is a series for this book -- in which it is the very first one -- but
considering how tiring it is to read, how bullshittery the "MURRICA, FUCK
YEAH" feeling it passes around, the absurdity of rebels amassing a force
stronger than the whole "MURRICA, FUCK YEAH" army and navy, I'm not sure I
actually want to read the next chapter.