McDonald Ian

Reviews & Overviews by Rod Cameron

Ares Express by Ian McDonald

Ares Express is set in the future on a terraformed Mars which has a breathable atmosphere, and humans living on the surface. Unlike a number of recent Mars books, the story is not about how the planet Mars has been to support human life. Travel around the planet is by means of fusion-powered locomotives running along a network of tracks. In addition to the hard science fiction, there are strands of fantasy and magic. And in addition, artificial intelligences reconfigure reality billions of times each second.
The heroine of this story is a young woman with the unlikely name of Sweetness Octave Glorious-Honeybun Asiim 12th, a daughter of engineers who drive Bethlehem Ares Railroad's Class 22 Heavy Fusion Hauler 'Catherine of Tharsis'. In avoiding an arranged marriage which she believes to be beneath her, she becomes the person upon whom the future(s) of Mars depend.
This is a rite of passage novel that is stuffed full of ideas. It is pacy, funny in places, but also full of bizarre & intriguing ideas, such as a 'Time' Vampire that gambles cards with its victims for years of their lives. Sweetness' grandmother can perform magic, but only on brown objects, by painfully sewing or cutting the command into her skin. And not to be missed is the 67 word curse when Sweetness is lost in the desert. This is an excellent book well worth a read.

Publisher: Earthlight (Simon & Schuster)
Date: 2001
Pages: 553
Price: £7.99
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0 671 035754 4
Reviewed by: Rod Cameron
Review Date: Ausgust 2002