Retrograde

Peter Cawdron
Retrograde Cover

Retrograde

illegible_scribble
1/28/2019
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This is an edge-of-the-seat murder mystery set within a cooperative international scientific mission on Mars, and is really well-researched Hard SF. [Trigger Warning for a high body count and some brutal scene descriptions.]

It’s got a really smart, competent female protagonist, action and adventure (some of it quite brutal, though), lots of good hard science without the infodumping of The Martian, and a lot more character development and interaction than in the latter.

Fortunately and unfortunately for the author, the book, like Weir's The Martian and Chambers' The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet was originally self-published (in 2016) and then picked up by a major publisher in 2017... so no eligibility for Hugo Best Novel. However, Cawdron is definitely going on my Campbell ballot. And the gorgeous Elizabeth Leggett cover, printed on reflective holographic stock, is a stunner.