“You’ve made my life immeasurably better by not barbecuing my dog.”

The Saving Mars series follows 17-year-old Jessamyn Jaarda on her mission to, well, save Mars. The series is set in a Dystopian future where Mars colonists have been all but forgotten by Earth after the end of the war. We get to see the day to day struggle of living on a planet that was not meant for human habitation in the value they place on water (don’t cry, and if you do, drink your tears or you’re wasting water), the Planetary Dog that children get to visit on their birthdays, and the lack of food save for  the Earth-raided ration bars.

And then there is Earth. An Earth that still has deep dish pizzas and surfboarding, ruled  by 1 overarching dictator who has stayed in power for over 300 years by continuously ‘re-bodying’ herself illegally. That’s the sci-fi twist to Saving Mars. 200 years of peace because they move minds into different bodies every 20 years. Do well, you get a better body. Annoy the government, and you get a body with no legs. Rule the world, get access to as many bodies as you want and then kill the witnesses.

I really enjoyed this series for its worlds. Every extra descriptor about Mars was a gem. I love how cultures meshed indistinguishably, such as “Mount Cha Su Bao” (Pork Bun in Chinese) and swearing at ancient Greek Gods “Hades and Aphrodite!“. Another standout factor was the women. From the antagonist Lucca to the Secretary General of Mars, Mei Lo. All of them were strong, formidable and flawed. It made Saving Mars a refreshingly uplifting series that I would love for young girls today to pick up.

That’s not to say it wasn’t without its flaws. It takes a little while to get into the meat of the story as you get through Jess’s teen angst in the very beginning, meaning that Saving Mars has a pretty slow burning start.  Also, the “hotshot teen” trope was in full force. Multiple people insisted that only this particular teenager could save the world. “It has to be you Jess” is said, very very often. While in my head I’m screaming ‘SHE IS A CHILD’. But they have to, it’s YA literature.

I also wasn’t in love with Jess’s really fuzzy head throughout most of the books, I didn’t feel like it fit her character of being a pilot and an avid reader. But then, she was 17. And on the plus side, her character definitely grows up by book 6. She still makes some terrible decisions, but you can actually see her start to think.

Bottom line, Saving Mars got me interested in Mars. I even watched National Geographic’s Mars television series (which coincidentally is also in 6 parts and is so good!) because I got so hyped up. It will definitely appeal to a younger audience more so than those seeking a more mature story, but I found it engaging nonetheless. If you’re looking for a book set in space, with 4 strong female leads, you should pick this up. The boys aren’t too bad either 😉

Where can you get it? The eBooks are available from Kindle. Or if you prefer, you can always get a physical copy from Amazon.

Saving Mars Links:

Need more books to read? Check out my list of the 7 best Dystopian Novel series.

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7 Best Dystopian Novel Series:

7. Partials by Dan Wells

Partials is dark, a frighteningly compelling version of our future. But Kira is a heroine that believes, so much so that you’d happily follow her all the way to book three. Plus she’s a medic. Well, in training. With only tens of thousands of humans left, extinction is the next step unless the connection with the Partials (engineered humans) can be figured out.

” The average lifespan of a human child, in the time since the Break, was fifty-six hours. They didn’t even name them anymore. Ariel McAdams, barely eighteen years old. The mother of a corpse. ”

6. Legend by Marie Lu

June is one of the most kick-ass heroines out there, basically able to take on the bad guys because she was trained as a politician/assassin from birth. I want to be trained as a politician/assassin from birth! Her brother gets murdered, so she goes after the only lead she has, a slum boy named Day who is all sorts of cool and seems to be dying. Then we get to take on The Republic. Now who doesn’t love it when the enemy sounds so official.

” Then Mom will put on her usual brave face, only to sit up through the night, quietly wiping tears away. In the morning, they’ll start receiving small rations of food and water and simply wait to recover. Or die. ”

5. New World Rising by Jennifer Wilson

Pheonix lives on the outside. Which may sound simple enough. But when her world is ruled by tribes, and their rule is ‘join or die’, it becomes less simple. So she learnt to be a ghost when she was 11 years old, after watching her parents murdered right in front of her. So she’s kind of like batman but not really.

” ‘My name is Maribel. Everybody says I talk too much, but Mouse doesn’t seem to mind. And since she doesn’t talk at all, I figure I speak enough for the both of us. Veyron says there’s cake. Want to go find out what kind?’ ”

4. Wool by Hugh Howey

Wool is a bit of a slow burner to begin with, as it starts with the characters climbing stairs up and down their underground silo – a lot. But then it just hits you in the feels. An entire civilisation packed into a cylinder, with wars, secrets and baby lotteries.  Juliette is real, flawed and strong, and the book wouldn’t have hit its stride without her.

” The boy disappeared behind the counter. He came bac with a thick piece of meat. ‘Is it rat?’ Elise asked. The boy laughed. ‘It’s pig.’ Elise scrunched up her face, remembering the animal that grunted at her earlier. ‘Does it taste like rat?’ she asked, full of hope. ”

3. Arena One by Morgan Rice

Okay, go to Morgan Rice’s website and just listen, that is one amazing voice for the audiobook. Brooke is the daughter of a marine. She’s tough, and loves her sister. So when that sister is taken by slaverunners, there is nothing Brooke won’t do. Including fighting in an arena like the gladiators of old.

” Once the first soldier fell, there was no turning back. The final line had been crossed. An American had killed an American. This became known as the First Wave. ”

2. The Atlantis Grail by Vera Nazarian

I think I have a thing for books about training. Where people are learning. Like in Harry Potter, they go to school. Maybe I subconsciously feel that I’m learning alongside them. If only that actually worked. Though there are studies that show that if you imagine doing something over and over, you can do it better than you otherwise would. I’m holding on to that. The Atlantis Grail series started with Qualify, and starts with a bunch of kids sitting for a test. A test to see if they can go with the aliens-ish (survivors of Atlantis that went to space and control things by singing) to their home planet before Earth is wiped out in few months by a meteor. It is captivating, and it’s not over.

” But once the Atlantean shuttles landed, and we saw them to be human and not little green men or big green lizards, it was okay. ”

1. Time Zero by Carolyn Cohagan

It is everything a book should be. It details the powerlessness that pervades our society now, and the self-sacrifice it takes to be. To just be. Mina doesn’t want more than to simply choose her own path. And Time Zero is a beautiful commentary on how this is what the world looks like now. Not in a dystopian future, but today. It is sad, uplifting and twists you up inside. Oh and I can’t wait for you find out what the Primer is. I also cannot wait for book two. But I will, cause you can’t rush genius.

” She closed the Primer, looking me straight in the eye. “God never said women shouldn’t read. He never said that one of his creatures was built for education while another was not. That’s a rule that a man created ”

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