The Mars House moves as nimbly as its ballet-dancer hero, sidestepping the potential issues with its immigration storyline and pivoting toward something that’s nuanced and fresh. The result is both an epic love story and a deft political thriller, in which lengthy philosophical discussions feel more gripping than the battles in most other books.
Something strange and wonderful, an utterly unique and gently beautiful love story rooted in a complicated exploration of our need for connection and a place to call home ... Pulley’s well-written prose and offbeat humor shine throughout.
Readers will have incredible fun reading about this slow-burn romance, the itch of two creepy background mysteries, and a delightful scene involving judgmental mammoths.
Tharsis is made captivating via a mix of everyday details...with wild, imaginative ones: there are mammoths with myths about Earth, with whom Gale can communicate; there are haptic implants, solar arrays stretching into the atmosphere, and Earthstronger body cages. Sharp explanatory footnotes provide hundreds of years of context—with a bite. To Gale, it’s rote; to January, it’s all still a wonder. As the two challenge, listen to, empathize with, and finally see each other in time to face an incalculable threat together, they are irresistible. Subverting a tale about creeping interplanetary fascism with the power of profound, even reckless compassion, The Mars House is a dazzling novel about humanity’s future.
Thorny and addictive ... Pulley introduces some truly complex ethical and political questions. Even better, she refuses to offer black-and-white answers, and never loses sight of her characters’ empathy and humanity.
