I would never have found this book, hadn’t its author posted a critical comment on my book review for Voyage by Stephen Baxter. I had too many other books to read and simply didn’t feel like finishing. David Hardy admonished me that I should not be reviewing a book I had not finished. That got my attention and I followed the author to his website and found that he was a famous science fiction artist and writer.
Voyage by Baxter is a story about alternate history, where humanity didn’t stop interplanetary travel after visiting the moon, but went on to Mars. Aurora by David Hardy deals with similar subject matter, and much of the action in the novel takes place on Mars. I can see why he found my post about Voyage.
In Aurora, a group of six astronaut scientists land on Mars with the objective of searching for traces of life. When they go about their business they are more successful than they could possibly have dreamt, as they find much more than traces. They uncover actual technological artifacts, apparently still in working order, and what looks like a flying saucer. The longer they look, the more surprises they find, and very soon they and all the scientists back on Earth at Mission Control are completely baffled. Nothing seems to make sense.
Aurora is an intricately designed story with a complex plot. I found the first ten percent of the book somewhat confusing. I didn’t quite get engaged. Fortunately, the author’s words rang in my head, ordering me to stick with it, and I did.
The pace picked up tremendously when the action on Mars started unfolding. Gradually the story pulled me in and I started turning the pages. It felt almost like the book took off the training wheels at that point and the action moved right along. The suspense in this novel didn’t come from danger to the protagonists, but from wanting to get answers to the impossible situation the astronauts encountered.
Anybody interested in interplanetary travel stories in the near future, as well as pseudo scientific topics like UFOs, dousing, extrasensory perception and telepathy, would certainly enjoy Aurora. The concepts the author introduces are thought-provoking. There is even an element of time travel involved, my all-time favorite science fiction topic. This book packs it all in. In the end, I will never think of Mars in quite the same way again.
When I was finally done reading, and the storyline had closed in on itself, I had the urge to go back and read the beginning again. Now it made sense. I have done that with other books occasionally. Here it did the trick. It all came together nicely.
Aurora is a fresh and unique story about aliens that are not so alien at all.
Rating: ***
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