A Total Mind Mess of a Book
5 out of 5 stars
In a world of three and five book series, Cawdron seems to stand out writing single books that have more emotion and action than most series I’ve read. Retrograde was no different. It tells a story of a colony building excursion to Mars that turns out to be a fight for life.
Retrograde is perfect science fiction. It takes all of the things that we, as humans, love and turns them against us. We are on Mars, but the Martian environment wants to kill us. We love technology, but sometimes it can go wrong. We love to trust each other, that is until things break down — then it’s a selfish game. He takes all of these themes and shakes them up. I listened to this in almost one sitting on a Saturday. I couldn’t walk away from it. I kept wanting to know what was going to happen next. Or to figure out exactly what was going on.
Numerous times I tried to guess what the ending was. I was close but still couldn’t get it right. I’m a big fan when I can’t figure out the ending and it seems to come out of nowhere. Cawdron has done this to me on numerous books (and short stories).
The narration was done by Sarah Mollo-Christensen and she absolutely crushed it. I’ve never listened to a book narrated by her before but I promise that this won’t be my last. She was able to give the female main character the right voice, but didn’t ruin the male voices either. She gave great performances for both sexes and made Retrograde an easy listen.
Overall, I may have read two of my favorite books of 2017 back-to-back this year, and I promise that if you like old-school (think Arthur C. Clarke) science fiction, you will not be disappointed in this at all.
Formerly published as Mars Endeavor
Book Description:
The international team at the Mars Endeavour colony is prepared for every eventuality except one – what happens when disaster strikes Earth?
Mankind has long dreamed of reaching out to live on other planets, and with the establishment of the Mars Endeavour colony, that dream has become reality. The fledgling colony consists of 120 scientists, astronauts, medical staff, and engineers. Buried deep underground, they’re protected from the harsh radiation that sterilizes the surface of the planet. The colony is prepared for every eventuality except one – what happens when disaster strikes Earth?
Retrograde by Peter Cawdron
Narrator: Sarah Mollo-Christensen
Length: 9 hrs
Published by Brilliance Audio on September 12th 2017
Genres: Science Fiction
Pages: 259
Format: Audiobook
Buy From Amazon
Buy from Audible
Goodreads
I received this book for free. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Also by this author: Free Fall, Starship Mine, Anomaly, MaelstromAbout the Author:
Peter is an Australian science fiction writer, specialising in hard science fiction.
Hard science fiction is a misnomer as far as categories of literature go, as it sounds harsh and difficult to understand, but that is far from reality. Hard science fiction is simply plausible science fiction, fiction that is written in such a way as it conforms to the known laws of science, and that makes it more interesting, as there’s no magic wand the protagonist can wave to get out of trouble. Peter’s forays into hard science fiction could best be described as informative science fiction or enjoyable science fiction.
Peter is a fan of such classic science fiction writers as Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke and Michael Crichton and their influence on his style and story lines is readily apparent. You can follow Peter on Facebook or Twitter or find him posting some interesting tibit on his blog http://thinkingscifi.wordpress.com/
- Cuffing Season by Monica McCallan (Narrated by Lori Prince) - December 8, 2023
- Bit Rot (Bit Rot #1) by Jason Baronette (Narrated by Bill Davis) - December 6, 2023
- Muted (Silence Jones #10 by Erik Carter (Narrated by Gary Bennett) - December 4, 2023
Haven’t heard of this before, but it sounds awesome!! Have added it to my list.
It comes with the rare SciFi & Scary big boast!!! So, you know it’s good 🙂
Retrograde was a fantastic book. I was hooked by the cover, and loved every page of it.
That’s the nicest I think I’ve ever heard you about a book! 🙂 I love it.
O.o you’ve never heard me go into bookgasm about The Martian? Stone Cold Bastards? Knight of a Trillion Stars? Joe Ledger?
No! I just did that about The Martian. I NEED to listen to it again. I set it as my reward for hitting my goodreads yearly goal. Which I hit about 5 books ago. I just need to find the time. I’ve been craving it lately. I just read the opening lines and thought, yup! Freaking love this book.
I’m not easy to please but it does happen :p I’ve given out 4 or 5 5* reviews this year! (out of 205ish books.)
Actually, that’s a lie. I just looked. I’ve given out probably 5 horror 5* and 10 sci-fi 5*.