Thanks very much to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. Many thanks, Dave

I thoroughly enjoyed this piece of escapism and my time out from a hectic world. The story grabs you from the outset and pulls you in and the storytelling really made it worth reading. Characterisation was on point and I know I will be looking out for new publications from this author or similar in the future. A recommended read.

This had such potential to be an interesting and intriguing story but it just fell a little flat for me. I was never on the edge of my seat and I very quickly realised who the killer was. I never felt I got to know the characters enough to care when they died either. The technical aspect of it was spot on - perhaps a little too much so. There was so much technobabble that it got a little boring and overloaded. Such a shame but a bit of a miss for me.

Great combination for me, greedy corporations and Sci Fi. The story has an unusual setting - Mars but the motives and competing agendas are fairly regular. Convicts are recruited to swap there life sentences for life on Mars building the first base there. The story follows Frank Kittridge and his interaction with the other convicts and the only company man Brack. It moves along at a quick pace even although the storyline spans years but retains adventure, mystery and twists all the way. Interestingly the author also paints a realistic picture of what life on Mars may be like for the first residents. Recommended

I enjoyed this. The Martian was one of my favourite books and this is a little bit similar, but there is crime and murder as well as the obvious dangers of the Martian landscape. A group of prisoners are given the opportunity to swap a life in jail for life on Mars. They have to be fit and have the skills required to build a base ready for astronauts to begin the colonization of Mars. It is a dangerous mission but they have nothing to lose, but they are not expecting to face a murderer too. After a slow start, the pace really picks up when they get to Mars, and by the end I was turning the pages very quickly!

Straight away, from the cover, we can perhaps see who this book is aimed at attracting. A lone figure in a space suit, in a red (well, orange, really) sandstorm. From the start, the presence of the unexpected bestseller The Martian looms large here. I can see this one in the bookshop with a promotional blurb, “For those who are wondering what to read after The Martian…”

Which is a tad unfair, but I’ll explain more in a moment.

From the publisher: “There’s a murderer amongst them, and everyone’s a suspect . . .

Frank Kittridge is serving life for murdering his son’s drug dealer, so when he’s offered a deal by Xenosystems Operations – the corporation that owns the prison – he takes it.

He’s been selected to help build the first permanent base on Mars. Unfortunately, his crewmates are just as guilty of their crimes as he is.

As the convicts set to work on the frozen wastes of Mars, the accidents multiply.

Until Frank begins to suspect they might not be accidents at all . . .”



So: let’s deal with the elephant in the room straight away. At a basic level, then there are similarities between this and The Martian, admittedly. Yes, it’s set on Mars, and, like The Martian, is a story of solving a series of puzzles over extreme conditions and adversity – there are no rescue services available, so far from home, etc etc.



And yet, despite this, One Way is its own story. Once you get past the generic setting, it is actually more of a murder mystery in that most beloved of crime drama settings, the ‘locked-room mystery’, although here the ‘locked room’ is a planet the protagonists can’t leave, or a self-built module on that planet. The murderer has no escape, unless they wish to wander off into the Martian landscape…

Whereas in a traditional crime drama we’d have the policeman, the inspector, the vicar, the voluptuous femme fatale et al, all in the library of a country house, here we have , amongst others, the grumpy old woman, the person of colour, a reformed neo-Nazi that has found religion, the too-young and inexperienced geek, the teen sociopath and just one person left in charge of them all (yes, I know….another weak plot point, in my opinion!)

As our narrator, Franklin (Frank) Kittridge is set up as the ‘good guy’ of the story (even though he killed his son’s drug dealer), determined to see the demanding situation through. Some of the other characters grow on the reader too, whilst others I found a little whiny. The deliberately unpleasant jailer, Brack, the tough disciplinarian given the task of beating these miscreants into shape, was unsubtle and lacked finesse. There’s a lot of pseudo-technical detail given to give the setting some element of gravitas, and I am sure that Dr Morden has used his technical know-how as a scientist to make this work. Behind it all, of course, we have big corporate business shenanigans worthy of NASA or an Elon Musk-type business setup, where the emphasis is on profit over expense, which leads to situations that are rather silly.

Like a murder in a country manor, what is engaging here are the deliberately diverse bunch of misfits given the task of setting up a basic outpost on Mars before the real pioneers arrive. (Yes, the initial premise of sending convicts to do the work is a tad far-fetched, to say the least, but it is quickly glossed over.) Personally, I would have thought that such a mix of sociopaths, murderers and control-freaks would have been asking for trouble, but the plot tells us that the psychologists have checked them all out for their compatibility, so its OK. (Potential weak plot point…. ) I’ve seen Escape from New York enough to know that difficult times create desperate men (or women).

If this was a Hollywood movie, then the unwritten rules would dictate that, by the end, though they all start with their own individual motives, by working together they survive, forming the foundation for a future colony. This is not that movie, although once we get to Mars the pace picks up a little and I enjoyed reading of the challenges that the ‘chain-gang of Mars’ face (traversing the landscape, limited air supply and food, reduced gravity and so on.)

I found this problem-solving aspect to be more engaging than the characterisation. In terms of characterisation, there’s not too much detail given of the characters or their motivations, just enough to make the situation understandable. As expected, they all have their own reasons to kill, one being, of course, that they’re all in prison for doing something VERY BAD. This is rather like the Agatha Christie template the book is following, which rarely get beyond the stereotypes. We’re not here to get a detailed analysis of the characters, the plot is the thing. And as the lists of suspects gets smaller, as readers we try work out the mystery and see who is to blame.

My biggest issue with the set-up is whether relatively untrained people, all of whom have been locked up for BAD THINGS and who have barely communicated with others outside their respective cells in that time, can be trusted to get on with each other and get the job done. Real astronauts spend years being assessed psychologically for compatibility as well as physically and mentally before being trusted on a mission – who would risk those billions of dollars on such unpredictable variables, especially when profit seems to be a main motive? To be fair, the book tries to explain these issues, but to me the justification rang false, despite the protestations of the author.

As the characters start to be bumped off, more basic problems occur – how will this outpost survive with reduced workers, when everything, including the environment, is against them? There is also the issue that, as the people are killed one by one, the situation becomes less realistic and more unbelievable. Practically, and unlike in a country manor, rather than by one death at a time it would be far simpler to kill everyone not needed in one fell swoop by opening a spacesuit or a habitat to Mars once the work was done.

In the end, One Way is an admirable attempt to mix up genres, and play around with aspects of both the crime novel and s-f. However, it’s not perfect and runs the risk of not satisfying either fan. Sometimes the experiment highlights the weaknesses of both genres rather than the highpoints it tries hard to emulate. Whilst the story is written well, it is built on some dodgy notions that undermine the overall effect.

Like that other book, I can see One Way being accessible to those who don’t normally read science-fiction, but all its limitations pointed out by those that do. I enjoyed most of it, but there are issues which can make or break this one for the reader, I feel.

S J Morden's One Way (review copy from Gollancz) is a serial killer murder mystery set on Mars - but with a strong socialist undercurrent running through it.

Xenosystems Operations has won a government contract to build a scientific research base on Mars. Like every corporation, they are focused on the bottom line and their profit margin. So they decide to crew the mission with convicted murderers taken from the prisons one of their sister companies own. Cheap labour offered a deal, willing to take the risk of a one-way trip to Mars for some purposeful activity instead of a lifetime in solitary confinement. Prisoners are hand-picked for relevant skills before they ended up in prison (construction, hydroponics, communications, medical skills etc). They go through a gruelling final selection and training programme before the team is selected.

Frank Kittridge heads that team. Imprisoned for the murder of his son's drug dealer, he feels few regrets about the crime he committed, but wants to be a positive example for his son and the ex-wife that divorced him after his conviction. With a background in construction he is perfectly placed to lead the team building the Mars base. His nemesis is Brack, the prison guard sent with them to supervise the base construction and keep the team of prisoners in line throughout the build. Brack is straight from the Gunnery Sergeant Hartman school of motivational leadership. Brack offers Kittridge a chance to get home if he acts as his eyes and ears, reporting back on the rest of the team.

Kittridge's team make it to Mars and start building the base. But strange 'accidents' keep happening that end up killing the crew. Funnily enough, each 'accident' happens just after that particular crew member has fulfilled their function, becoming surplus to requirements. Kittridge realises there is a cold-blooded killer among them, and sets out to solve the mystery before the body count gets higher.

You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to solve this particular murder mystery. One of the frustrations of One Way is just how predictable the plotting is, with relatively weak characterisation - barely enough to make one care about each victim of the killer.

What does lift One Way from the herd is the way that Kittridge's story is intercut with material from Xenosystems Operations as they plan the mission and make choices about its design. We see the very real consequences of decisions to trim costs: in one tense sequence in particular Kittridge barely makes it across the surface of Mars to retrieve equipment vital for the mission. Where One Way is most compelling is in the way it shows the very real and very human consequences of those corporate decisions. It acts as a strong warning about the risks of involving private corporations in high risk endeavours like space travel. It comes as no surprise that the company has little regard for the human team it sends to Mars.

Goodreads rating: 3*

An enjoyable read—it has elements that reminded me of both “The Martian” (which I loved) and of investigation novels in general—, although I found myself able to predict the twists (the deal comes to mind, but it’s not the only one), so the mystery part wasn’t 100% a mystery for me.

I enjoyed the preparation parts: how Frank gets “recruited”; his training; meeting the other convicts/astronauts (as well as the crushing realisation that he wasn’t going to be “a real astronaut”, just a prisoner sent to Mars and not necessarily considered as a human being). I tend to enjoy the hard science/technical details in such novels, so I was glad that some was included here, and that it made sense. Then there’s the Mars ordeal itself, of course, with this little group of ragtags and misfits having to face unexpected shortages and various problems before their base can even start being built. I expected a story where things go wrong, where the planet itself will kill you at the first opportunity, and I wasn’t disappointed in that regard. Also, the XO company had been cutting corners, and it shows; and it makes more sense, in a twisted way, the further you keep reading.

The main character, Frank, was likeable enough. He’s a murdered, but he “only” killed once, to save his son, and his reasons were more born from despair than from any twisted desire to kill for the sake of killing. At times, I found him perhaps a little “passive”, in that I thought he’d get to wonder about the deaths of his fellow inmates sooner than he did; on the other hand, he’s an older man who’s spent several years in jail and learnt to keep out of trouble there, so it also made sense that he’d want to keep out of trouble on Mars, too, by putting on blindfolds and focusing on his building and maintenance jobs. I believe his lack of curiosity was more an instinct of self-preservation, an ingrained desire to keep his head low in order to survive, rather than get interested in things that could put him in danger much sooner.

I was less satisfied by the rest of the cast, though, mostly because we don’t get to know them very well. They were defined more by what had sent them to jail (the cyber criminal, the ex-Neo Nazi, the doctor who euthanised her patients, etc.), than by what made them as human beings. As a result, I didn’t feel invested in them, and when they started dropping, I founder myself not really caring; they were plot devices, rather than characters. I don’t approve of padding a novel just to sell more paper, but in this case, I’d have gladly taken some 100 extra pages to get to know the whole crew better.

Conclusion: 3/3.5 stars. Not a novel I loved, but I still enjoyed it, and would still recommend it to readers who don’t mind a bit of jargon, and are interested in the struggle on Mars as well as in the murder mystery aspect.

7/10

It’s “The Martian” meets “And Then There Were None” in this sci-fi thriller that hits a number of right notes but not quite enough of them to merit being compared to either of those two novels. There are plenty of good ideas here and it’s well written but it never hit the heavy heights it could have done and I can’t put my finger on why.

There are plenty of character’s to introduce but only a handful feel fleshed out but the main character is one of those and you get a sense of him being a criminal but a good guy too. Who wouldn’t shoot someone in the face if they were a good guy… The novel is split into two really; the setting up of what is to come with all the training and the reason why it’s happening, then the happening. Everyone in space and “accidents” happening along the way.

I liked the titbits that were interspersed at the beginning of chapters which documented the company and owners viewpoints on the mission and what was required. It put what the astrocriminals were going through in another perspective.

This was an enjoyable ride without ever been totally memorable. I’d recommend it though to anyone looking for something a little bit different in the sci-fi genre.

got this book for free via NetGalley.

As said in the synopsis, this novel is a mix of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None" and Andy Weir's "The Martian"; this is a hard science fiction story merged with a whodunit. Since I like both genres, I was sure to be pleased with it.

The training of the team at the beginning of the novel is interesting.

Farther in the story, Mr. Morden embarks on a description of all the steps of the construction of the Martian station. He tells us where they are going, how long it will take to get there, how much oxygen they will consume to do what they want and he explains the installation of each screw and what might happen if a particular nut would slack and fall. The author knows his stuff, that's for sure. According to his biography, he has a scientific background; and I believe it totally. But the problem is that this isn't the case for everyone; not all of us are experts in that kind of technology. And a large part in the middle of the novel is devoted to this very detailed chronicle.
Around the center of the book, Frank thinks: “And surprisingly quickly, it grew boring.”
And another day: “No one was pretending that it wasn’t monotonous work. But it was monotonous work on Mars.”

If it had not been for the fact that I was about certain that among all those details, the author was giving us clues as to how to kill people on Mars by making it look like accidents, I would have been bored to death and I'd have done what my husband said: “Wait for the movie”. By the way, it’d make a better film than “The Martian”.
“Our suits might kill us, the air might kill us, there’s all kinds of shit out there that’ll kill us, and then there’s the radiation giving us cancer and the reduced gravity thinning our bones.”

But actually, as we learn how this or that installation could go wrong, all the possibilities of malfunction that are life-threatening, we fast realize that it may happen at some point. And these "glitches" do occur, of course.

The last part is mostly a whodunit. Someone is killing everybody. And when the bodies begin to accumulate and Karl understands that even his own life is at risk now and he starts to act, it’s more interesting.

COMMENT:

First:
Frank, the protagonist, is sentenced to life imprisonment for killing the drug dealer who was slowly destroying his addict son. And he did that in the presence of a witness, which made him arrested even before the killed man touched the ground. However, Frank is described as an intelligent man and, from what the author tells us, he seems to us to be so. Therefore, this is contrary to the MC’s personality to act in this way. Anyway, what intelligent person would kill a dealer in the presence of witnesses? And how would that solve the problem of addiction of his son? As if there was only one dealer in his city! The author says that Frank, his wife and son tried other solutions to the boy’s addiction, without success. Which ones? Did he go in rehab? Once? Two times? Why didn’t they rather move to a town less likely to have dealers at each street corner? Frank is a construction contractor. Aren’t they needed everywhere, not just in his present town? He is surely not poor. So he could have gone to live elsewhere with his family. Did his son see a shrink? Why did his wife divorce so quickly after his conviction? Were there any family problems that could have been the cause of the son's troubles? Have they seen family counselors?

Anyway, that makes many unanswered questions. And one thing's for sure, it's not by being incarcerated that Frank could continue to help his son, right? On the contrary, he let his son down, left him alone by himself.

That's why I couldn't feel close to Frank at the first place. His behavior that led him to prison seemed irrational to me. Maybe it's only because it's not explained enough by the author.

Furthermore, because of Brack's promise to bring him back to Earth after the NASA astronauts’ arrival, Frank, who was the leader of the construction team on Mars, doesn't dare to complain on anything and doesn't worry much about his team members’ well-being or survival. He just blames himself after each death for not doing his overseer job correctly.
Asked by Declan to Frank about the murders on Mars: “But what is it about you that makes you so uncurious?”

Usually, I can even grow fond of characters who are criminals (e.g. the ex-Nazi in this novel) and care for them. By the way, I just finished IQ by Joe Ide. Isaiah, the MC of that novel, shot a drug dealer and his sidekick. But I was very attached to Isaiah already and his behavior seemed to me, if not completely sensible, at least very understandable. But it’s not the case here. And I need to understand the MC’s behavior to really appreciate a novel.

Second:

Who would be foolish enough to send people, even criminals, into untested stasis pods (cryogenic) and with insufficient and even defective equipment? Not even a company with budget problems. But here, Xenosystems Operations (XO), the company, subcontractor for NASA, sends nine people to build the base camp. Since eight of them are murderers, XO thinks nobody would know or if something is discovered, no one will be shocked by their assassination on the red planet during the construction of the base camp. Far-fetched, no?

Besides, why fly criminals to Mars if it is to send real astronauts afterwards? It only doubles the cost of an already expensive space mission (many billions $). To build the base camp, do you answer?

And have you heard or seen something about 4D printing and smart memory shape material? Read this Wiki page and watch this video and you will understand what it is about.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_m...
https://www.ted.com/talks/skylar_tibb...

Soon, it’ll be enough to send cylinders enclosing everything needed for the station to unfold and build itself in the desired forms at the very moment its containers are opened. No robots or criminals will be necessary for assembly.

NASA and SpaceX plan to go to Mars by 2025. Be sure that neither will send convicts there, especially not murderers.

I don’t like when authors create an implausible situation just to put their characters in a desperate context. And I like science fiction writers to be both realistic and inventive. There is not much inventiveness here and for the realism, outside of the date of the beginning of the story, it is not very credible.

---

Conclusion:

I really liked the beginning and the ending. For the central part, I found it endless. But maybe it'll interest a lot the readers who have a scientific background or the construction contractors, for example; as for me, despite being a frequent and avid reader of science magazines, I think that the author gave us too many technical details (to cover up the clues?).

But perhaps my lack of interest is not his fault though; it may be because I read "The Martian", which I loved. But because of it, life on Mars has come to seem very unpleasant and boring most of the time to me. I wouldn’t live there, not even for a few days. You must give me billions to convince me to go. Since nobody will offer me that kind of money, I’ll happily stay on Earth and keep reading science fiction novels.

Honesty and realism force me to put a damper on this novel. So I give it 3½ stars.

In the mid 2040s, Frank Kittridge is serving life (or many lives) without possibility of parole for murder. He's lost touch with his son, his wife has divorced him, and there's no future apart from years inside followed by death.

So when he's approached by Xo, the company behind the upcoming Mars mission, and offered the chance of a one-way ticket if he'll join a team of cons doing the spadework for the new base, he knows he's got little to lose. And perhaps, he may find redemption and even some honour one day in the eyes of his son. So Frank says "yes".

From then on, the story is of hard physical training and team building as the group - recruited for their various skills, all put away for life - practise, practise and practise for their different tasks. It's made clear by Brack, the group's brutal overseer, that any slip, any failure, any disobedience - even any illness - will mean being thrown off the programme and consigned to the Hole - a lifetime of solitary in a super-secure prison.

Frank may be out, but he's never going to be free.

Morden effectively portrays the forming dynamics between the members of the little group, their attempts to make the offer work for them and to ensure they succeed and don't get put in the Hole. They are, as one might expect in a story like this, a fairly mixed bunch and trust is hard to build. All the same, Frank gets some satisfaction from accomplishing his assigned task - building the habs that will form the base on Mars, and driving the Mars buggies to be used on the surface.

Throughout this - and indeed throughout the book - we also see internal memos, emails and transcripts of meetings from the Xo Corporation, giving information about the aims and means of the project but increasingly making it clear that corners are being intentionally cut and that there are other agendas than simply completing the base on time and to budget. It's a fascinating patchwork and I'd advise the reader to pay close attention to the dates here as this material bobs about a bit over the ten years or so in which the mission is planned and developed.

The story proper really picks up pace once Mars is reached. The team awake from suspended animation to find that the materials, equipment and food they're supposed to use have been scattered far from the landing site. They will need to pull together to survive, but accidents begin to happen...

I really enjoyed this story. Really, really enjoyed it. It's the kind of book that keeps you reading long into the night and has you annoying the family at meals when you pull out your e-reader. (Reader, I know whereof I speak...) Morden tells a compulsive story, which is at first driven along by the technical challenge of survival in a harsh environment but then, as the base seems to be coming together, turns into a deadly game or murder in a closed setting. There is plenty of tension in how that latter element is resolved (although I did work out fairly early on who must be behind it all, if not, exactly, how and why it was done and I also became rather frustrated that Frank was a little slow to do the same).

It's one of those books that almost seems to change character as you move through it. Given the first parts seems to be an exploration of how teamwork, and trust, might ensure survival, I began to wonder if there was almost a riposte here to what otherwise might seem a very similar book, Andy Weir's The Martian. (You knew I was going to have to mention that...) Weir's book read to me as very old-school, technocratic and individualistic SF, with everything coming down to its protagonist's skills and determination. Like One Way, I read it at a gallop. Unlike One Way (I was surprised to discover when I went back to check) I never reviewed The Martian (one of the few books I've read and not reviewed in the last 5 years or so) which suggests perhaps that for all its readability it made little mark. And it was certainly criticised on grounds of diversity.

Morden does perhaps invite such comparisons by exploring the same survival-on-Mars space,
and in centring the story very firmly on Frank as viewpoint and protagonist, especially in the final part of the book with everyone else a potential suspect, the book explicitly doesn't totally reject The Martian's individualism. What it does do, I think, is enrich it. Frank is a much more rounded and complex character than Mark Watney, with a set of motivations and a backstory which are much more developed. And for much of the book, he is able to demonstrate his relationships with, and his care for, the rest of the team (with all their flaws). In that, the story reminded me of Morden's fantasy novels Down Station and The White City which take a group of Londoners and thrust them into a parallel reality as London burns. There, too, one sees the team dynamics, the trust and the betrayals. It is those same dynamics which Morden uses to build up to his conclusion - a conclusion that is in the end very human.

So while the setup to this story and some of the practicalities may be similar, which seems vary courageous, Minister, on the whole I think it would be unfair to Morden to see this book through that lens, although I suspect he'll be asked about it A LOT.

In short this book is a fine read, providing a lot to think about.

https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2018/4/22/one-way-by-s-j-morden

Mars may be the next final frontier as we start to think about human exploration beyond the moon and often we think of those future astronauts as a mix of scientists and fighter pilots. In this entertaining SF thriller from SJ Morden we get a slightly more blue-collar view take. Can eight seemingly less than perfect people create the first Martian base? Will anyone but the murderer be alive at the end?

Our focus in on middle aged Frank Kittridge; serving a maximum life sentence for killing his son’s dealer has now lost contact with his family and he is keeping a low profile until the day he dies in prison. However, in his previous life Frank was an engineer and got thinks built and this means the vast corporation that both owns his prison and has just won a contract to create the first Martian base means he is a useful asset. Frank gets the offer to make something special of his life with seven other criminals who bring a set of skills that could make this plan work. They’re all expendable but they have a chance to make a name for themselves. Over the next year we see Frank train, learn to bond with his team and finally set foot on Mars. Sadly, while that happens we also start to see people begin to die – Mars is a dangerous place, but the level of accidents suggests something more than bad luck is at play. When everyone you know is a convicted criminal are you not likely to have a more dangerous person with you and with the nearest police officer is a few million miles away how can you investigate?

Morden really works hard to get you into what appears to be a slightly strange idea for the first Martian base. It’s incredibly risky so why not use convicts and you can easily imagine a corporation working out they’re cheaper labour. The science and importantly the people dynamics of the crew are a highlight. A simple crew of eight people need a variety of skills from driving to wiring to make a base work and the idea of everyone having to learn other skills and work under pressure - firstly on earth and then on Mars feels authentic. Frank becomes the de facto foreman able to work with anyone and see the bigger picture plus he perhaps out of all the team sees a form of redemption in the idea. When the action moves to Mars Modern makes the place seem alive and alien at the same time. Huge mountains a buggy must scale; dust twisters that can wipe you away and endless seas of nothing where you’re protected from boiling your body away in the cold by only a space suit or a flimsy base wall.

I got really sold on the idea that a well-designed base that’s disassembled and sent to mars could be made up by people who’ve learnt exactly how it all fits together. Its also made realistic that such corporations would make mistakes and its up to the crew to devise how to heat the building. Lots of clever engineering tricks that when you’re on your own really are impressive to read. The idea of level headed team leader like Frank who can cajole and boost his team is quite sensible as the real type of person you may want on another planet to help you. In comparison with The Martian where one-man battles survival I think preferred seeing how people must learn to co-operate and perhaps find within themselves a new life. I got swept along with the sense of adventure and quite invested in their survival.

This leads me though to the murder mystery aspect of the book. The first half builds up a sense of mystery as we see these rather horrific escalating ‘accidents’ that underline how alone this crew and it has a classic murder mystery feel of a locked house with one killer hiding among the suspects. But I think most experienced SF fans may find their suspicions proved right as to what is really going on and I think a few more curveballs or surprises may have helped keep me guessing for longer. The resolution is logical and makes sense, but I’d loved to have worked harder to guess the prime suspect.

Overall this is a fast and really engaging bit of Martian SF. Morden I think is a writer to watch as making science come alive and add a human dimension is a rare gift. A perfectly engaging read while you gaze up at the summer night skies and dream of the future.

3.5 of 5 stars
https://lynns-books.com/2018/04/12/one-way-by-s-j-morden/
One Way is a book that I was really looking forward to. A murder mystery on Mars. Everyone’s a suspect and there’s no way to escape. It sounds perfect doesn’t it? I expected to enjoy this and in fact I did. It’s well written with plenty of detail, some may think maybe too much detail, but I enjoyed it. A good read, not as tense as I expected, but none the less fast paced and compelling.
The book is set in a near future where plans to colonize Mars are in the final stages. The company undertaking the work have bitten off more than they can chew and final delivery on schedule is unlikely so they come up with a new plan To cut costs they hit on the idea of convict labour. They look at those convicts with no chance of release, convicts with skills that can be used and adapted to build a base on Mars. They offer them a deal which basically involves a one way ticket to Mars and although, basically, this is little more than swapping one form of prison for another it has the promise of hope.
As the book starts we meet Frank. Frank murdered somebody and is due to stay in prison for the rest of his natural life. Previously Frank worked as an architect with experience of project managing which means he comes up as a potential match and as such he’s offered the chance to work on Mars. With the opportunity to undertake work that could really make a difference in the future Frank accepts the offer.
The story then moves to a training facility where all the inmates chosen undertake rigorous training. They eventually meet the rest of the crew they will be stationed with but at the same time they find out that their choices are not as straightforward as they first expected. It seems like there’s one ultimatum after another and the rewards for failure don’t really bear contemplation and merely serve to act as a carrot to keep everyone in line. The training is eventually complete, or more to the point the date of departure is moved forward whether the crew are ready or not. They’re all set to depart for a one way trip to Mars where they’ll have to work intensely to establish a base in which to live and where their only company will be convicted murderers.
I did find this story very easy to read. I really enjoyed the attention to detail and Frank is a very easy narrator to get along with. The whole premise in fact was quite fascinating and clearly written by somebody who knows the whys and wherefores concerning space travel and the like and that knowledge and understanding is evident in the writing. Basically, it’s impressive and very readable but I did have a few things that prevented this from becoming a book that completely bowled me over.
I think my first issue was the lack of tension. I don’t know why but the deaths had a fairly ‘flat’ feel – which could simply be because for the main part they were made to look like accidents and it’s not until the story is fairly advanced that foul play is suspected. Secondly, we really don’t spend very much time with the crew. We primarily accompany Frank and whilst he’s an easy storyteller to like it does also mean that the other characters are very flimsy and consequently their deaths don’t really have an impact. Finally, for me, what was really going on seemed obvious and so I found myself slightly irritated that the crew couldn’t see it. Of course, as a reader, I’m privy to information that the rest of the team are unaware of and to be fair I don’t think the author was trying too hard to create a mystery as such. I think this was more about survival and outwitting the murderer. Basically, I think my expectations when picking this up were maybe not what they should have been. I think I was expecting this to be a much more scary read.
Admittedly that does seem a little negative so I’m going to end with a more positive note. This was without doubt a good read. Very intelligent and well thought out. I found it really gripping and could barely put it down. If you fancy picking this up then I would simply say that I found this more to be a story of survival against the odds than a dark and scary murder story.
Not what I originally expected but a good read, well written and with an open ending that could either mean another book is in the offing or the author is letting you make up your own mind about how things conclude.
My thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy, through Netgalley. The above is my own opinion.

One Way has an interesting premise. In this world, a company which owns some prison facilities, decides that it would be cheaper to use prisioners who were sentenced to life to do their work. How do they manage to get the prisioners to agree? Well you do the time here where you are really confined or you try Mars where you'll live not so confined. Sounds weird right? But read it and it will make sense to you.

Frank gets caught up in this deal. He did something bad in order to keep his family safe and ended up in Mars. He was a really nice character, he was written to be sympathized with, there's no doubt about that. He is hard working and really intelligent. Some of the other characters were nice aswell, but not the guy who was responsible for them (I cannot for the life of me remember his name). That guy was an asshole.

I couldn't really put this book down even though the plot twist was predictable from the moment shit started hitting the fan. I just kept thinking that maybe I was wrong and that maybe there would be another explanation for what was happening. Even though this wasn't the case I was really happy to figure out that I was right after all.

I believe the author did a really good job writing this book. It had two type of entries: one which was the events has they happened, through Frank's poit of view and the second was through e-mails and files and conversations that explained what was happening with the company that sent them there and what were their thoughts as they developed the project. I really appreciated how these two types of entries went with eachother.

Overall this book was really great, it was slow paced to begin with which was normal, since the characters had to do all the training in order to get to Mars, but as they get there the pacing really picks up.

And that ending though...I need a novella to explain to me how it would work. ahah

One Way by S.J. Morden

Frank Kittridge is not a man with a future. Serving a life sentence for murder, he is suddenly given an opportunity that won’t see him walking the streets as a free man but it would give him something else – a purpose, hope. Xenosystems Operations has won the contract to build the first permanent habitat on Mars but there’s a catch. Its tender said that it would construct the habitat with robotic technology, a technology that doesn’t exist. Instead, everything must be built by hand and as cheaply as possible, using a workforce that is expendable. XO intends to send eight convicts from its own private prison to do a job that comes with no guarantees of success – and with no ticket home. This will be a one way trip.

These eight astronauts are thrown together with nothing in common but a shared goal to stay alive and out of a dreaded prison called the Hole. But, working together and learning each other’s roles in order to provide back up if needed, they do discover a camaraderie, albeit one that cannot be trusted or relied upon. These are dangerous individuals after all. And that’s not even counting their single guard who seems even worse than they are. This trip will be no holiday.

One Way follows our convict astronauts through their training on Earth and then their first days and weeks on Mars, when they must use all of their ingenuity and skills to pull this habitat together in the face of almost insurmountable odds. And the fact that one of their number dies just hours after their arrival only increases their stress, nervousness and suspicions. When this death is followed by another, it becomes clear that the Martian environment isn’t the only danger they face.

I love novels set on Mars and this one has the added bonus of also being a murder mystery. A small group of individuals in a confined space, with no chance of escape, and a murderer among their number, is a tried and tested format and it works here very well. But, for me, it’s the descriptions of Mars itself and the heroic endeavour to build a life set within this lethal beauty that appeals the most.

There are elements that remind me of The Martian – there’s a lot of nitty gritty detail about building vehicles, transporting objects, putting them together, giving them power and so on. I must admit that there were bits of this that did float over my head. I’m no scientist and I’m not an engineer, electrician or plumber either, so I wouldn’t have been much help myself, but it’s the human effort that I enjoyed.

It’s difficult to warm to characters who were mostly convicts for life for very good reason. Some of the crimes are left vague, just so we don’t hate them too much, but with Frank his crime of murder is given a reason and, as it’s clear he would have no reason to ever do such a thing again, we can warm to him. We follow Frank through much of the novel, listening in to his worries and fears. His need to see his family again is intense and it drives him on. His doubts and anxieties feel very believable. Other characters stayed in the shadows for me but Frank has such a strong presence and identity.

I really enjoyed the claustrophobic feel to One Way as well as the stark beauty of its descriptions of Mars. As soon as I heard about One Way I knew I had to read it and it did not disappoint. And how I love that cover!

One Way is one of those books that will make you think about the way that the world works.

This is a hard sci-fi book, and for those unfamiliar with that term, it means that the science in this science fiction leans more towards the plausible than the fantastical. In this context the word “hard” could also allude to the hard look that One Way takes at the concept of colonising Mars

Let’s be completely honest with ourselves here. Nobody who has tried to colonise anything in the past has ever done so with completely selfless motives. No colonisation has ever taken place without excessive pain, cruelty, and suffering. Colonisation has, historically, been motivated by greed.

So why, when we think of colonising Mars, do we think that things will be any different?

One Way explores this concept with a cynical eye; the book is painfully aware of the brutal, profit-driven society that we currently live in.

Our main character, whom we follow through a third person perspective, is Frank. At the very beginning of our story, Frank is serving a life sentence for the murder of his son’s drug dealer. In the first chapter, a representative of the conglomerate known as Xenosystems Operations (or XO for short) offers Frank what is essentially a prison transfer. In exchange for better food, a meaningful job, and a bit more freedom, Frank would help construct the first ever base on Mars.

Why would XO want a convict to build their ridiculously expensive space base? Well… because convicts are cheap. In fact, this ridiculously expensive space base isn’t anywhere near as expensive as it should be. XO have cut corners at every opportunity to decrease their costs, and this is the source of a lot of the conflict in this story.

Frank is one of eight prisoners who will be part of the first construction team on Mars. Their job is to construct the base, and get everything ready for the arrival of the Very Important NASA astronauts — including the growing of food, and the set-up of very fancy science equipment.

Quite a bit of the sciencey stuff is explained, but if you’re looking for something akin to Mark Watney’s witty and hilarious analogies from The Martian, you might be a bit disappointed. The stuff is interesting enough, if you’re a nerd like me, but it’s described in a much more serious tone.

The tube is connected to the… Air-lock

Some of the members of Frank’s team are pretty interesting characters. There’s Alice, a doctor with over thirty illegal mercy killings on her conscience. There’s Zeus, an apologetic ex-Neo-Nazi who was recently found religion. Then there’s 5 more, all with their own pasts and demons.

It should be noted that this isn’t really a character-driven story. Nor is it a story defined by its plot. The concept of space colonisation in a capitalist society is at the heart of what One Way is, and it’s the exploration of that concept which is — in my opinion — the best part of the book.

At one point the prisoners have to make the decision to prioritize their air, their food, or their water. It’s little touches like that which really caught my imagination. There is very little sense of wonder because our characters are too busy trying to Get Shit Done, and more importantly, survive.

The following (paraphrased) quote sums up the book for me:

“We’re not tourists, and we’ve got deadlines.”

And oh yeah… on top of all the above, there’s also a murder mystery.

If you’re looking for a high-action adventure-filled romp in space with explosions and laser beams and romance… this isn’t the book for you. But if you like books that offer interesting and insightful commentary on society, then One Way might be something you’d enjoy.

Frank Kittredge is a lifer. Sentenced to jail for killing his son’s dealer, he is offered a chance: join a mission to Mars crewed by convicts to construct a settlement in anticipation of a crew of NASA astronauts or stay in prison and rot (Botany Bay, anyone?). He takes the deal, and not only that, is later offered a trip home and a pardon if he keeps an eye on his six fellow crew members for Brack, their unnecessarily sadistic and overbearing supervisor.

After way too long describing the team’s training, including how they learn to drive Mars buggies and build habs, the crew head to Mars. Almost immediately things start going wrong and crew members start to die. This finally kicks a thriller element into gear as an Agatha Christie-style And Then There Were None situation starts to develop and Frank has to investigate the mounting death toll without becoming a victim himself.

Andy Weir’s The Martian managed to hit a certain sweet spot between technobabble, scientific accuracy, character and plot. SJ Morden goes down a similar road in One Way but with less success. He spends in inordinate amount of time on the science and engineering challenges of training for and building a settlement on Mars. The idea to use convicts as a disposable labour force is original but given their easily avoided one man oversight, not worth thinking about too hard. The slowly creeping dread as one by one the crew members die in “accidents” provides some impetus, particularly cranking up in the final act.

In the background to the main plot, Morden charts the development of the idea to send expendable convicts to Mars to do the dirty work. This behind-the-scenes corporate skullduggery gives the book some thematic depth and a different spin on Frank’s experience. The attention to detail is commendable and everything about the mission itself and its preparation is believable. Which only serves to make One Way interesting rather than page-turning.

I loved the sound of this book , and it didn't disappoint.I liked the main character and felt that in his situation he had nothing to lose, so was looking forward to seeing what happened.I really liked the first part of the book, and also liked some of the other characters, I did feel that when they got to Mars there was too much technical description, but that could just be me I am not a techie even though I enjoy Sci Fi books, other people may well be more tech savvy than me and enjoy the descriptions more.I felt that I would have preferred to see some of the peripheral characters fleshed out more instead of the techie stuff, but it really is a very minor criticism.Overall I really enjoyed reading this book and thought the story was great, and the imagination shown was good. I would recommend this book and would definitely read more by this author.Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.

I was bitterly disappointed by this book and though it pains me to give it such a low score, I really can't find it in my heart to stretch to giving it more than a 2 star rating.

Initially sold to me as a cross between "The Martian" by Andy Weir and "And then there were none" by Agatha Christie, "One Way" follows a group of prisoners who are given the opportunity to trade in their life sentences in prison for a perilous one-way trip to Mars where they will set up a base for the NASA astronauts who will follow. Once on Mars, things don't go as smoothly as planned and one by one they begin to die. Is this because of their lack of training, or is something more sinister afoot?

Firstly, although I gave this book a 2 star rating there are parts that I enjoyed immensly. I liked S. J. Morden's writing style; I thought the premise was very interesting and I wanted to read to the end to find out what happened. I cared for the characters and I think if they hadn't been written so well I would have given up on this book before I even made the halfway point.

The science in this book is incredibly detailed and though in places this was interesting, more often than not it overwhelmed the plot. I don't want to keep mentioning "The Martian", although due to the nature of these books it's hard to avoid the comparison, but the science Andy Weir uses makes sense within his plot. His main character is a fully bonofide astronaut and he's keeping a diary to help himself from going crazy and to work out how to keep himself alive with minimal supplies and no help.

The characters in "One Way" are not scientists and the plot, if we go by the blurb of the book, is supposed to focus mainly on the murder mystery. The incredibly detailed science, though interesting, massively slows the plot down and made me very frustrated. It seemed self-indulgent of the author instead of beneficial to the story and I think the book could be halved in length and be much stronger for it. For example, I was at least 50% through the book before they'd even left Earth. So much of the book was uncessarily based around their training when I just wanted to read about them on Mars as I'd been promised.

In a way I think the book has been let down by the blurb giving away the murder mystery plot. The first few deaths are wholly believable as accidental but because you know there is a murderer you put your detective hat on and I think I realised who the murderer was after the second death.

The last 15% of the book was action packed, exciting and exactly what you want from a science-fiction read. I read it in one sitting and it was the first time I'd sat down to read this book where I wasn't clock watching and keeping track of how much I'd read. It was pure enjoyment and it made me very disappointed that a) the rest of the book hadn't lived up to my expectations and that b) the ending was so abrupt and disappointing.

After everything that had happened in the book I wanted to know how it properly ended. Did anybody get off Mars? Did Nasa arrive? Did the last survivor (mentioning no names) end up dying through lack of supplies before anyone could reach them? So many questions, such an unsatisfying ending.

My last issue with this book is the confusing extracts at the beginning of the each chapter which track the development of the corporation responsible for the convicts extradition to Mars. These extracts were in the form of emails and written documents and usually I like this sort of epistolary feature in books but in this case, I'm still confused as to why the project was begun, how it ended the way it did and what the corporation had planned for the future. I would have preferred less coverage of the training and more background from the corporation.

I don't think I would recommend this book particuarly, which is a shame because from the outset I was really looking forward to reading it. It's strength is the characters and the way in which they all interact and work together. Unfortunately, in my opinion there are a lot of weaknesses which make this book hard work to get through.

Any novels that feature its lead character stranded on Mars will naturally find themselves compared to Andy Weir's global bestseller “The Martian”, and while “One Way” does share some of the same DNA as that book, S.J Morden's murder-mystery narrative actually has more in common with Agatha Christie, specficially “And Then There Were None”. There is a real sense of tension in the isolated Mars Base One as the various convict construction workers begin to meet accidental deaths, and Morden manages to make you care for the eclectic mix of characters so that each loss matters. While it was surprisingly easy to guess the killer and their motivations, it was still enthralling to witness the accidents take place.

The novel's protagonist Frank Kitteridge is a likeable lead, despite the fact that he is serving a life sentence for murder, and naturally assumes a leadership role amongst this 'chain gang' of convicts sent to Mars to establish a permanent research facility there. I liked the attention to detail in the story, as our motley crew of space explorers are given extensive training on Earth before making the transition to the red planet. However, once the action shifted to Mars, I found myself having trouble visualising some of the more technical elements, such as the Habs themselves and the Mars landscape. A quick Google image search helped give me a better idea of size and scale, but as someone relatively unaquainted with the intricacies of Mars colonisation projects, I sometimes struggled to understand the geographies of the Mars Base One – perhaps illustrations may have helped?

Accompanying the convicts is the antagonistic astronaut Brack, who works directly for the corporation that is funding this project. Aggressive in tone and nature, he is the only non-convict in the team, and Frank's promise of a ride home to Earth lies with ensuring his survival until NASA's astronauts arrive. Morden slips in 'leaked memos' ahead of each chapter that provide some added context to the operation and the budget-focused attitude of Xenosystems' executives. The whole decision to use convicts in place of trained astronauts is an exercise in penny-pinching and these continued 'cut corners' create significant problems for the team to overcome, such as hunger and a lack of resources. From the moment that Frank and his team step foot on Mars, it is a battle for survival against an environment that wants to kill them, and Morden does a brilliant job at making sure that concept is always front and center, generating tension page after page.

Faster-paced than “The Martian” and very cinematic in scope, “One Way” is the very definition of a page-turner, blending hard sci-fi with a classic whodunnit storyline. It's a great juxtaposition of modern and classic storytelling, and for the most part it works well. My biggest issue was with how easy it was to guess the murderer, and I think this was due to the fact that the book was presented as a murder-mystery from the outset. The cover itself read, “Eight Astronauts. One Killer. No Escape”. If this hadn't have been revealed, I would have thought the first few deaths were accidental like the characters in the book, and would not have been in detective mode from the outset. I can see why they revealed it – a murder-mystery set on Mars is a brilliant hook, and it's what made me want to read the book, but I think it would have been better marketed differently. That said, “One Way” is still great fun even when you are one step ahead of the characters in the book, and it would make a terrific movie.