Review: The Mars House by Natasha Pulley

A compulsively readable queer sci-fi novel about a marriage of convenience between a Mars politician and an Earth refugee.In the wake of an environmental catastrophe, January, once a principal in London’s Royal Ballet, has become a refugee in Tharsis, the terraformed colony on Mars. There, January’s life is dictated by his status as an Earthstronger-a person whose body is not adjusted to lower gravity and so poses a danger to those born on, or naturalized to, Mars. January’s job choices, housing, and even transportation are dictated by this second-class status, and now a xenophobic politician named Aubrey Gale is running on a platform that would make it all Gale wants all Earthstrongers to naturalize, a process that is always disabling and sometimes deadly.When Gale chooses January for an on-the-spot press junket interview that goes horribly awry, January’s life is thrown into chaos, but Gale’s political fortunes are damaged, too. Gale proposes a solution to both their a five year made-for-the-press marriage that would secure January’s future without naturalization and ensure Gale’s political success.

But when January accepts the offer, he discovers that Gale is not at all like they appear in the press. They’re kind, compassionate, and much more difficult to hate than January would prefer. As their romantic relationship develops, the political situation worsens, and January discovers Gale has an enemy, someone willing to destroy all of Tharsis to make them pay-and January may be the only person standing in the way.Un-put-downably immersive and utterly timely, Natasha Pulley’s new novel is a gripping story about privilege, strength, and life across class divisions, perfect for readers of Sarah Gailey and Tamsyn Muir.

SPOILERS IN THE REVIEW

Review:

I enjoyed trying to figure out what was up with the character of Audrey Gale and I just plain liked January and I loved the delicate dancing between them of trying to understand each other and what stands behind their hang ups and prejudices about each other. However HOWEVER some of the substantive real world allusions that jumped at me from the page were, for the lack of the nicer word, repulsive to me and if I were to grade the book on how I felt about those allusions, one star would be most generous rating I could give.  So since I don’t think it is fair to grade the book based on how I feel about it only, I won’t give it D or F, but I just do not know what to give it otherwise.

Let’s start with the most obvious one from the blurb. January is coming to Tharsis as a refugee, right?

Only since the gravity on Mars and Earth are very different, basically anyone who is coming from Earth has to wear a cage on their body and try not to go near Mars borne “natural people” because they are so much stronger than Mars born colonists (the cage helps adjusting to gravity, but even though wearing it is doable, it still needs to come off your body for couple hours). Otherwise Earthborn can accidentally kill Mars borne folks and THEY ACTUALLY DO IT MANY TIMES. Accidentally mind you, but that does not make them any less dangerous.

Let’s translate it yes? Although what translation do we need? Refugees coming to your country are inherently dangerous just because of who they are or specifically where they are coming from in this fictional world. That’s just great. I think it was pretty obvious that writer is using this allusion as adding nuance in the debate/dispute which constantly happening between Gale and January (and it was well done writing wise I thought, they do not really do political debate, the story unfolds and their actual discussion is very much a part of what was happening in the story).

“You talk a really good talk, and nobody has ever been as nice to me as you are; but I would be an idiot to forget that talking and doing are different. You’re Schrödinger’s cat, for me. You could be what you say, or you could be radioactive. Don’t get me wrong, it’s far better than what I’d have otherwise, but pardon me if I don’t kick the box with the nuclear cat in it.” Gale was quiet. If he had thought that they cared what his opinion of them was, he would have worried that the flicker that went through their eyes then was hurt. But they didn’t, so it couldn’t be. “That seems sensible to me.” “Thank you, Senator. I’ll ask Mx Francis to brief me about the shows.” As he bowed and got up, his knee twinged and he winced; Gale did too.”

The problem is there, for me this is not up for debate, basically I get that this is not Gale’s fault as a character – in his world all Earthborn folks are dangerous because of them being stronger and being able to knock down the Mars colonists if they are not careful and do not wear a cage. So they have a solution, which I did not discuss yet. Naturalization!

I am all for real world naturalization by the way – I think you should adapt in your new country and learn a language and all that. Only naturalization in this book means that you leave the naturalization center in a wheelchair in the majority of the situations, is basically medical torture for your body to adjust it to the gravity on Mars. So you will be naturalized and quite ill and it will take couple of decades from your life expectancy.

No wonder January is not really interested, but he ends up stuck in the fake marriage with Gale for five years at least (marriage in this world is a five year contract) and the more he learns about Gale the more he thinks that he cannot put together their personality and their politics, but he still likes them more and more (even if Gale may have committed murder in the past OR NOT) and if Gale wins the election he will put this bill up as a law (I was not sure if a vote on the bill will actually be happening).

But as the blurb tells you Gale has an enemy amongst politicians and this politician is willing to do a lot of horrible things to prevent Gale from winning the election. Chaos unfolds, at least temporarily.

As I said I liked Gale and January together, I think they had a good chemistry. I just did not care what Gale stood for, even if the ending kinda deals with that, but like there was no thematic change in them in that sense, except YAY if I cannot send January to those centers, I cannot send anybody there.

I also wanted to comment that the author made a strange stylistic choice to me. This society on Tharsis eliminated gender. No, this in itself is not a strange stylistic choice, although the reason suggested was to stop the war on women, so let’s eliminate gender markers and stop one gender being weaker than other was kind of strange. But society without gender was an interesting exploration.

But the writer did not seem to describe the characters except their hair and clothes. I felt that all of them are faceless at the end and yes, I know most wore filters, but considering that I am not a very visual reader already a bit more help for me would have been appreciated.

PS . Mammoths were very cool and fun. The comments on languages (mostly Mandarin and English were fascinating).