Martians Abroad

December 5, 2016
It’s not billed as a YA novel, but this SF tale from Vaughn (the Kitty Norville series) is unlikely to appeal to adults; the color-within-the-lines plot and young characters without any depth fail to create interest, much less sustain it. Sometime in the future, Polly Newton, a teenager who has grown up on Mars, finds her plans for a career as a pilot disrupted by her mother, Martha, the operations supervisor for Colony One. Martha has dictated that Polly and her twin brother, Charles, attend the Galileo Academy on Earth for three years, despite her daughter’s intense resistance to the idea. Once Polly arrives at the academy, she goes through the de rigueur cycle of feeling out of place, enduring romantic trouble, challenging authority, and getting an opportunity to demonstrate her courage and smarts. The introduction of a plot line suggesting that someone is trying to kill Polly and her colleagues fails to add excitement.

November 1, 2016
Vaughn (Dreams of the Golden Age, 2014, etc.) offers a stand-alone that finds a Martian colonist struggling to adapt to life on Earth. When Martian-born teenager Polly Newton and her twin brother, Charles, are forced to leave their home on the red planet to attend the Galileo Academy on Earth, she is enraged. How dare her mother thwart her plans to intern at the astrodome by sending her "dirtside" to "old, grubby, crowded, archaic, backward, stifling"--not to mention heavy-gravity--Earth? Beyond Polly's chagrin at this setback to her original plan to become the captain of a starship, she senses there is more to this forced journey than the simple opportunity to get a stellar education. On Earth, Polly, Charles, and the other offworld kids struggle to adjust to eating animal flesh and living under an open sky. After drawing attention to herself by getting in trouble for taking an unauthorized ride on a cycle, Polly gains the admiration of the other students and bonds with a group of friends. When suspicious, dangerous events begin to occur, Polly's initial instincts that something is amiss at this academy for the elite are confirmed. In narrator Polly, Vaughn creates a feisty, intelligent protagonist and places her in what is essentially a classic school story, albeit one with spaceships. In her future, racial and ethnic differences exist but are downplayed, societal friction introduced in the offworlders' contact with the Earthers, who sneer at their accents and backward customs. It is Polly's teen snarkiness and strong sense of self that will have readers rooting for her to get to the bottom of the mystery. Reading far more like a book for young teenagers than one with a strictly adult audience, this easygoing adventure has an affable appeal.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 1, 2016

Growing up on Mars, Polly Newton has always dreamed of becoming a starship pilot. Leaving the colony and traveling the galaxy is finally within her grasp, until her mother, president of the Mars Colony, decides to send Polly and twin brother Charles to Galileo Academy on Earth--the one place Polly never wanted to see. As Polly and Charles are introduced to life at the academy, Polly has a difficult time fitting in with the antagonistic Earth teens and accepting that she has limited choices. Charles, on the other hand, uses his smarts to ease his transition, while cautioning his sister about deeper motives at work. As unusual circumstances begin to affect some of their classmates, Polly and Charles need to discover the truth before these incidents turn deadly. VERDICT Vaughn, moving away from her popular "Kitty Norville" urban fantasies, has penned a riveting sf stand-alone tale with broad YA crossover appeal.--KC

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2017

Twins Polly and Charles Newton are part of the second generation of human Martians. Polly, a natural-born risk taker, is consumed by the desire to become a first-class starship pilot and has landed an internship with the astrodome flight school, but her dream is derailed when her mother uses her position as Mars One Operations Director to enroll the twins in Earth's prestigious Galileo Academy, where all the best, brightest, and richest send their children. Polly and Charles have a steep learning curve, as they will be the first Martian children ever to attend the school. The twins must learn to adapt to Earth's stronger gravity, an Earth-based curriculum, and Earth-born students with superiority complexes. Charles unobtrusively observes the school's director, Ms. Stanton, in an attempt to discover the real purpose for their presence at the academy, while Polly slowly makes friends with outlanders and Earth-born kids as they try to find out who's behind sabotaged field trips. The world-building is completely plausible and will thrill fantasy readers. Polly is a likable character, although readers don't get to know her until the end of the book; Charles, on the other hand, is more of a peripheral character and is slightly underdeveloped. VERDICT A great option for tween fantasy readers, this novel will delight fans of Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" titles or Neil Gaiman's "InterWorld" series.-Desiree Thomas, Worthington Library, OH

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2016
Teenage twins Polly and Charles, born and raised on Colony One, the largest human settlement on Mars, have been sent dirtside to attend prestigious Galileo Academy. Polly, who dreams of becoming a starship pilot, resents being banished to Earth, but she grudgingly goes when she is told Galileo could fast-track her admittance to flight school. Also, her mother, the Colony One director, says she has no choice. The twins join other off-worlder students in struggling with gravity, agoraphobia, homesickness, and bullying, but as the only Martian students, they are at a disadvantage. After Polly rescues a student who falls from a cliff during a field trip, she is considered a hero, but when dangerous situations follow them everywhere, genius Charles knows they're being set up. But is the unknown saboteur trying to make the Martians fail, or make them look good? This is a classic fish-out-of-water boarding-school story, focused on an adventurous, good-hearted heroine, with retro SF twists that nod to Heinlein's oeuvre.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2017
Polly is on track to become an interplanetary pilot. Then her mother unexpectedly ships Polly and her twin brother, Charles, from their home colony on Mars to an elite Earth boarding school, where fitting in takes a backseat to investigating unsettlingly frequent accidents. Narrative focus on teenage social navigation makes this a familiar school story with some sci-fi details.

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)