Lost on Mars by Paul Magrs Review

Image Source: Goodreads

“With the scale and scope of the great science fiction epics, Lost on Mars tells the story of Lora and her family, settlers on the red planet struggling to survive in incredible circumstances. The family clings to life on a smallholding, surviving storms and sinister rumours of people disappearing – until one night Lora sees the Dancers. When her father and grandmother disappear, Lora and her family are driven out to seek a new life across the plains. But none of them are ready for what they find – the beautiful, dangerous City Inside.” (Synopsis taken from Goodreads)

Lost on Mars by Paul Magrs

Release Date: 14th May, 2015

Pages: 352

Publisher: Firefly Press

Format: Paperback

Source: Purchase

I came across Lost on Mars by Paul Magrs at the YALC event at July’s London Film and Comic Con. I would usually pass on reading a book like this, as Lost on Mars is sci-fi and I am not a fan of the sci-fi genre. I was intrigued by the cover but, most importantly, the blurb captured my attention straight away. Kudos to the author for making me want to read a story that belongs in a genre that I don’t usually enjoy.

I liked Lost on Mars but I didn’t love it. I found that the first half of the book was the strongest and I always wanted to know what was going to happen next. However, the rest of the book did not hold my attention like the first part of the book did. I felt that both halves of the book belonged to two different stories. The endings of some of the chapters felt a bit awkward too. Some of the chapters ended abruptly and it threw me out of the reading zone.

My favourite character has to be Toaster. I would enjoy reading a novella about this particular character. However, I didn’t really care much for the rest of the characters and as I read more and more I found myself caring less and less. The main character, Lora, was not distinguishable from other YA main characters out there, making it difficult for me to want to know more about her and her story.

Even though I did not enjoy this book as much as I thought I would when I first began reading it, I would still recommend it to readers who, like me, are not big fans of sci-fi. Lost in Mars isn’t loaded with sci-fi tropes and elements that make it difficult for me to get into the genre. As you can tell, I have read very little sci-fi and I am not claiming to be an expert on the genre, but for the reason just stated I think that this book would be a great introductory read for anyone looking to give sci-fi a chance.

3/5 stars

 – Liz