The Empress of Mars

Ahh, Mars! Science fiction’s oldest and most reliable other-world. From H.G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs to Kim Stanley Robinson and Dan Simmons, Mars' proximity and similarity to Earth has invited authors to imagine a near future of exploration, colonisation and terra-formation. Like many authors before her Kage Baker imagines the first wave of colonists to the red planet, but she has a light touch with the hard-science that allows the characters and plot to develop freely.

When the British Arean Company founded its Martian colony, it welcomed any settlers it could get. Outcasts, misfits and dreamers emigrated in droves to undertake the grueling task of terraforming the cold red planet--only to be abandoned when the BAC discovered it couldn't turn a profit on Mars.

Xenobiologist Mary Griffith is one of many who can’t pass up the British Arean Company’s (BAC) offer to start a new life as a colonist on Mars. But BAC soon realise that their Martian venture is not financially feasible and the colonists are left largely to fend for themselves. Mary turns her biological expertise to something more productive (brewing beer) and opens the first and only bar on the planet. Her fledgling establishment, 'The Empress of Mars', serves as loci for the stories of a motley crew of colonists: the ice hauler Brick; the rambling Heretic; the Italian rogue Vespucci; the conman Stanley Crossley; and a lawyer determined to break BAC's control over their lives.

Early on in the book Kage Baker lulls us into a false sense of familiarity with her comfortable pub setting and the well-worn Martian backdrop - it almost feels like an episode of Cheers on the Tharsis Bulge. You know these characters and the roles they are playing but it's not until Vespucci arrives, with his enthusiasm for spaghetti Westerns that the comparison is made explicit.

"Oh, here we go ..." I hear you sigh, "another space Western. Been there, done that, joined the Brown Coat fan club."

Stick with Kage Baker here, though, because nothing she writes is ever as it seems. She has a gift for tight, intricate plotting and thoughtful character development that makes for a beguiling, constantly surprising read.

Fans of Baker's Company series will be glad to know that this story is set in the same milieu, though for now it seems to be a stand alone story. The Empress of Mars is actually based on her Hugo Award-nominated novella of the same name and the extra development she has put into it is well worth it. Pure enjoyment.