sdlotu
12/31/2021
There's nothing to like about Mars. It's the 18th Century Australia of the space age, where the powers that be on Earth dump their collective undesirables and leave them to rot. And rot is what they do. Everyone, from the top down, sprials down into corruption and violence. Even the 'hero', Bruce Gordon.
The story is more gang violence than SF, but since it's set on Mars it gets the appelation anyway. The writing is decent, if rather cliche in the use of gang and noir tropes. It reads like Del Rey was trying to mash the two genres together as a goof to see how it would come out.
If you're looking for 'mean streets noir', this will probably be a good fit. If you're looking for something more broadly SF, you best look elaswhere.