Before Mars

Strange events prompt a geologist on a Mars base to question her mission in Newman’s suspenseful companion novel to Planetfall and After Atlas. In a future defined by corporate greed and hubris, Dr. Anna Kubrin is sent to Mars by the head of the powerful GaborCorp to both work as a geologist and paint unique Mars vistas that will sell for enormous profit. Anna finds a note in her room, painted in her own hand, that warns her not to trust the base’s psychologist, Dr. Arnolfi; she later discovers a footprint in the Mars dust that doesn’t belong. She is puzzled by the crew’s strange behavior and her undeniable, familiar attraction to her colleague Dr. Asil Elvan. As Anna’s paranoia builds, so does pain that stems from her ambivalence about being a mother and her family’s dark past. Devastating news from Earth turns up the heat considerably. Newman has constructed a captivating puzzle of a tale that, while harrowing, concludes on a poignantly hopeful note, leaving the door open for further adventures in an all-too-believable future. [em]Agent: Jennifer Udden, Barry Goldblatt Literary. (Apr.) [/em]