Book Review: The Empress of Mars by Kage Baker

The Empress of Mars

by Kage Baker (Baker)

 

My science fiction club recently read Kage Baker’s The Empress of Mars for our monthly book discussion, and I really enjoyed it. Baker (1952-2010) had 14 novels in her series about “The Company”, and this one, published in 2009 (and enlarged from a 2003 novella) fits very early into the series continuity, and, oddly enough, doesn’t really feel like it is part of the series.

 

The Empress of Mars takes place on a human outpost on the Red Planet, where human beings have settled a small “city” on the planet, but life is still difficult and hardscrabble. The British Arean Company originally settled Mars by appealing to the “dregs” of human society on Earth — criminals, emotionally or mentally challenged, those that didn’t fit into normal society. Now that the company sees that Mars isn’t going to turn them a massive profit, they don’t have much interest in supporting the colonists and blue collar workers who are living there. This novel is about those social misfits, and their attempts to make a comfortable living in spite of overwhelming forces lined up against them. The “Empress” of the title is two things — the bar named “The Empress” where everyone passes through at one time or another, and also the nickname Mary Griffith, the owner of the bar, who with her three daughters and a ragtag group of friends and co-workers, is determined to make something of the difficult life they all have on Mars.

 

Though nominally part of “The Company” series, The Empress of Mars can easily be read on its own. It has colorful, interesting characters. It has lots of humor. It has underdogs worth rooting for. If its science plays a little fast and loose with reality, it doesn’t interfere in telling a good yarn. Highly recommended!

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try any of the rest of Kage Baker‘s many novels or short story collections — although the rest of our “Company” novels differ slightly in tone from The Empress of Mars.)

 

( Kage Baker entry on Wikipedia )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!