SOJALS rating:

Awful (1/5)

I first read this on the 1st August 2006.

The race to Mars is on. Both the American and the Chinese have missions on their way, and the Chinese are likely to be there first.

Bad enough for your average American, but now it is likely that the American mission is doomed due to a malfunctioning engine.

Our group of American teenagers cannot let that happen. They (their names escape me), along with an alcoholic ex-astronaut (also) and his genius cousin (ahem, sorry), will build their own spaceship, based on a revolutionary design, and will rescue the Americans.

This is the story of how they are going to do it.

I would have been content if they had merely saved the Americans, but no they have to go and beat the Chinese as well. The novel has a fun concept but a dreary plot and it is clearly for the teenage market.

You may have realised: I was expecting another "Ophiuchi Hotline" and this wasn't it (not that it was intended to be).