Last Day on Mars

Reviewed by: Cidney Mayes - Memorial Middle School Library, South Portland, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: June 30, 2017

Review

The year is 2213, and thirteen year-old Liam is anxious to catch the last spaceship leaving Mars to his new home, planet Aaru. The Earth sank into the sun five years ago, and now Mars is due to follow the same fate. Liam is reluctant to leave Mars; he was born there and identifies as a Martian. Liam, his parents, and his friend Phoebe and her family are a few of the very last people to remain on Mars frantically working on completing important terraforming research that will assure their lives on Aaru. When the research station mysteriously explodes, Liam and Phoebe's parents are left unconscious, but alive, and their departure is delayed. The spaceship leaves without them and Liam, Phoebe, and an intelligent panda-shaped robot named JEFF must race to catch up to the departing spacecraft while avoiding being murdered for the research data the possess.

Many questions arise in this first installment, and a revelation at the end of the book will leave readers anxious for the next installment. Time travel, spacecraft, harrowing action scenes, and sabotage make this a great science fiction book for grade 5 to 8. There was at least one grammatical error in the text and the action seems clunky at times, but this shouldn't bother a reader who enjoys a good science fiction saga. Recommended for middle school libraries and middle grade collections with an audience for science fiction titles.

Overall Book Score: good