Blue Hearts of Mars

by Nicole Grotepas

[inlibrisveritas]

Blue Hearts of Mars is a rather unique story that has a unique mesh of revolution, androids, and moral/social issues. We are introduced to the city New Helsinki which is inside a massive dome on the surface of Mars. There is one major difference between the Martian colonies and Earth (other than being on a different planet) and that’s the androids, also known as Blue Hearts. They are an integral part of their society and yet they don’t stand on even ground with humans and their existence is taken for granted.

The overall plot was something new for me and whenever I got a free moment I spent it reading about Retta and Hemingway. I love that it mirrors some social and moral issues that we can see in our own history, and that it kind of nudges you and makes you think. The romance does start off in a bit of an insta-love moment, but the whole relationship stands for something more in the grand scheme of things so I didn’t mind so much. They have an interesting dynamic and I enjoyed most of their interaction with each other. I will admit that the romance is not my favorite part of this book, as I was hooked on the social issues going on with android and human population. I loved that this book brought a rather interesting question to the forefront, ‘What makes a human truly human?’ Is the it the sum of all of our parts or is it something more? It’s a very big question and its not one that comes with an easy answer, so it was really interesting to see this question being asked by one person to begin with and then seeing it spread to others. I thought that the overall sciene fiction aspect of the story was handled really well and everything was explained in a way that its easy to understand.

Retta is a girl who initially is fairly shallow and a bit stuck in her own personal bubble. She’s not particularly likeable in the beginning but as she opens her eyes more to the world around her she becomes a better person. It does take a bit of external force (Hemingway and her attraction to him) to get her to open her eyes but she does and ends up working to show others the same things. Mei, Retta’s best friend, is a beyond cooky. If there were ever a character that I’d label as a tad crazy it would be Mei. I did like the fact that none of the relationships in this novel are perfect, each has its problems and even though some of those problems are a bit more…eccentric I still like that they weren’t cookie cutter.

This tied up nicely at the end so I’m pretty sure that this is a stand alone novel, but I’m definitely going to be looking for more of her novels because I enjoy her style.

I received this in exchange for an honest review.