Mars Evacuees

I’ve a nasty habit of finishing every children’s book I start, no matter how dull or dire it might be. I am sort of alone in this habit, which you could rightly call unhealthy. After all, most librarians understand that their time on this globe is limited and that if they want to read the greatest number of excellent books in a given year, they need to hold off on spending too much time devouring schlock and just skip to the good stuff. So it is that with my weird predilection for completion I am enormously picky when it comes to what I read. If I’m going to spend time with a book, I want to feel like I’m accomplishing something, not slogging through it. My reasoning is that not all books are good from the get-go. Some take a little time to get going, you know? It might take 50 pages before you’re fully on board, so I always give the book the benefit of the doubt. Some books, however, have the quintessential strong first page. They are books that are so smart and good and worthy that you feel that you are maximizing your time on this globe by merely being in their presence. Such is the case with <i>Mars Evacuees</i>. A sci-fi middle grade novel that encompasses everything from gigantic talking floating goldfish to PG discussions of alien sex, this is one of those books you might easily miss out on. Stellar from the first sentence on.<br /> <br />At first it seemed like a good thing that the aliens had come. When you’ve got a planet nearly decimated by global warming, it doesn’t sound like such a bad deal when aliens start telling you they’ve got a way to cool down the planet. The trouble is, they didn’t STOP cooling it down. Turns out the Morrors are looking for a new home and if it doesn’t quite suit their needs they’ll adapt it until it does. Earth has fought back, of course, and so now we’re all trapped in a huge space battle of epic proportions. Alice Dare’s mother is the high flying hero Captain Dare, killer of aliens everywhere. But all Alice knows is that she’s being shipped off with a load of other kids to Mars. The idea is that they’ll be safe there and will be able to finish their education in space until they’re old enough to become soldiers. And everything seems to be going fine and dandy . . . until the adults all disappear. Now Alice and her friends are in the company of a cheery robot goldfish and must solve a couple mysteries along the way. Things like, where are the adults? What are those space locust-like creatures they’ve found on Mars? And most important of all, what happens when you encounter the enemy and it’s not at all like you thought it would be?<br /> <br />The first sentence of any book is a tricky proposition. You want to intrigue but not give too much away. Too brash and the book can’t live up to it. Too mild and people are snoring before you even get to the period. Here’s what McDougall writes: “When the polar ice advanced as far as Nottingham, my school was closed and I was evacuated to Mars.” I could not help but be reminded of the first line of M.T. Anderson’s <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/169756.Feed" title="Feed by M.T. Anderson" rel="noopener"> Feed</a> when I read that (“We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck”). But it’s not just her first sentence that’s admirable. In a scant nine pages the entire premise of the book is laid out for us. Aliens came. People are fighting them. And now the kids are being evacuated to Mars. Badda bing, badda boom. What I didn’t realize when I was first reading the book, though, was that this chapter is very much indicative of the entire novel. There is a kind of series bloat going on in children’s middle grade novels these days. Books with wild premises and high stakes are naturally assumed to be the first in a series. There’s a bit of a whiff of <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/375802.Ender_s_Game__The_Ender_Quintet___1_" title="Ender's Game (The Ender Quintet, #1) by Orson Scott Card" rel="noopener"> Ender’s Game</a> and <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/64316.The_White_Mountains__The_Tripods___1_" title="The White Mountains (The Tripods, #1) by John Christopher" rel="noopener"> The White Mountains</a> about this book when you look at the plot alone, and so you assume that like so many similar titles it’ll either end on a cliffhanger, or it’ll solve the immediate problem, but save the bigger issue for later on. It was only as I got closer and closer to the end that I realized that McDougall was doing something I almost never encounter in science fiction books these days: She was tying up loose ends. It got to the point where I reached the end of the book and found myself in the rare position of realizing that this was, of all things, a standalone science fiction novel. Do they even make those anymore? I’m not saying you couldn’t write a sequel to this book if you didn’t want to. When McDougall becomes a household name you can bet there will be a push for more adventures of Alice, Carl, Josephine and Th<i>saaa</i>. But it works all by itself with a neat little beginning, middle, and an end. How novel!<br /> <br />For all that, McDougall cuts through the treacle with her storytelling, I was very admiring of the fact that she never sacrifices character in the process of doing so. Carl, for example, should by all rights be two-dimensional. He’s the wacky kid who doesn’t play by the rules! The trickster with a heart of gold. But in this book McDougall also makes him a big brother. He’s got his bones to pick, just as Josephine (filling in the brainy Hermione-type role with aplomb) has personal issues with the aliens that go beyond the usual you-froze-my-planet grudge. Even the Goldfish, perky robot that he is, seems to have limits on his patience. He’s also American for some reason, a fact I shall choose not to read too much into, except maybe to say that if I were casting this as a film (which considering the success of <i>Home</i>, the adaptation of Adam Rex’s <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/1194366.The_True_Meaning_of_Smekday" title="The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex" rel="noopener"> The True Meaning of Smekday</a>, isn’t as farfetched as you might think) I’d like to hear him voiced by Patton Oswalt. But I digress.<br /> <br />When tallying up the total number of books written for kids between the ages of 9-12 that discuss the intricacies of alien sex, I admit that I stop pretty much at one. This one. And normally that wouldn’t fly in a book for kids but McDougall is so enormously careful and funny that you really couldn’t care less. Her aliens are fantastic, in part because, like humans, there’s a lot of variety amongst them. This is an author who cares about world building but also doesn’t luxuriate in it for long periods of time. She’s not trying to be the Tolkien of space here. She’s trying to tell a good story cleanly and succinctly. <br /> <br />The fact that it’s funny to boot is the real reason it stands out, though. And I don’t mean it’s “funny” in that it’s mildly droll and knows how to make a pun. I mean there are moments when I actually laughed out loud on a New York subway train. How could I not? This is a book that can actually get away with lines like “If you didn’t want me to build flamethrowers you shouldn’t have taught me the basic principles when I was six.” Or “It was a good time in Earth’s history to be a polar bear. Unless the rumors were true about the Morrors eating them.” Or “Luckily I don’t throw up very easily, but it made me feel as if I was being hit lightly but persistently all over with tablespoons.” That’s the kind of writing I enjoy. Silly and with purpose. <br /> <br />So it’s one part <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/7624.Lord_of_the_Flies" title="Lord of the Flies by William Golding" rel="noopener"> Lord of the Flies</a> in space (please explain to me right now why no one has ever written a book called “Space Lord of the Flies”), one part <i>Smekday</i>, and a lot like those 1940s novels where the kids get evacuated during WWII and find a kind of hope and freedom they never would have encountered at home. It’s also the most fun you’ll encounter in a long time. That isn’t to say there isn’t the occasional dark or dreary patch. But once this book starts rolling it’s impossible not to enjoy the ride. For fans of the funny, fans of science fiction, and fans of books that are just darn good to the last drop.<br /><br />For ages 9-12.

<br />Opens: When the polar ice advanced as far as Nottingham, my school was closed and I was evacuated to Mars<br /><br /><br />Earth has been invaded by invisible aliens called Morror. They like things cold so settle in the polar icecaps – trouble is they are extending the ice caps and the liveable area for humans is getting less, so now war has broken out between the two groups. Scientists are in the process of terraforming Mars but it is not quite ready for permanent human habitation. Still it is decided that 300 children aged between 8 and 16 should be sent to Mars anyway – doesn’t matter that there is not enough oxygen or that the sun can burn you to a crisp. Twelve-year-old Alice Dare is one of the 300 – her mother is a war hero flying ace battling the enemy and her father is also on the frontline. <br /><br />The sending of the children to Mars is very reminiscing of the evacuations of children from London to the country during WWII. Only instead of being billeted out to people’s homes when they arrive on Mars the kids come under the care of a handful of Scientists, military personnel and some teacher robots such as a giant Teddy Bear who makes 7-year-olds cry and an annoyingly cheerful mechanical Goldfish that will shoot you with lasers if you don’t do your homework. The idea is that the children will be trained in warfare and when they come of age they will be sent back to earth to join the war effort. On the flight to Mars Alice befriended the odd Josephine, more by accident than design, Josephine has victim written all over her when it comes to being picked on by the other kids. They also strike up a sort of friendship with Carl and his younger brother Neil. The alliance comes in useful when the adults suddenly all disappear and the older kids take over the base, the situation quickly disintegrate into a Lord of the Flies type scenario. Finding themselves kicked off the base Alice, Josephine, Carl and Neil steal a spaceship and take off, along with the Goldfish robot which constantly wants them to do their homework, to try to get to the nearest base to find help. This is when the adventure really starts!<br /><br />MARS EVACUEES is a very clever, action-filled, space adventure that had me on the edge of my seat more than once. LOVED Goldfish. The kids were all very believable – taking into consideration that they were braniacs and brave so not likely to end up in whimpering piles. They did adult things as a child would, and were still innocent enough to be more accepting of the weird and wonderful than adults – and I really liked that the distinction was made rather than falling into the trap making the kids do things that wouldn’t have come naturally. There are a few sub-plots going on – and lots of humour, including ‘gallows humour’ as the kids will face dire consequences if things go belly up. A fun yet meaningful space opera for middle school with enough hidden messages to keep an English teacher happy.<br />

First posted on Views from the Tesseract: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://shanshad1.wordpress.com/2015/04/25/reviews-mars-evacuees/">https://shanshad1.wordpress.com/2015/...</a><br /><br />Alice Dare is going to Mars. She’s not entirely sure she wants to go (even if she does want to escape the Muckling Abbot School for Girls). Mars isn’t exactly human friendly just yet. It’s only partially safe for humans. Only some of the air is breathable. But the Emergency Earth Coalition has declared that Alice, along with a group of other kids, will be evacuated to Mars where they will live and be schooled by robot teachers and live in the relative safety of the planet away from the ongoing war.<br /><br />Welcome to the future, where the aliens have invaded and are trying to take over. The humans are putting up a good fight, but things are not going as well as they would like. Alice’s mom is one of the star fighter pilots when it comes to battling the invaders– and that’s the reason Alice is part of the group heading to the red planet. All the other young teens and tweens that are a part of the trip come from different parts of the world–many from the families of the elite in the Coalition. Now this select group of young people are all going to have to live together and learn together on a new planet. And as you might expect isn’t long before things go wrong. The adults vanish. Chaos reigns. Alice and her friends are caught out on the Martian landscape trying to survive they might just have to find common ground with their long-time enemies in order to combat an even greater threat to the entire solar system.<br /><br />Science fiction adventure that’s a wild ride of danger, daring and delight. We have Alice with her rather dry sense of humor and observation, quirky Josephine who just can’t help taking things apart, reckless Carl who loves to show off and his younger brother Noel whose intuitive compassion for other creatures comes in handy. Add to that an aggressively optimistic Goldfish teaching robot, two sets of aliens and a lot of surprises and it’s just the sort of bang-up read I love. I admit I’ve been waiting and waiting for this book since I learned it was being published in Britain last year. And I was not disappointed when I finally got my hands on a copy. Our characters are satisfyingly complex, and our main alien enemies are not so simple a “bad guy” to contemplate. No bug-eyed monsters here. The Morrors are another intricate race from out in the galaxy and their needs and goals are not simply broad villainy and destruction. And really, can you name me a book that discusses alien reproduction that involves more than a male/female binary and yet manages to keep it firmly middle grade?<br /><br />Sophia McDougall pulls off a great story from the first-person perspective of Alice. The writing is strong and well balanced between description, explanation and dialog. The book never gets bogged down in long histories or reflective passages, preferring to keep readers moving with the characters through their adventure. It’s a great science fiction book to hand any reader who enjoys a good story–even if they haven’t read science fiction before. Beautifully accessible for middle grade readers, upbeat and ultimately positive in its resolution–this is the kind of science fiction I’ve been hoping to see more of for a long time.<br /><br />Can’t wait to see what the author has in store next!

This is such a great read! Quite fun but also at times quite scary!! <br /><br />When Earth is invaded by Aliens and the war between humans and Morrows has been going on for a long time, it is decided that it may be safer to send some kids to Mars. It has been terraformed and is habitable by humans. AliceDare is one such "lucky" child. Her mother is a fighter pilot and Alice has been sent to live away from the danger. Unbeknownst to anyone, Earth isn't the only planet in danger and when all the grownups disappear on Mars, Alice Josephine, Carl and his brother Neil set off to find help. <br /><br />With a lot of colourful characters I think Alice and her crew were definitely my favourite. All of them are the exiles, as such. Josephine is extremely smart but is always being picked on for being odd and Alice finds it hard to fit in. Carl is a ball of energy and always seems to be doing something that gets himself into trouble. They are all brave, selfless and strong. It's nice to have an odd ball assortment of characters that get on so well together. <br /><br />I think the world building was amazing in Mars Evacuee. Earth is at war with the aliens and the kids are sent to an unhospitable place. Everything about Mars is weird, even with Terraforming happening. There aren't that many adults on Mars because most of the things are robotic, they have some awesome robotic teachers, with the Goldfish being the best. This is a Goldfish shaped Robot that teaches the kids, he ends up on the adventure with Alice and co and brings a comic atmosphere with him. He was so awesome!! Also the Teddy Bear teacher that the junours have sounded so funny! Alice describes it as a scary bear and all the younger kids are terrified of it!! Even the aliens were awesome!! <br /><br />Despite this being fun, there were some incredibly tense and scary bits!! The Sky Locusts were one such part. I was on the edge of my seat at that part and was so scared for the kids!! There is much levity in the story but its also a scary rollercoaster. <br /><br />Anyway, Mars Evacuee was awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of the book and can't wait to let my boys read it. Its a fun filled, action packed and adventurous read! Can I just say that the Duck Tape is epic!!! Lol, Duck Tape fixes everything ;) Highly recommend!!

This was recommended to me by lightreads, who compared it to The True Meaning of Smekday. And while this doesn't quite reach the heights of perfection that Smekday did, it's still really, really, really fun. <br /><br />Basic plot is, you know, the earth has been invaded by aliens, Alice gets sent off to Mars, adventures ensue. And once those adventures start, they don't stop -- the last three-fourths of the book is pretty much a read-at-a-gallop-in-one-sitting action festival with brief fixing stuff interludes (although obviously I could've stood a lot more detail in the fixing stuff arena). So, like I said, it's super fun.<br /><br />But it's also smart, and good in the way where adults can love it, too. There's kids being kids (including a frankly terrifying mini Lord of the Flies situation -- don't worry, though, it doesn't go on for long), there's kids being heroes, there's alien kids being alien and kids, and all in all it's sort of like the juvenile space romp books of yore. (Sort of like Heinlein, except not sexist, not racist, not horrible or smug or preening. So like Heinlein if you took out all the Heinlein parts and just left in the space romps, which i really wish someone had thought to do back when Heinlein was Heinleining.) <br /><br />Also, it's got a sarcastic girl as the hero, which I loved, and a bunch of brown kids, and an alien race with five genders (though the Boov are still winning with their seven), and family stuff and friendship stuff and bravery and crying in the face of certain death (before squaring up, leveling up, and making death uncertain again). Basically, I heartily recommend this, unless you haven't read Smekday (in which case read that first), or you didn't like Smekday (in which case, honestly, don't take my advice about anything; our tastes don't align).

<b>"What about our human rights,' demanded Carl, who'd gathered a small deputation of kids within minutes. 'There is a WAR ON,' said Crewman Devlin, shortly. I wondered if this meant grown-ups actually listen to you when there wasn't a war on, because somehow I was sceptical."</b><br />Teccc - my reading partner - is unquestionably right: The book loses some of its naughty snappiness and sarcasm as it proceeds and it gets more and more predictable after the small, nerdy gang of kids and their maniacally cheerful, robotic goldfish tutor flee the kiddie cadet academy on Mars in a stolen spaceship in order to find adult help or a way back home to earth. Also, the characters - both human and alien - reminded me often of those in "The True Meaning of Smekday". <br /><br />Still, I enjoyed the story and its messages well enough. As "Smekday" does, it encourages the reader to have a look at the enemy's position/reasons/lack of other options/history, it stresses that there are always people who flourish because of war - career-wise, money-wise or morality-wise (meaning actions which are cautiously sanctioned or meticulously dissected angle by angle in a well-functioning society are overlooked or hastily permitted in war, because survival as a whole is at stake and long-term problems or ethical qualms suddenly play a secondary role to immediate results), and it certainly devises not to give up at any seemingly hopeless point of any endeavor. <br /><br />The ending wrapped up everything pretty nicely while pointing out that in most disputes compromises have to be tolerated and that the notion to be able to return a society or a country to what it was "before"/in good old times/at a certain point is always unrealistic/undoable. Change happens. <br />I can imagine reading the sequel at some point. Yes, definitely. Goldfish, bring it on!

אחרי מלחמה ארוכה עם חייזרים על כדור הארץ אליס, בת 12 ובת לטייסת קרב מפורסמת, מפונה עם עוד 300 ילדים למאדים שנמצא באמצע הארצה אבל עדיין לא ממש מוכן. גם במאדים העניינים הולכים ומשתבשים.<br /><br />ספר חמוד, קצבי ונראה שגם די מציאותי ואמין מדעית. מד"ב מוצלח לילדים.

I LOVED THIS ADORABLE BOOK.

Originally posted at: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="http://iliveforreading.blogspot.com/2015/07/mars-evacuees-by-sophia-mcdougall.html">http://iliveforreading.blogspot.com/2...</a><br /><br />I received Mars Evacuees around a year ago, but since I’d never really heard of it, I put off reading it–until now. This book was so much fun! Although it’s aimed at a younger audience, I ended up loving this space adventure. It was really easy to get onboard with the setting, the characters, and the conflict at hand. The concept was so original as well. I don’t read much science-fiction, which is unfortunate, but this one seemed to stand apart from the ones that I have read.<br /><br />It was sometimes difficult to believe that these kids were twelve years old (or even younger!). They seemed so much more mature than the children I know, which is probably why, I guess, I didn’t feel too different from the characters despite the age gap. Alice was such an awesome character–she would be the type of girl I would have loved to hang out with when I was in middle school. Josephine was a great character too, and I loved Carl and his younger brother Noel, who was super adorable. Even Goldfish–literally a teaching robot goldfish–was a fantastic addition to the cast. They obviously end up meeting more characters along the way, and all in all, while this story was more plot-driven than character-driven, it was an enjoyable journey of four friends and a robot insistent on teaching them algebra on the way. The characters were also pretty diverse as well! We’ve got a black character, Australian characters...however, I wish it could have been even more so. This evacuation to Mars involved children from around the world, but they weren’t even part of the book–I just think that this was a little bit of a missed opportunity.<br /><br />I really liked this story, which is why when I found out that there would be a sequel, I was ecstatic! Mars Evacuees was a fun and action-packed story that readers of all ages will enjoy. Sophia McDougall definitely knows how to tell an epic story. I can’t wait for Space Hostages as I���m sure it will be as good–or even better–than the first in the series. Looking forward to it!

This book was just enormously fun - a bit like if Dodie Smith (of I CAPTURE THE CASTLE) had decided to write a rollicking science fiction adventure set on Mars. There are definite resonances with WWII child evacuees, but in this case, the war is against invading aliens, and the kids are being evacuated all the way off-planet to Mars (which is in the process of being terraformed). The voice of the heroine, Alice, is just absolutely fabulous, all the characters are wonderful (and ethnically diverse!), and the adventure is fast-paced and really fun.<br /><br />The only thing that occasionally niggled at me was that I didn't personally buy that they were (mostly) twelve-year-olds - I thought the heroine and her best friend felt more like fourteen-year-olds than twelve-year-olds, and the tone of the book felt more like a young YA novel to me (like John Scalzi's ZOE'S TALE) than an upper-MG. That's just a shelf-classification issue, though, nothing that ever got in the way of the story or how much I loved the characters. I really hope that there's a sequel!