Eight convicts, one job, and a one-way ticket to Mars. Frank Kittridge is serving time for killing his son’s drug dealer, thus, only being eligible for parole in 85 years. He’s keeping his head down and staying out of everyone’s business until Xenosystems Operations operatives visit Frank in jail giving him an opportunity of a life time, a one way trip to Mars, to build the first ever correctional facility in space. Once him and the seven other convicts build the prison, they will serve the remainder of their sentence in outer space. Frank and his team embark on the adventure and everything seems to be going relatively well, until one by one the convicts start turning up dead. With their supplies dwindling and his friends being murdered, Frank has nowhere to go and no option to hide.
The premise of this novel was amazing and it was something unique in the book community, but for me, it seemed that was about it for this book. The plot came across as lacklustre, and the characters were one-dimensional.
The novel seemed like it needed more editing before its release. If some of the grammatical errors were part of a style of writing that was supposed to add more to the story line, it went straight over the my head as the reader. Half of the time I was distracted by the errors and not paying attention to the story (or lack there of).
“Big set of panels, dish, antennae. Other machinery he didn’t yet know the function of” (Mordern 36).
This quotation doesn’t seem like a major flaw in writing, but it seems short, incomplete, and grammatically incorrect sentences were a regular throughout Morden’s work, giving off the impression of a juvenile narrator, which was not the case here.
Frank Kittridge was a one-dimensional character, there were glimpses into his past and how all he wanted in life was a happy family, however that was it. I wished we learnt more about the other characters and the burden of their crimes—Alice, a doctor, serving time for multiple doctor assisted suicides, was the most interesting in my opinion. She was a strong, smart, woman who deserved more than the one-dimensional perception the book gave her.
This novel is considered a sci-fi mystery, which is relatively true. There is a murderer amongst the team (well, many if you include why the convicts are in prison to begin with) which gives off a “who dunnit” feel, however, that’s all that really happens in the book. People are dying but it was so glazed over and not emphasised in the dialogue that honestly, it felt like nothing happened during the whole 358 pages.
Unfortunately, One Way was a major let down for me. The blurb for this novel sounded like a sci-fi novel mixed with Agatha Christie except that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
When the small crew of ex cons working on Mars start getting murdered, everyone is a suspect in this terrifying science fiction thriller from bona fide rocket scientist and award winning-author S. J. Morden.
It’s the dawn of a new era – and we’re ready to colonize Mars. But the company that’s been contracted to construct a new Mars base, has made promises they can’t fulfill and is desperate enough to cut corners. The first thing to go is the automation . . . the next thing they’ll have to deal with is the eight astronauts they’ll send to Mars, when there aren’t supposed to be any at all.
Frank – father, architect, murderer – is recruited for the mission to Mars with the promise of a better life, along with seven of his most notorious fellow inmates. But as his crew sets to work on the red wasteland of Mars, the accidents mount up, and Frank begins to suspect they might not be accidents at all. As the list of suspect grows shorter, it’s up to Frank to uncover the terrible truth before it’s too late.
Dr. S. J. Morden trained as a rocket scientist before becoming the author of razor-sharp, award-winning science fiction. Perfect for fans of Andy Weir’s The Martian and Richard Morgan, One Way takes off like a rocket, pulling us along on a terrifying, epic ride with only one way out.
