Farewell, Earth's Bliss

This one was pretty interesting, it is about a group of people—a total 24 convicts—that are sent on a one way trip to Mars. These people are usually criminals, undesirable for modern society, sentenced to live in the red planet for the rest of their lives, some were thieves, others caused sedition, others commited murder. They don’t know each other, and they don’t really like each other.

I found the writing and the setting to be very interesting, the novel is very much character driven, told from the perspective of multiple characters, who were sent for different reasons, and face different challenges and facets of life there. We follow a black man sorrounded by white people, a school teacher sentenced because she was teaching kids to think by themselves, a racist troublemaker who committed murder, and some other characters in the ship and on Mars.

Basically, it’s the worst exhile possible. The sandstorms and the cold of night are bad enough by themselves, but of course, the society that has been formed in the Settlement is quite bleak and strict, but hey, at least it “works.”

Every person has to serve a purpose, the ships are turned into houses, everything they bring has a use, paper is a valuable resource. People who don’t abide by the rules are punished, either with hunger, or execution by the cold way out—being left outside at night. Such punishments are viewed as acceptable and even required given the situation everyone is in, nothing can be wasted.

As many books of the time, some of the language can be considered dated, in the way that it would not be used if it were written today. Despite this, misogyny and racism is shown in despicable characters and in ways where its use makes sense within the context of the story, it is a bitter thought to see how many authors in the 60s could not imagine a future where racism ceased to exist, but alas, after a quarter of a century of a new millenium, here we are, so, despite it all, it does work.

It is a bleak existence. I found the philosophical and thought provoking moments in the book to be quite insightful, comparison to society that still hold up today. Humanity’s struggle for survival, to fit among the rest and keep going by whatever means are necessary. Religion prevails in such an environment and among such people, oh right, and of course homosexuality is not allowed.

This crude reality, the flawed characters, and the prose were things I found rather gripping. Even if I didn’t enjoy some of the themes, I felt they were worth exploring, this takes a deep dive into so many topics, and features so many characters that feel real and somewhat understandable, I somehow read it in 3 days. I almost feel like I should re-read it. The ending was quite something as well, I really didn’t see it coming.

This is not a fun adventure story, there is no optimism to be found, stay away if you want to escape from reality, they don’t even plant potatoes. Still, if you are up for it, I think it’s worth a read.

By the way, I actually bought this book from the Kobo store but it had quite a bit of typos, some of the other sources out there are even worse though, I kind of want to find a physical copy of this one, it was a great read.