The Mars House

The world is succumbing to environmental destruction. January, once a principal dancer for the London Royal Ballet, is now a factory worker and refugee in Tharsis, a Chinese colony on Mars. As an Earthstronger (an Earth-born person who is much stronger than those born on or naturalized to Mars’s lower gravity), January is considered dangerous. Politician Aubrey Gale’s election platform promotes forced Mars naturalization, which has disabled or killed many refugees. When a live interview between Gale and January proves disastrous for both, Gale presents January with a solution: accept an in-name-only marriage with them to bolster their election, and January can live his life as a full citizen without naturalization. January accepts and finds that the person he married is not the xenophobic horror he thought. But Gale has an enemy determined to bring them down. While the novel’s initial pacing is slow, events eventually speed up, and readers will appreciate all the delightful details of worldbuilding, character arcs, and slow romantic tension.