SOJALS rating:

Good (3/5)

I first read this in February 1995 and most recently on the 25th August 2011

The Chinese aristocracy, the members of the Ten Thousand Years, runs the Earth and the planets as their private fiefdoms. They've run Mars since the Western attempts at colonization failed. They no longer care for the slow terraforming of Mars, so now the planet is beginning to revert to its initial state, as the terraforming fades away, so will humanity fade and die on the Red Planet.

Inspired by the unjammed radio broadcasts of the King of Cats and the stories of the Sky Roaders, and accompanied by a dying anarchist pilot, Wei Lee embarks on an adventure that results in revolution, an attempt to overturn the thousand year stasis in which Mars is mired.

Wow, I enjoyed this more the second time around. This is a great book, a thrilling, entertaining and occasionally humorous quest across Mars.

What's it got? Big Guns; AIs; tough men and tough babes; riots and revolutions, betrayal and true friendship, and lots, lots more. Great stuff!