The Mars House

Starred review from January 8, 2024
Bestseller Pulley (The Half Life of Valery K) astonishes in this thorny and addictive sci-fi romance. When climate crises force Royal Ballet of London principal January Stirling to seek refuge on Mars, an unexpected array of circumstances takes him from a life of manual labor and poverty to an arranged marriage to the wealthy Senator Aubrey Gale, who favors harsh immigration policies that January disagrees with. The faked relationship is both a political maneuver for Gale and a means of survival for January. Through the societal inequalities of life on Mars due to the differences between “Natural” citizens—those who were born on Mars and have adjusted to its atmosphere, like Gale—and “Earthstrong”—those born on Earth, like January, who don’t know their own strength in the lighter gravitational pull—Pulley introduces some truly complex ethical and political questions. Even better, she refuses to offer black-and-white answers, and never loses sight of her characters’ empathy and humanity. The worldbuilding is carefully considered, linguistically nuanced, and technologically fascinating. The unlikely love story between January and Gale, who, like all Natural Martians, is genderless, is the cherry on top. Their romance is touching in its simplicity—stripped of all the politics and advanced technologies involved, they are two people who find themselves drawn closer together as they realize that, though their opinions may differ, their core belief in human decency is the same. With dark humor and a gift for making the complex accessible, Pulley gives readers much food for thought. Agent: Jenny Savill, Andrew Nurnberg Assoc.

January 1, 2024

Author of the multi-starred The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, Pulley takes us out of this world with The Mars House, with former Royal Ballet dancer January among the second-class citizens on Mars known as Earthstrongers because they haven't adapted to its reduced gravitational pull (65,000-copy first printing). Prepub Alert.

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Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2024
After escaping climate disaster in far-future London, January becomes a refugee to the colony of Tharsis, on Mars, in an agender society where Earthstrongers have denser bones than the natives, so refugees are inherently dangerous to anyone who grew up on Mars. This leads to tense debates about whether Earthstrongers should be naturalized or simply allowed to keep working in body-fitted cages that prevent them from hurting anyone. When impoverished January challenges conservative, xenophobic Senator Gale at a publicity event at the factory where he works, he's surprised when they turn around and propose. Pulley has wrapped an enemies-to-lovers, fake-marriage romance in a fascinating sf-world package. Gale is a little optimistically perfect as a simply misguided, privileged politician waiting for a working-class hero to open their heart. But ultimately it doesn't affect how magnetic Pulley's characters are or just how charming her writing can be. Readers will have incredible fun reading about this slow-burn romance, the itch of two creepy background mysteries, and a delightful scene involving judgmental mammoths.

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Starred review from February 15, 2024
A refugee forms an unusual alliance with a Martian senator who favors anti-immigration policies. Bonus: extra-large mammoths! Known for her twisty steampunk historical fantasy, Pulley turns to science fiction set a few generations from now to explore topics of political interest today: climate change, immigration, gender, political corruption. January Stirling is the principal dancer at the Royal Ballet when rising waters turn the corps du ballet, along with the rest of London, into climate refugees. Exhausted and starving, he accepts a spot on a ship to Tharsis, the Chinese colony on Mars. Gravity on the smaller planet is only a third as powerful as on Earth, so new arrivals--Earthstrongers--have bigger muscles and sturdier bones than the tall-but-frail Mars-born Natural people. Earthstrongers are required to wear metal "cages" to weaken them and keep them from accidentally (or otherwise) injuring Natural people. On Mars, perceptible gender differences are considered primitive and uncouth, and Natural people use they/them pronouns. New arrivals are segregated into Earthstrong housing and restricted to manual labor, for which they're paid a pittance and pressured to undergo "naturalisation" to weaken them, a dangerous medical process that leaves many in wheelchairs. An encounter with Senator Aubrey Gale, a politician who's pushing an anti-Earthstrong agenda, catapults January into one of Pulley's signature complex plots involving twins, a love triangle, linguistics, a mysterious disappearance--or is it a murder?--and various de-extincted Arctic animals (polar bears, mammoths). The worldbuilding is whimsical rather than rigorous, more effective at (and perhaps intended for) contemplating extremes of the present than at predicting the future. Full of charming details and gender-bending gallantry, this imaginative thriller is a pleasure to read.

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