Cydonia – Michael Morar

Genre: Sci-fi

Publication Date: May 10th, 2019

Page count: 608

When I started really looking at reviewing books – not just a paragraph or two about them (which if you look at my first reviews on Goodreads you’ll see that’s what I did) one thing I really wanted to focus on was helping folks GET reviews.  Getting reviews is super tough.  I’m a small fish in the indie author scene, but on June 1^st released my 9^th book.

By this point you’d think I was confident and can just message people to ask if they’d like an ARC to read.  To be truthful – I will write down a list of who I am wanting to message (and most of these folks are people who have said I can ask them about reading an ARC from me any time) and then it will take me 2-4 days to build up the steam necessary to message them!  It’s so stressful.  Yes, the worst they can say is no, or sorry not right now – but I never want to feel like an imposition!  And the funny part is – I’m never really stressed if they’ll like the book or not – as it’s their reading experience!

So – Cydonia is a special one for me.  Michael kindly messaged me through my site/blog and asked if I’d be up to reading his debut (which came out on May 10^th of this year, 2019).  We exchanged a couple emails and I said sure – pop it over and I’ll prioritize it.  He kindly read and reviewed my novella YURI as well, which is always nice to do a book swap, and here we are!

I would’ve had this done sooner if not for a few things cramping my reading progress – 1) I wanted to finish reading ‘Let’s Go Play At the Adams’’ and 2) I was trying to finish up some stuff for my May celebration of Pypermaynia!

Cydonia is sci-fi true and true and I’m always in awe of authors who can write in that genre.  I have tried my hand kind of with my horror/sci-fi novella Jane, but full on sci-fi is daunting.  As a reader it can also feel daunting when diving into a sci-fi release simply because you’re never too sure how in-depth and Science based the plot with be.

Thankfully Michael focused more on the story while having the Science based stuff really accessible and as a really nice feature to prop up the human story featured throughout.

The story itself follows three main characters (at least for me it did, there’s a few others who Michael treats has involved, but for my reading experience it was these three.)

Morar introduces us to Sarah Pauley almost immediately, in a really fun, exciting opening.  The story revolves around a conflict on Mars and Sarah is the ‘outcast’ of the Pauley family.  The one who doesn’t believe there should be a war.  Her husband meanwhile, Robert Pauley is the second main character here.  Robert is high up in the political landscape.  His character was an interesting one that went back and forth between wanting to ensure Sarah was alive and safe, but also interested in how much violence he could inflict, while trying to keep climbing the political ladder.

Lastly Morar introduced us to Markus Arundel.  When we first are introduced to this character Morar almost gave Arundel a storyline of being disinterested in the war and the political conflict, but we soon fine that is furthest from the truth.  Markus was a fun character and a character I would have loved to see even have his own series based on his past and his exploits.

Overall this book goes through some peaks and valleys.  At 600 pages you are bound to have some lulls and spots where the dialogue could have been tightened and a few scenes cut out for posterity.  If we were to ask Michael about that, as the author he’d have a strong rebuttal, so the other thought I had that would make this flow and become a stronger read would be to split into two or three books.   Almost go ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ style and have each release focus on one of the characters and then wrap it all up together.  That’s not to say the book is bad, its actually far from it, but I worry the listed page count will be a deterrent for some folks, when really it shouldn’t be.

At the end of the day this was a great read and when I think of the achievement of writing a 600 page Sci-fi release for your first novel I’m left stunned.

Kudos to Michael for such an accomplishment and I thank him kindly for letting me visit Cydonia.

4/5 stars for a frolicking Mars based story with a ton of great interpersonal storylines.

You can get Cydonia here;

Synopsis;

CYDONIA is set in the near future. Humans have colonised Mars after discovering molecules that will transform Earth’s energy economy. Two global organisations competing for lucrative Martian territory have, following inconclusive legal efforts, declared war. The worlds watch as elite mercenary armies prepare for a modern, corporate warfare, fighting in freezing, brutal conditions never before endured by armed forces.

Robert Pauly, Cydonia’s ruthless Deputy Director General, is driven by his love for his wife Sarah and his limitless ambition. Fearing both loss of Sarah and that of his job, the former homeless orphan turns against his employers and pushes instead for peace, but soon discovers his own propensity for violence.

Sarah Pauly doesn’t care about the Cydonia Corporation, or Mars, or the war. Bitter and driven, she will do anything, even endanger her own life, to escape the shadow of her aunt, the Director General.

Markus Arundel, a disgraced mercenary captain, has travelled to Mars to lead the initiative on the battlefield. But jaded by years of violence and plagued by paralysing nightmares, he suddenly resolves to retire, that is until his own superiors insult his already wounded pride.