Marooned! (Mars Trilogy)

There's no turning back.

The year is 2085, and a new teen has arrived at Mars Experimental Station One, a colony built to test humans' ability to live self-sufficiently in an alien and hostile environment. Already in existence for ten years, "Marsport" is a functioning city of two thousand people — with only twenty teenagers. These teens, part of the controversial Asimov Project, were hand selected from the billions on Earth and are always under the watchful eyes of the adults.

The newcomer, Sean, is a fifteen-year-old orphan who acts tough but secretly thinks he can't measure up to the others. His companions are Jenny, also fifteen, an ethereal blond whose frail looks belie her fierce intelligence, and Alex, a fourteen-year-old pilot in training who doesn't always know his boundaries. They each have reasons to doubt themselves...and distrust each other. But one thing is certain: Mars offers them something Earth never could. When the existence of Marsport is suddenly threatened, the group must overcome their fears and join forces, for their survival depends on nothing less.

"The first in a series from Strickland and the late Fuller (teamed for the Pirate Hunter books) takes place in a future when Earth is on the verge of ecological ruin, and colonists have set up shop on Mars to make the planet habitable. A key component to the 'terraforming' of Mars is the Asimov Project, a controversial program that brings 20 young people to the red planet ('We believe that the Martian colony has to reflect a real community,' explains one of the colony doctors. 'A real community includes teenagers and even children'). Strickland and Fuller waste no time introducing their heroes, chiefly Sean, one of a dozen survivors of an act of bio-terrorism that 'erased' his town in Scotland (including Sean's family), and Jenny, the tough-but-tender smart girl who takes Sean under her wing. A series of mini- adventures follows, interspersed with enviro-sermons that are anything but subtle ('How can [bioengineering] be too expensive? If the ecology crashes, there'll be worldwide disease, starvation — too expensive!'). The bulk of this series opener is used to construct the setting and cast, making it dull in places, and readers looking for slam-bang action right off the bat might not rush back for the second installment. Ages 8-12. (June)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

This first book in a new trilogy follows the adventures of three teens who are stranded on the first colony on Mars. The group must overcome their fears and join forces, for their survival depends on nothing less.

Brad Strickland is also the author of Aladdin's Pirate Hunter trilogy as well as many middle-grade novels based on licensed properties, including Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Star Trek. The late Thomas E. Fuller is the author, with Brad Strickland, of Aladdin's Pirate Hunter trilogy.