Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre book with a bad ending
Review: This is my first Amazon.com book review. Everyone who knows me I read a lot, but this is the first time I've written about a book I've read here.I started off feeling the book was "OK"... it didn't keep me up at night, but it was an enjoyable enough book... Then later on in the book when everyone got to Mars things started to take a turn for the worse. What little bit of a "plot" that had been developing in the book started to fall apart. As other's have commented here the characters seemed to be "cookie-cutter" style, lacking depth. I just don't know where to start... the "Russian tanks" that are on Mars (yea... when earlier in the book they are talking about shipping a hand full of people at a time Russia would ship "TANKS" to Mars...), or the "un-killable" assassin that shows up on the ship, just before they blast off back to Earth, or the changing timelines (they have a ship that will be at Mar's in a few days, then a few days pass (while he is off in an alien world learning "the way of the warrior" and adding in a little randomness into the alien AI), and then after all of that they are still a few days away... I've seen a number of people here give RAVE reviews, and I guess I just look at the book differently. Anyway... I do not feel that I could recommend anyone buying it... that is unless you already like the writings of Bruce Balfour. If you know someone who has this book, or if you can get it from a library, then it might be worth checking out... but at today's book prices... in my opinion, no.
Rating: 
Summary: So Close
Review: To getting 5 stars from this sci-fi fan reviewer. Ancient artifacts have been excavated by a Russian team of cosmonauts on the red planet while simultaneously Tau Wolfsinger is laboring in the Nasa Ames Research Center on new VR technology, and wading through the bureaucratic red tape and political infighting to find funding/support for his research. His fiancee an archeologist goes to further investigate Mars on the eve of his proposal, but he soon finds himself reunited with her planetside. Balfour's science fiction offering is a brilliant balance of plot and characterization. He seemingly effortlessly weaves plots and sub-plots tightly together, without sacrificing other aspects (again i.e. characterization) to his crisp exciting story. In fact I have mentioned characterization twice because his main hero bears a striking similiarity to Bova's protaganist in his Mars epic. Either this reflection in having strong Native American male character's in two Mars novels is a coincidence, or Balfour is paying a nice tribute to Bova. The similarities pretty much stop there though as Balfour's novel is as original as another title on the red planet could be, interspersed with delightful scenes of intrique and human drama. This is a title I just recently finished, but am almost already craving re-reading.
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