Colony Five Mars by Gerald M. Kilby

Colony Five Mars by Gerald M. Kilby

The fifth Colony Mars book sees Mia again trying to find out who committed a murder in the midst of supply shortages that have occurred during a yearlong sandstorm. Civilization on Mars is breaking down because of these supply shortages, and in the midst of Mia’s investigations she discovers that the currently most influential corporation on Mars has been syphoning off critical supplies from earth to make the crisis greater. She discovers this with Gizmo who presumably records everything, but her superiors simply tell her that she can’t make such accusations without evidence. I don’t know about you, but I think the eye witness account of a high ranking security person and what I assume has to be tons of photographic evidence taken by the droid should certainly be enough evidence to drop some police on the site of the stolen goods but no, all the people running Mars continue to refuse to use their brains in case that would get in the way of a tense story.

 

And that’s what’s bothered me the most about this book. Once again, Kilby had a good story to tell, but he didn’t seem to be able to handle what I would call “believable” responses from people in power. To preserve his murder investigations, he made everyone else an idiot. But I think the real story to be told was the power moves that would come from exposure. He does get to those power moves eventually, but they should have happened earlier and changed the nature of the story.