RED DUST & RAINDROPS: Death on Mars

by K.E. Heaton

The rocket was still approximately eighty miles above the surface, but the outlines and contours of the mysterious red planet were staggeringly clear. A terrain of what could only be described as blood-red boulders scattered accidentally across a huge swathe of terracotta colored sand. It was a landscape that defied the senses, a cacophony of stains and pigments, but overwhelmingly pinks, Venetian reds and rich mahoganies.

An alien world where man had never dared to set foot, but in the days to come he would attempt to do… exactly that.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

246 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2020

About the author

Keith Heaton was born in the North West of England to a working-class family in 1959.
A dedicated family man with a fervent passion for creative writing and a love of photography.
His books are inspired by his life experiences and a yearning to travel the world.

Published books to date are as follows.-

Tales Of Entrapment.
Death On The Algarve (Eyes Of The Water)
Uncle Joe's Revenge (Death On The Cut)
Devoid Of Guilt (A Portuguese Harvest Of Death)

She's Missing

Red Dust And Raindrops (Death On Mars)

The Italian Trap

Reviews

[Adrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to follow but an enjoyable romp around the solar system, packed with action. 😊

Now firstly I have to apologise profusely to the author Keith Heaton, as I finished this book over 10 days ago and haven't yet finished or even started my review. In my defence, which is minimal, I did have my sons here for a week which means 5 meals a day and huge amounts of washing up, exhausting. Hey ho, thats families for you

So, this book, was recommended to me by the author himself, and I have to thank him for the opportunity to read it.
Set not that far in the future of our world this book focuses on the crew of the first manned mission to Mars. Confusion reigns as it transpires that the crew are not who we thought. After a long journey to Mars the landing crew disembark and then disaster strikes as a storm brews on the surface of the planet and nothing further is heard of the crew who went planetside. With no option, left in orbit, the command module has to head for Earth, thinking everyone else is dead.
Needless to say, that is not the end. Future journeys to Mars ensue and surprises aplenty are awaiting the astronauts and the reader.
An action packed book, with some interesting characters and a good story line. A good read and well worthy of 4 stars.

[Reading_ Tamishly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a refreshing read!

It's a story about the discovery of a new mysterious planet and a character caught up in this mysterious world.

The writing is fast-paced and quite easily accessible. It's so easy to get into the story and there's no words wasted I would say. I appreciate the short chapters

The book is short and you can finish up reading it in one sitting. It's fun and entertaining.

The story focuses on family bonds, living our dreams, trying out difficult things and living up to our own selves.

Each character stands out. Their personalities are quite different and made the story quite charming.

Expect the good, the bad and the ugly from the characters.

The interaction between the characters abd they getting to know each other is the highlight of the read I feel. I find the characters really engaging and sma few of them quite relatable.

I feel for Jen. Her character stands out the most.

You will be hooked once you start reading the book. The story gets quite intense and gripping once the mission starts. Things go crazy and the characters turn out to be quite surprising as the story goes on.

The plot is easy to grasp and understand. For a sci-fi fiction, do not expect to read a difficult story. I would even recommend it to beginners as well.

Things wrapped up well towards the end. Emotional and well written.

Such a ride!

If you like space sci-fi and fun characters, go for this short read without thinking twice.

*I find the cover quite relevant to the content.

*Available at Kindle Unlimited.

[Rhea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ll start by saying I was contacted by the author to get myself a free copy from Amazon and offer an honest review.

Red Dust and Raindrops attempts to tell the story of the first manned mission to Mars, but ultimately collapses under the weight of poor execution, baffling narrative choices, and an unsettling reliance on outdated tropes.

What should have been a high-stakes science fiction adventure quickly devolves into a rushed, often surreal soap opera.

First off, the whole thing felt super rushed and choppy. The editing was a mess; and if you read other reviews of mine, you’ll see I don't usually deduct stars for typos (only in extreme cases), but this had so many basic punctuation fails that I had to go back and re-read paragraphs just to figure out what was even happening. It totally broke the flow.

And the dialogue? Why the bizarre choice to use ‘...’ everywhere? It made every single character sound weirdly dramatic or like they were constantly forgetting their lines, or were anxious, or lost their train of thought. Perhaps a writing tic; I just learned to ignore it after I realised I will forever see it in the dialogue.

The casting for this Mars crew was pure Hollywood B-movie fantasy. They’re supposed to be the world’s best scientists, yet they’re all described as stunning, ravishing, striking, etc. Seriously, since when does a PhD program require "amazing eyes" as a prerequisite? Not to insult researchers and scientists, I’m sure some of them are beautiful by these foolish media standards (and absolutely amazing and gorgeous people by any other human standard), but I seriously doubt models are interested in becoming Air Force Pilots or Geologists. At least leave only 1 such character in the book, not all of them. I’m not even going to comment on their age.

Worse than the aforementioned improbability, was the author's creepy, relentless obsession with the women's looks. The constant reminders of their beauty—in practically every scene—felt exhausting, unnecessary, and frankly, disturbing. We got it the first time! I mean, look at these examples:

Sally Fowler an amazing redhead with stunning green eyes and an even more remarkable smile was the prettiest miner and geologist that her fellow astronauts had ever seen[...] a determined young lady whose natural beauty was matched only by her one and only female companion yet another scientist in her appointed field a ravishing thirty three year old blonde bombshell

Jen was very blonde and very pretty exactly like Melissa

Huddled up in the corner with a small group of friends and relatives, the sultry voluptuous young woman…

Monika Eriksson the U.S. Air Force Pilot who’d moved across to the space program only a short time ago, a twenty eight year old blonde lady of Scandinavian origin who was unmistakably very sexy and very dynamic.

The entire mission was designed to fail. The plot kicked off with instant ridiculousness: a civilian named Jenny, Tom Brady’s (the Chief) daughter, made it on board the spaceship without anyone noticing, having replaced a trained crew member (Melissa, who found out she was pregnant and didn’t want to leave anymore). Protocols for the first manned mission to Mars? Apparently non-existent.

And now Tom, Jenny, Sally, Connor, and Frank head towards Mars. You’d expect some awesome experiences to be witnessed during the journey, but no.

The book skips the entire nine-month journey with a rushed time jump— zero details on how they spent that year. Once they get to Mars, the drama continues. Jenny, the most useless member, starts a ‘relationship’ with Frank and ends up pregnant. This crowd of professionals act less like trained astronauts and more like a bunch of horny teenagers on a spring break. It’s impossible to suspend disbelief when every single thing screams amateur hour, these people were supposed to be pros, these people were supposed to oversee and control even the time they pee and sleep, not breed like bunnies on a spaceship. I can understand the sexual drive, hell, I’m totally for it, but shouldn’t that be done responsibly during a mission like this? Apparently not. But I digress.

Instead of cool SciFi stuff, maybe even a bit of horror, we get puerile discussions and mythology. Where’s the Science in the SciFi label? This is just Fiction, combined with Fantasy maybe.

When a huge dust storm hits, these ‘brilliant’ scientists and Jenny start praying to all the gods and hugging! I’m just a civilian, but I’d react better than these "professionals" in said situation, I can tell you that much. But the absolute pinnacle of absurdity? Frank, watching from orbit, sees the god Mars appear in the storm. At that point, I was officially done. I felt like I was reading a weird parody, not a serious SciFi novel. Was that even real or a hallucination? I’m not even sure I want to know at this point.

In the end, Frank returns to Earth, but of course he's sent back to Mars when a signal is received from the Red Planet because yes, as you assume, the original crew is alive, no idea how they survived there so long (they had apparently water and mushrooms?). And of course the new crew has the same amazing, incredible, breathtaking, insert any other adjective for yet another sexy young blonde.

There is something good about this book, probably the only part that genuinely hooked me, and that's the twist in the last third of the book, a filthy secret about Jenny’s twin children that will send Frank back to Mars for the 3rd time to retrieve the last member of their original crew (Tom Brady) back to Earth to be tried for a criminal act against Connor.

Regrettably, the characters failed to make me feel anything for them. The narrative and dialogue struggled to engage the reader. If anything, I actually cared the most for the first human casualty on Mars, Connor. The guy you won’t read about anymore until the last part of the book where you learn something about him that makes his demise even sadder.

But even with that decent payoff, the whole book felt like a soap opera that just happened to be set half on the Red Planet, half on Earth. The conclusion offers Frank and Melissa a happy ending, another strange occurrence in the whole messy plot, but at this point it’s irrelevant how this ended.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I received a free paperback copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

So what we’ve got here is nothing less than the first manned mission to Mars. Also, the second and third. Why three, and just what do they find? Well, you’ll have to read and find out ...

K.E. Heaton contacted me out of the blue and directed my attention to this book. It looked interesting, and I told him so. And, well, here we are. I'm impressed by his initiative in not only publishing this book himself, but also in reaching out to prospective reviewers--well, one prospective reviewer at least. It takes a certain amount of courage and enterprise to put one’s work out there and invite comment like that. I wish I had kinder things to say about it.

Truth is, I didn't enjoy the book very much. There's a muted quality to Heaton’s prose that makes it difficult to get into. After reading for a bit, it finally hit me: he’s telling us about the story rather than simply telling it. There are so many aspects that could benefit from more detail: a manned mission to Mars should be big news, worldwide media attention and so on. So where are the scenes of the astronauts at crowded press conferences and giving interviews, the crowds on launch day (which barely rate a mention as things stand), the world's reaction to the events of the first mission? This should all be a Big Deal, but none of it feels that way. Heck, the third mission happens entirely between chapters, despite its promise of an epic confrontation.

This extends to the characters as well. We're constantly told what they're feeling, which is good because their dialogue doesn’t reveal it at all. We should be able to get a glimpse of their emotions from their word choices and actions. The cardboard characters and flat dialogue remind me of nothing so much as pornography without the actual porn.

Speaking of porn, there's a certain sameness to all of Heaton’s female characters. Sally Fowler is “... an amazing redhead with stunning green eyes …” and “...the prettiest miner and geologist that her fellow astronauts had ever seen.” Melissa Green is “... a ravishing thirty three year old blonde bombshell …” Jenny Brady is “... very blonde and very pretty exactly like Melissa.” Annika Bykov has “... bright red lipstick and [an] incredible body …” Monika Eriksson is “... a twenty eight year old blonde lady of Scandinavian origin who was unmistakably very sexy and dynamic. “ Is it any wonder that these characters feel more like dolls than actual people?

And then there are the typos. For whatever reason, typos plague self publishing more than they do traditional publishing. Red Dust & Raindrops actually does better in this regard than others I’ve read … at first. Typos are fairly infrequent at the beginning--a bit of its/it's confusion, for instance. Pretty normal. But about halfway through, they become more frequent, culminating in the truly awful “... but as [spoiler]’s ashes were scattered on the ground and the raindrops pitter-pattered into them, a feint [sic] red mist emerged out of the dust …” Say it with me, everyone: “Faint! Faint!!” (I note, with a certain amount of irony, that my spell checker flagged “feint” in that last sentence. )

Is it possible that Heaton is just some kind of literary genius and I simply don't understand his work? Sure, I suppose so. Anything is possible. All I can say, in the end, is that the story, the characters, even many of the settings, none of it was plausible, compelling, or even memorable. I don't recommend it. Read at your own risk.

[Eloise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I first became aware of this book when the author reached out to me on Goodreads to let me know about a free day on kindle and asked if I'd take a look.
In that spirit of openness, and for what is clearly a work of labour and love by an independent author I'm going to try and keep any criticism constructive.

That being said, I have to admit that for two-thirds of the book I was expecting to give it one star. Now my only experience with NASA is their Instagram, Apollo 13 (1995) and The Martian, yet the number of times I stopped to go "well that makes no sense" or "but they're supposed to be professional astronauts" broke my immersion and my suspension of disbelief. Imagine my surprise then when I reached the final third and found those scenes to be deliberate and that to be a plot point. The "slightly to the left" tweaked Sci-fi set Pshycho-drama I'd been making kindle-notes about had been there all along, the promised skulduggery waiting for the big reveal.

My biggest problem is that it's difficult to distinguish between the various unreliable character viewpoints and the omniscient narration. Until that last third I wasn't sure they were there. Some truly gorgeous scene-setting descriptions and nuggets of clever character work are hidden between over-explained detail, dialogue that relies on ellipses to indicate emotion, and some appallingly one-note descriptions of female crew-members. Now there are some good character reasons for that last one, but it's too hard to tell it's character work and not an omniscient narrator (and I checked that with my tame Retired White Man who thought it A Bit Much) "Nordic good looks" VS "her bright red lipstick and incredible body"

With a bit of editing, this could be a solid Twilight Zone-style yarn; as it stands I'm afraid I'd be disappointed if I had paid for it.

[Iris Marsh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating: 2.5 stars

This book was given to me by the author in exchange for an honest review. I have to commend the author for putting himself out there and contacting people to review his book. That’s not an easy thing to do.

That being said, I’m sorry to say I wasn’t a huge fan. The story is about man’s first mission to Mars. When the crew is launched into space, they discover that one of the crew-members is not who they’re supposed to be, which increases tension amongst all the members. When they arrive on Mars after a long 9 months, things escalate even further.

While the story had some interesting aspects, as some of the twists were good and surprising, I found it difficult to pinpoint the story’s genre. It might’ve been that my expectations were wrong, as I thought it would be a man-vs-the-elements story, such as the Martian, but this wasn’t the case. It seems to be more like a family drama, both amongst the crew-members as amongst actual family, and it has a hint of the crime genre. Naturally, it’s also sci-fi, since it takes place in space and has some futuristic elements. As far as science goes, I’m not an expert, so I don’t know if what’s used in the book is in any way realistic, but it felt realistic to me.

My biggest issues were with the characters, as I didn’t feel connected to them and felt that they weren’t fully developed. I also have issues with how the female crew-members are portrayed, as somehow all of them are total babes, and too much emphasis is put on that. I also would have liked more active scenes, because now the whole story was pretty much told to the reader, in a kind of reporter-like tone. If the ‘showing vs. telling’ would’ve been more balanced, I also would’ve felt more immersed in the story as opposed to experiencing it from a distance, if you get what I mean.

Finally, the one thing that really bugged me was the excessive use of ellipses in dialogue. I just didn’t like how it read. I think readers will naturally put in the pauses in their head when reading dialogue, inferring from what’s being said, what the context is, and all that, so it’s not necessary to put in ellipses all the time.

Read the full review here . For this and more reviews, check out my blog.

[Louie the Mustache Matos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Red Dust & Raindrops: Death on Mars is a science fiction mystery novel that is well-written, but too fast-paced for the story it endeavors to tell. Clearly, the writer, Kevin Heaton believes in the story. He actively pushes his story by friending GR readers he thinks may prove receptive to his novel, asking them for a perusal and a review. I don't know what other readers think about his style, but I for one thought it was acceptable.

Clearly, I thought the story was good enough for three stars, which is a right-down-the-middle read. I like the story Heaton wants to tell, but in attempting to "get to the good parts," he fast forwards through an opportunity to amplify characterization, enhance team building, and deepen relationships. It cheats the reader of getting to know the characters as people with backgrounds, motivations, hopes and dreams related to their careers and some not related.

One of the consistent criticisms, Heaton receives is how he objectifies the female characters. One way to ameliorate the issue would be to state that one of the other male characters saw his crewmates in such a way, but then the writer could discuss other traits of characterization not quite as evident. "It was widely known that Sally Fowler could have been an Olympic-level boxer had she opted more toward a competitive path, but she preferred the sciences and only boxed as a way to keep physically fit. Her father had been a boxing champ and that apple didn't fall far from that tree."

My major criticism falls in the lack of characterization. There are few characters in the story, with plenty of opportunities to share expositional background. Maybe with more characterization, the reader would have felt more investment in the story. Still, I call this one right down the middle.

[Debbie · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is not often I stop reading a book before I finish it but this is one of the rare ones. The first rule of science fiction is that it needs to make scientific sense, either as reasonably possible or already factual. The method by which the stowaway manages to get on board the rocket to Mars is nothing short of silly. And, even 20 years ago, would not have worked, maybe even 40 yars ago. Strike one.

For the next oopsie, I won't explain anything as it might be a spoiler. Suffice it to say scientific expeditions do not require a male at the head of the expedition to protect females and properly lead the expedition. Females are capable of protecting themselves and of leading scientific expeditions. Strike two.

Finally, adult females, highly educated or not, are women, not girls. Strike three, I'm out. And thus I stopped reading it and left it in it's own dust.

[Elodie Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I saw K.E. Heaton's son's post on reddit about his dad publishing a new book. I remember my own father trying to publish a book himself but getting too caught up with work to do it. This made me really want to support this man's book and I am really glad I did. It was beautifully written, the words he chose were fantastic and I enjoyed both the story and the characters. I think the only thing stopping this from being a five star is just that sci fi isn't my favorite genre, but that no one's fault but my own. Beautifully done!

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Over the past two or three years, as I've begun moderating a Goodreads' Book group, I've been quite honored by various authors (some new) asking if I'd be interested in reading their efforts. I am also a member of Booktasters and in that group, you are given the opportunity to read and provide honest reviews for their books. I've read a few such books and have enjoyed this opportunity. I have considered trying my own hand at writing a book many times over the years and not done so, so I appreciate the efforts these authors have put out to write and publish a book. I can't imagine what it might be like to write, to try and get a book published, to find editors, etc.

Having said that, I've enjoyed the opportunity to read RED DUST & RAINDROPS: Death on Mars by K.E. Heaton. It's a combination Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Mystery. NASA, now the World Aeronautic & Space Agency, WASA, has a planned mission to Mars. A team of five, 3 men and 2 women take off. There is an immediate surprise (I'll let you discover the surprise.) The voyage ends in some tragedy with one of the crew, Frank Schmidt, returning alone.

Frank leaves WASA and goes to live with his aunt in Wales. He is asked to return to Mars two years later when WASA needs to bring back the crew (very unique situation here). The mission is a relative success; two members of his crew remaining and Frank bringing back one plus a surprise bundle. There will be another trip required as we near the end of the story.

It's an interesting concept, somewhat far - fetched at times (of course it is Sci-Fi) and some unresolved references to the god Mars, e.g. is he real or not. It was an easy read and entertaining. One of my issues was probably due to self - publishing (these being grammatical and prose issues, but they could be corrected). It's an entertaining novel, light Sci-Fi (not too technical) and a neat little twisty mystery. (3 stars)

[Kab · Rating 3 out of 5]

This follow the crew of the first manned mission to mars, when crew reached the space they found out that one of the member was not as she was supposed to be and it created an atmosphere of tension between the members.
Once they reached the planet, things became scary(first death scared me) and after things escalated and turns into a disaster the module has to head back to Earth, assuming that everyone is dead.
But in future they are ready for another journey to the Red planet.

[Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

K.E. Heaton contacted me to let me know this book was free on Amazon that day, so I downloaded it to check it out.

Probably due to being self published, it lacks some badly needed editing, which detracts from the story.

That said, the story itself is interesting, as Heaton gets it that going to Mars isn't some 3 day jaunt like the moon landing - its a long haul and if you don't have the right mix of people, things might get... tense.

[Nancy Weckwerth · Rating 1 out of 5]

My review is on amazon.

[John D. D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Great Space Adventure

A thoroughly enjoyable read. I've read a lot of books by this guy, and this is very different to anything he's written before. It's the first time he's ventured into the world of sci-fi, but he still manages to populate it with his familiar, down to earth characters and style. It's about man's first mission to Mars, and as the subtitle suggests, it doesn't all end well for all parties involved. There's some great twists and turns you won't see coming, and some of the descriptions of Mars are truly exquisite and make you feel like you're actually there with the characters. I only have one gripe with an aspect of the story, but as I don't want to give any spoilers, I won't go into it here. Overall it's a great read, and I found myself reading it faster and faster each day, to see how it all panned out. Looking forward to the author's next great work.