World War Mars

By: Rick Partlow

Narrated by: Paul Heitsch

Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Alien tech discovered. The race to claim it could spark a new kind of War.

When a derelict alien starship appears in the solar system and crash-lands on Mars, it ignites a desperate race to be the first to reach the Red Planet to claim the mysterious technological treasures of the Visitor.

Space Force General Tom Bradstreet, ace Air Force fighter pilot and the only active-duty officer with actual space combat experience, is given control of the Morrigan, the first manned mission to Mars—and the first space warship.

He and his elite team know their mission. In fact, it should be simple. The US is the only nation with a spaceship capable of making it to Mars.Or so they think…

Maverick Russian General Mikhail Antonov has been handed the insane, desperate gamble of building an Orion-style spaceship powered by nuclear warheads. Launching it from the heart of Russia could be the spark that touches off a nuclear war but it’s the only way the Russians and Chinese can hope to reach Mars before the Americans.

The scene is set for a devastating world war, and the first shots may be fired on another world...

Don’t miss the next action-packed, gritty military sci-fi series from Rick Partlow, the bestselling author of the Drop Trooper Series and Taken to the Stars.

©2024 Aethon Books (P)2024 Aethon Audio

This book is a really fun edge-of-your-seat action-packed military Scifi...

Although Military Scifi isn't 🪖 my go to genre, picking this up was a no-brainer as I've read several books by Rick Partlow and enjoyed them all. World War Mars did not disappoint... It was really good and I ended up on the edge-of-my-seat in this action-packed near earth adventure. Where just lifting off good old American soil turned out to be harrowing. As China, India, and even France took umbrage to the US beating them to Mars to study the alien space craft...
Go grab this book because you're gonna need to find out how it all breaks down. Better yet get the audiobook because as I discovered by listening to this book Paul Heitsch is great...

a classical Adventure story

I am an already established fab of Rick Partlow. this story is a great high adventure. highly recommended

Thrilling Non-Stop Action

Super vivid, believable and ridiculously fun! I can’t wait for the sequel! Humanities in for one hell of a fight!

Reads Like A Rough Draft

I was expecting some entertainment with moderately good story telling. I ended up forcing myself to finish it to see if there was a payoff. There wasn't.

The premise has the potential to deliver good action, and some interesting sci-fi. The problem is in the execution. The dialog is terrible. Rather than give any narration, or preface to set the stage, the characters speak in long speeches to provide context, often after the relevant event is over. Why is France firing on US spacecraft? Well after it is over, a character will recount the geopolitical history needed to understand why it just happened. Scientists do not actually spend their time recounting lengthy theories to their peers who are already familiar with them while facing imminent death.

There is also a lot of convenient plot armor insertions. We've been with a character for over 30 chapters when they are suddenly bailed out by an equipment feature that we are told they have had strong opinions about for the entire story. That feature and those opinions were never mentioned once before it saves their life. Once would be a slip, but this reads like the author ran into repeated continuity issues, and rather than fix the narrative earlier in the story, just keeps applying lazy fixes on the spot.

The narration is good, and certainly provides nice vocal variation for different characters.

There is an outline for a solid book in here, but this militsry space adventure detonated on the launch pad.

A Fun Wild Ride

Exciting battles, fun characters, and more enemies than you can shake a grenade at! The narration is absolutely superb. In all, a wonderful start to the series.

Great book

Another hit for Rick Paltrow. I hope this is the beginning of season long series. I can see so many possibilities. Looking forward to what will come.

Author has a great understanding of “hard science” and incorporates it well with storytelling

Great story! Looking forward to the next book! Would be interested in finding other series/books by this author.

An interesting listen

Lots of characters doing lots of things and I didn't have to keep track of who was who and what they did.

I was given this audiobook for free and have voluntarily left this review.

Great "Near Future" scenario with powerful sci fi punch!

Rick Parttlow has always been a great story teller, but here he breaks new strides and ground with a pulse pounding tale that doesn't ever seem to let up on the pressure. All the characters,and their reactions to extraordinary events are highly probable, and very realistic. Keeping a science fiction concept grounded in real physics adds a layer of sophisticated nuance to an already gripping story!
the narrator was fantastic, adding subtle changes to characters so I never had a question as to who was speaking, so WELL DONE!

Another great space war story from Partlow

A blend of near contemporary alternate Earth history blended with space battles, battles on a planet and military personnel drama.