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steeperthandeep's review
4.0
This was a fun read. Mat does a wonderful job of placing the reader in the action, and the action is exhilarating. The story takes place on the surface of Mars, and the protagonist is a native born endurance athlete; his specialty being para-sailing. The thrust of the story is a trans-world event, a major race that includes athletes from Earth, and first generation Martians. I appreciated the visual experiences that Mat's writing allowed me. A very real character in the story is the Martian air. It is both sparse and toxic, but can be relied on once a skilled sailor accommodates its ways. During parts of the story I could really 'see' the air, its movements and varying temperature, as a dynamic entity to be dealt with. Speaking of air, I could detect a whiff of the rarefied writer's air of people like Kim Stanley Robinson or James Salter in this story. I am looking forward to more stories from Mat.
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