'One Way' is a cross-genre thriller in which 8 convicts are sent to Mars to set up a base ahead of NASA astronauts, who will be arriving at a later date. As they bump along together, getting on with their jobs - the odd argument breaking out or connection being formed - events start to take a dark turn...

Fans of 'The Martian' will really enjoy this book - The author (being a rocket scientist) clearly knows what he is talking about and explains everything in great detail. Sometimes the fine point is at the expense of pace, but anyone with an interest in space technology will appreciate the extra paragraphs on construction processes and Martian landscape.

I found the protagonist to be a little too gullible - but as the story begins to progress, the action really picks up towards it's final, gritty conclusion!

Brilliant book from the first page. Story was excellent and very engrossing. You can sympathise with Frank all the way through whilst still being a great thriller. I didn’t want the story to end and will be looking out for a sequel if one is written. I think I was expecting a different twist to the end so I was quite surprised with the end and that made it even better. Fantastic read and I will be recommending this to others

I've been selling this one to friends as "The Martian" meets "And then there were none", but it's so much more than that. "One Way" is a fantastic story of morally grey characters just doing the best they can to survive. I wouldn't say I liked any of them exactly, but the more you see of how harsh the conditions are on Mars and the emotional turmoil they're going through, the more you want everyone to get through it alive. Great twist at the end too.

Sadly, this didnt grip me and I put it down before they'd even gone off planet. I felt too detached from the main character and the story so far wasn't enough to keep me reading.

As soon as the first paragraph was read I was hooked. A brilliant tale of Mars, crime, suspense, all backed up with a stunning knowledge of science. Edge of your seat stuff and at times so claustapohic I found I wasn’t breathing. Unputdownable and it will stay with me for a long time. A brilliant read more please.

I really enjoyed the majority of this book, it was thrilling and it was in SPACE SO I LOVE THAT. But the ending was just so unsatisfying it lost a star. I'll post a full review soon.

I normally read for about two hours every day on the train. But I lost sleep over this book and for most of the past maybe two days my kindle has always been close to hand in case I had a spare minute. I have never really considered anything but sending extremely trained astronauts into space so this whole novel caught my attention as something new.

The way that the story is told my natural feeling of distrust and dislike towards murderers and criminals was constantly challenged as I really quickly got to like and grew attached to the characters. It is safe to say Frank’s life has not been easy. With the decisions he has had to make, getting him into jail in the first place and pointless existence once imprisoned its not difficult to understand by he chose to be one of the first settlers on Mars. But as he goes through training and the brutal life in Mars it really does make you wonder whether extreme hardships he goes through is better than his nominal existence in the prison.

But the life on Mars is absorbing! Every element of the tasks that the crew must perform to survive, every challenge they have no choice but to achieve, every time their lack of training and lack of supplies gets in the way, their natural human coping mechanism kicks in. And every bump in this book is based on their fight for their existence. And though I want to hate them for being murders I can’t help but always route for Frank no matter what horrendous decisions he has to make.

https://anovelhaul.wordpress.com/2017/12/31/one-way-by-sj-morden/

I really enjoyed this one as was shown by the speed at which I read it - One Way is basically a bit of an adventurous murder mystery set on Mars, or mostly so anyway, a tense and claustrophobic tale which benefited from some scientific geekery and a main character who was easy to get along with.

Frank is offered the chance to leave prison behind and be part of a mission to prepare a Mars base for the scientists who will be going to live and work there - it isn't a get out of jail free card - he agrees that he will live and die there. Only he realises that dying there is likely to come a bit faster than expected.

I really got into it - it is both fast paced and often considered - as Frank arrives on the Red Planet, starts losing his "colleagues" and realises there is a saboteur among them. Then it goes all Agatha Christie "And then there were None" as the small compact team starts dropping like flies and Frank becomes determined that he will be the one left standing...

The author does a great job of making it both fascinating and thrilling, the characters are all larger than life (in fact if I had one small bugbear it was that Brack descended into caricature more often than was necessary) and despite them all having a murky past, easy to engage with and root for. The imagined Mars is well described and the fact that even the environment is more likely to kill them than not keeps things interesting throughout.

Overall a great, fun and easily addictive read, I have no problem recommending this one. One to hunker down with on a chilly winter's day.