The Mars House is a literary sci-fi queer romance novel about a Mars colony and the unlikely fake marriage between a refugee from Earth and a politician from Mars. January was a principle ballerina in London, but when London flooded he was forced to Mars, to live in the colony Tharsis. There, he's an Earthstronger, seen as dangerous as they are stronger than those naturalised to Mars, and forced to work in a factory as his only option. When a politican named Aubrey Gale, who stands for forcing Earthstrongers to be surgically naturalised to protect those natural to Mars from accidents, meets January at the factory, a press junket blows up in their faces, and a plan is proposed: a five year marriage to protect January's future and secure Gale's political chances. There's politics, environmental fears, and Gale's mysterious past to contend with as the pair learn what it is like to be each other.

I don't usually enjoy sci-fi books, but I was intrigued but the premise of this one (I've never seen a political sci-fi book that uses the romance 'fake marriage' trope before) and I'd heard of the author, though only read one of Pulley's books before. What I found was a book packed with ideas, from the abolishment of gender to the primacy of Mandarin as a language (and its morphing into a new Mars dialect), and not bogged down by some of the things I don't enjoy about sci-fi, like too much dry explanation and terminology. The writing felt playful, maybe because Pulley has moved from historical fiction to sci-fi so the genre was less solid, and the slow burn elements, particularly romance, meant that even though it was long, it was also gripping, creating plenty of tension around what would happen to the characters.

The plot itself was pretty straightforward, with the main twist being very easily guessable because it is quite heavily foreshadowed (and it was the kind of plot line that does frustrate me, without wanting to go into any spoilers), but there's still a lot going on, and a focus on characters and particularly January's experiences. Most of the book is focused on January, occasionally showing things from the perspective of someone else, and this gives it a particular slant, guiding the reader through things on Mars from the point of view of an outsider. This is a notable choice because a lot of the book is about perspective and morality, and the difficulty of making both big and small decisions when there are so many consequences and potential for people to be hurt. I liked how much the book engaged with these big ideas about morality and the complexity of the two main characters in arguing about it.

The relationship element is likely to be quite love/hate for people, because on the one hand you have a classic fake marriage scenario in which the two characters hate each other, or at least fear what each other believes, and then they have to learn to understand the bigger picture, but on the other hand, one of them does believe the other should be physically harmed in a process to make them no longer different to the "citizens" of the colony, and that seems like quite a hurdle to get over. Their characterisation does make this developing relationship believable, but there's also a lot of unanswered elements, including the fact that both of them seem to have issues around relationships and romance that never get resolved or really addressed. The book almost needs a sequel to make it believable that they have a future.

One major part of the book that made it quite stressful to read was the choice to make the naturalised-to-Mars people all agender or something similar, with gendered terms and pronouns only used for Earthstrongers and animals. As a non-binary person, it is hard not to try and read into what the author is saying about the construction of gender in the novel, which is quite messy (as gender is) and doesn't always have the space to explore the implications of this system. Especially earlier on in the novel, there can feel like a sense that the removal of binary gender is framed as a bad thing done in an effort to remove inequality, and though there are some moments that explore the implications of this, there were things that felt like they boiled down to 'people just need to know what body parts someone has or they won't be comfortable' without delving into it. One thing that would've been interesting to address would be the implications for someone who was trans to come to Mars and be naturalised (maybe even in one of the book's many footnotes if not in the narrative), but the book didn't really discuss being queer or trans on Earth at all. There was also not much really about sexuality and romance in Tharsis, despite romance being central to the plot, as far as I remember.

In short, I enjoyed reading The Mars House and I liked the two main characters and the way in which their disagreements were about big questions of morality and society rather than some random grudge, but I also felt conflicted reading it at times due to the way in which it handled some of the big questions and ideas within it, flattening interesting messiness.

Natasha Pulley books are an auto-buy/auto-read for me. I wasn't put off that it was sci-fi as I knew that it would be well-written. It was a complex, slow-burn and there were parts that I didn't quite follow but some of these were explained in later chapters. However, if was by another author, I would have perhaps skipped over it but I am here to support whatever the author writes as it is always excellent. So, if you want a sci-fi/political novel then give this a go. For Pulley fans, do read the footnotes as there is a mention of watches/Filigree Street.

I loved The Mars House!
I had never heard of this book or author before but I had to request to read it when I saw what it was about and I'm so happy I did!
I'm also definitely going to be checking out more of Natasha Pulleys work.

Everything about this book was so good!
I loved the characters so much, the story was amazing and the writing was really good.
It's definitely become a new favourite!

I definitely highly recommend this book!
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a review.

Rescued from a now underwater London, January is offered refuse on Mars. The gravity there means that he is much stronger than the locals and best suited to factory work. It’s a long way from the glamour of the London stage, but at least it’s a living. That is until he says the wrong thing to the wrong person and his second chance is yanked out from under him. Could he possibly be lucky enough to get a third?

As usual, Natasha Pulley has pulled an absolute success from the depths of her wondrous imagination. She has managed to build a whole new culture, with a whole new set rules, whilst still keeping her characters impressively relatable. And what characters they are: no stereotypes welcome here! January is a conflicting character with both soft and hard edges to him. He can give and take an insult as easily as anyone, yet is the first to step in whenever he senses even a hint of vulnerability in someone else. What is most impressive is the adaptability that both Gale and January portray, both able to meld completely into new situations without ever losing their own identities.

For the first few chapters I wasn’t really sure where the plot was going to go. However, this didn’t stop me from being fully engaged with every page. In fact it actually added to my enjoyment, letting me immerse myself in this new world without any pressures of an intense plot. By the time the main angles of the plot did begin to appear, I was fully invested in the characters: they could have done anything and I would have loved them for it. Fortunately, what they did do was fully loveable in its own right. Throughout, this book kept me enraptured with its intoxicating mix of political intrigue, mystery, romance, betrayal, and different people pulling together in hard times.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. What I liked most about this was the immersive worldbuilding, you really did get a sense of how different Tharsis is to Earth, and I did like how it explored some very complex issues. The segments with the Mammoths were also magical. However, there is some very bad science in this book (it is not possible, nor will it ever be possible, to delete cancer from the genome). I am also not a fan of the open ending style but that is a personal reading preference. But, overall I did enjoy this. I think it would appeal to fans of Winter's Orbit.

My problem with Natasha Pulley is that I don’t really want to have a problem with Natasha Pulley. But I went from being enamored with Watchmaker to being bitterly disappointed by Valery K, which now means every new book of hers I choose to read I would do cautiously. That is to say, for better or worse The Mars House had a lot to prove.

It turned out to be a strangely unrelatable book for me, even though I loved parts of its world building, particularly the sci-fi elements and linguistics-related aspects (to give a simple illustration, Mandarin acquiring new meanings because it’s being used in space and a completely different environment is such a neat and reasonable idea). Maybe it was the characters: January exhibits signs of anxiety but also seems to let go of it quickly in some cases and it reads like it’s just a sign of true love; and Gale is portrayed as this perfect shiny enigma most of the time - mild spoilers - even though his identity is telegraphed loud and clear way before the reveal.

Maybe it was the story itself: for example, it just doesn’t track for me that January, being a principal at the Royal Ballet, had absolutely no other choice but to leave for Mars. As a public figure and someone who rubbed shoulders with the elite at the best parties, wouldn’t he be taken in by literally any country that was still functioning on Earth, visa/citizenship rules and restrictions be damned? Admittedly, it might’ve proven to be a short-term solution but less daunting surely than going to space and adjusting to a completely new environment where you know you’d be robbed of the profession you adore. I’m not sure I’m fully on board with how politics was handled either, and, just like one of the twists mentioned earlier, the bulk of the mystery was easy to predict. The romance mostly left me indifferent, and if I cared a little more, I would probably stress that agency could be a big problem when your life literally depends on the person you agreed to marry and publicly support as an alternative to possibly physically maiming yourself forever.

Overall, it was nice to see Natasha Pulley branching out into what is more of a sci-fi direction, and some of it I unreservedly enjoyed. Some ideas and turns of phrase were truly lovely (‘my Apollo/my Artemis’ sounds simply marvelous), but some lost their appeal because of my somewhat lacking investment in the larger context they were in and the story itself

This was my first book by Natasha Pulley, I did feel out of my depth at first but I fell in love with the universe of the book and would read more by Natasha in the future.

Fanfic writing and literary teamed up for The Mars House where politics and fake marriage from Winter’s Orbit meet the warning about our current world from To Paradise.
 
Imagine. A flooded London. The Chinese saving the British. Saudi Arabia turning back refugee boats from the UK. A Chinese colony on Mars. Special train carriages, special houses, special entrances, and so on for so-called Earthstrongers (people from Earth). Forcing people to change because of how they’re born. Gender Abolition. Imagine. And think. 

Natasha Pulley’s writing is always elusive. Not much seems to be happening, and still, you feel the uneasiness below the surface in every word and every sentence. You’re waiting to peel off layer by layer, to find snippets of information to help you lose that turmoil in your body, but instead, your radar starts whirling, and you might think you’re going mad. As a reader, it makes you extremely frantic because what if you’re missing something essential? So, The Mars House started in slow motion, with numerous footnotes, and it made me read even more slowly. And at the same time, the story gripped me because I instantly felt the social importance of this book. It’s an apparent reference to the world we’re living in right now, with climate change and populism and excluding others.
 
There’s always a slow-slow-slow-burn love story in Natasha’s novels between two traumatized people. The fake marriage between January and Gale is no different. Starting as magnets with their repelling poles pointed at each other—January hates everything Gale thinks, and Gale hates everything January is—eventually, they start teasing and grinning and suddenly having rather normal conversations. Everything seems to be fine (except for Gale’s political positions), and even I, a huge Natasha Pulley fan, started to wonder if this book would be anything like her other books. But my heart opened up for Gale and January, oh sweet January, and warmth slid inside my body, and small smiles tilted up my lips while, at other times, chills started to creep up my arms, and I was reading faster and faster, and ... About halfway through the novel, I had an inkling and … sorry, I’m saying no more. Only … mammoths (movie-like!)… and know my inkling was correct!

If you haven’t read anything by Natasha Pulley yet, I’m not sure if you should start with this one. On the other hand, none of them might seem to be the best to begin with. They all give you doubt and confusion and furrowed brows. The most important thing is to just surrender to her storytelling and not quit when you feel bored or utterly confused. The pacing in her books is slow, especially in the first part, but eventually, the story will unfold itself, and suddenly you understand why so many readers are Natasha Pulley stans! 
 
And now I want that sequel to Valery K Natasha was talking about on Twitter! Publishers, do you hear me? US READERS NEED THAT SEQUEL DESPERATELY!!

Actual rating 4.5 stars rounded up to five.

Thank you to Orion and Netgalley for the chance to read this. First of all, I am a Natasha Pulley fan. I’ve read all their books and adored many of her characters. Even though this one is set in the future, it is still solidly one of their books - the writing is beautiful, crisp and precise, the characters bleed off the pages and into the reader’s mind (and heart).

Here there lies an epic slo-burn romance, political shenanigans, hideous bigotry and a convoluted plot that touches on so many issues that beleaguer our current world - all done without any ranting or raging. I could have done without one flashback, as I thought it unnecessary, but otherwise I was utterly engaged. I loved the dance, the Houses, the angst, the mammoths (❤️) and most of all, damaged January, who deserves happiness.