Im not usually a fan of books set on other planets, but having enjoyed William I was happy to give this one a go! I'm really pleased I did as not only were there the usual rogue robots, dangers lurking on the alien land and poor communication with Mission Control, but the gradual reveal of our "heroine's" back story kept me reading until the satisfying end.
Thank you to netgalley and John Murray press for an advance copy of this book.

A very enjoyable read. Blake and his crew are the first manned mission to colonize Mars. Three robots have already been sent to build a base to sustain human life indefinitely. When the crew arrives, one robot is already missing and soon one of their crew is killed. Can the robots be trusted?
It's a fairly short book so the story moves quickly with a few twists on the way. I look forward to the next one.

Oh wow, I am very quickly becoming a very firm fan of Mason Coile, especially after reading "William" and now after finishing "Exiles". This time Mason turns his focus away from futurist gothic horror to sci-fi horror. I'm not usually an avid fan of sci-fi but Mason's books are relatively short but they sure do pack a punch and with lots of twists and turns. This time the robots have gone rogue - how will they interact with the first humans sent to Mars. Excellent!

After reading and loving William, I couldn't wait to read Exiles.
It had a lot to live up to and I can safely say it did not disappoint.
Exiles is immensely tense and terrifying and I could not put it down. I look forward to Mason Coiles next book.

I chose this after reading William last year and really enjoying. Thank you to @NetGalley and @Johnmurrays for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This short, one sitting read, is gripping. It’s a mix of sci fi, suspense and psychological horror.

Set on Mars, where a human crew of three arrive to find their base half destroyed. Of the three robots that were sent to build the base, one has disappeared and they also seem to have evolved. They have renamed themselves, formed alliances, and embraced weird beliefs.

I won’t give anything else away but this was a short but very entertaining trip to Mars.

Would you trust a robot on Mars?

Written by Mason Coile (a pseudonym of Andrew Pyper), if you are into intelligent and atmospheric sci fi, then you can get your hands on this when it releases next month.

Thank you so much to John Murray Press for the e-arc!

4 stars!

OOOOOOOOOF!!!!!! I was so excited for this and it DELIVERED!

The way I made a movie version of this in my head just like William LOL

This was tense & had me guessing who was to be trusted, what was real, what was happening or could happen next. The suffocation of loneliness or isolation, what could happen on this mission where there's no going back. All of the characters were interesting to read and kept me interested in the story and to read Dana just going through it while reminders of her past & the trauma of that keeps coming back.

And then the ending, yes. wow.

I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher, in return for an honest review. This review is based entirely on my own thoughts and feelings.

Overall rating : 5*
Writing skill : 4*
Plot: 4*
Pace: 5*
Characters: 5*
Atmosphere : 5*

Wow this book packed a punch, for a 200 page book this was jam packed. I didn’t read the blurb after being approved it, so apart from knowing this was set in mars, I went in very blind, and I’m so glad I did. Everything was a surprise, and had absolutely no idea where the story was heading. It was creepy, isolating and very atmospheric. I truly felt transported to another, very barren, planet.
After loving William, and now this too, I’ll be seeking out anything and everything Mason writes.

Having read William, (also by Mason Coile), last year, and been suitably creeped out by it (robot doll on a tricycle, anyone?), I was hoping for more of the same with Exiles. Reader, I was not disappointed. 🤖
The year is 2030. Mission Commander Blake and his crew of two, engineer Kang and medic Gold, are en route to Mars. This is not an exploration, these three will be the first settlers on the colony.
Three bots have been sent ahead of them, to ready the base for human inhabitation. 🤖
You can take it as a given that all is not well on the red planet. There's a sinister threat at the base, but what exactly is the threat? Is it alien 👾, or is it a rogue bot? 🤖 Well, you're just going to have to read the book for yourself to find out, aren't you?
Well paced and twisty, Exiles is akin to a sci-fi locked room mystery. A very claustrophobic room, on Mars.
Thanks to John Murray Press and Netgalley for the digital ARC.

I enjoyed William, which I read as part of my spooky season reads of 2024, so I was excited to start Exiles, also by Mason Coile.

When colonists arrive at their Martian Citadel after a long journey, they are surprised to find the doors locked and one of their helper robots missing. Can they find out what has been happening and continue their mission?

I love standalone sci-fi and horror and the blurb of this book really gripped my attention. We find ourselves in narrator Gold’s head, who has signed up for a one-way mission to Mars with Engineer Kang and Mission Leader Blake. It’s hard to write standalone sci-fi but the small cast of characters really helped the reader to lean into their relationships and the world building around it. The setting of the Citadel on the surface of Mars was really well done, and I felt like I could picture everything clearly.

The creepy atmosphere is present from the beginning, from Gold getting woken up in the pod, through to the empty Citadel and even out on the surface of the planet chasing shadows. The robot characters are also well constructed and interesting, with Coile leaning into the AI aspect much the same as he did with William. I enjoyed the progression of the story (without giving away any spoilers), and the journey that Gold’s character goes on, with her backstory being drip-fed to us slowly. The ending was unusual and I think it may divide readers - there is a certain amount of suspension of disbelief needed throughout, but at the end of the day it’s a sci-fi horror story, so I feel like asking this of its readers is fine!

Overall, Exiles is a great creepy sci-fi story – perfect for fans of both genres. Thank you to NetGalley & John Murray Press – Baskerville for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I came to Mason's books relatively recently with his novella William, and it was so good and really quite terrifying.

It is an odd book, but in a good way. It's claustrophobic and eerie and scary, without being too full-on in the horror department - which I appreciate as I'm a wuss.

It's a futuristic, dystopina, fantasy, sci-fi type story, and yet the concept of colonising other planets in our solar system is becoming closer and closer to reality than we might be comfortable with.

Its a short book and, for me, there's not much in the way of plot. This is about characters and atmosphere which Mason has managed to write in a captivating way.

It wasn't my favourite book in the world. I don't read much sci-fi and so I don't have much to compare it to. It's not a five star read for me, and I think William was better, but I still enjoyed it and it has great depth and atmosphere.

I am not a fan of short stories, nor am I a fan of overly long books. This is closer to a short story than an epic, but I actually wanted more. I needed another chapter or an epilogue to ensure it finished in a more satisfying manner. What is there is good, but I am unsure about the ending. I mean, if someone asked me to describe how it ended, I couldn't tell you, as it was just a bit......lacklustre, I suppose.

I know that Andrew Pyper (Mason Coile is a pseudonym) recently passed away and so unfortunately there won't be any more books from him, but I am intrigued to take a look at his back catalogue, especially his longer stuff.

This book was so sickeningly tense, it was amazing. I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

This is a blend of sci-fi and horror with isolation as a key theme. We follow a crew of three arriving at mars on a mission only to find, their welcome by their helper robots hasn’t gone to plan.

A genuinely unnerving read. The terror is non-stop. It really makes you question what’s real, and what isn’t. The characters can’t be certain, there’s tension between the crew, and the robots are behaving strangely. What’s more, the main character is haunted by events from her past that’s she’s tried to repress, but are bubbling at the surface as her fear and apprehension grows. It is such a tense and menacing book. I was thoroughly impressed.

The atmosphere is incredible, so oppressive. The isolation is palpable and there are constant reminders of how alone they are. If you’re looking for an utterly gripping, utterly tense and terrifying book - definitely read this, it was great.

Loved this book! Gave me Chris Brookmyre vibes with the sci-fi and jump scare elements.

Really well written, I couldn’t put it down.

Tense, dark, and an interesting mix of sci-fi and horror, this was a fast read as I didn't want to put it down. I was kind of glad I read most of it on a train. In daylight. If I'd have been reading at night, in bed, on my Kindle, in the dark I think I would have been terrified!
I enjoyed the small cast of characters - that adds to the suspense. And the fact that you don't know who to trust at any given moment in the story. It took me a few pages to find my feet with the writing style but then either I settled into things, or the author did, and after that it was an easy, entertaining read. Mars felt hostile, and just as remote and desolate as it should.
I was sad to see that the author (Andrew Pyper, writing as Mason Coile) died recently (which adds an extra layer to the story now I know that). But he has written quite a few other books, so I'm glad there is more that I can go back and read.

“Exiles” was my first book by Mason Coile. Only after I finished the book, I realised the name is a pseudonym for Andrew Pyper, and he unfortunately recently passed away. I had a look at the books he had written and was intrigued by some of them, and will definitely be checking them out soon.

If you know me, you’ll know I almost never pick Netgalley copies nowadays. The main reason is because I prefer printed copies. I like to hold the book, pencil and tab into it and it’s easier for me to share it on social media this way too. I also have too many books on my TBR at the moment, that I very rarely accept a new upcoming book. That being said, I can’t help myself and always browse the upcoming releases on Netgalley, to see what’s coming soon.

And when “Exiles” showed up, the synopsis stopped me in my tracks. A story about a woman, Dana, who joins the mission to be the first human on Mars, alongside two male astronauts. And on their way to Mars, right before they are supposed to land, something is not right – they cannot get comms. The three robots that have been on Mars for a while, setting up the station and ensuring everything is running smoothly, have gone incommunicado. When the team manages to land safely, there are only two bots left, and their stories of what happened are not adding up.

It’s obvious that something has been going on before the humans arrived. But with their conflicting stories, it’s up to the astronauts to investigate and make a decision. Is there really an alien who tried to harm them, or has the third bot turned evil? And with these conflicting stories, there’s something else that is becoming obvious to the astronauts – these machines are very capable of lying and definitely cannot be trusted with anything now.
The story is very fast-paced and breathtaking.

I never knew exactly who I could trust at any given time. Truthfully, the book kept delivering plot twist after plot twist, despite me anticipating them. I could relate to Dana’s story, her fear and her motivation for joining such a permanent mission. Taking a one-way ticket to Mars is not a small decision to make. It was also interesting how the crew’s opinion about the bots differed. The captain treated them as machines, as slaves, only there to set up a station and run errands. Whereas Dana had a relationship that bordered on friendship. It was intriguing to see the bots have consciousness, they chose their names and genders, and they started to experience boredom and loneliness on the planet, whilst waiting for the humans to arrive.

The ending was brutal and raw. Despite a small part of me actually anticipating that ending, I still did not see it coming. There was also something briefly unfinished there. A few crumbs of regret and sadness loomed, and all ending in a very poetic way. If the author knew he was dying, this feels like the perfect ending to his last book. In a morbidly beautiful way, very fitting. I will always praise this book. I am curious to see how it will age in the next 20-30 years, if I am lucky to still be alive to witness that. And I will always recommend it to anyone that asks for a good book set on Mars.

‘Exiles’ is a quick, thrilling sci-fi horror story about a three person crew sent to Mars to set up a colony. When they arrive, they find that the advance party of robots who were supposed to help them are acting strangely, one has gone missing, and the others have developed their own weird personalities.
The story is fast and tense and the twist at the end was interesting. If you like quick, suspenseful space thrillers, this could be a good read for you.

Brilliant novella focused on the crew of the first mission to mars with the intent of settling for the remainder of their life. Their robots are already in situ, but on arrival something has gone awry…. A compelling science-fiction horror that delves into what it means to be human, AI and the ultimate loneliness of being the first colonisers.
Short, gripping and atmospheric. I was hugely sorry to see the author had recently died.

This is a short, locked-room mystery set on Mars and I think this was the perfect length. Any longer and it would have dragged itself down. The suspense is there from the beginning, the chapters are short and easy to read, and it keeps the pace well throughout.

As with any book that focuses on a short period of time only, it does face challenges of being too surface level at points; we don't actually find out the main character's name until a couple of chapter's in, and then it's even longer until we find out her first name. A dealbreaker? Not really, considering it does sort of tie in with the fact that there's only three people there. But it does keep all of the characters a bit at a distance and facing the situation at hand, rather than knowing more of their backstories and understanding why they are on a (seemingly suicidal) mission to Mars.

I read this in one day and I think that's the way to go - become completely absorbed in their world for a bit, and it makes you feel much more involved. I can definitely see this translating really well to the screen. (it sort of reminds me of the "Midnight" episode of Dr. Who lol)

I’ve struggled with this book right from the outset. I felt as if I’d been dropped into a maelstrom and found it difficult to understand what was going on and who was who. The dialogue exchanges and narrative style were irritating rather than engaging and as the story developed, it all felt contrived. It feels more like an outline for a B rated sci fi movie rather than a well plotted story. I like the premise but that’s about it and I gave up at 30%. My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

I thought this book would be an entertaining palate cleanser and while the suspense was enjoyable in the beginning, it was quickly gone. Everything - the characters, their actions, the world building - was simply stupid. And with the chance of sounding like a stereotype: This book was clearly written by a man.

Mason Coile’s Exiles is a fast-paced and thrilling Mars-set story.

We follow a three-person mission to Mars that very quickly goes off the rails. When Gold and her fellow astronauts arrive at the robot-built base, they find one of the bots is missing. The other two tell different stories about what happened; one says the missing bot went mad and attacked the station, while the other claims that an alien entity is the cause of the trouble.

Exiles is such a page-turner; not only do the crew have barely any downtime between disasters, but the mystery of what’s going on really drives the story forward. I also loved the setting, with Mars giving a sense of isolation and the base feeling claustrophobic. If anything, I just would have liked for things to have been fleshed out a little bit more. I found all of the characters—both the humans and the robots—to be really interesting and would have enjoyed learning a bit more about them.