The First Hundred

They rushed to the man on the gurney.  It was Sax, although Michel recognized him by his body rather than his face, which was a deathmask apparition, with two blackened eyes, and a mashed nose between them.  He appeared unconscious at best.  They worked to detach him from body restraints.  There were electrodes stuck to several places on his shaved head, and Michel winced as Maya simply tore them all away.  Michel pulled a thin emergency suit from his thigh pocket, and set about pulling it up over Sax’s inert legs and torso, manhandling him in his haste; but Sax didn’t even groan.  Maya came back and took an emergency fabric headpiece and small tank out of Michel’s backpack, and they hooked them to Sax’s suit, and turned the suit on.

Maya’s hand was clutching Michel’s wrist so hard that he feared the bones would crack.  She plugged her phone line back into his wrist.  “Is he alive?”

“I think so.  Let’s get him out of here, we can find out later.”

“Look what they’ve done to his face, those fascist murderers.”

The person on the floor, a woman, was stirring, and Maya stalked over and kicked her hard in the gut.  She leaned over and looked in the faceplate, cursed in a surprised voice.  “It’s Phyllis.”

Michel pulled Sax out of the room and down the hall.  Maya caught up with them.  Someone appeared before them and Maya aimed her gun, but Michel knocked her hand aside-it was Spencer Jackson, he recognized him by the eyes.  Spencer spoke, but with their helmets on they couldn’t hear him.  He saw that, and shouted: “Thank God you came!  They were done with him-they were going to kill him!”

Maya said something in Russian and ran back to the room and threw something inside, then ran back toward them.  An explosion shot smoke and debris out of the room, peppering the wall opposite the door.

“No!” Spencer cried.  “That was Phyllis!”

“I know,” Maya shouted viciously; but Spencer couldn’t hear her.

I’m not going to say this was the most exciting or even heartbreaking moment so far but damn, when the first hundred start killing each other, shit gets real.  In Red Mars, the no one from the first hundred dies until near the end.  Now I’m not even 300 pages in and Maya is hardcore, talking about murder.  I’ll say it already: The Mars Trilogy is going to turn out to be three of my favorite books OF ALL TIME!

Holy cow, it has been about a month since I posted a review.  Not because I haven’t been reading.  In fact, I’m actually caught up!  I can’t really believe it actually.  I thought I would never be able to get back on schedule.  But the little time I’ve saved by moving directly on to the next book has been catching up with me.  Now I’ve got four books waiting for reviews.  I started Snow Queen last night and I hope to finish that and Uplift War within the next week.  Then it’s all my thoughts about the 80’s and however many books from the 90’s I’ve finished by then.  Hopefully we’re in for a series of rapid-fire reviews.

Oh and somewhere in there I'm supposed to be running a marathon or some such nonsense!