The Bottom Line: A shockingly great YA Sci-Fi thriller that earns its suspense and pays it off repeatedly. Highly recommended for any sci-fi fan.
At a time when establishing an outpost on Mars seems more plausible than ever before, Ron Wolff’s Colony opens – appetizingly so – with a detailed schematic diagram of Hellas Station, a base for human colonization and scientific exploration. What follows next is a frenetic scene where Hellas Station can’t reach the Starship Horizon, which has just arrived with colonists.
For background, we learn that Adam Flynn, son of Commander David Flynn, was born on Mars. His mother died during childbirth. At just 17 years old, he’s already been a member of the crews for years. With just eight people living on the planet, it’s safe to say that the arrival of 79 colonists is the defining moment of Adam’s life.
Mercifully, Wolff doesn’t follow the now-predictable trope of frontloading the novel with an act of shocking violence and using flashbacks to fill in the backstory. Instead, he builds suspense by allowing readers to experience what feels like a perfect simulation of the wonder and difficulty in scaling a colony on Mars in linear fashion. Several chapters in, and right on time, the inevitable first sign that something is terribly wrong happens as Adam finds the body of Antje, one of the Dutch colonists. And during the autopsy, a shocking revelation – Antje’s corpse is completely empty inside. She was consumed from within.
What long-dormant alien has risen from Mars’ surface? That’s the singular question as Wolff accelerates the narrative to thrilling effect. Not that the colonists have much time to ponder it. As the body count rises due to an alien presence they don’t yet understand, Adam is soon thrust into an unlikely leadership role. A team of young survivors, each of them memorable in their own right, must engage in a strategic battle of intellect and wits.
Just as in any dystopian novel, the survivors need to make do with what they can find. The creativity required in order for what’s left of Wolff’s fledgling colony to battle for their lives makes for an extremely entertaining read (Ammonia, anyone? Liquid Oxygen?). The result is an absolute blast.
Colony is marketed as a young adult Sci-Fi survival thriller, which it most certainly is. But just because the book doesn’t feature sex or objectionable subject matter doesn’t mean the rest of us won’t love it too. This is a rare thriller that the entire family can rally around.
