The Last Voyage by Brian D. McLaren

Were this merely a work of science fiction, it could be deemed a reasonably well-written, thrilling narrative about a small group of scientists on a highly improbable trip to another planet.

But, if you know anything about Brian McLaren, it’s got to be much more than that.

The crew of ten are fleeing Planet Earth, which is facing total disaster under the perverse governance of an unscrupulous oligarchy and the resultant climatic collapse.

The participants

Each member of the team was carefully selected for their racial and cultural diversity, as well as their talent in their respective fields. A teenage Palestinian artist, daughter of a Christian Arab and a secular Jewess; a humorous Guatemalan geneticist; the Ukrainian widow of an oligarch; a non-binary Maori musician; the list goes on. Among them are a fanatically atheistic ecologist and his spiritually minded daughter. Her mandate is to cultivate a humane culture on the spaceship and later introduce an additional dimension into the crumbling techno-society on Mars.

The months go by in the cramped, zero-gravity enclosure, full of digital gadgetry but only boring food, and with little to do except tend the resident menagerie and floragerie. One participant after another breaks down under personal or relational crises. The others do their best to help, but the atmosphere becomes daunting.

Conclusion

This book combines a devastating analysis of Earth’s totally corrupt political system in 2056 with the emotional challenge of resolving the psychological issues each of us carry in our hearts from our past. It’s an exciting read, even if somewhat implausible.

This is the first book of a trilogy. And they haven’t reached Mars yet. I’m keen to read on, when the sequels – The Great Rift and Ethnogenesis – are published.