Red Hope

An Adventure Thriller (Book 1)

By: John Dreese

Narrated by: Bob Reed

Length: 5 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

(A New 5th Anniversary Edition Audiobook is now available on Audible)

Aliens exist, and the Mars Curiosity rover just discovered their bones.

The first manned mission is rushed. Corners are cut.

Adventure. Betrayal. Disaster. Surprise.

Retired astronaut Adam Alston can't support his family. When NASA comes knocking for a mission leader, it's a match made in heaven - especially since their A-list team declined the haphazard mission.

And so did their B-list. But Adam doesn't know that. And neither does his family.

Ride along as four modern-day astronauts prepare and launch a quickly assembled adventure to discover what the Mars Curiosity Rover found right before it died. With time running out, the fate of humanity rests in the hands of four doomed travelers.

Who will make it back... and why won't the others?

About Red Hope:

Red Hope is the first book of a fast-paced two-novel series. It has an entertaining ending with a mild cliff-hanger leading into the final book, called Blue Hope. Red Hope is intended for a general audience - you won't need a calculator or a slide rule to enjoy this adventure!

©2014 John J. Dreese (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Mike D.

super great book that all Syfy people should read or listen to. I could not stop reading it once I started reading it this morning.

An Epic and Generous Adventure.

When John Dreese decided to craft ‘Red Hope’, he changed the interplanetary, current age, sci-fi genre forever… or perhaps he created it? Or at very least redefined it in a way that will shape my sci-fi tastes forever. Weaving together strong characters, international sociopolitical issues, and delicate personal conflicts, this book easily outperforms my expectations. If you enjoy Sci-Fi and are fond of the prospect of being a multi-planetary species – ‘Red Hope’ is for you. It's also worth mentioning that the narrator, Bob Reed, is top of his class. Articulate and discerning with his various roles, just a pleasure to listen to (A++)

When there is no Hope you have Red Hope

An exciting book, when a new discovery leads to a space race to mars where even more discoveries are to be had. Then something happens, and earth goes all to hell. Just as this space adventure is getting good it comes to and end, but do not lose hope, we have a second book Blue Hope to continue.

A little basic research would have helped ...

An interesting idea - a surprising discovery prompts an emergency trip to Mars by 4 astronauts including one Russian and one American businessman who won't let NASA use his rockets unless he goes. Perhaps a bit far-fetched, but OK, I can suspend belief enough for this. I can even handle the little romance between two of the travelers, although one would have thought that NASA might have caught on and kicked one of them off the trip. My big problem has to do with the whole carbon dating thing.

Does the author not know that carbon dating depends upon the percentage of carbon-12 and carbon-14 in the atmosphere and that there is no reason to believe that those percentages would have been the same on Mars as on Earth? If they did not know surely the engineers and scientists back on Earth would have known so the idea of making decisions based on such a flimsy piece of evidence seemed unreasonable to me. The author could have taken the basic idea of this book (which is interesting, even if done before in other sci-fi books) and found other scientific basis for the actions that everyone takes.

Still, the book is interesting and the idea that there are no monsters on Mars to threaten them or any falling comets to destroy all of their equipment is refreshing. Basically the characters are decent people, their actions reasonable based on their premises (even if the premises are a bit unrealistic) and I am interested in what is going to happen in the second book. While I have read far better books I have also read far worse ones, so I may buy the second book in the series when it is published.

Interesting

Interesting quick read. no real depth to the story or characters.

Dreese leaves nothing to chance

What happens when you have a president seeking re-election, an egotistical rich entrepreneur, a Russian Paleontologist and two “not top of the rung” astronauts with everything to lose?  A disaster of epic proportions!

The Mars Rover discovers a secret that the red planet has held for thousands of years.  In a bid for re-election, the president promises a trip to Mars in an unheard of time frame.  Rich CEO Murch has the equipment to get the astronauts to Mars within the time frame but with one condition.  Astronaut Adam leaves his family behind so the money he will make from speaking engagements can provide his wife with the experimental surgery that may help her walk again.  The other two astronauts - Molly and Yeva – well, they just try to do their jobs.

John Dreese builds a strong story around doing the right thing, the right way.  Unfortunately, none of the characters do the right thing, the right way – rather they become the catalyst for nothing less than disaster.

The character development is rich and vivid; one cannot help but admire Adam at first but then he becomes one of the distasteful ones like the President and the CEO Murch.  If one of these three had just done their job the right way and did the right thing, perhaps life on Mars would have been different.

Dreese builds the excitement slowly but steady, he leaves nothing to chance and nothing is left hanging.  He provides closure to everything and everyone while still managing to leave a cliffhanger that will have you holding your breath!

There were points in the story where I know I shook my head because I couldn’t believe what was going on; it was realistic yet one could see the common sense of the astronauts leaping through the window.

The book was an easy listen with the correct amount of suspense and “OMG, no he didn’t” type of action.  Exciting and shocking, this audio is excellent.   This is a book for everyone – it is not just science fiction but romance, horror, drama and so much more rolled into one.

Bob Reed performed the narration perfectly with the right amount of inflection and excitement.  He expressed the emotions of each character well.  His voice was soothing and smooth.

There were no issues with the audio production of this audiobook.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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A Sci-Fi Mystery

Red Hope was written if a hard science fiction, a normal sci-fi, and a mystery book all had a baby together. There were definitely parts of hard sci-fi in this with some of the descriptions of the propulsion, the world that they find, and just the everyday life of the scientists on Mars. The regular "old school" sci-fi was the premise and the struggles that the astronauts and scientists were going through. The mystery part was the most intriguing. Sure, any science fiction can have mystery in it, but this whole book was shrouded in it.

I did enjoy it, it wasn't as tech savvy as The Martian, or as wonderfully as some thrillers or mysteries that I usually read, but it was still a really enjoyable book. Enjoyable enough that I definitely want to figure out what happens in the next book.

The narration, done by Bob Reed was good. He reminds me of a voice that I know from Hollywood but I can't place the name even though I can see his face. (I wanna say he was bigger in the 80's but that doesn't really help much here). Regardless, Reed does a really nice job with Red Hope -- helping move the story along nicely.

I have a bit of a spoiler question that I will attempt to write without spoiling anything. Dear Mr. Dreese -- unless there is a lot more explanation in the second book, why was the extra thing included on the ISS there (and that whole random plot-line there?) Seriously, it felt so completely out of place with the entire rest of the story. I was a little worried the entire book was going to take a weird turn from that point on.

Overall, Red Hope was good. I definitely enjoyed reading it and will check out the next book if it's released on audio.

I received this book for free. The gifting of it has not affected my review in any way.

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One of the best Mars novels I've read.

What did you love best about Red Hope?

I'm a sucker for novels about Mars. I thought John did a great job at writing a story that was fast paced, descriptive, and captivated my love of adventure and exploration. It wasn't filled with huge scientific ideas, or techno-babble. Don't get me wrong, I love hard sci-fi, but sometimes the super heavy science jargon gets in the way of the plot, and the character development. That certainly wasn't the case here. I enjoyed all the characters, and felt their motivations and actions were believable in their situations.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Red Hope?

I don't want to give out any spoilers, but there was a point where you find out some more information after someone's death that really made an impact on me.

Which scene was your favorite?

Without giving any spoilers away, there was a scene that involved an argument between two people that ended badly. Trying to put myself in that situation was hard.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

There are a couple of twists in this book that really had me going "oh shit, that's crazy".There are some death scenes which are hard to think about after getting all the information later on in the novel.

Any additional comments?

I bought this on impulse just by searching for novels on Mars. I thought the summary sounded really awesome, and just went for it. I'm so glad I did. This is definitely one of the best novels on Mars that I've come across. I've been recommending it to all my friends. You really need to check this one out.

Great story

5 star, Bob Reed did a good job. the story good and very interesting, I will get book two blue hope! I look forward to John Dreese's next book.

not a fan

The story is underpinned by the idea that no one is remotely good st their jobs. From the president to all the NASA engineers everyone drops the ball with regard to design and safety. Then the chain of events is simply not believable.