I picked this up for the Husband when we went to Vegas. I knew we would have some downtime in the airports and on the plane itself. He buzzed through it and said it was a good read so I put it on my pile.
I...didn't think it was such a good read. It was okay, but I found myself wanting to put it down and not pick it back up. Premise of the story is a group of kids (Alica, Dak, Kelly and Manny) find a washed up drunken guy (literally - they drove over him on the beach) and over the subsequent days they discover he is a astronaut who's seen better days. Travis is living with his cousin, Jubal, who happens to be a genius and would have moved on to lofty achievements if his father hadn't smashed his head smashed.
Meanwhile, the Chinese are headed for Mars and a US contingent is not far behind. Jubal decides that the Americans must be on Mars first, except, Jubal also figures out the US ship has a design flaw and they will either blow up or miss Mars and fly off into the solar system. This is when the six of them find out that Jubal has discovered a new and innovative source of power that could take them to Mars and back. So with Kelly's inheritance and Jubal's patent monies they decide to build a manned rocket in three months.
While better than Titan (ugh) but not as solid as Steel Beach, I struggled with the simplicity of this one. The Husband felt it was a good book, if not a bit childish. I found the story implausible in that six people (more after they bring in Travis's family, so 8 people) could build an - untested - space worthy vehicle in less than 6 months. One that contained a freezer, microwave and a place to play monopoly throughout the voyage.
I think this book would have been better marketed toward pre-teens, except for all the references to sex. I probably won't be reading Red Lightening, the next book in the series.
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