The Lion of Mars
By: Jennifer L. Holm / Narrated By: Maxwell Glick
Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
Good cow! the Publisher’s Summary misleads again! Still, a really charming little Listen…
First: Disregard, like crazy, the P. Summary. The hero of The Lion of Mars, 11-year old Bell, is NOT curious about ANYthing. That the adults are secretive? He could care less; he’s comfortable with his existence in the United States settlement on Mars. That things are falling apart and held together with The. MOST. Important item on the settlement, duct tape? He’s fiiiiiine with that. That each meal usually has an item containing algae, if NOT stuff like Algae Loaf when the resupply from Earth is late? He’s fiiiiiine with that, tho’ a trifle annoyed.
There’s boring and then there’s boring. The boring that comes from a dilapidated existence spent amongst the few people he’s ever known, the endless daily chores, the algae, algae, algae is a Good Kind of Boring, and he’ll embrace that until the day he dies. EsPECially since their settlement still has a cat, Leo, still alive (All the others have died and are buried outside in the barren Mars landscape, along with one of the settlers who died some years ago). He has a few friends, tho’ Trey, who he’d always assumed was his bestest bestest friend on the planet is acting weird and has asked to be roommates with others, leaving Bell to suffer through Albie’s hellacious snoring. And he has adults whom he loves; stuff just stays the same. And that’s totally fiiiiine with him.
Until the day he sees an alien spacecraft crash near the French settlement. The adults say it was just a meteorite, but soon he’s dragged into a scheme with three of the teens to see the crash site. This should be a most DEFinite Nooooo, as the US settlement has severed ties with aaaallll other countries, for no reason given to the kids. A certain Ooopsie! crash outside the French settlement has the commander ultra-peeved, and soon secrets start being questioned.
All this goes by the wayside when the grownups are hit with an almost certain-to-be fatal virus, leaving the kids to try to keep things going.
They simply can’t.
They have to leave the settlement, have to see if any of the other countries can help, with meds, with ANYthing.
The Lion of Mars is a nice little story of one boy learning to do the courageous thing even tho’ he’d rather not, even tho’ he’s drop-dead scared to death. It’s about learning to question, and learning to trust in a hostile environment.
It’s about learning that you can’t go it alone; that everybody at SOME time or another could always use a helping hand, a friend to lean on. Author Jennifer L. Holm writes simply if not outright simplistically—she gets pretty basic concepts across easily but at least doesn’t bash anyone over the head with the Life Lessons—and it was a charming little Listen. That said, there are some elements that might require an adult to kinda bounce ideas around with. There’s how to handle the death of a loved one, grief and what have you, even tho’ that’s not a major theme. And there’s the idea of having to dispatch the one in favor of saving the many: Euthanizing a beloved pet when it does something like, say, bring a virus to the community. Try THAT on for size for a sensitive youngun’.
I wasn’t sure I was going to like Maxwell Glick’s narration: his tones are just thiiiiiis side o’ whiny. But he does well enough for Bell (Also for the variety of grownups), and he has the other kids, the teens down to a “T”, with their good-natured ribbing and their all-around griping and moaning. Teens who are old enough to realize that their lives are small indeed and that there might not be much in the way of growth or friendship or excitement in their futures.
Or Love.
With a nice blend of the science of Mars, how it might be to try to live through global sandstorms that require powering down, with human interactions, and with the goshalmighty import of duct tape for human existence, this is a sweet novel of being young yet trying to take control of the only thing you can control: Yourself and your own actions and choices.
Loved the characters, liked the simplicity of the writing. Not sure I’d check out another Holm story any time soon, tho’ some of her books are really MUCH-lauded, only because I like my stories to have more conflict and tension in them. But a solid story overall.
And dude! there’s a CAT in it so…
HUZZAH!!!
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