The Last Voyage by Brian D. McLaren

Before I start - I was given the opportunity to read this ARC before it was published for an honest review - from NetGalley.  This is my review!

The Last Voyage will be published on July 31, 2025.  Book one of three.

In the future, the world will be ruled by oligarchs' - who will give "power" to politicians and governments around the world - but the true rulers are the oligarchs. (This is the books premise).

Well basically the oligarchs' do not care for humanity the planet - gasp - just on getting more money, raping the land of more resources.  Until they kill it.  The Last Voyage is the last group of ten attempting to get to Mars.  It is funded by the "last good oligarch.  

The book begins by meeting one of the main scientists leaving her country -all cloak and dagger and carrying cyanide pills on her jewelry.  Then you meet the two big characters - maybe three - Eve and her father and then one of the oligarchs.  Eve has multiple degrees, but is not a scientist, she is more of a Christian religious expert - the problem on the Mars base is people keep committing suicide and they are sending her there to figure out why.  She wants her father to come - who is a scientist and an atheist, or else she is not going to go.  Her father has lost his wife, his lover (she goes back to her husband) and is super intelligent and honestly at times my eyes were glassed over reading his dialogue.  

They agree to go - go to one location that is secret to train to leave - with the others - where the location is targeted and attacked by the other oligarchs - so they leave and go another location - minus two of the ten to leave (they are taken as hostages).  They managed to talk, the other eight, to get the two oligarchs to come to them with Mars.

So the rest of the book, and really I kept telling my hubby who can they get to Mars, there is only 80 more pages to the book, but there will be two more  books,  The rest of the book is a lot of  proselytizing - to the Christian faith - while Eve's father made my eyes glassy with his intensive vocabulary Eve's constantly bashing us over our head about the Christian faith made me skim over entire parts of the book.  Remember she has to solve why people are committing suicide on the base - well it turns out some were killing themselves - but there is a serial murdered up there with them. lol.  Which makes the pilot want to turn the ship around and go back to Earth that is dying.  In the end they decide to continue to Mars.  

Overall, I really liked the book - I am an atheist also so this constant harping of Christianity but frankly all religion was to much.  I mean haven't we fought enough wars and destroyed a planet in the name of religion?  Also, the preachers were the oligarchs' bitches also.  lol.  There is a good combination of other faiths and ethnicities on the ship - and also a nonbinary person (that caused some reviewers to go ape shit on goodreads).  I guess they think only white Christians were worth saving.  

Overall, I would give this book a 4.5 and I know I cannot wait for the other two books to come out!  Thank you for allowing me the chance to read it.