Offworld

As they first people to walk on Mars, they should be returning victorious. They should be returning as heroes. They should be returning to parades and fanfare. Instead, they barely manage to survive a freak crash landing and discover they've traded one barren wasteland for another. They exit the ship to a disbelief that slowly gives way to an acceptance of reality. Every person on the planet has disappeared. Family. Friends. Indigenous tribal people. Everyone... everywhere. Gone.

Robin Parrish begins his dystopian nightmare with the ultimate sci-fi shock. A small group of astronauts who've been gone for nearly three years return to find the year devoid and empty with video evidence suggesting that bizarre events led to a point where everyone just simply disappeared. The mission they now find themselves on made their mission to Mars look like a walk in the park. Can they bring back the human race? Are they really the last ones alive? What in the world is going on?

As the story progresses, the group discovers that they aren't the only ones still around. They pick up a young girl called Mae who seems to be nonplussed that everyone is missing, and soon run into even more people who are slightly less friendly. As they begin to put the pieces together, they discover that it was no accident that the majority of the earth's population disappeared, and that those who are left are the ones responsible. There just might be a way to get everyone back, but they'll have to face down a superior force with the ultimate weapon in order to do so.

There's so much I want to say about this book but can't for fear I'd spoil the ending--which is one of the truly magnificent and unexpected endings that I've ever read. Few plot twists blow me away and leave me mouth open and gaping as the one Parrish engineered in Offworld. And even fewer prove to be so crucial to the plot's underlying theme.

I began reading Offworld at 2am ...just a couple chapters before bed... and didn't put it down until the sun was peeking over the horizon just as I closed the final page. Parrish shows a mastery of sci-fi rarely equaled in Christian fiction, writing an unbelievable future all too believably. Interlacing mystery, suspense, humor, an excellent theme, and perhaps just a smidge of romance on top of the science fiction base, Offworld is the complete package. It left me asking just one question: "Why didn't I read this earlier?"

What would you do if you returned to earth after a 3+ year mission to Mars and found that every single living thing on the planet was gone? That's the central question that forms the basis for "Offworld" by Robin Parrish.

I, as I so often do, found this book while browsing around Amazon. I like to take a few hours sometimes, pick a book that I've read and enjoyed, and see how far down the rabbit hole I can go chasing "Customer's Who Bought This Item Also Bought" suggestions, until I find something that looks interesting. I don't remember what book I started on here, but I eventually landed on "Offworld" and decided to give it a shot.

The book is essentially as I described above. Four astronauts are returning from a 3+ year mission to Mars when they suddenly lose contact with Mission Control. Unable to find any problems on their end, the ride out the remaining 60+ days of the journey home, only to crash land upon re-entry. What they find is a world that is completely devoid of all life - no people, no animals - no explanations. When one of the astronauts is able to tap in to a still orbiting satellite, they find that a massive light source is shining in to space from Houston. Assuming that this must be connected to the mass disappearances, they set off to try and discover the source of the light. I'll leave my synopsis there and let you read the rest in the book itself.

This book was well written and enjoyable. I would have liked to have had a little more meat in some parts of the story, but overall I enjoyed it. The pay off at the end was not incredibly, life changingly original, but neither was it boring and predictable. Robin Parrish is best known as a writer of religious fiction, and there are glimpses of that here. What I liked is that it was mostly used to advance the story, it wasn't overly pretentious or preachy, and it felt believable. Another by product is that the story was devoid of harsh language, gratuitous sex, and gratuitous violence - and it didn't suffer for it one bit. I may have to check out some of Parrish's other works to see what they are like.

The premise was exciting, and the first third of the book lived up to my expectations. But then I quickly grew bored...in the last third of the book I skipped through car chases, more car chases, more cars hanging off buildings. The characters were one-dimensional and unlikely astronauts and Mae an odd addition.

So much more could have been done with this. Disappointing.

"Offworld" is a solid, not great, novel about Mars astronauts who return to Earth and find it devoid of all human and animal life. Chris Burke and his three teammates begin to feel that's something's wrong once they lose contact with Houston control, but don't realize how bad things are until they step foot again on the terra firma near Cape Canaveral.

A brilliant light reaching to the top of the night sky is the only difference in the world that they return to (except for a complete absence of all life, of course). They soon realize that the light holds the key to the answers to their questions and set out for it. Along the way, they encounter a solitary young girl who adds to the mystery. Author Robin Parrish does a fine job creating credible and sympathetic characters in the book. Most readers should fine it easy to identify with them and the plight that they're in.

But, back to the plot. Is it a plaque, government conspiracy or something else altogether that's wiped out all of human life? Parrish provides those answers and more in a book that forces the reader to suspend their lines of disbelief, but provides plenty of action and a sufficient quotient of plot twists. The book drags a little as the troupe makes their way to Houston, but picks up considerably in the last third and finishes with a satisfactory ending.

The book will appeal to both sci-fi and thriller fans.

I bought this book and forgot about it, then one day i found it again and started reading it. I was hooked by the end of the first couple of pages. This book was not what i expected. It had a sci-fi aspect, it was mysterious, dramatic, and thrilling. If you like the tv shows fringe, lost, or flashforward you will most likely appreciate and enjoy this book. It will always be one of my favorites.

Seeing Robin Parrish's "Offworld" it sounded a bit mysterious and fun and I decided to get it. I checked Mr. Parrish out on-line & learned he's a Christian author. Most books by current Christian authors who write fiction I've found to be poorly written and rather preachy. Mr. Parrish's writing isn't bad, probably some of the best Christian fiction that I've read in a while but he does get sappy and a tiny bit preachy. Still it was a fun read.

In 2031, Christopher Burke and his crew of astronauts are the first people to set foot on Mars. They stayed there for two years to do research and conduct experiments. Everything had gone pretty well, save for Chris's mysterious disappearance of eighteen hours when he only had four hours of oxygen left. They were on their way home when they lost contact with Earth. When they crash land on Earth, the crew finds that every man, woman, child, and animal is gone. Were they abducted? Have they died? What happened here?

The characters are very realistic. At first, all you see of them is this disciplined, business-like façade. As they get deeper into the empty world and they run into obstacle after obstacle, you see the real people underneath. My favorite character is Trisha. She's a strong and disciplined woman, who was a Marine before she was an astronaut. Underneath her tough exterior, she has a painful disease that she works through every day and she is deeply in love. I liked to see the deconstruction of the layers the crew built up. I was impressed that they managed to keep so much from each other while still being in close quarters. Also, the relationship of a group of people that are so close knit is interesting to read.

Offworld is a great science fiction adventure. The plot twists and turns in ways that you would never expect. It's a mystery, an adventure, science fiction, and an action movie all rolled into one. The plot moved forward from page one and didn't stop. The narrative was exciting and fluid to read. The only criticism I have is when some answers are given to the problems at hand, it gets a little weird; it was harder to suspend my disbelief. Overall, I would say this is a great read.