I probably would have a better opinion of this book if it had been written by almost any other author, but this is a Joe Haldeman book and I have come to expect far more from him than a story like Marsbound. The main character is likable and believable. The dialogue is realistic and typically Haldemanesque. The story just didn't engage me, though, and it isn't helped by a group of aliens that I just wasn't buying into. Haldeman knows to how create cool and weird aliens (see Camouflage, a really underrrated book) and unfortunately the Martians in the story only have the weird part of the equation nailed. The other thing that was hard for me to swallow in the plot was the everpresent antagonistic relationship between the main character and her primary "opposition", a bitter and vindictive administrator...something just felt off about it.
That said, the underlying idea in the book is a sound one, and I want to know where it goes with the sequel, Starbound.
OK book, but in the context of knowing who wrote it, a little disappointing.
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