Would recommend for its unique plot and quick pace

* SPOILERS WARNING*

I really was engaged in this story from the beginning it happens at a quick enough pace that you don’t struggle. There really was not a point through the book that I lost interested and thought it was drudging on.
I only removed one star because I felt the ending didn’t line up with the plot question from the beginning. In the beginning they question the Mars society as having some strange anterior motive or at least they allude to it and keep alluding to it right to the end. In the end when the alien is seeking to help Mark and the other survivor go back to Earth and help the remaining humans become more advanced again, I really thought it would cue up the reason the aliens seemed off the whole time. It ended in a rather, I suppose, realistic way where the higher ups don’t care about the mission or Mark and his crew and Mark is left wondering if they should have remained on Earth. Maybe the author was leaving it open for another book and if so I hope it answers why they alluded to Mars having anterior motives, why the history of the Earth was that important to them, how they don’t know much about Earth for being so advanced and what happens to the human who helped Mark escape.