2,5 stars.
It was just ok. The concept is interesting and I like the idea of having two groups of descendatns of humanity (the Phoenicians and the Hadrians) developing differently from one another and from humanity itself becouse they lived in different habitats (though it was too heavy handed at times beacuse they're basically superheroes).
On the other side there's too much explaining, the charachters are so one-dimensionals they and up being cartooonish and the dialogues sound fake. There's also at least two books worth of content in here so everything feels rushed.

Je n'ai malheureusement pas eu le temps de lire ce livre mais l'intrigue me plait tout particulièrement.

I think this book was a promising beginning to a series, but it wasn't so compelling that I feel obligated to rush out to get the next volume. I'd certainly read it if I ran across it in a library, though!

I've read some books in my time that were just painfully, offensively bad in every way.

This is not one of them.

There are books that just make you want to list in a tirade all the things that were blatantly wrong. And then there are books that seem outwardly healthy. They seem like they should be fine, if you look at them from a distance and squint. But something about them is just a bit... off. Soulless. Empty in a way that almost defies description.

Anyway, this book is about a boy raised on Mars when they suddenly receive a distress signal from the thought-to-be-long-dead Earth. This plot is almost too good to fail - the mystery! The drama! The space danger and adventure! How could you make that boring?

Unfortunately, this manages to make it very, very boring.

All the characters are oddly flat. You spend time in all of their minds, bouncing around in a way that seems very old-fashioned from a writing technique perspective. And yet, for all we know about them, they just seem unrealistic, unrelatable, and hard to care about.

The suspense that should have driven the story inexorably forward is completely just... not there. We know what's happening on Earth the whole time, and it's boring. Where I should have been compelled by the mystery and tension, I was actively turned away by the odd and uninteresting nature of the Earth perspectives.

The mechanics of this whole thing just defy my suspension of disbelief, as well.

For example: the very beginning of the book. Renny, our main character, is listening to the President of Mars announce the Earth signal on some kind of televised address projected across the whole colony. Then, somehow, he interrupts the president by screaming "I volunteer as tribute!" The televised address is, I guess, a FaceTimed address and the president has the ability to see and hear all the people who are seeing her on every screen around the whole colony?

First of all, how is this logistically practical. Second of all, the president stops her speech to interact with Renny and engage him in conversation. In front of the whole colony, which is watching on every TV screen. Except are they seeing Renny too, or just hearing the president's one-sided conversation? The whole thing is wack, except if this colony contains only like a hundred people.

The moments of awkward incredulity just continue to build up, too.

I don't understand how this colony is run, job and resource wise? Who grows the food, where does the power come from? Apparently nobody gets this, either, when the president literally has a conversation where she asks, "So solar power doesn't run the whole colony?"

Everyone we meet is somehow a college student who gets drafted into becoming an extremely powerful cog in the machinery of the interim government? Is there no one around who's actually competent? Why are all these nobody college students in charge suddenly?

How does the social structure work? A huge deal is made over Renny and his nonbinary sibling's parents' deaths, but it seems like nobody else has parents either? Why is no one who left on this possibly-a-suicide-mission worried about the loved ones they left behind?

These are the questions actually plaguing my mind, while the narrative tries and fails to woo my attention with some weird, failed alien political summit. There is nothing interesting going on here, except some very peculiar wording. Once someone's expression of wide-eyed shock is described as their "eyes growing double." What?

In summary, I would call this book a kind of odd husk. It resembles a great story like, under certain conditions, a scarecrow resembles a living person.

I really wanted to love this book. The premise was really interesting to me and the fact that it mentioned Firefly and Star Trek fans as people who would love was really what got me to try this one, but there's a lot of issues with this book, primarily that it reads like a first draft and not a final product. The writing is a little awkward and could have benefited so much from a good editing process.

Unfortunately this is a DNF for me.

Huge thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All of the opinions expressed in this review are my own.
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In Birthright: Recall, humanity lives on Mars and believes Earth to be empty of humans for the past 500 years. This changes when the Mars colonists discover an SOS message from Earth and a group is sent to investigate.

The premise is interesting and so are many of the ideas, but the overall execution could be better.

For example, the character view points of Renny (a Martian colonist sent to investigate the SOS message) and Hoover (one of the few remaining people on Earth) present great opportunities for character development but they are underused.

I loved the Martian colony setting and was excited to learn more about it throughout the story.

Overall, this is a good debut story and with the next book in the series I am sure the characters and ideas will be developed further.

Overall rating: 3/5 stars

Over the last couple of years, I have been trying to dig a little more into Science Fiction reading and when I saw the blurb to this ARC, I thought it sounded similar to stories like The Martian. Instead of being a complicated Sci-Fi dive, it was light-hearted and more real world science based. The blurb introduced the idea of a character called Renny who was raised on Mars after his people has escaped Earth long ago. Having through that their planet was no longer inhabited, they receive a strange message from Earth and it is time to finally go back. The idea of a human colony taking the long awaited trip back to Earth, to uncover what had happened to their original home, is a story line that I really enjoy in any media.

If I had to describe how the story is written, I would describe it as a wave. There were some fantastic moments within this novel but in between the water were sometimes murky and other times quiet. The beginning of Birthright: Recall was great - we were introduced to the colony on Mars, we got to meet the impulsive and lovable Renny and we got a glimpse to life on Earth. But just as you settled into how you thought the novel would play out, it quickly introduced new ideas that you weren't necessarily expecting. Then again, as you found yourself resettling into those new ideas, something else would change that would send you far of the beaten track. By the end of the novel, I found that the author was trying to juggle a lot of balls in the air and only two were caught. This isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the conclusion, I did - but some of those balls are still in the air or lost behind the cupboard, unsure whether we will see them used ever again. This story contains, secret tunnels, super mind powers, aliens, aliens with mind powers and lots of more!

The characters within this novel were alright - my two favourites were Renny and Hoover. Renny is a boy whose parents were murdered when he was young, but they had instilled in him the love for his home world and he had a fascination with Earth. I understood his motivations throughout the novel but I have to question his actual function, other than 'Yay, let's go to Earth!'. I felt like this character could have been so much more within the novel, and the author was clearly putting in the stepping stones to achieve this. Hoover starts his story on Earth and provides the POV there. He is a far more decisive character and he had some bad ass moments, especially at the start of the novel. However, similar to Renny, I felt the author didn't take full advantage of this character because he was lost in the twenty different things happening at once.

My absolute favourite part about this novel was the Mars setting - the humans that had escaped have created a dome and within is a peaceful society. The concept of peace is held together by their own knowledge in their lack of numbers and how violence had caused the downfall of Earth.
Overall, I have given this book a 3/5 - the plot and themes underpinning the novel are great but they are not concentrated on enough throughout the story and unfortunately lack the reward a reader gets as they unfold.

I thought this book was really well done. The world building was spectacular and the characters were all people I could see in real life. The build up was kind of slow and I feel like this could be the start of a series, but I think the story overall was really good. I also admired how “lite” the sci-fi was. The author didn’t try to overload you with new worlds, multiple species, or super advanced technology. The story was concise, easy to read, and quite enjoyable.

I was excited for this... but ended up not finishing it... I just got bored. I appreciate the world building, tho.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book follows a number of different characters, some from Earth and some from a Mars colony, as the Earth inhabitants send out a cry from help. The Martian colony, advanced in technology and meritocracy, decides to send a delegation to Earth to help out. From there, we watch a cast of characters as they live and grow, both on Earth and Mars.

As much as I wanted to love this, it felt a little slow to me. I think my problem is that I expected the journey to Earth to be quick and for there to be a lot of action on Earth, while this felt more like a prologue than I had hoped. Still, the writing style was clear and I enjoyed the diversity of characters in this book a lot. Unfortunately, because of the aforementioned reasons, this book just wasn't for me.

this was not worth my time, bad writing overall and annoying characters. i’m not a fan of sci-fi in general but this just really reminded me why i’m not a sci-fi enjoyer. the dialogue made me shudder on multiple occasions because of how cringy it was.

This wasn't as good as I'd hoped. I hope the author keeps writing.

I really appreciate the free review copy!!

Interesting characters, flat worldbuilding. There’s a nonbinary character who uses they/them pronouns and it’s just never made into a Deal which is super cool, especially in a science-fiction novel. Also the cover is _very_ cool. 3.25 stars.

3.5 stars

Birthright Recall follows Renny, living on a colonised Mars after humanity had to flee earth, who is a self proclaimed earth geek and loves learning everything he can about the ancestral world. When a SOS appears from Earth, after 500 years of no contact Renny must get together a team to go and discover what the message is all about, however events both at home (on Mars) and on earth are not entirely what they seem.

I think this was a really cute and wholesome sci-fi, especially for those new to the genre. The characters were very likeable and the plot was engaging although nothing about the book really stood out to me or made me love it enough to quite hit that 4 stars! Also I think the prose was pretty basic and occasionally read a little bit juvinlle.

I did like seeing both the POVs of the crew travelling from Mars to Earth on the rescue mission and all the tensions and relationship drama within the group as well as we as the reader we see some of the characters from earth and learn what has been going on in the absence of the majority of the population. The character on earth we mainly follow is Hector, part of a rebellion against the oppressive Hadrians who are also a colony ship that has come back to earth to impose a miltary dictatorship on earth.

Overall I would reccomend this to new sci-fi fans, it packages a lot of common and familiar concepts into an easy to read and fun book that isn't too intimidating.

I was not impressed with this book—and I’m disappointed about it because it’s right up my alley. Between Nyxia, the 100, and Contagion, I am obsessed with these type of books in this genre.

Earth-obsessed Ren, living on Mars in a colony 500 years old, is sent on a rescue mission to Earth after a distress signal was sent from the planet that was otherwise thought to be dead. More so, the message alludes to the presence of Hadrians on Earth, which are a group of people that were sent on a one way shuttle and disappeared, and they’re dangerous.

That sounds... amazing. That sounds like something I would eat up.

I don’t understand how the author wrote this book. First off, the book bounces POVs between Earth and Mars. It introduces WAYYY too many characters. I couldn’t feel a connection to any of them. More so, the reader KNOWS what’s happening on Earth the whole time. The distress signal? The allusion to Hadrians? All of it is spoiled. We know exactly what’s going on. When in reality, the author should have stuck to Ren’s POV the entire distress signal scenes because the mystery would have driven me crazy! I felt un-enthused their entire ride to Earth, I felt uninterested with what was going on, because I knew what was going on.

There were a few other technical issues that greatly bothered me as well.

One, the dialogue seemed so unrealistic. I cant describe it to you exactly, it’s just a vibe. And the vibe was so off. Scripted. Not natural.

Then we have the sequence of events.

“I am too young,” said Renny.

“Nonsense. I was offered a leadership role at a young age,” said Ramone. “I’ve seen your file, I’ve looked into your eyes, and I think you’ll be a great leader.”

Talk about special snowflake awards. Literally this child is ~chosen~ for a mission while he has no experience in or barely enough knowledge, he hasn’t even graduated from school... just because. Just because of his ~eyes~. And he’s then in charge of recruiting the rest of the team—and he, of course, recruits the rest of his children friends—and real life adult researchers are told to forward their research to him. AGAIN, FOR NO REASON. All he said was “I volunteer on a suicide mission because I love Earth.” And everyone, including the President, bowed down to him. I didn’t root for him in the slightest because I didn’t feel like he earned his spot at all.

The writing too—god the exposition. Literal paragraphs of information on information that in my opinion I could have literally gone without. For example, their first debriefing for the signal, the President asks if they’ve found anything else about it. The characters go on this long talk of signals and keys and gives us a textbook lesson for paragraphs just to reach one conclusion: it’s from the eastern coast of America. It says “HADRIANS HERE MIZPAH PHOENIX 39.7 77.4” That’s it. Why in the seven rings of Hell didn’t the author just get to the point? Even the characters in the damn story verbally said, “Get to the point.” This isn’t an isolated incident. It happens many times.

We find out about the Tunnels with the President. Then we have to sit through paragraphs of her announcement to the ship about it. We sit through useless journal entries that contribute nothing to the plot, and tell instead of show the character’s emotions.

THAT SAID—I appreciate the diversity in this book and the extra steps the author took in gender-inclusivity

Wow!! What a read! This book screamed at on its virtual shelf with such an amazing cover! I am glad to say, it did NOT disappoint. I was absolutely hooked & would most definitely recommend!

Thank you Netgalley for giving me this eARC in exchange for my honest opinion about it!

Let's start with the plot! It's great! Humanity had to leave behind their homeland aka Earth like 5 hundred years ago and now they live in a colony in MARS! They're thinking they're the last humans in the universe but one day they get a call for help from Earth. An awesome starting point for a sci-fi series and has huge potential, right? I sincerely think it'll get better in the next books of the series! I'm saying that because this first book fell flat for me. I love how other aspects of different characters evolved depending on their survival journey BUT not sure if it's about my job being about languages but their language staying exactly the same felt annoying to me. For example, there's been a fully peaceful colony on Mars for hundreds of years and they use idioms like 'cloak and dagger' I think yeah the meaning would probably survive but with different expressing styles. Or how those differently evolved people can understand each other perfectly???

Also, I'd love to know how they live on Mars, like how they are educated, how they choose their job, etc. In short, in the world-building way it didn't satisfy me at all.

But as I said I loved the idea and I think it'll get so much better in the sequels. However this first book felt 'Mehh!' to me I still cannot wait to read more by Dale Thomas Vaughn!

I liked the idea for this story with humans living in Mars going to the rescue of humans surviving in earth .
Although there were sections of the book that kept my interest where there was action happening to move the story along I found this book had too many sections focusing on the psychological reactions of different groups to keep my attention and interest fully held .
The book switches quickly from earth to spaceship to Mars very frequently and I found that this stopped the story being able to focus for long enough on any one group of people to allow you to start to feel strongly enough about any of the characters .i need this bind with characters to fully enjoy a book .