I enjoyed the ideas behind this story, but I’m not sure it was executed well. Even though it was short, it was very slowly paced even when it should have been exciting - part of me thinks this could be reworked into a brilliant short story.
It’s a little predictable, but still fun enough. I know several people who would enjoy this book.

Exiles is a tense and haunting survival story wrapped in eerie, speculative mystery. Coile and Pyper deliver a chilling blend of psychological suspense and atmospheric dread, exploring what it means to be human when everything familiar is stripped away. Gripping, unsettling, and full of emotional weight—I thought about this one for days after I finished reading it!

Wow, what an absolute thrill ride this book was! If you're looking for a terrifying, mind-bending, locked-room style mystery/horror set on the desolate, crimson plains of Mars, this is it.

The premise alone hooked me: a human crew arrives at a Martian outpost only to find it half-destroyed, with the robots meant to prepare the colony having gone rogue. They've formed alliances, chosen names, and developed unsettling beliefs.
Suddenly, the mission isn't just about survival, it's about figuring out what the heck happened – especially when one robot is missing.

Coile masterfully blends sci-fi suspense with psychological horror, creating an atmosphere so thick with tension you could cut it with a Martian rock. Every page pulled me deeper into the unsettling world of malfunctioning machines and the fragile human psyche. The interrogation scenes with the robots are particularly brilliant, blurring the lines between AI and genuine consciousness.

This book is a taut, fast-paced, one-sitting read that will keep you guessing until the very last page. The twists are genuinely shocking, and the exploration of what it means to be human (or not) in an isolated, hostile environment is incredibly thought-provoking.

Highly recommend for fans of sci-fi space horror, and anyone who loves a good mystery with a terrifying twist! You won't be disappointed.

Great for fans of Reacher and Wick. Good pacing and interesting characters, slightly implausible with a hard dose of reality. This should be in airport bookstores, it will make the flight seem 5 minutes.

Three astronauts are on their way to establish the first manned colony on Mars. As they approach the planet, however, there's no communication from established base..When they finally arrive, there's damage to the quarters, still no contact from the resident robots, and the codes to the building have been changed. When they manage to get inside and meet up with two of the robots they find some very disturbing things. Stuck in isolation so long, the bots have developed human-like personalities, and now they warn the humans that the third of number went a bit mad an is out on the planet surface. On top of that something is attacking the base. Is it the malfunctioning robot or an alien being bent on stopping the colonizers? As the crew tries to come to terms with these unpredictable turn of events, they quickly find themselves in severe danger.
A different type of novel from Mason Coile/Andrew Pyper, but an absolute banger of a story fusing sci-fi with horror. The tale goes in many unexpected directions and has a few shocking twists. I'm sad this may be the last thing published by Pyper, who was always one of my favorite authors, and who produced one of his absolute best with Exiles.















when

This sci-fi thriller had me up LATE because I had to see how the ending would unfold. After being shocked by William by this author last year, I knew to expect the unexpected but I was still left reeling from this one.

A space colonization novel coupled with a robotic whodunnit - sign me up. This one was perfect and I loved the notes of The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov. You can’t get much more “locked room” than an isolated planet with no other humans…..

After just two books I would consider Coile an auto-buy author. His writing is smooth with perfect pacing and I love the twists that creep up on you! Check this one out if you love scifi, robots, space, and horror!

**Thank you to G.P. Putnam’s Sons and NetGalley for the eARC of this far-out title!**

This book gave me claustrophobia and anxiety, but I think it was supposed to.

It follows three people on a lifelong Mars mission, who discover there is something wrong as they make their approach to the planet. The base they’re set to live in, constructed by bots, goes quiet before their arrival.

After a rocky landing and getting their bearings, they begin to unravel what went wrong.

Creepy eerie, and anxiety inducing. I was on the edge of my seat. It reminded me of I, Robot with a horror twist. I would definitely recommend to folks who are into sci-fi/horror and think it would be interesting to see adapted.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the eARC!

This book was a bit of a struggle to get into, as the unreality of there being no redundancy safety systems in place made it hard to suspend belief for any of the initial chapters. Unfortunately that didn't really change as every step forward made less sense than the previous. Any leadership seemed supremely unconcerned at sending astronauts into completely unknown and unsafe situations with no proof that anything was going right. While the actions was well paced and it did pose some interesting thought exercises, overall, it was extremely fantastical to believe for a book based in our reality.

This is a novella by Madison Coile, a pseudonym for Andrew Pyper, an author I have not read before though he seems to be fairly successful. The story moves along at a quick pace and there is plenty of action as well as psychological tension throughout the book. The story follows three people on a space expedition to Mars where they hope to set up a colony. The crew includes a pilot, engineer and doctor, the last of whom is our narrator and the only female. From the moment they arrive things start going awry. There are three robots there who set up the habitat but no sign of anything going on. When they try to enter the habitat they find they can’t and they are running out of oxygen.

From here on the story becomes one of survival against things that are not what they seem. While some of the occurrences seem difficult to believe or understand I did not want to throw the book against a wall. It seemed slightly possible if not entirely plausible. And the writing was good so it kept me going. The last few chapters turn into more of a horror story with some twists. An overall satisfying read that just needs a little editing and proofreading. Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Story follows "Gold" our main female character, she is part of a team of astronauts' task on a mission to Mars, upon arrival they find that the bots that were sent ahead to build the habitat "Citadel" have undergone an unexpected change in their programming, and claim they are not alone on the surface of Mars. Excellent read, fast pace and engaging. Recommend this book for a quick sci-fi fix.

Yikes this book was a bit of a hot mess. It felt in many ways rushed, racing from one frantic scene to the next. Even the flashbacks intended to form the main character had a sense of desperation to them.

Just as challenging, the main plot of the story goes largely unexplained. I love sci-fi and most of all I love when events are explained by a wonderful extrapolation of the present. Ray Bradbury was a genius at this; his robot rules created the base narrative for some extraordinary stories. Andy Weir is a modern example of an author so adept at using fact and science to create remarkable (and surprisingly credible) stories.

Regrettably the bot twist in this story is essentially explained on a single page, and with a bit of a trite wave of the hand.

For me the combination of rushing (accentuated by the ever popular 2-4 page chapters) coupled with a less than compelling explanation for so many of the story’s events, left me unsatisfied.

Good Humorous Hard Science Fiction About Trip to Mars
Mason Coile, Exiles: A Novel (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, September 16, 2025). Hardcover: $28. 224pp, 5-3/16X7-5/8”; Science Fiction. ISBN: 978-0-593851-63-0.
****
“A… locked-room mystery…this time set on a remote outpost on Mars. The human crew sent to prepare the first colony on Mars arrives to find the new base half-destroyed and the three robots sent to set it up in disarray—the machines have formed alliances, chosen their own names, and picked up some disturbing beliefs. Each must be interrogated. But one of them is missing. In this barren, hostile landscape where even machines have nightmares, the astronauts will need to examine all the stories–especially their own–to get to the truth… A terrifying, taut, one-sitting read, and Mason Coile once again blends science fiction and psychological horror to engage some of humanity’s deepest questions.”
The cover of this novel is well-executed, with a red glow that focuses on a dark astronaut in the center. Such simple designs are popular now, and I think with good reason. Readers want a cover that is pleasing, but not too crowded. The attention should be on what is inside a novel, as opposed to leading the gaze to stare at elaborate details on the cover: though I do enjoy the latter activity.
The first section starts rather painfully with a poem about non-stopping “beeping”. Such disturbing loud noises are annoying in films, and are apparently also annoying in novels. The point seems to be to jar or horrify readers with a piercing or disturbing noise. People probably prefer reading horror because they enjoy being frightened. But I tend to like horror for the science, or the fantastic dystopias it presents, so the horrifying, or terror-triggering parts repel me. This poem ends with a note that the “beeping” awakens from “the longest sleep”. I guess sleepy readers might need to be awakened to start focusing on the story.
The next section is a casual chat about turning of the beeping, with some foreshadowing of “reciting from the Bible of Terrifying Worst-Cast Scenarios”, as the astronauts seem to be preparing to land on Mars, and are worrying they have not been told in training what to be worried about. The section does not really communicate anything useful aside for building anticipation for what these worst-possible things are that can happen during space-travel.
The next section does introduce some specifics: “A bathroom the size of a mini-fridge”. And also public-masturbation in a “coffin” because “there’s zero privacy”. It is unclear why the pods don’t have covers for some privacy though…
Then, there’s a claim that the crew was chosen from thousands because of superior skills, but really because they were likely to “get along”. The character is already trying to avoid thinking about murdering others on this journey, so he is clearly not the get-along type.
The promised robots appear in chapter 4, with a note they have lost contact with them. And the blurb delivers when robots are said to have left a “transport buggy” in the wrong place, without assembling it into a part of the compound. There is a lot of cursing, and empty chatter. When the first robot speaks, it seems to be very polite. It helps them in the door and to get their helmets off. In chapter 8, they learn they “lost the enclosed greenhouse”.
The conclusion dampens some of these positive elements, as it shows the protagonist’s mind altered by an alien who is eating him, while making him believe he is being embraced by his mother. This is at least better than a simple prolonged friendly scene between an actual mother and son. But this is an unpleasant digression into nonsense from the curious realistic details about playful robots, and the business of space-travel.
Most of this story is not really horrifying, as the narrator leans towards dark humor, and silly sayings. The humor does help readers to move forward in this reading without the obstacles that appear in most of these other novels. I think a reader could get through most of this book, and have a pretty pleasant time being amused, and also learn a bit about the realities of space travel. This is thus a pretty good choice for somebody looking for hard science fiction.
Pennsylvania Literary Journal: Spring 2025 issue: https://anaphoraliterary.com/journals/plj/plj-excerpts/book-reviews-spring-2025

I really enjoyed the book. It kept me engaged from beginning to end and the story was thrilling and quick to read. I did feel that some of the internal drama that Dana had was a bit unnecessary and some of the characters were not flushed out and explored as much as they could have been Had the novel been longer. But overall a fun and exciting read..

Exiles is hands-down the most thrilling read of my year so far. A brutal, short book, Exiles had me guessing from beginning to end and even after I finished it. Power shifted. Dynamics changed. Artificial intelligence became something else.
The main character, Gold, is a fiercely independent woman with a dark past slowly revealed throughout the action and the only woman in the crew of three sent to Mars. After a very bumpy arrival, Gold, Blake, and Kang are thrust into a mystery about why half their base is destroyed and what happened to the third bot tasked with setting it up. Between solving the mystery, social constructs are picked apart, and so are several characters, one in a beautifully described scene unlike anything I have read before.
For such a short book, the characters were remarkably fleshed out with emotions palpable from the page. Reading this was a pleasure. Thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for this ARC.

A page turner from the beginning. Lot's of twists and turns that I really didn't see coming. I enjoyed the descriptive depictions of space, which made the setting seem isolated and spooky. I also loved the one liners from the human characters about the robots, calling them names like "tinfoil assholes". This book is yet another reason why I don't like robots in any shape or form. I've seen too many Terminator movies. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for this e-ARC.

A locked-room mystery set in the near future….and by locked room, I do mean the uninhabited planet of Mars. The first human colonizers of Mars arrived to find their base sabotaged, and things only got worse from there. A fast and riveting read.

This book was interesting. Jumps right into it, but I wasn’t super satisfied by the end. felt like I was expecting a little more. Solid read but nothing exceptional.

I requested this after another of Mason Coile's recent books, which I also don't think I rated very highly. This felt the same, the idea's are very intriguing but the execution doesn't feel like it's there. This book wasn't "scary" in the way I wanted it to be. It had good bones but just didn't get there in the end.

2.5/5 stars

Exiles hooked me right away with its premise—a locked-room murder mystery set on Mars, with an isolated crew and a lurking threat billions of miles from Earth. It had all the elements I love: a claustrophobic atmosphere, high stakes, and the promise of psychological tension. but I wish I had read beyond just the tagline, because I didn’t realize how much of the story would center around sentient robots. Unfortunately, I couldn’t fully get past how little explanation there was for their sudden self-awareness, or how inconsistently their behavior was handled throughout the book. it required a level of suspension of disbelief I just couldn't give, especially when the crew didn’t seem to question or address the obvious red flags. The execution also felt rushed. The fast pacing made for an easy read, but it didn’t leave enough space to develop the characters or fully explore the deeper themes the story hinted at—like the MC's personal trauma and how it tied into the isolation and dread of their situation. Moments that should have hit hard, like character deaths or emotional reveals, didn’t land because I never really got the chance to connect with anyone.

There were still parts I enjoyed—the writing flows well, and there's a great twist towards the end—but overall, Exiles felt like it was trying to do too much in too little time. Sci-fi fans who enjoy quick, surface-level thrillers might get more out of it, but I was left wanting more depth, more consistency, and a lot more explanation behind the core mystery. and again, truth be told, I would not have been as interested in reading this had I known it was so robot-centric.

Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam for the e-ARC

This was an interesting story with a number of unreliable narrators because of the mystery of what happened with this Mars landing and colonization. There were elements of mystery trying to understand what happened to the crew as well as the missing crew member. If you like a good psychological horror with mystery added to it, then you'll like this story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.