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The Return proves to be the best if the Mars Hill Classified books, providing a compelling mix of entertainment and faith. Now Admiral John Wells finds himself again on Mars, since there is nothing to hold him on Earth anymore. His promise to his wife Amy to retire has been canceled by her and their children’s death, and he returns to the only other life he knows: NASA. But the mysteries that hounded him through the other two books continue to follow him here. First, John and his fellow astronauts discover that, once again, they are not alone on the Red planet. This time, though, they quickly find that there can be no extraterrestrial explanation. Instead, there is another human expedition on Mars, and the only question, of course, is why. For the answer, you have to travel back to earth into the very compound where Amy Wells and family is being held prisoner for reasons known only to their captors. For whatever reason they are being held, Amy manages to keep the faith, and even manage to share it with an unlikely person: Monique, personal assistant to the infamous Father Raines. Not only does Amy manage to witness to Monique, but she continues her efforts to be rescued, and when she does manage to be rescued it signals the beginning of the end of Father Raines’ cult. Meanwhile back on Mars, John is finally getting answers to the questions he’s been asking for years. In the end John is reminded that the exploration of space is a pursuit valuable in its own right, and though the methods of those who engineered the reasons for his travel might have been deplorable, the fact is they have taken the next step for human kind. The messages of The Return are clear. Evil must be opposed, we must each follow our own calling, faith is paramount if we are to succeed, and more specifically exploration of space is a calling of mankind. Perhaps the last of these is in a different category than the others, but if Boyd is correct it is a goal all people must share. It is doubtful that those who would be interested in books in this genre would disagree. Of course, this book does have a few problems. First, elements from the first book which are never resolved are answered here; unfortunately it is not accomplished in a satisfying way. The reader is left trying to discover what of this information is new or ground shaking. Even the way this information is revealed seems rushed and not well thought out. To a point all of this book’s problems, and those of the series in general, is due to the fact that it is divided into three books to begin with. Perhaps this division was necessary in order to tell the whole story, but as any reader knows, authors have to make choices. None of these issues, though, take away from the entertainment factor of the book, however, and the messages of the book are crystal clear. At worst they only keep it from being a truly great, groundbreaking work. Perhaps this is only troubling because, as a reader of science fiction, and a Christian, I hoped from the first time I picked up these books that they might help guide what a Christian’s idea of all the favorite topics of sci-fi should be. Should we pursue space travel? Is there other intelligent life in the universe? These books seem to address them, but fall slightly short of really giving its readers reasons to think one way or another. In the end, any Christian reader of sci-fi should read The Return and the rest of the Mars Hill Classified books. I’ve heard there might be more books to come following some of the same characters and following up on their experiences. If that’s the case I look forward to continuing to read the work of Austin Boyd. Publisher: Navpress Buy it now from our affiliate Bookstore CrossPurposesBooks.com
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