Have you been waiting for a new book that adheres more closely to standard science fiction? Perhaps you should give this one a try. At least, that was my thinking when I started reading it.

Life on Mars is hard for Durango. He ekes out a living as best he can, even though he is dalit. He has a mysterious past and a mysterious mission.

I do have a few complaints about the book. I thought the beginning was well done but it tapered off toward the end. There were a couple of things that just randomly seemed to happen (if I explain further it would be a spoiler) and I just was not impressed with it. Lastly, if you have seen Firefly, the random Chinese swearing and a few other aspects will be off-putting.

Overall, I liked the book. The beginning was very good and I had a hard-time putting it down. The ending, however, left a lot to be desired, and I think it was attempting to set up for a sequel. I would read the sequel if there was one, to see if some of the issues I had with this book were cleaned up.