Mars. Earth. Reality. Get ready to collide this year.

Alert the media! I read a science fiction book that swept me off my feet: Mars, by Anonymous 31062.

Saying that I'm not a huge science fiction buff is an understatement. First of all, the majority of science fiction books that I've read are poorly written, language and style tend to be terrible. Absolutely not the case here, quite the opposite, this is a lesson in style and show-not-tell.

Second, being the skeptic that I am, science fiction storylines don't really knock me off too often, if ever, for two reasons: they tend to elucubrate without any rhyme or reason and without much logic, and they just fabricate a bombed out the water reality that only kids of 5 or less have a hope of ever relating to. Again, absolutely not the case with Mars.

The fact that this book swept me off my feet is in and by itself noteworthy, which is why I'm here to tell you about it.

For one thing, it's exceedingly well written, and for another, it perfectly blends science and fiction in a manner that resonates as possible, credible and even desirable.

The book opens with a factual foreword about Planet Mars, no fabrications here, which is great to set a mood of sustained credibility. My skeptic grey matter quickly attuned to Mars facts and somehow that set me up for a rather credible ride.

Through the book, there is substantial scientific data, from Mars and from Earth (Roswell, Area 51, anyone?). Some are plain hard facts –did you know that "the length of a Mars day and an Earth day are nearly identical, with Mars‘ being longer by thirty-nine minutes, 24hr + 39min Earth time"? ), and some are well novelized speculations based on hard facts, like the story around the Face on Mars.

It really depends on your degree of skepticism to buy into those speculations, but the well achieved balance between science and fiction makes for a credible backdrop to the Martian and Earthling shenanigans.

It doesn't matter if you believe there may be little green men out there or not, the story makes perfect sense, se non è vero è ben trovato, as they say.

Science or fiction aside, what really sold this book to me was its exceedingly original composition. That's part of the reason for my stating it's very well written.

We have two parallel worlds, Mars and Earth, very subtly woven into each other, so subtly that I kept wondering if and how these two planets would ever collide. There's a suspense element there, a real page turner, which will have you speculating when and where is the announced collision going to happen.

Suspense is carried far enough into the book to have had me biting my nails trying to guess how that would happen. I'm not into spoilers, so won't reveal how that comes about, suffice it to say the book delivers on it's blurb: Get ready to collide this year.

Entertaining and multidimensional, with a dynamic pace

There are four major characters, two earthlings, a Nasaman and a blogger, and two young Martians, a couple of cute little green boys. These four quirky characters play in three parallel storylines: Mars, Earth, and the Mars-Earth connection. And how would their paths cross and their stories collide? Won't say, but you'll want to know from page 1.

One is just as soon going through a very earthy therapy session as one is into a Mars volcano looking for the latest ill-fated Mars Lander. One is just as soon debating about the nature of human relationships, as one is reflecting about the nature of the human race. The multiple dimensions and points of view, and the fine threads between all these stories, create a really dynamic pace, it was very difficult to put the book down once I got started.

The so very earth-like story of the blogger, an artist by the name of Diana, has substantial weight in the book, to the point I sometimes felt like I was reading two different books. And I say that in a very nice way. For one thing, it's really entertaining to jump from Mars Lander (in a manner of speaking) into this woman's rather depressing state of affairs. But what's more, this on-off earthy drama provides what most science fiction books lack for my peculiar taste: A dose of down-to-earth (no pun!) real reality (pun!).

While we navigate those two parallel realities, we have some very likeable aliens and some rather stupid earthlings -all right, not all are stupid, but really, there's a message there. And the message is, precisely, about human stupidity.

Again, I'm not to deliver a big spoiler here, so I'll just say that us humans turn out to look like a band of criminals. Which we are, in the grand scheme of things. So this book will make you think, besides entertaining you to boot.

Call me old-fashioned, but I do like to be intellectually stimulated when I read a story, so the underlying message in Mars kept me at turns nodding and at turns shaking my head, rather disgustedly. You can't help but think about the environment, violence and wars, and where the heck we're headed at this rate.

This book makes you look at Earth from an interplanetary standpoint, and when you do that, if you've got half an inch of brain, you just want to stop the world from spinning so that you can get off, to simply hop on the next planet that'll have you in the galaxy. The Martians that look upon us through the story think us crazy, at the very least, though crazy criminals is a more accurate perception.

I can't say as you need to read this book to come to that conclusion, right? Still, the book delivers the message with talent and flair. We know Earth is in trouble, but do we know that the rest of the universe thinks so?

In the year post Avatar, which by the way doesn't hold a candle to this story in my opinion, Mars is a timely novel about the universe, earth, humans, and the likely mark we'll leave behind, unless we reconsider.

That's for you to envision, though, because unlike Avatar or the longer than my arm list of science fiction spiels in recent years, this book leaves the door open for the reader to decide what happens next.

No Hollywood ending, folks, which I personally think is a touch of genius, and endears the story to me even more that everything else I've said so far.

Job very well done, Anonymous 31062, whoever you are.