Jeff Faria - Patriots of Mars

The good news: In 2231, twenty-five billion people walk the Earth. Most of them have basic food and shelter, and a few have much, much more. Among them are the SuperOld, who believe the promise of immortality will soon be within reach. Energy is cheap and abundant, most who are willing to work can find it, and a vast army of ‘bots serves man’s needs. The bad news: The Earth is depleted of key resources, which are now harvested on or around Mars. We are ruled from above by corrupt, bloated governments funded by enormously wealthy transnationals, and from below by powerful, ruthless street gangs. About a fifth of the world’s population has withdrawn into the drug Nirvana, while millions more have chosen the legal purgatory of Martian exile. Emerging mysteries abound: Some of the SuperOld are ending their lives, while in China millions starve to death despite massive foreign aid. Overseeing the world’s affairs and managing its systems is the omnipresent, manmade sentient entity called MOM. And MOM is not happy. Neither is a phantom group known as ‘The Patriots of Mars’, which jettisons the contents of an orbiting freighter into space to call attention to its demands. This sets off an escalating chain of events in which the powerful seek more power, and everyone else seeks cover. Josh Reynolds, a Martian-born 12-year-old with a strange secret, is looking to change his life when he gets caught up in this tide of events. Along the way he encounters an old, discredited prophesy and begins to understand that the change he and others had hoped for could become something more far-reaching than anyone had imagined. When Josh finally learns the identity of The Patriots of Mars, he is burdened with yet another secret. It is one he can never reveal, and it will change his life forever.