Time is running out for the first explorers on Mars.¹ NASA’s four-member crew had great plans to explore the planet. But in this version of the future, any private spaceflights seem to have failed, leaving federal administrators to fund the team.

Now that Earthside support is evaporating like liquid water out of Ares Valles.

Tensions strain among the crew (Margaret, David, Gulliver, and Donegan) as they near inevitable death from this abandonment. But before this end, they can at least shut down the base and explore one last land feature—that cave and secret tunnel.

Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., bureaucrat Reuben Jackson fights to stay loyal to America’s astronauts. He must team up with shady congressman Manasseh Cruz to expose a government conspiracy and do his best to bring the Mars team home. But on their dead red planet, these doomed explorers soon discover secrets that could give them a chance for survival and perhaps change the course of human history.

Shannon McDermott’s novel The Time Door transplants the seeds of political thriller into the soils of near-future sci-fi, exploring one decaying civilization in light of another. Characters may struggle on the surface, while bulkier spacesuits can obscure their distinct human forms. Yet the story finds greater energies below the sands—that sense of epic mystery, adored by readers of classic sci-fi, where otherworldly wonders hide beneath a dead desert. By the end, events turn wibbly-wobbly, setting up The Eternities Duology’s finale, and The Time Door’s heroes and readers will rediscover hope, even for a foolish people who literally burn their resources.

Best for: Adult sci-fi readers who enjoy tales of mystery on sister planets.

Discern: Debates over sentient extraterrestrial life, a subject unaddressed by the story and left open for reader discussion; light political thriller elements, including economic depression and corruption in federal institutions; white-collar villains manipulate other people with verbal threats and occasional use of weapons; some dread and suspense leading to interpersonal conflicts.