“A profound story, worth the time invested to read it. Exciting, sad, uplifting, inspiring.”
“I read then nonstop, and found, satisfyingly, the rest of the saga quite desperately human, longingly hopeful. I will surely read Bugarski again.”
“This is gonna be the best book that I've read in years. Gritty believable storyline set in a space frontier wilderness.”
The MÍTOSZ Universe, Book 1
A catastrophic storm destroys the Russian Vostok outpost on Mars. Hundreds may still be alive beneath the wreckage. Official rescue is impossible: Earth's governments are paralyzed by geopolitics.
Yet across the dust-choked deserts of Mars, something extraordinary begins. Illegal rescue convoys set out from the neighboring settlements. From the shining European city of Asteria to the militarized corridors of Tianyuan and the corporate stronghold of Minos, settlers risk everything to reach the survivors. Former rivals can only rely on each other, and every decision could ignite a political crisis back on Earth.
Watching over them are the Twin Minds: hyperintelligent AIs embodied in humanoid robots. Castor, Vega, Luna and Helion were created to serve the Martian settlements. But as their shared memory grows and their loyalty deepens, they begin to shape the future of Mars itself.
While humans repeat the tragedies of the past, Icarus becomes a story of courage, betrayal, and the fragile beginning of a civilization far from Earth.
For readers who loved the politics of Dune, the realism of The Martian and the scale of The Three-Body Problem.
About the author
Zsolt Bugarszki spent twenty years studying how humans build systems and how those systems fail. As a social scientist he doesn't lecture. He puts people in rooms with hard problems and watches what happens.
What he found: the technology changes. The stories don't.
Icarus is his debut novel, the first book in the MÍTOSZ series, set on a near-future Mars where the myths and rivalries of Earth follow humanity into space. The politics, the betrayals, the hunger for power and meaning, none of it stays behind. Think Dune's political complexity, The Martian's realism, 3 Body Problem's scope. But at the center: people, doing what people have always done.
He writes in daily increments. Slowly, precisely, without shortcuts.
Straight from the author
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Direct contact
Have a question, or would you prefer another format (e.g. PDF)? Write to the author directly. [email protected]
FAQ
- What format will I get?
- ICARUS comes as an EPUB file, which reads well on most e-readers (Kindle too, via Send to Kindle), tablets and phones.
- Would you prefer another format (e.g. PDF)?
- Just write to me directly and we'll sort it out.