Eccentric Tech Billionaire Steven Temple forms a private American space exploration company to permanently settle ten humans on Mars by 2031. His bold vision is proven to be both scientifically and financially feasible, triggering a global recruitment drive to find the optimal candidates to participate in the final selection process in 2024. But most important is not deciding who gets to go, but who doesn't. Natalya Zhdanov, the brilliant biologist, has a compromised past. Abandoned as a baby and raised in a Russian state-run children’s home, she has deep insecurities and a lust for personal validation. She mistrusts most people, especially authority-wielding older men. When her career stalls at a Chicago-based biotech firm in 2024, with nothing to lose she accepts an invitation from Red Horizons to try out for Mars. Through both device and fate, she makes it to the final ten. But how did such a dangerous person manipulate their way into this position, slipping through a very sophisticated and rigorous selection process? And what price is to be paid for erroneously including such a diseased mind on a delicate endeavor like Red Horizons'? Why did the tech-billionaire Steven Temple decide to spend his fortune on creating Red Horizons in the first place? Natalya's twisted worldview is consistently juxtaposed with the main protagonist's, the South African medical doctor Bongani Dlamini, who she also marries. He's good to the core, but also too sentimental and therefore guilty of enabling Natalya to some extent. But not only him. There were more than enough opportunities for others to stop Natalya from advancing though the selection process for Mars, but were critically missed somehow. Red Horizons interrogates how our natural drive to create a meaningful legacy manifests itself - hinging on the moral character of individuals - male or female, good or bad. The plot smoothly criss-crosses genre-lines; covering the territories of psychological thriller, science fiction “lite”, adult romance and action. There’s tragedy, humor, betrayal and touching friendships. Contemporary sociopolitical and environmental commentary is subtly threaded into the narrative. Readers will be asked to think critically and calm all five of their senses!