Mars has declared its independence from Earth—but now has to figure out how to function as a country. And that takes more than a new flag, an arena-worthy anthem, and naming Pluto the donkey the national animal. As the Red Planet spirals into political upheaval, Flip Buchanan—the irreverent, reluctant son of the most powerful man on Mars—finds himself pulled through two tumultuous decades of alien discoveries, killer clones, and the chaos of a new nation still working out the kinks.