The Divide
Paul Evans: The Divide by Chris Simmons follows Paul Evans, Outside Operations Lead at the Valles geothermal plant, through a heating crisis on Mars. It returns to an earlier period in the Evans family's life, before 39 Minutes.
Back-cover description
Paul Evans keeps Mars warm.
As Outside Operations Lead at the Valles geothermal plant, he is the man who makes sure everyone gets home. The heat reserve reads sufficient. The numbers say the colony is safe.
But the habitats are freezing.
The numbers lie. Energy exists but cannot reach the rooms that need it. And while Paul traces the failure through three habitats, a corporate trap, and his own signed compromise, his ten-year-old son is at home drawing diagrams of a father who is never there.
The Divide is the story of a man walking the line between the plant in emergency red and the lamplit kitchen. Between the crews who need him and the family he is losing. Between duty and presence.
A promise is not kept on the day you make it. It is kept on the days nobody is watching.
Paul Evans: The Divide is the second book of the Evansphere, fifteen years before John Evans: 39 Minutes.
People to know
- The family: Paul Evans, Caitlyn Evans, John Evans and Jennifer Evans.
- The plant: Anika, Hawksworth, Venn and Tessa Brandt.
- The wider community: Niko, Ms. Ivers, Ellis and the supporting cast.
- Outside interests: Tomas Vale, Joss Merritt and Hollister Dynamics.
Places and systems
Three habitats depend on the Valles heat network: Olympus Prime, Renticuluous Alpha and Volallies Beta. Their different demands make a colony total very different from warmth in a particular room. Habitat Operations connects standards and decisions with the people maintaining those systems.
A short systems guide explains the Drawdown, the Bottleneck, heat reserves and the language of safe work without describing the solution.
Connections across the books
Readers of 39 Minutes will recognise the Evans family, Mars, Hollister Dynamics, and the principle “Keep one hand free.” Here, the focus is on Paul, the crews around him, and the family life behind that principle. Each character's page separates this earlier setting from their appearance in John's story.
This guide leaves the investigation, discoveries, decisions and ending for the novel.
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