The New Frontier

Yay! Mary Pax is here today with a guest post. You may not believe this, but I just started getting into science fiction. In particular, I found a Firefly marathon the other day and totally got hooked. So it's pretty cool that Mary's Backworlds series was inspired by Firefly. Okay, I'll stop babbling now.

Here's Mary!

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The New Frontier

Maybe because I grew up in the space age – astronauts, Tang, Lost in Space, and Star Trek – I held a lifelong fascination with space and what’s out there. What is out there?

I spend my summers at an observatory showing off the sky through telescopes and hanging out with aerospace engineers, physicists, and scientists, and I have no real idea. I know it’s fantastic and wonderful, though.

I think what most of my favorite science fiction shows and books have in common is a combination of living primitively and the ability to travel in space. That juxtaposition fascinates me. I love exploring alien worlds and seeing what might be possible.

I’d say Firefly had the biggest influence when I created the Backworlds. I missed it so much [and still do] that I felt the need to recreate some of the elements. I loved the grit of it. I loved the imperfect characters who teetered on being redeemable. The combo of the wild west with exploration is one the original Star Trek also had. So I figured I couldn’t go wrong using those elements in my universe.

In my view of humanity’s future, we must leave Earth and colonize other planets to survive. Instead of terraforming planets, I genetically manipulated humans to be able to survive on imperfect worlds.

Does it make them less human? Humans made for Earth-like planets [The Foreworlds] think so. The Backworlders do not. And if they can survive in more environments than we can, then I believe they’re more fit to be our future and carve out the new frontier.

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You can try the first in the series, The Backworlds, for free. It’s available for all ereaders. LINKS. It’s also available in paperback for not free from Amazon.

Boomtown Craze is the latest release and the 3rd book in the series.

In the far future, humanity settles the stars, bioengineering its descendents to survive in a harsh universe.

To secure his future, Craze must propel his world into a more prosperous era. Only days away from the grand opening of his new and improved tavern, he is confronted by a loony Backworlder intent on mucking up his plans. Gaunt and trembling, she claims her spaceship is possessed. She also has a connection to the underworld that shakes loose the dark past of one of Craze’s closest friends. It all threatens to end Craze’s prosperity before it begins.

Meanwhile off world, Captain Talos works desperately to outwit the mercenary Jixes and lure them away from his and Craze’s budding prospects. The mind-control weapon Talos uses against them is wearing thin, and his next move may be his last.

Will Craze and Talos’s efforts bring about a grand new age of boom or damn them to forever struggle in the dust?

Available in ebook at:

AmazonUS / AmazonUK / B&N / Smashwords

MPAX

M. Pax is a Browncoat and SG fan, she’s also slightly obsessed with Jane Austen. In the summers she docents as a star guide at Pine Mountain Observatory where the other astronomers now believe she has the most extensive collection of moon photos in existence. No fear, there will be more next summer. She lives in stunning Central Oregon with the Husband Unit and two lovely, spoiled cats.
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