The Return by Austin Boyd

Now I'm a gal who likes to read my series in order, so knowing that book three of the Mars Hill Trilogy was coming up for a blog tour, I asked my library if they could bring in the first two for me to read ahead of time. Honestly, I asked about five weeks ago. On Wednesday they located them somewhere in Saskatchewan and they have not yet arrived. Meanwhile, on Thursday, my copy of The Return arrived. And now it is The Tour. Dilemmas.

Today I'd like to distract you by talking about the author's website. Honestly, it's enough to make me want to write science fiction. One glance at Austin Boyd's site and you know what he writes, what his focus is.

Now I've dabbled in writing a little science fiction myself, and I have to tell you that a lack of a scientific background holds me back! Austin Boyd does not have this problem. He has his masters in spacecraft systems engineering and was a Navy pilot for over thirty years. Eight times he applied for the astronaut training, coming close to being selected several times. He definitely has the background to write near future humans-going-to-Mars type fiction.

I've read Red Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson and several other books and series about humans settling Mars. Having briefly peeked into The Return makes me anxious to read this series too. From the first couple of pages I can see that Austin Boyd knows his way around solid prose so I'm expecting to thoroughly enjoy this series. Probably should just have bought the first two already. (Grumble Mumble).

In case you want to hear from someone who has actually read The Return already, check out some of these bloggers: Trish Anderson, Brandon Barr, Jim Black, Justin Boyer, Grace Bridges, Amy Browning, Jackie Castle, Karri Compton, Lisa Cromwell, CSFF Blog Tour, Gene Curtis, D. G. D. Davidson, Janey DeMeo. Merrie Destefano , Alien Dream, Jeff Draper, April Erwin, Linda Gilmore, Beth Goddard, Marcus Goodyear, Jill Hart, Katie Hart, Sherrie Hibbs, Christopher Hopper, Becca Johnson, Jason Joyner, Kait, Karen, Dawn King, Tina Kulesa, Rachel Marks, Karen McSpadden, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Eve Nielsen, John W. Otte, Lyn Perry, Deena Peterson, Rachelle, Cheryl Russel, Chawna Schroeder, Mirtika Schultz, James Somers, Steve Trower, Speculative Faith, Laura Williams, Timothy Wise