I am a big supporter of returning to the moon; I think it’s our best way of becoming a spacefaring civilization. And even though it happened before I was born, I love Apollo 11, even thinking that July 20th should be a holiday. So to mark this year’s anniversary, I’m having a sale on four of my ebooks. Two of them deal with the moon, but I’m including the other two as a bonus. So between Sunday July 18th and Thursday July 22nd, you’ll be able to get the following four ebooks for free.
Over
the last few years a lot of people have caught Mars fever. It seems a week
doesn’t go by without a report of some new group wanting to send people to
Mars, or some big name in the industry talking about why we have to go to Mars,
or articles talking about the glorious future humanity will have on Mars. All
of this worries me. In my opinion, a Mars base is currently not sustainable
because there’s no way for it to make money. A few missions may fly doing
extraordinary science, but if it’s then cancelled for cost the whole Mars
Project may just be seen as an expensive stunt.
Fortunately,
there are other places in the solar system besides Mars. While bases on the
moon and amongst the asteroids won’t be as inspirational as one on Mars, they
will have opportunities for businesses to make goods and services as well as
profits, meaning less chance of them being outright cancelled. This will make
life better on Earth and secure a firm foothold in space for humanity. The
essays in The Moon Before Mars: Why
returning to the moon makes more sense than rushing off to Mars allow me to
describe my ideas on what can be accomplished on the moon and with the
asteroids, and why Mars isn’t the destiny of humanity its cheerleaders make it
out to be.
A Cabin Under a Cloudy Sea and other stories
Hopefully,
in the not too distant future humans will return to the moon. We will build
bases and colonies, make farms and factories, and live, love and learn. A Cabin Under a Cloudy Sea and other stories
contains five short stories that are all set upon the moon. They give the
tiniest glimpse of the possibilities awaiting us there.
Partway
to a new colony world, board member Geoffrey Ames is woken from hibernation by
the caretaking crew of the Lucian.
They require him to look into the matter of their fellow crewman Morgan Heller.
Morgan’s claims – such as being over 1500 years old – would normally land him
in the psychiatric ward, except he can back up some of his other claims.
Brain for Rent and other stories
Brain for Rent and other stories is a collection
of five of my short scifi stories to give a sampling of my writing. The
collection includes: “Brain for Rent” about a ne’re-do-well failed writer with
a conceptual implant who discusses his work with a young woman thinking of
getting an implant herself. “The Demonstration” is about a different young
woman wanting to show off her latest body modification. “Self Imprisonment”
offers one solution of safe keeping the backup copy of yourself. “The Best Job
Ever” is about a necessary – yet unpleasant – human/alien interaction. And the
collection ends with “Why Stay?” which explains why, after years of fighting
the humans, the robots just deactivate.
