I've been reading scifi and fantasy (or spec fic) for about 40 years, but have mean basically ignorant of most of the genre until I started to write recently. For instance, I had no idea of self publishing and how much self published spec fic there is out there.
The Backworlds is the first self published book that I have ever read. I wan to say up front it was a good experience.
The Backworlds is the first in a series by M. Pax, who has a great blog which can be found here. You can get it for free as an ebook, which makes it a very good buy.
This is the blurb from the web site:
In the far future, humanity settles the stars, bioengineering its descendents to survive in a harsh universe.After the war with the Foreworlders, Backworlders scatter across the planets left. Competition is fierce and pickings are scant. Scant enough that Craze’s father decides to improve his fortunes by destroying his son.Cut off from family and friends with little money and even less knowledge of the worlds beyond his own, Craze heads into an uncertain future. Boarding the transport to Elstwhere, he vows to make his father regret this day.
As an intro book it's quite good. The plot line is a bit predicable at times, and some twists seemed to convenient, but I still enjoyed the story. The style makes me wonder if it's target is young adults. M. Pax does have another book out that is promoted as Young Adult, but there's nothing to say that The Backworlds is.
I found its simplicity is charming, and I'm interested enough in the characters, and their universe that I'm going to buy the next book in the series. I would class The Backworlds as good light reading, enjoyably pleasant. The over all standard is the same, or in some cases better than, as a work from a main stream publisher. I'm looking forward to trying more self published stuff in the future.
yay!! I'm glad you liked Mary's book. She's a great writer :)
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