The Back of Beyond

by John Stilwell

Mark Thomas is a sailor on a freighter ferrying people and lithium ore between the utopian colony world, Elysium, and Earth. The starship is sabotaged, the crew presumed lost. But there's one survivor. Alone, Mark finds safe harbor in the barely charted star system, Trappist-1. Marooned, he thought that his biggest challenge was how to call for help. When he discovers that something ancient and dangerous is also marooned in the archipelago of a star system, his plight goes from bad to worse.

312 pages, Paperback

First published October 22, 2019

Reviews

[Janice Gross · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kept on reading this, hoping it would get better. The author could use a good editor. There are numerous typos, misspellings, grammatical errors that distract from the story. There are continuity errors in the narrative. It felt like a novella that was padded out into a book. Many repetitive sections. The only part about the book that I felt satisfied with was the ending which was very fitting. I would have only given one star except for the ending.

[Read Ng · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a GoodReads giveaway of a Kindle ebook.

I liked the hard science portions. It is an updated Science Fiction-alization of the wreck of Edmond Fitzgerald. He even updated the song. But I often find it distracting to draw references from current pop culture to make them relevant to our future storyline.

It was an interesting read, but it could have used a bit more polish. I don't know how to describe what I am looking for or how to accomplish that, but that is why I am a reader and not a writer. Maybe it was just the reflections back to current pop culture that did me in.

There were too many dead end subplots. Crew members that are only present for the first setup and then are killed off. Sailors having a separate and private life in every port. Perhaps excised story portions of the character while in isolation dwelled greater on those incidents in his life? And I was also not all that happy with side story events taking place back on Earth. They seemed to me to distract from the story of our hero.

Have a GoodReads.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were parts of this book I liked very much once I got into the story. In the beginning, some of the characters felt very two dimensional, especially the females, and acted in less than believable ways. However, the later chapters about Mark’s struggles to return to Earth were interesting, and I was pleased with the ending.

I thank the author for the copy I received from Goodreads Giveaways.

[Marcie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book - it was engaging, full of mystery and a touch of horror. I would definitely read the next one.

[Shhhhh Ahhhhh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a solid first for me on multiple levels. Species that exist simultaneously in multiple dimensions in such a way that they are only partly visible/ accessible in 3d space but can act in extradimensional space without limitations. First contact in which humans are the lower or lesser life form and also a food source. The cthulu mythos being invoked in space travel (almost seems contradictory when you say it like that but it was integrated seamlessly).

Good old fashioned science fiction. I could have been reading Philip K. Dick if Cthulu hadn't been mentioned by name.