Escape to the Stars

by Mark T. Sneed

With only two earth settlements orbiting Neptune and Saturn and the earth no longer habitable the Interstellar Committee continues to seek habitable planets. Sent to find missing scientists and reclaim equipment on a newly discovered square planet on the outskirts of the Milky Way, the Galactic Space Marines are not new to space exploration but it is Christian Drake, a simple mechanic, who finds himself the unexpected voice of sentient beings on a hostile planet which is battling to resist takeover during a planetary tribal war for survival.

234 pages, Paperback

First published June 25, 2021

About the author

Born. Living. Learning. Writing. Southern memories, raised in Chicago and there I began writing. I moved west and was educated at the University of California, at Berkeley. Played collegiate football and rugby. First fell in love with comics. Have always read. Always writing. Became an English major. Took that major to Los Angeles and began teaching. Taught English to middle school and high school and junior college. Was a debate and chess coach. Continue to challenge myself.
Love Shakespeare. Wish to further the amazing writing experiences of those that I have read and read through an African American male lens. My desire is to write with passion and desire a varied style of genres with the hopes of being one of the heralded African American authors that others read and enjoy.

Reviews

[Authormarvinmason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starfish and the Hot Dog flavored Water

A strong mix of Dune, MDF Reason, with a little Prometheus thrown in this introduction to Christian Drake, Marine is a fun adventure of the rising of a ragtag team of space pirates. Family oriented, it's a fun read hopefully with more adventures to follow.

[Nora Delzelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprising!

This story was a great mix of space cowboys and thought provoking story about acceptance. I loved the fact that this was not the typical evil alien story. Great read.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this story, Earth is no longer habitable, and what's left of humanity is in two small settlements orbiting Saturn and Neptune. Finding other habitable planets is very important to the Interstellar Committee.

The Galactic Space Marines (mostly teenagers) are sent to rescue stranded scientists, and their equipment, on a newly discovered planet. The animals who inhabit the planet should pose no problem. Just a quick rescue mission, right?

Drake, a mechanic, is contacted by the planet's governing intelligence. It asks for his help in a planetary war for survival. Do the humans help? Does everyone live "happily ever after?"

This turns into a really good book. It takes a while to get "going," but it turns into an enjoyable story with good characters. I hope that this is the start of a series.

[Windell Beaird · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting!!!

For his debut novel, Sneed does a good job of it.
I loved his story lines and highly suspect to see this become a series. He had me hooked from start to finish. Highly recommend to lovers of sci-fi!!!

[Jasmine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really hate to do this because I won the book for free, but I just can't.
I got halfway through the second chapter before I had to stop.
The book is very poorly edited, which is alarming coming from a publisher (owned by the author) that advertises itself as a ghostwriting and editing company.
The dialogue is wooden.
There are way too many characters introduced by name too quickly to be able to keep track of them, and I suspect that no one we meet in the first chapter will ever be relevant for the rest of the book, based on the hyper-sleep cycles.
There's a lot of needless description that adds nothing to the atmosphere or my understanding - like separately describing the clothes of 3 different characters who are all wearing the same uniform, or in what order a group of people walked through a door, that sort of thing.
BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, glaringly, inexcusably - the author does not seem to know the difference between the GALAXY and the SOLAR SYSTEM. "3 years in the Galactic Force had seen him travel to all 9 planets of the galaxy" - Honey, no. "Neptune...was the farthest reaches of the Milky Way." Why did you write a sci-fi? Pick any other genre. It's possible this is due to poor editing and he actually does know the difference, but it's just too glaring. I have no confidence in this author to write a coherent space novel when he's discussing a trip to Saturn in a paragraph on "interstellar" flight.

[Mark Sneed · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love science fiction when it is done right. Sometimes there is too much science in the science fiction and I'm lost. Most of the time science fiction is mostly just fiction with a science base. Well, here is a bit of science with a lot of fiction going on. In the style of Octavia Butler meets Orson Scott Card this novel is an effort of a black man to capture a tale about space exploration after a small fraction of the Earth escapes destruction. There is science here. There is fiction as well. With only two earth settlements orbiting Neptune and Saturn and the earth no longer habitable there is a governing body called the Interstellar Committee seeking habitable planets. The story revolves around marines sent to find missing scientists and reclaim equipment on a newly discovered square planet on the outskirts of the Milky Way. The Galactic Space Marines are not new to space exploration but it is Christian Drake, a simple black mechanic, who finds himself the unexpected voice of sentient beings on a hostile planet which is battling to resist takeover during a planetary tribal war for survival.