Today is the official release date of M. Pax's sixth book in the Backworlds series,
Precipice. Please join me in congratulating Mary on her newest release and go check it out on all the major online retailers at the links below. If you haven't yet started the series, the first book in the series,
The Backworlds, is free to download on Amazon.
In the far future,
humanity settles the stars, bioengineering its descendants to survive in a
harsh universe. This is the sixth book in the science fiction series, The
Backworlds. A space opera adventure.
The Backworlds
hang by a Quantum string, a thread about to snap. Annihilation is coming if
Craze can’t stop it.
The genocidal
alien he had trapped breaks free, destroying a ship belonging to the
Backworlds’ oldest enemy, the Fo’wo’s. The murderous alien wants to overtake
the galaxy. The Fo’wo’s want another war.
The Backworlds’
best chance to survive is to overcome a century of hate and forge an alliance
with the Fo’wo’s. Because of his history with the alien, Craze is recruited to
represent his people. Now he’s the most hated man in the galaxy.
The looming war
will be a holocaust unless Craze can stop it, knowing salvation comes at a
price.
About M. Pax:
Fantasy, science fiction, and the weird beckons to her, and
she blames Oregon, a source of endless inspiration. She docents at Pine
Mountain Observatory in the summers, and one of her cats has a crush on Mr.
Spock. You can find out more by visiting her website:
mpaxauthor.com
One question interview with Craze:
The main character in the Backworlds series is a bartender
named Craze. What is the most expensive drink in the Backworlds?
Craze: Hot chocolate.
A tiny bar of chocolate can buy you a spaceship in the Backworlds. Not a top of
the line deal, but a working spaceship all the same.
Excerpt 1
Commander Hunninger tapped an icon on her tab and jabbed it in Craze’s face. “You really want to say no to this?”
The screen was too close. He grabbed the device from her manly fingers and brought the image into focus. A brand new, state-of-the-art, mini city docking facility. Pardeep Station had never seen finer and probably never would. Better protection from the dust storms was a necessity, and folks had to get out of the cold. Craze tired of the stench of the sick. “How much is it goin’ to cost? Everyone on this moon barely has three chips to jangle in their holey pockets.”
“No chips.” She smiled. Her wide mouth contained a lot of very white teeth.
Three good sucks on his air hose and Craze knew he wasn’t dreaming. He narrowed his eyes. “There’s still a price.”
Excerpt 2
Until he knew for certain whether he dealt with one genocidal alien or two, Lepsi couldn’t think right. His thoughts refused to stand still, stuttering and churning.
The hatch slid fully open. He sprang off the cargo ejector, sailing two kilometers into the ether. He tumbled in the black for precisely twenty-three seconds then engaged his thrusters to journey the remaining twenty kilometers over to a spacecraft-sized mass of debris. The bits clumped together forming a weird metallic planetoid.
He traced along the char marks and the mangled pieces of hull. The answers he needed wouldn’t be found in this trash, yet he was closer to them here than anywhere else, unless he joined up with the horrid alien again. His limbs shuddered and his lungs struggled for breath. He never wanted to see the cloud-like ship again. He couldn’t. He’d crack into a billion unrecoverable pieces. Just like the rubble of the Fo’wo ship around him.
Excerpt 3
Engaging the thrusters on the jetpack strapped to her back, Rainly steered herself through space. Its vastness terrified her. Her skin prickled. The man in the white robe jabbering in her head overwhelmed her, blocking out all until she found herself back on the Sequi opening the box she had retrieved. She had hoped answering the man’s summons would end her blackouts.
“I don’t want to know what I did,” she whispered, her teeth chattering and limbs quaking. She couldn’t take much more of this.
The size and dimensions of a coffin, the box was also a ship. One more sophisticated than the Sequi. Using a control paddle, Rainly maneuvered a dolly under the box, then she wheeled it into the living quarters. Her sister had moved the couches, creating ample space.
Her hands clapping, her sister beamed. “Let’s meet our master.”
Together they pried open the chamber per instructions pulsing in Rainly’s head. The flood of data had to be making a clamor in her sister’s mind too, because she moved in the same ways.
Inside the box lay a brain in a sac of goo. Nothing like Rainly expected. “Is it a Fo’wo?” she asked her sister.
“Not yet. We have to reboot him first.”
Rainly had to wonder whether she and her sister had gone insane.
