Wednesday, September 19, 2007

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

ASTRONAUT CANDIDATE FINALIST PENS NOVEL
Austin W. Boyd spins NASA tale

(Huntsville, Alabama) On a West Virginia farm in 1971, young Austin W. Boyd felt the call to become an astronaut. In 1982, Navy pilot Boyd entered his first application to join NASA’s space program. He would submit more applications than any other naval officer in history. In 1990 he made the cut for the first time and became a semi-finalist. He was cut in the next round. Again he became a semi-finalist in 1992. Again he was cut. At age 40, late in the game for many pilots, he made it all the way to Houston as an Astronaut Candidate Finalist. Twenty were interviewed, one was selected.

Age 42, again, semi-finalist. At age 44, Boyd was ready to give it one last shot. He had made enough connections, and fulfilled all the requirements. He had the dream application. This was his time.

And then he called it off. His wife, suffering through the stress of fourteen moves, three wars, and eight astronaut applications, was sick.

Boyd had walked the daunting path to become an astronaut, but decided at its pinnacle that his calling was first to his family—to a journey, not the destination. In 1998 he began writing The Evidence, the fulfillment of his astronaut dream in print, if not in life.

“There’s one thing that writers and astronauts must both possess in great quantity,” Boyd says. “Tenacity.”

He moved to Huntsville, Alabama—Rocket City, USA—in a job as a spacecraft engineer and began to write.

A second mortgage on his house and dozens of rejections later, Boyd unleashes The Evidence, a new entry in the genre of Christian fiction—technical thriller, space suspense, and romance all rolled into one.

“It’s fiction that makes you ask ‘What if?’” Boyd says. “Fiction that shares truth inside the wrapper of an exciting tale—one that could possibly come true.”

More about Austin Boyd at his website: www.austinboyd.com



ABOUT THE BOOK:

"The Return proves to be the best of the Mars Hill Classified books, providing a compelling mix of entertainment and faith."
-- David White of Christian Review of Books


BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Six years after completing a manned mission to the Red Planet, Admiral John Wells is
set to make another journey to Mars. But this time his crew is not alone, as John's team encounters a secret colony comprised of individuals pursuing John Raines' strange religion, the "Father Race."

While John begins to uncover a web of lies on Mars, his wife and daughter are struggling for survival on earth. Now John must survive his dangerous mission and find a way back home, even as a shocking plan begins to unfold millions of miles away on earth.

Austin Boyd is back with his third thrilling novel in the Mars Hill Classified series, full of high-tech intrigue, memorable characters, and adventure that transports readers to another world.


From the BACK COVER:

With nothing left for him on Earth, Rear Admiral John Wells didn't hesitate to lead a third NASA team to Mars, but he never dreamed that one day they'd look out their laboratory module into the lights of a slow-moving vehicle not their own. In the third installment of the Mars Hill Classified series, life on Mars becomes increasingly more unpredictable as the past collides with the future and nothing, not even the dead, is as it seems.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, the fate of hundreds, including John Wells' family--presumed dead these last six years--rests precariously in the hands of Malcolm Raines, self-proclaimed Guardian of the Mother Seed and Principal Cleric of Saint Michael's Remnant, and his insidious plans for the Father Race.

Wells will find himself in a race against time and all odds to expose the truth: about Mars, about Malcolm Raines, and, if he's very brave, about himself.


REVIEW:
(Extracted from Amazon.com)

"It has been six years since Admiral John Wells has been on a manned mission to Mars but this time he is in charge and lands on the red planet. He and his crew find evidence of the "aliens" that appeared on Mars (which led to the first mars landing) and Earth. In his hands are proof that so called aliens were mechanical devices made on earth. The proof from the first mission was destroyed in a space accident.

John and his crew are shocked to learn that there is a small colony on Mars that NASA has no idea about. There are women and a young man in this colony with all the necessities and a few luxuries who belong to and believe in John Raines' "Father Race religion" based on the alien appearances. John thought his wife and children were killed six years ago when someone destroyed the helicopter they were in; they are being held in Father Raines compound in Slovenia desperate to get a message out. Man and wife separated by space and both prisoners in different ways have friends trying to find a way to extract John's family as well as 321 innocent clones, which were part of Raines' master plan for the human race. They have a deadline because Raines plans to move forward on the new race in a matter of days.

There are two separate parallel plotlines that don't intersect at any point even though the heroine of one is wife to the hero of the other. This is not a fault as reader get two stories for the price of one. John is a typical NASA astronaut, brave, innovative, and courageous enough to make the difficult decisions. His wife has never given up hope of rescue and even aided in letting the right people know where she was located. Austin Boyd is a creative storyteller that will keep readers mesmerized with his innovative storyline."
-- Harriet Klausner


The Return by Austin Boyd
Mars Hill Classified Trilogy: Book 3
ISBN-10: 157683946X
Publisher: Navpress Publishing Group
Release Date: July 13, 2007
$10.19 from Amazon.com


Purchase The Return by Austin Boyd HERE!!!