Mabash Books Authors - Alastair Mayer
Alastair Mayer was born in London, England, and moved to Canada with his family as a young boy. He describes his interest in space flight and science fiction as genetic: his father, Douglas W.F. Mayer, had been an early member of the British Interplanetary Society as well as a science fiction fan (who in fact published some of Arthur C. Clarke’s first tales in Amateur Science Stories).
Alastair studied Computer Science and Life Sciences at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada. He spent several years in the Signal Corps, later becaming an accomplished scuba diver and private pilot. He has also skydived and was a candidate for the Canadian Astronaut Program. This broad experience helps inform his fiction, most of which could perhaps best be described as action-adventure with a hard science fiction flavor.
Alastair has published articles in Byte, Final Frontier, and other magazines, in addition to technical papers on a variety of subjects. Shortly before the fall of the Soviet Union, he presented a paper on Mars resource development to the Academy of Sciences in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. He currently lives in Colorado, where he works for a satellite network company by day and writes at night.
His short stories have been published in several anthologies and his work has appeared often enough in Analog Science Fiction magazine to gain him entry to the “Analog MAFIA” (Members Appear Frequently In Analog). Many of his short works can be found in e-book format on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and other e-book vendor sites.
Mabash Books by Alastair Mayer
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Alpha Centauri: First Landing The early missions, discovering T-Space | |
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Decades before the events of The Chara Talisman and The Reticuli Deception, humankind takes its first steps to the stars in experimental warpships. An early robotic probe to the Alpha Centauri system has returned with evidence of not one, but two Earthlike planets, complete with life. An international mission is hastily assembled to explore the system. The natural risks of space travel are bad enough, but with the secrets of a functional warp drive and the compact fusion reactor to power it being each held by rival nations, political intrigue also threatens the mission. Then there's the personal history between some of the crew members. But all that may prove inconsequential in light of what they discover there ... something which may threaten Earth itself. Now available in trade paperback and e-book.
Trade paperback (6"x9", 241pp):
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Alpha Centauri: Sawyer's World | |
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When Sawyer's team lands on the second habitable planet in the Alpha Centauri system, they know they're taking a risk. If anything happens to the return mission from Earth, they could be there a while, but it's worth it to try to resolve the mystery uncovered during the first landing. They find out more about that, which in turn leads to even further mystery. On top of that, they have there own survival to worry about, between combatting hostile local fauna and the growing realization that they may be marooned here for a lot longer than they'd originally planned. Now available in trade paperback and e-book.
Trade paperback (6"x9", 235pp):
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Alpha Centauri: The Return | |
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After leaving the crew of the Anderson at Alpha Centauri, the USS Heinlein returns to Earth, hoping to refit, refuel and return withing weeks to pick up them up. Things don't work out that way; Commodore Drake faces a court-martial for the apparent loss of three of the expedition ships. Meanwhile, the biological samples the Heinlein brought back turn out to harbor a surprising secret. Ironically, that may be just the leverage Drake needs to get back to Alpha Centauri and rescue the rest of his crew. That is, if they're still alive. Now available in trade paperback and e-book.
Trade paperback (6"x9", 231pp):
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The Chara Talisman What if Indiana Jones had had a starship? | |
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A thrilling expansion to his short story "Stone Age," first published in Analog Science Fiction & Fact magazine (June 2011, Dell Publications). This mix of fast action, hard science, and little light comedy pits archeologist Hannibal Carson and his brilliant and beautiful starship pilot, Jaqueline "Jackie" Roberts against tomb raiders, religious UFO cultists, and more as Carson attempts to track down dangerous alien technology. Trade paperback (6"x9", 260pp): Suggested retail: $14.95 ISBN-13: 978-0-615-56623-8 ISBN-10: 0-615-56623-5 E-Book formats: Suggested retail: $4.99 EPUB format (B&N Nook, Sony, Apple, Kobo, etc): Available from Smashwords and elsewhere. ISBN-13: 978-1-4524-8022-0 MOBI format: (Kindle, MobiPocket) Available from Amazon Kindle Store and Smashwords |
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The Reticuli Deception | |
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In this sequel to The Chara Talisman the stakes are even higher as archeologist Hannibal Carson and his starship pilot Jacqueline "Jackie" Roberts pursue a connection between a long-fabled 1961 alien abduction and the mysterious builders of the ancient but high-tech artifacts they discovered in The Chara Talisman. Still pursued by religious UFO cultists with a frightening political agenda, and allied with a former foe, can they uncover the lost secrets of that long ago close encounter before running afoul of what awaits them in the Zeta Reticuli system? Now available in trade paperback and e-book. Trade paperback (6"x9", 245pp): Suggested retail: $14.95 ISBN-13: 978-0-615-71102-7 ISBN-10: 0-615-71102-2
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The Eridani Convergence | |
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The story picks up where the events of The Reticuli Deception left off. Roberts, back to her business as charter pilot and courier, gets an request from Ducayne for a high priority pickup in the 82 Eridani system. The crew of the Velkaryan ship Carcharadon find themselves in deep space heading away from Zeta Reticuli ... and the best place to stop and refuel happens to be 82 Eridani. As if that weren't enough, the Velkaryans are stirring things up on Earth but Ducayne wants Hannibal Carson to head out to, you guessed it, 82 Eridani, and he has a rather unorthodox means of getting him there. What is going on there, and who else is coming to the party, invited or not? Meanwhile, Rico has woken up in a traumapod. Again. Now availabe in trade paperback and e-book.
Trade paperback (6"x9", 262pp):
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