Moon People: The Age of Aquarius (Kindle)

by Dale M. Courtney
-Moon People Trilogy, Book 1-
(Bloomington: Xlibris Corp., 2008)
Kindle eBook, 80 Pages, 280 KB Science Fiction
ASBN: B003NX70B8, US$9.99

ABCD Rating: ACQUIRE*

From the Cover: This Book is based on the turning point for Earth into a new era of space travel and the beginning of the Age of Aquarius. The story focuses on one Man by the Name of David Braymer and his adventures from High school teacher to 1st Science Officer on board the Lunar Base 1 Mobile Base Station and his encounters with Alien Life forms through out our universe and the space Battle of all battles David experiences. I hope you enjoy the many adventures of David Braymer and his conquest in space and our journey into the Age of Aquarius.

My Review: Have you ever fallen in love with a movie that no one else can stand? One that was so bad it was good? Something that maybe turned up on Mystery Science Theater 3000? A film like Eegah!, The Lost Continent, The Day the Earth Froze or The Wild Wild World of Batwoman? Well, that’s what Moon People: The Age of Aquarius is like. I first came across Courtney’s book while I wasting time on the internet (I was probably supposed to be reading something for a class, but there you go.) Anyway, someone had posted the first page or so of the book, and I just couldn’t believe what I was reading. So, I tracked it down on Amazon and read the first chapter for free. I fell instantly in love. A couple of months later when my wife bought me a Kindle for Christmas, Moon People was one of the first books I downloaded.

I can’t even begin to describe what it is like to read this book. I suggest you head to Amazon and read the first chapter, and you’ll get some idea. Yet, that doesn’t capture the full experience of reading Dale M. Courtney’s prose. I mean, what do you do with passages like the following?

This Story Begins on a beautiful sunny day in Daytona Beach Florida with a man by the name of David Braymer. A 45-year-old single man that works at the local high school as a science teacher. He also teaches astronomy in the 12-grade level. Now he has been here about 5 years and has become somewhat partial to a young lady by the name of Cheral Baskel a local restaurant owner in Daytona Beach Florida. At the moment, Cheral is preparing her restaurant for another shuttle launch at the cape. Everyone always gathers at her place because you can see the launch real good there. It is on the water and its real close to the Cape. She always decks the place out right before a launch too. Now David always goes to Cheral’s place before work every morning for breakfast because it is on his way to his school. He has never missed a shuttle launch at Cheral’s place since he’s been at his school. David was not always a teacher. Before he was a teacher, he use to work for the government for U.F.O. research about five years ago. He didn’t like the job that much because he was always bored.

He really wanted to teach anyway. Today is also Oct. 27 in the year 2048. The next shuttle launch at the Cape is on Halloween. There has been some unusual events the last 2 shuttle launches though. They would get right up to the launch sequence and stop the launch for some kind of weird problem.

Well, you get the idea. The book is self-published (Xlibris is one of those pay-and-get-published vanity presses) and has obviously not gone through the editorial process, because the book is riddled with spelling errors (there for their, your for you’re and, my personal favorite gauche for gotcha), fragmented sentences, truly random capitalization, shifts from first to second to third person and back again—sometime all in the same paragraph, and odd punctuation (my favorite happens shortly after the passage I quoted above which reads: “They have also been trying to get David to join the crew on the U.S.S. Lunar Base 1 for about 2 years. Which is one of the base stations that is almost completed?”). Yet, there is a certain charm and jouissance that comes from reading Moon People: The Age of Aquarius.

This is not to say that the book is perfect, far from it, but then, neither is Robot Monster or Pod People. You don’t read a book like Moon People and expect the literary version of Canard à la presse. This is not Moby-Dick or Hamlet. Dale M. Courtney’s book is the literary equivalent of a bologna sandwich on white bread with mayonnaise. It’s not nutritious but it is filling, and dammit every once in a while you just want to eat something crappy. I will say that Moon People is not a book for everyone … hence the asterisk after the ACQUIRE rating … you buy this book with the understanding that it is like owning Plan 9 from Outer Space, it is a book to have for the camp value not for the deep lessons or scientific accuracy. (It might also make you feel better about that novel you have languishing in a box in the back of your closet.)

Better yet … there are two more!