I found this book in 2016 and cannot resist bringing it back to the table now: Dale M. Courtney's Moon People
Unfortunately I have yet to purchase and read it.
Here is a (five star) review that it received in 2018 by Jon P.
<Set phasers to ultra-dense sarcasm>
"First of all, let me be clear in stating that I do not normally write reviews of any kind. Still, such was the level of Dale M. Courtney's writing, I felt compelled to comment. This book is, without exaggeration, the best book I have ever had the honor of reading. The author has achieved something beyond traditional storytelling, and introduces the literary world to a new paradigm in what can be done with the written word. ‘Moon People’ is not limited to the confines of Pre-Courtney literature, that readers have perhaps naively come to expect. Elements like ‘plot’ and ‘tense’; all of these things are thrown out with bold abandon, as Courtney weaves an engaging tale of a man who gets offered a job on a space station, then accepts the job on the space station.
Throughout this 80 page masterpiece, Courtney introduces the reader to further development of the English language, as Shakespeare had in the early 1600’s, or more recently Orwell’s ‘1984’. Take for instance, Courtney’s “...a basket Ball court”. Such bold phrasing suggests that this is not a regular basketball court, but a new, evolved understanding. The author leaves the reader to construct the rules of this new game. Courtney then tosses aside the convention of regular punctuation, by gliding between character dialogue, without the reader being informed which character is doing the speaking, a clear critique of the modern socio-political climate. As a final masterstroke of wordsmithing, the author absorbs the reader into the world he has created by delicately dancing between referring the protagonist as “he”, then in the very next sentence, referring to them as “I”. This dichotomy confronts the reader with the question: “who is this protagonist, David Breymer?” Is it Courtney himself? Is it the reader the protagonist? Courtney again challenges the reader, by deftly adding seemingly random question marks to what appears like statements. The reader must then question the very foundation of the story. Is this story happening at all? Following the tradition of Lewis Carrol and a closer sci-fi contemporary, Phillip K Dick, Courtney slyly suggests that not everything is what it seems.
As if crafting new literary constructs were not enough, the author excels in gently guiding the reader through the minefield of complex techno-jargon and advanced high level astrophysics. With obvious mastery of the material, Courtney succinctly explains with otherwise would be incomprehensible to the average layperson. The scientists in the story discuss amongst themselves terms like “science stuff” and “radio emitters that can detect what gases and rocks or whatever else the planets are made of”. Courtney does not bog down the reader with heavy science, as to not distract from the main emotional core of the protagonist journey, that of the protagonist experiencing no conflict or challenges whatsoever.
I would consider myself a voracious reader, and a true lover of the written word. As a rough estimate, I would venture to say that I have read in my lifetime, upwards of seven books, perhaps even as many as nine. Still, no other written work has come anywhere close to this; not Tolstoy’s War and Peace, not the King James Bible. It is a privilege to read a work that will no doubt be required student reading in the future, and a foundational work in which surely new areas of study will emerge."
Also I like the review that stated:
"My favorite part is when Courtney decides not to describe what the admiral's U.S.S Lunar Base One looks like, and instead he opts to show the reader a picture of the Death Star."
