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Mari Collier

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Earthbound: Science Fiction in the Old West (Chronicles of the Maca Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Mari Collier (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.2 300 ratings

Book 1 of 7: Chronicles of the Maca

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"A page-turning, extraordinary excursion that crosses genres." - Daniel Scott White, editor of Unfit Magazine

Marooned in 19th century West, Llewellyn meets young frontier woman Anna. The two become friends and comrades, their fates forever intertwined.

They find themselves together in the prairies of 19th century Texas, the bordellos of Civil War-era New Orleans, to Prohibition in the 1920s, the Great Depression, and the vastness of space.

But can they survive hardships through history, the enmity of their southern neighbors and the Civil War, to return to his home planet and exact his revenge?

Praise:

★★★★★ - "Well written and thoroughly researched, with realistic characters and events. I could not put the book down."

★★★★★ - "A great story with memorable characters, but to me the most fun was the historical aspect of it. Mari has done her research."

★★★★★ - "One of the most unusual sci-fi stories I've read... I love these books and recommend them completely."

★★★★★ - "I don't usually read western-themed books but this book breaks the mold, blending western, historical, and sci-fi / paranormal all into one. It was spellbinding."

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mari Collier was born and raised on a farm in Iowa. From there she moved to Phoenix, then to North Bend, WA, and found refuge in a small community in the high desert of California. She is an active member of the Desert Writers Guild and the Creative Writing and Literary Society, she is on the Board of Directors for The Historical Society of Twentynine Palms, and the congregational secretary for Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. She writes two columns for the Old Schoolhouse Journal and enjoys family, friends, the local art galleries, and theaters. Earthbound, Gather The Children, Before We Leave and Return of the Maca are published novels. Twisted Tales From The Desert, Twisted Tales From The Northwest, and Twisted Tales From The Universe are her anthologies.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00THSCXOC
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Next Chapter; 3rd edition (February 10, 2015)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 10, 2015
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1386 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 299 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1516820363

Best Sellers Rank: #1,181,074 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #2,999 in Space Exploration Science Fiction eBooks
- #3,150 in Galactic Empire Science Fiction eBooks
- #3,308 in Galactic Empire Science Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.2 300 ratings

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Mari Collier

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Mari Collier born on a farm in Iowa, and has lived in Arizona, Washington, and Southern California. She and her husband met in high school and were married for forty-five years. She is the Accessions Curator for the Twentynine Palms Historical Society. She has worked as a collector, bookkeeper, receptionist, and as an Advanced Super Agent for Nintendo of America. Several of her short stories have appeared in print and electronically, plus four anthologies. Twisted Tales From The Desert, Twisted Tales From The Northwest, Twisted Tales From The Universe, and Twisted Tales From A Skewed Mimd can be found online. Earthbound, Gather the Children, Before We Leave, Return of the Maca, Thalia and Earth, Fall and Rise of the Macas are the six books in Chronicles of the Maca. Man, True Man, The Silver and The Green, and Marika are the three novels in the Tonath Chronicles. All are on Amazon.

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300 global ratings

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AmazonCustomer

Aliens in the Southwest

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2018

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This is the first book in a series which covers about 150 years or so from around the middle of the 1800's to, well, about now. It begins prior to the Civil War, and tells the tale of an extra-terrestrial alien who has been abandoned on Earth as punishment for his accident of birth on his home planet. He is someone who is not supposed to exist, and yet he does, so he is banished. His lifetime is several hundred years, so there is a lot of life for him to live yet.

As we watch him create a life, get married and have a child, and establish his fortune, the story continues on its trajectory with new characters from other planets making their entrances. By the end of the 6th book, the reader has lived through an epic adventure both here at home, in space, and on other planets.

It's one of the most unusual sci-fi stories I've read. Ms. Collier has developed real characters, living in a place that she clearly knows very well. I always had the sense of dislocation you get when you are tossed and thrown between stories and cultures, never really finding your feet. The lead character, Llewellyn (they all sound like Welsh or Scots names to me), never loses sight of his end game, though he also never abandons anyone he loves on Earth. He waits to go back to his home world until his wife has passed on, and he allows his children to make their own decisions regarding where they want to spend their lives.

At that point, the story becomes one of space battles and lives on distant planets.

Ms. Collier has done an impressive job of creating folks who are alien, but who you care for, nonetheless. Her people are not simply American teenagers playing a game. They have alien ways of behaving, alien philosophies, alien religions, and so forth. They are not Earthlings. Even the half-breeds are distinctly different.

I love these books and recommend them completely.

9 people found this helpful

Helpful

Pamela Foley

A WESTERN WITH ALIENS. WHAT COULD BE BETTER?

Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2016

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I’ve been wanting to read this series for awhile. I love westerns and sci-fi, so this was a combination I just couldn’t pass up.

We start off with an alien named Liewellyn, who’s been trapped on Earth during the frontier days. The first two chapters are more like backstory, which I found somewhat confusing, as we’re crammed full of info that wasn’t easy to process.

For me, the real story didn’t start until Chapter 3, when he changed his name to Zebediah L McDonald, and met Herman Rolfe. I really liked Herman’s character. He was tough, salty, and didn’t give a dang about anything. He took McDonald under his wing, and they became fast friends, earning a wage as trappers, freighters and eventually moving to Texas to buy land to raise cattle. These two had many adventures together, good and bad.

There are various sub-plots woven through the story, one of them revolves around Anna Louis Lawrence and her children. Kidnapped by Comanche’s, she’s rescued by McDonald. They eventually form a relationship, but I felt no fire or passion between them. We’re told how much Zeb felt for her, but, as a reader, I never felt it.

Anna is another character I liked, She’s tough, hard, and knows how to take care of herself. Her one fault, she can be a little narrow-sighted. As a Maca, Zeb will outlive Anna, so I’m curious to see how that will work out.

The other subplot revolves around Anna’s children, who disappeared at the same time she was kidnapped. Who is Jeremiah O’Neal, and what is his ulterior motive? Interesting questions indeed, but they don’t get answered in the first book.

Some reviewers complained about Collier writing with dialect during dialogue. She also uses it during some of the narration, but not consistently. Myself, I didn’t find it off-putting at all. Once my mind got used to the words, it added more dimension to the characters. I believe this is what she was trying to achieve.

My main complaint about this book was the disconnection from the characters, probably due to the lack of internal dialogue. We never really know how any of them feel, as they weren’t allowed to talk out their feeing’s. There were several traumatic events that I should’ve wept over, but I felt nothing, but words on the page. The book also needs some polishing in the editing department.

All-in-all, I like the story, and I want to find out what happens next. If you love Westerns, and sci-fi, I recommend this book. You will enjoy it. I give it 4 feathers.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Broadway Turk Superstar

Galactic Romance?

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2022

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Earthbound by Mari Collier is an imaginative and absorbing sci-fi Western centered on the exploits of Zebediah MacDonald. Zeb is an alien from Thalia whose spaceship, the Golden One, brings him to St. Louis County in the 1800s. Together with Herman Rolfe, they migrate to Texas and negotiate for the rights to the Ortega Land Grant. He crosses paths with Anna Lawrence, a single parent whose life is traumatized by a Comanche raid. They fall in love but are immediately challenged by an influenza epidemic riding the waves of an impending Civil War. Anna soon learns of Zeb's alien origins, while he discovers that she has had previous contact with extraterrestrials. Anna's missing children become a focus point, blurred by the specter of war on their horizon.

Collier does an excellent job in blending the sci-fi elements into the plot, allowing the Western frontier to serve as its mainframe. The conflict develops as ethnic Germans are ostracized by Confederate sympathizers as being disloyal to the Cause. Anna (nee Schmidt) is seen as an outsider, although Zeb is the true alien despite his Gaelic accent. They learn that Anna's ex-husband is trading with the Comanche, further entangling the web of intrigue the couple must resolve. Can the MacDonalds weave their way through the turbulence and learn the fate of the Lawrence children?

For antebellum Western fans, sci-fi lovers looking for an original narrative, and the growing legion of Mari Collier readers, Earthbound is a must-have.

One person found this helpful

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Sue H

Aliens and the Wild West

Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2019

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Earthbound is the first book in the Chronicles of the Maca series. This can be read as a standalone but it is clear that the story continues on after this book. There is violence and adult themes so 18+. This was an interesting tale about how an alien ended up on Earth and survived the harsh conditions of the times. It did intrigue me enough that I want to read the next book in the series.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

yop

A great first book for what must be a spellbinding series

Reviewed in Spain on December 9, 2020

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Earthbound was an unexpected, pleasant surprise for me. I had imagined, space wars between good and evil or aliens versus gladiators fighting to save the earth, so this threw me for six. This is a well-blended mix of sci-fi fiction and historical fact.

When the main character, an alien named Llewellyn, is banished to earth, his spaceship is hidden underground and he exits into the world of the 1800s old West. He has to learn how to blend in with the rough and ready men fighting to make a living from fur trapping and running a ranch while trying to keep their families safe from the marauding Indians as well as deal with the developing civil war. The author’s descriptions of those difficult times really brought the book alive for me. It was so easy to imagine their lives under such difficulties that it made for captivating reading. Even her depictions of the alien Llewellyn made me feel drawn to him. You feel his loss and his love for his own planet and race. He wants to help people and has a good heart… or should I say two! When he finds love and has children, you can’t help but feel happy for him but wonder what will happen next.

This first book was a good grounding for what must be a spellbinding series. Highly recommended.

John Broughton

Three genres or the price of one!

Reviewed in Italy on September 29, 2020

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As a rule, I do not read Science Fiction but I chanced upon Mari Collier’s book and was intrigued about hows he would combine that genre with a Western. Then I was surprised to be reading my favourite genre – Historical Fiction! So, three genres for the price of one and all very well written and researched. The main character, an alien who adopts the name Llewellyn is well drawn and convincing. He is a gentle but muscular giant whose problem is that he’s stranded on Earth but wants to return to sort out problems on his home planet, Thalia. He falls in love with an Earth woman, Anna and they have a child. The real enjoyment in this book, for me, was the struggle Llewellyn has to adapt to Earth situations. How well the author manages this is why I’m recommending this book and giving it 5-stars.

Sashadoo

A great blend of western and Sci-fi. Highly recommended

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 28, 2016

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Author Mari Collier has blended together two genres, Western and Science Fiction to produce terrific tale of adventure and romance. An alien, similar enough in appearance to pass as a human being is trapped on earth when the pacecraft carrying him into exile is forced to land on earth and becomes disabled. Escaping his captors, Maca soon becomes MacKenzie and integrates himself into the human way of life and community in the days preceding the American Civil War. He falls in love with an earth woman and by studying human coursthip rituals he manages to 'win her hand' in marriage. Desperate to keep the secret of this two alien hearts from her and the world he is asotnished when he learns her first husband who abandoned her to the less than tender mercies of the Commanches possessed two hearts and is forced to confess his leneage to his wife who slowly accepts she has somehow fallen for two men from the same alien race. As the Civil War erupts across the fledgling States, the action comes thick and fast as Maca and his familhy fight for their very existence, facing not just the threat of being revelaed as an alien on earth but also the predjudices of the Noth v South rivalry raised by the war. The book is so well written that there are times you forget that Maca is an alien being and you are able to root for him and his family purely as a family seeking to survive the war and emerge with a home and a future. I will not give away too much of the story as it would spoil the fun for those who read it after me, but this is an extreme;y well written and enjoyable book with plot twists and tunrs and enough sci-fi technical jargon to satisfy those who enjoy their reading in a more 'other worldly' vein as well as those who enjoy a good old-fashioned western.

2 people found this helpful

Sandra Jackson

Interesting Concept

Reviewed in Canada on September 7, 2020

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3 ½ stars

Zebadiah L. MacDonald is Irish, and he’s an alien marooned on Earth in 19th Western US just before the Civil War. After a brawl in a frontier town tavern, Zeb befriends a German man named Rolfe. Together the two of them make plans to head to Texas. After all that’s where the spaceship, The Golden One, is buried and Zeb has plans to purchase the land so he can keep the spaceship a secret. But Rolfe tells Zeb that to travel to Texas will be dangerous. And before Zeb can purchase any land, he will need to make money. Rolfe offers him a job helping him trap and trade fur until they have enough money to travel.

Earthbound is the first book of Chronicles of the Maca a sci-fi western series by Mari Collier. The concept of this book is interesting. It is well written and the chapters are short, which makes for a quick pace. While I enjoyed this story, there were dialect issues that pulled me a way. I found the “twill” in Zeb’s Irish accent inaccurate therefore distracting as well as the ‘mitt’ for the German accent for the word with. This would have been better written as ‘vis’ as in “come vis me”. The rest of dialects/accents were well done. The book also fell a bit flat for me in the last few chapters, but I will admit that I had put it down for a number of weeks before resuming the story so this may be because of that.

I will definitely read the second book as I do want to know what will happen next.

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

A wonderful blend of vintage Frontier and Sci-fi

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 31, 2021

Verified Purchase

I am not a fan of Sci-Fi or fantasy, but this book by Mari Collier may have me hooked, if not on sci-fi, but on Mari Collier’s books.
Why? I think it is because it is not all spaceships, Cowboys and Indians in space – it was a masterfully woven tale of American wild west frontier life and stranded aliens trying to make a life in this hostile environment, in amongst largely hostile people looking just to survive.
The writing style of Collier is easy going and the reader is only discomforted by a outstanding portrayal of life in those times, with all of the prejudices and tenacity to hang on to life, whatever it takes; settler, native Indian, or alien – the relationships conveying the brutality of the times but also written with a sensitivity that I found all embracing.
I am not sure I fully understood all of the narrative but I can tell you, I enjoyed the read immensely and have bought the sequel.
5 stars and a recommended read from me.

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Earthbound: Science Fiction in the Old West (Chronicles of the Maca Book 1) Kindle Edition

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Earthbound, Alien meets Cowboy

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