Moon People
by Dale M. Courtney
Moon People holds a rare distinction: it has a 1.4 star rating on Amazon, and every single review is a masterpiece.
Dale M. Courtney self-published this science fiction novel in 2009. It follows Captain David Braymer and the crew of the Lunar Base One as they encounter alien life on the moon. The writing style is, to put it gently, distinctive. Sentences do things grammatically that sentences were not designed to do. The plot advances via a series of events that arrive with the unpredictability of weather.
Sample passage: “The ship listed from side to side. Captain Braymer said, ‘All stations, we are at 20 million, I repeat 20 million miles from the Moon, prepare for landing.’”
The reviews have elevated the book into a kind of folk literature. People read it together. They hold events. There is genuine affection for it — the kind reserved for things that fail so completely and sincerely that they loop back around into something worth cherishing.
Courtney apparently self-published several more books. This is, in its own way, inspiring.