Lisa Bennett Visits Utopia

by Christine E. MacKenzie

Lisa Bennett is an extraordinary woman in her early thirties. Already a very accomplished astronaut, she's been on numerous successful space missions for NASA. Lisa is quite fearless and driven, albeit not by ambition, but rather by a great curiosity about the vastness of the cosmos. That insatiable appetite for the exploration of the universe in which we live has now led her to a most unexpected visit to a planet never before seen by mankind: Mars! In spite of our fifty-some-years of official space exploration, we have not dared to venture beyond the moon yet. Lisa is slated by NASA to be the first female (along with three other male astronauts) to be trying out a brand new plasma rocket ship in order to orbit Mars and even land on it to physically collect rock samples to be brought back to earth for thorough analysis. After all, many believe that there once was water on Mars, even life. However, while Lisa is en route to visit her sick mother in Arizona to say a final goodbye before returning to her preparation training for this top secret mission, she finds herself in the middle of a bad sand storm, has a terrible car accident and loses consciousness. Upon re-awakening she realizes to her absolute horror that she's inside a highly sophisticated space craft, has been kidnapped and is now taken to Mars forcibly, way before the official NASA mission. Not only is she (after initial antagonism) falling hopelessly in love with her abductor but with everything he shows her and introduces her to.

224 pages, Paperback

Published October 20, 2011

About the author

I come from a photo-journalistic background, published in 3 languages. Mostly in popular magazines with large subscriptions but I'm also an actress/director/producer. I studied each of these disciplines for several years.

Writing has been my first love now for over 40 years and I'm finally starting to get better at writing screenplays since I've won a few awards. Some major companies in Hollywood have currently asked for two of my scripts with an eye to either option or co-produce them.

Novels are my greatest passion. Usually there's a courageous, strong female protagonist involved
who works very hard to overcome major obstacles that stand in the way of achieving her dreams.

I love GOODREADS, it's like entering a casual coffee shop where folks talk books. Very nice and friendly.

Reviews

[Miranda Prather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lisa Bennett Visits Utopia is a thrilling Science Fiction adventure that will not disappoint fans of the genre, but make no mistake, Christine E. Mackenzie's space saga has a strong human heart beating beneath the thrilling exterior. Readers will appreciate Mackenzie's passion for space exploration and the history of the United States space program. The pages of back-story on the program are sometimes a little bit of overkill, but they provide a sound foundation for the books to come. Science Fiction is one part science and one part fiction, as evidenced by the name of the genre, and to that sound scientific background, Mackenzie lets her imagination shine on Mars. Readers will find no "little green men" there, and will be glad for it. Instead, Mackenzie introduces us to angelic beings that understand the greatest gift that we have.

That gift is only love. That's one area that Mackenzie departs from normal Science Fiction tropes and instead turns to heart and soul in her work. Her title character, Lisa Bennett, discovers the truth through tragedy, loss and human nature coupled with the benevolent presence of the Marsonians. Rushing to a climatic cliff-hanger ending, the only question left to ask: when is book two coming out?

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hi,

THE 5 star rating comes FROM BOOKSELLERS.

This is a message from the author only, not a review by her (that would be making assumptions!)
But, there is currently a review on AMAZON about this book, sent in by a reader and one is to come from a noted professional reviewer to be added here shortly. LOOK OUT FOR THAT ONE...

Thanks readers, enjoy my book and please add a review too, be brave, knock me down or build me up by simply saying how YOU feel about it. Thanks!!! I'll APPRECIATE IT.
Best wishes,
Christine

[Terry Mulcahy · Rating 1 out of 5]

While the description of this book held promise, it was sadly lacking. There were some touching moments, probably drawn from the author's life, and good information on the space race, but this book was written, apparently, for children, probably in the 8 to 13 range, but not very well. The writer is not a native-born writer of English, so some of the stilted and poor grammar is understandable, but this was self-published through a vanity press (PublishAmerica) which provided no editorial input. Indeed, there is an appalling lack of commas in the entire book, sorely interrupting the flow, which meant I had to stop again and again to figure out just what was being said. Past that, there are glaring errors in spelling, repeated words, an occasional whole repeated phrase, disjointed sentences and missing words. It hardly seems proofread at all. It also appears to have been hard formated with one word processor, and laid out for printing with another, as sentences will end mid line, and pick up on the next line consistantly throughout the entire book. Another problem is the super abundance of exclamation points. I've seen that in some children's books, where adults act as though they are telling the story out loud and feel the need to over dramatize.
After all that, there is the story, a promising one, but weak. Traveling from Earth to Mars in four hours can be normal science fiction, but the fanciful inclusion of all-knowing, all-seeing, angelic Mars dwellers who live underground takes this into the genre of magic. And, since they can travel anywhere instantaneously, I wondered why they had only relatively fast travel for a spaceship used by a human. Lisa doesn't believe at first that she is able to travel so fast relative to her upcoming journey to Mars, but it's unclear why that speed is used at all.
And again, Lisa's character herself is problematic. She is supposed to have engineered the Mars Rover's mobile collection arm, and is an accomplished astronaut at the age of 31. Not too much of a stretch, but then Ms. Mackensie has her giggling, blushing, wanting to stamp her feet in zero gravity, and completely acting and speaking more like a young teenager than a grown woman. It was irritating, and unrealistic. The Martians, who Mackensie calls Marsonians, are creatures of mostly light who retain some human-like internal organs, but can disappear at will into a trail of fast-disappearing light, reappearing anywhere in the Universe they want, or glide wisp-like over the ground, something she, mysteriously, is also able to do while on Mars.
The Utopia on Mars itself is told as if by a child, and, of course, all perfection. However, this race as old as time itself busy themselves with crop circles on Earth, and cause many natural disaters in order to teach lessons to humanity. It's all a lot to take, and difficult to read all the way through. It seems a tale written by a young child for children, and yet, told with condescendence towards the reader. The ideas are fairly interesting, but not fully thought out or reasonably presented. It should have had some serious editing and proofing to make it more presentable. It ends up disappointing on so many levels.