Earth is not alone. There is a towering civilisation out in the galaxy, far greater than anything we can imagine. But we are isolated from the galaxy … until now.
When a bunch of interstellar scavengers approach Earth, intending to abduct a few dozen humans and sell them into slavery in the darkest, they make the mistake of picking on Steve Stuart and his friends, ex-military veterans all. Unprepared for humans who can actually fight, unaware of the true capabilities of their stolen starships, the scavengers rapidly lose control of the ship – and their lives.
To Steve, the captured starship represents a great opportunity, one to establish a new civilisation away from Earth and its increasingly oppressive bureaucracy. But with the aliens plotting their revenge and human factions suspicious of the new technology, it will be far from easy to create a whole new world …
[Like my other self-published Kindle books, A Learning Experience is DRM-free. You may reformat it as you choose. There is a large sample of the text here and the afterword here, then you can buy it from here.]
Reviews welcome!
The Chrishanger 
Thank you for the new book, I am snowed in and so have much spare time. I will of course review it when I finish.
Cool! Have fun Chris Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2014 22:38:10 +0000 To: christopher_g_nuttall@hotmail.com
I reviewed it and I would really like a sequel, the world being built is so fascinating. I would especially love to see more about the mercenary group that goes off to fight and also see the idea of other species being integrated into the union. One other thing that you touched briefly on was religion and I would be interested to see how religion develops on Heinlein Colony, great name by the way, would churches be taxed for example? How do the different religions react to the existence of aliens?
Also I had one bone to pick, in the book you said that African children were given laptops that they never learned to use and eventually were used as portable lights. But that’s not actually what happened in real life: http://www.dvice.com/archives/2012/10/ethiopian_kids.php
In real life the children were hacking the operating system within 5 months.
Thank you! That’s true in one place. IIRC, in others the experiment didn’t do so well. (And Steve et al aren’t prone to dwelling on successes from programs they distrust.) Heinlein will probably end up with informal churches, I think. But there’s plenty of room for different religions on the moon. Chris Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2014 16:05:31 +0000 To: christopher_g_nuttall@hotmail.com
I, too, would very much like a sequel. I greatly enjoyed ARK ROYAL.
Working on Book II now. Chris Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2014 19:54:10 +0000 To: christopher_g_nuttall@hotmail.com
I really enjoy your work. You are on my short list of favorite authors.
Thank you! More coming soon. Chris Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 01:02:19 +0000 To: christopher_g_nuttall@hotmail.com
I very much like “A learning Experience” is a sequal planned? If so do you have a name for it?
I don’t have a planned title or date yet. I’m leaning towards ‘Growing Pains,’ but we will see. Chris
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 22:23:39 +0000 To: christopher_g_nuttall@hotmail.com
I would definitely have to say that “A Learning Experience” has been one of your best books that I have read so far. I can really enjoy the character development because so many books these days pick a character and traits for that person and never let that person grow and change as a book progresses. It is for sure a breath of fresh air for a change. Keep up the good work.
Thank you! More will be coming soon. Chris Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 21:09:30 +0000 To: christopher_g_nuttall@hotmail.com
I loved the book A learning Experience,please write a sequal
Thank you! It’s on the list of books to write. Chris Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 14:27:31 +0000 To: christopher_g_nuttall@hotmail.com
I want to say that this is a very good book, the story is excellent and I truly hope you will continue it.
Thank you! I certainly plan to do so ASAP. Chris Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 21:57:56 +0000 To: christopher_g_nuttall@hotmail.com
You are one of my favorite authors that I love to hate. All of your books are excellent but I hate finding a new one since I am never sure if/when a sequel will be coming out. I am glad to hear a sequel is planned for a learning experience, any clue to when?
Probably 4 months, I think. I’ve got some other projects to finish up first. Chris Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2014 17:23:17 +0000 To: christopher_g_nuttall@hotmail.com
I think you may have brushed off the missiles too lightly.
If they are cooled to 4K, they would be invisible to heat sensors since they have the same temperature as the background radiation. If they are stealthed, they will be hard to spot on radar. If they are running cold until woken up, they could be very nasty and hard to detect.
They could probably be detected because they may obscure stars, but who would look?
You should probably ask someone with radar experience if that would work.