Thursday, July 2, 2015

"Darwin's World." by Jack L Knapp



Normally, I wouldn't do two blog posts in one day, but I'm still catching up on my backlog.
HOWEVER, this means I DON'T have to be massively clever in THIS review, because I already did most of that in my first one today.
In fact, that's the only blog-specific writing you get, because I tried to cover the rest of it on Amazon, and the Amazon review follows:

Let me say this up front because otherwise I'll forget it: The cover is GREAT, and it made me want to read the book. It's by Mia Darien, who I just discovered is also a writer, and I'm gonna look at her stuff as well.
Okay. There is a whole series of time travel science fiction, and in that genre I include things like Jerry Pournelle's "Janissaries" series. That's because the culture shock is what drives the story, and to me, doesn't make much difference if it's warp drive or a time machine or even a quantum string that gets us there; those are all equally never-gonna-happen-in-my-life things, and so it's the story, not the mechanics, that matters.
In some storylines, what makes the story is importing modern tech to a more primitive time. That's the case, for example, in Eric Flint's massive 1612 franchise. However, Jack does something different.
The advanced tech does impact the story. The first way is that Future People snatch dying people (Matt, in this case), regenerate them, and then stick them in a pre-human world.  However, they ONLY give Matt clothes, a knife, and a hatchet to take back with him. That's it. No ray gun, no steam engine, nothing.
And then it's up to Matt to survive. Now, just reading the story, I can tell that Jack was either a Boy Scout, or elite military, or maybe a survivalist, because Matt has a wealth of knowledge that helps him survive. And that's the SECOND way in which advanced tech impacts the story. It's his knowledge of how to use what is on hand, not gadgets, that make this story work.
People interactions are good. Matt encounters women, and there is a definite way this storyline could diverge into a sex romp, but it DOESN'T and I surely do appreciate that. (I already know what it is, how to do it, and that's good enough for me.) There are good guys, who don't want to kill others or enslave them, and bad guys who do. Big honken animals, mostly ferocious.
Get it and read it. And look for more.

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