Rating: 
Summary: Uneven quality, boring and implausible in parts
Review: The idea of time travel and meeting descendents of mankind from the far future has a long pedigree. Dating in fact to the first book on time travel, "The Time Machine" by HG Wells. Later authors like Isaac Asimov with "The End of Eternity", and Poul Anderson and his Time Patrol stories expanded on this idea. Now comes this book, which combines it with rummaging through the Age of Dinosaurs, a la Crichton's "Jurassic Park".The book can be divided into three parts. The first is when our heros go from the 21st century to the Cretaceous. This section lacked tautness. The bad blokes are thin cardboard, and the plot unfolding was predictable and boring. The second part, and the most interesting, is when the heroes get stranded after the asteroid that kills most of the dinosaurs hits Earth. We learn how our heroes barely survive. A different take on most dinosaur books, which describe the lush environment. Here, there is only devastation. Fans of Jurassic Park will like this section. There is one implausibility here. At one point, the heroine tells her male companions to look the other way, before she strips in order to swim a river. By this time, they are struggling to survive. To get enough to eat and to keep warm. I suggest to you that a nudity taboo is a luxury that would have disappeared much earlier. Heck, think of your own experiences if you have ever been backpacking for several days in a coed group. Chances are, after a day or so, most of you would readily skinny dip. The third part concerns when our heroes are rescued by time travellers from the far future. Far enough that they have physically changed, and are unaware of normal human emotions of love, and of sex. Very implausible. We can imagine descendents that have decided to reshape themselves physically, and also emotionally. But even if they removed emotions, would they have lost knowledge of those? And what of sex? The descendents are male or female. Even if they reproduced asexually, the fact that they have kept vestigial sexual characteristics suggests that they would retain the knowledge of what those implied, even if they were no longer relevant. One of the descendents says they lost a lot of knowledge of earlier times, which supposedly accounts for their ignorance of the above. The author is confused. Losing records means that they might not know who was King of France in 1750. But their genes carry their own biological history. Overall, an uneven book. As science fiction, only moderately original. As an adventure novel, middling.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing book
Review: This is one of the greatest books I've ever read. I love time travel stories, and also there aren't a whole lot of dinosaur novels for people over the age of ten. So this was really great. And you really came to care about the characters, and truly wish for them to have a happy ending. After I read this book, I went looking for more books by this author, and was disappointed not to find any. So, I was completely delighted, when I was at the bookstore the other day, and saw that he has published a sequel. I can't wait to read it, and I hope he writes more!
Rating:
Summary: Well written and great fun!
Review: Time travel and dinosaurs, plus the utter destruction of the world - what more could you ask for in a science fiction novel? Well, how about good, straightforward writing and well-defined characters? This first novel by Mr. Hubbell shows that not all sc ience fiction has to be mind-numbingly dense or poorly written. The author has acheived a nice balance of just enough scientific background to keep the reader interested without being bored and some fascinating conjectural science about the nature of tim e travel. All this is woven into a tight, well-paced story with some nice plot twists, great action, believable dialogue and memorable characters. There is also the brilliant touch of getting inside a predatory dinosaur's instictual thought processes. Al l in all, a very fine first outing. Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended for any "classic" sci-fi buff, dino lover or time travel enthusiast. I look forward to more work by this author - and soon, I hope! P.S. This book is appropriate for young (middle-school aged) readers, as it contains very mild violence and sexual situations, nothing graphically explicit.
s
Rating:
Summary: The story is where it's at...
Review: Yes, it's classified as science fiction, but the real story here is ...well, the story. Yes, it's about time travel, but that only sets up the real tale, which is about a trio struggling to stay alive when everything is stacked against them. This is not Michael Crichton - the technical aspects are concerned more with paleontology than time machines.
The main plot in this book could have just as easily taken place in the desert, instead of a meteor-impact-induced wasteland, with lions chasing the heroes instead of starving dinosaurs. Each time you think that the characters are about to win out, they are dealt a devastating setback. That might not be so special in itself, but the characters are so likeable that you just have to keep rooting for them, all the while believing that there's really just no chance that they will survive. The only times the time travel aspect really comes into play is at the end when it's used to give the story a couple of great twists.
Need more proof that this is just a great story? I gave the book (along with Sea of Time) to my mother, who hates science fiction. She just laughed at me. But I convinced her to give them a try, and she called me in a couple of days to thank me for giving them to her. She couldn't stop talking about them. If you're a big reader - especially and ecclectic one - I think you'll love them.
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