Now that we are a few weeks out from the launch, I have a few reviews that are staring to roll in. Here are three that I thought I'd share:
From Tammy Litke at Three Different Directions:
One can tell just by reading the first couple of chapters, that a lot of research went into this book. Some of the topics discussed kind of went over my head a bit (lol!) from a scientific point, but the writing is very good and kept me engaged throughout.
The book includes lots of action, a good plot and a great dose of science fiction all told with a creationist perspective. It's like Indiana Jones meets Stargate meets Answers in Genesis. Really!
Batterman's first novel can be considered a success. His writing skills should make him a popular author in the future. I'm sure we'll be seeing many more of his speculative fiction books to come.
Here's another from Glynn Young at Faith Fiction Friends...
"Wayback" by Sam Batterman is a novel, a thriller and a movie all rolled into one. I haven't had this much fun with a book since "Jurassic Park."
Utilizing work developed by Nazi Germany as it was collapsing, a group of American scientists has succeeded in creating the means to travel in time. They've run into a problem, however; trying to go earlier than about 3000 B.C. ends in spectacular failure, with the deaths of the crew. More recent times don't represent the same problem. And so they confront a question -- what if the earth didn't exist before 3000 B.C.? Could the account of creation in the book of Genesis be accurate after all? So the scientists assemble of a team of experts, and travel to the approximate time of the biblical account of the flood.
Enter some terrorists, bent on changing history -- recent history. They're aiming for the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel smashed the military of Jordan, Syria and Egypt. The terrorists would like to change what happened.
The two stories track and parallel each other, as the tension mounts in both and the reader is propelled into the action. Batterman has an extraordinary gift of describing settings and landscapes -- the reader can see and almost smell what's going on. And it doesn't matter if the landscape contains a gigantic boat or rows of fighter jets and tanks in the desert.
The research undergirding the novel is mindblowing -- not only the sciences of geology, botany and physics but also the history of the Six-Day War and the speculative description of the antedeluvian world. The research makes the novel come alive in a way that's extraordinary. And "Wayback" would be a great basis for a movie -- it's that visual.
What a story! And what a storyteller!
Here are a few more impressions from his great blog...
Here's a nice one that was posted on Amazon:
I picked up this book the night before boarding a 6 hour flight to the West Coast from back East. I literally had it completed 2 hrs after landing. My main complaint is that I started the night before the flight and did not get much sleep as it was such a page turner. It is a rare book these days that keeps you from turning out the light when you are exhausted.
In my opinion the "time travel" theme can be very campy, however this novelist did not get lost in the technology or predictable plot line of many science fiction genre writers.
Very unique story, and strong character development make this a great summer vacation read that will appeal to those that desire a good fiction escape with a healthy dose of a positive message.
At the end, you find yourself wanting more story (in a good way), and desiring to find out what happens NEXT. Clearly Wayback and the main characters have some franchise potential if done properly by the author. If you want a book that literally makes "time stop" while you are reading, pick this up and it will not disappoint.
There are more on the way, but wanted to share these out.
Blessings,
Sam
