The Blog/Diary of Novelist Sam Batterman

Welcome to my blog. Please feel free to make yourself at home, look at my postings, visit my friends links and contribute your own comments. 

Thank you for visiting!


Monday, August 17, 2009

A Nice Review from Beth Murschell on Facebook

I just finished Sam Batterman's debut novel, *Wayback*, a futuristic Christian novel published by VMI which hits the finish line at 315 pages.

The plot: Indiana Jones meets Stargate Atlantis meets Jurassic Park meets Noah's Ark meets the Time Machine. Seriously. An evolution/intelligent design/creation debate is framed by a plot-driven time travel device.

The gist: A team of specialists travels back in time to witness key moments in the earth's history. What they find changes everything.

What I liked: unique plot, memorable moments/visuals, and concrete detail (seemingly authentic--either an impressive amount of research or a fertile mind, probably both).

The early chapters were a bit text-heavy in part because of the debate material, but by the last several chapters, the pace had quickened.

Characterization was a bit sketchy in favor of plot. Understandable, as there's a LOT of plot. :-)

In the main, he resists the impulse to over-spiritualize the way many Christian authors do. I may quibble with the occasional premise, but there's a lot of food for thought here. John Morris of the Creation Research Institute gives him props for authenticity.

On the whole, I'd say Sam has a good first outing, and I look forward to reading his next book, whatever it may be. Go get a copy of Wayback and see what you think.

http://www.amazon.com/Wayback-Sam-Batterman/dp/1933204877


1 comment:

  1. Sam, I need to come by here more often! Exciting to see the work you're doing -- and I'm really excited to hear there's a sequel coming. Sorry about the poor review on Christian Fiction. The reality is you can't please everyone. As you know, you've managed to please quite a few people -- so keep it up!

    ReplyDelete

Your comment will appear in a few hours - I have moderation turned on to avoid spam and other "badness".

Thanks for your comment.