Review: 3.5 Stars; Entertaining Story Full Of Impossibilities.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 24, 2014
Impossibilities galore await the reader in this tale of man who returns from the dead after 100 years. The crazy part is that him returning from the dead is not the improbable or impossible part. I was willing to suspend disbelief for that bit based on the fact that its crucial to the story. (I will provide details below in the spoiler section.)Despite that I still found this novella enjoyable. The main character is gritty and likeable. The action is straight forward and at times borders on western noir.Fans of western sci-fi should check this out. Although I consider this a 3.5 star read, I will round up to 4 stars since the story is professionally edited.SPOILERS BELOW**********-The good: There is a scene in this book where the time displaced man goes into a mcdonald's style fast food joint. For me it was the highlight of the story. I like that type of fish out of water scenario and found the scene pretty entertaining.- The Bad: The sheer amount of improbable and impossible occurrences. I'm not even referring to the fact that the bad guys automatically get their comeuppance or the fact that a man gets revived after being frozen for 100 years. No, my problems are more basic and practical that that. Jesse, the protagonist is frozen for 100 years in a coulee (a term I had to look up, apparently in this story it's a frozen natural drain-hole type of thing) and when he crawls out his revolver and the bullets contained within (both of which have been frozen all this time) still work fine. Never misfires once. Additionally, people who hear the protagonists story seem to accept it pretty quickly (although the author does provide a pretty good explanation for why they do.) The help they provide is also pretty amazing although perhaps over the top including helicopter rescues and disguise wearing diversions. Finally, the last bit of the ending was unnecessary to me, it also continued with the theme of improbability so at least the story had continuity I guess.Despite any complaints, this was still a fun read and I recommend it to anyone who thinks the synopsis sounds interesting (and is willing to suspend disbelief.)