Ulrike Thiesmeyer

What would you do, if you knew how the world would end? If you knew for a fact that next week, the President of the United States would press that magic button, and our whole world would end in ruin, would you try to stop it?

Not me. I'd wait that shit out, sittin' on my porch with a shotgun, hoping some zombies would come by. Because, as it is, the world is pretty dull. Nothing interesting ever happens.

I mean, how long has it been since a nuke was dropped? 60 years or so? It's been too damn show more long. How the hell is Iraq still a country? It should be a smouldering ruin by now, goddamnit. We've got thousands of nukes just laying around doing nothing. It's time we laid some waste.

In [b:Ghost Country|8479092|Ghost Country (Travis Chase, #2)|Patrick Lee|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1393478102s/8479092.jpg|13344068], an artifact has popped out of the Breach, which allows the user to see into the future. Or even open a portal and visit that future.

Well, being the curious fuck-stick that he is, Travis Chase opens a portal, looks around at the wasteland and thinks hey, that might be fun. So, he jumps on in, leaving his love Paige behind. Because, conflict.

So, this whole book is about Paige running around with knowledge of the future. She tries to stop the world from ending, and of course, fails miserably. She really is useless without Travis around to help.

Eventually, Paige says "Fuck this shit," more or less, and opens a portal to the future to join Travis, who has been fucking around in wasteland for 70 goddamn years. But, of course, he's had an awesome artifact with him that keeps him young.

Fuck those goddamn artifacts. They ruin everything. Every fucking time. There's this whole plot thing, where it seems impossible. There's absolutely no way this can end well. Enter a motherfucking artifact, and wham-o, problem solved. Goddamnit to hell. show less

Unlike other reviewers, I have not had the opportunity to read the first book in this series (The Breach) -- although I will make the time now.

That being said, this book did quite well on its own. The story was well written, and stood well on its own. I was able to pick up on what I missed pretty quickly. There were some areas that would, I'm sure, be more clear had I read the first book, but they didn't detract from my enjoyment at all.

The story here was very well written, fast-paced, and show more quite imaginative. While I do think that the entire idea of the breach is a bit deus ex machina, the results of the breach and the items being sent through it are very well thought out and explained. While I wouldn't exactly classify this as hard science fiction, as science fantasy it works quite well.

All in all, I'd highly recommend this book for a quick, enjoyable read. show less

I received this novel from Library Thing as an Early Reviewer item at no cost, in exchange for this published review. I requested it by virtue of its on-line description which intrigued me, inasmuch as I enjoy speculative science fiction. I was not aware that this was a sequel, though I don’t think prior acquaintance with the earlier novel, The Breach, is necessary for enjoyment of this work.

As I stated above, the broad plot line is intriguing. Through construction and malfunction of The show more Very Large Ion Collider (sound familiar?), a wormhole of sorts has opened into the future. Through this wormhole, various items of a technological nature have been passed through to the present. Of course, this is a highly top secret installation. Recently, however, an item has been recovered which indicates an approaching catastrophe of civilization ending proportions. Intrigue ensues, as various top level government agencies try to maintain control and secrecy, while others try to identify the source of the catastrophe and the actors behind it.

This is an interesting and promising scenario, though not entirely original. In its execution, some could argue with merit, that it is quite formulaic: The young, do-gooder scientist battles the powerful quasi-government cartel. It is somewhat predictable at times, though not without its moments. I must confess to not being terribly confident upon receipt of the book. It is not long (a short 368 pages) and the early stages were not overly promising. However, as the story progressed, it exceeded my expectations and became quite the page turner.

Near the end, there are some predictably confusing scenarios as you would expect whenever time travel is involved. Also, as is annoyingly common in novels of this genre, several climactic moments boil down to the last millisecond. Nevertheless, an enjoyable and worthwhile read. show less

Thrillers aren't my usual thing, but the premise intrigued me. I do like the post-apocalyptic type stuff and this was some easy but engaging reading to while away the time while I wait around in hospital.

The mystery was good, kept my attention and I found myself reading late into the night over a couple of days. I haven't read the first novel in the series, but now would definitely consider it if I came across it.

The only botherations were common to a lot of books of this type - the show more apocalypse hit, but America's the only place that's important in that regard - the villains were content to ignore the rest of the world. I'm still not too sure what the importance of the driest locations were to the whole plot. I would have liked to learn more about future Arica and what happened there, but we only get the briefest of glimpses.

In spite of those niggles, a solid read. show less