Book Review: Jur: A Story of Predawn Earth

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Jur: A Story of Predawn Earth     Amazon US TPB Amazon Canada TPB
Tom Johnson
Class/Genre:   Science Fiction   Romance
Novel, Aug 2002, 169 pp.

Trying to prove her theory that an ancient civilization employed technology matching modern times (1930s), archeologist Odette-Aimee St. Claire explores ruins in Nigeria. She enters a gloomy room with a black obsidian wall when a cobra attacks her. Odette falls through the wall.

Accused of stealing money that he did not take, Aaron Jamison decides to flee into the jungle in search of the missing Odette. He enters the same chamber and is attacked by the cobra before falling through the obsidian wall.

Lost, Odette and Aaron separately head towards a river when he finally catches up to her. They continue their journey together hoping to find the civilization that created the time portal and apparently transferred animals and humanoids from various periods into this era. As they seek to learn how the anachronisms of time are in this strange land so they can go home, they fall in love. However, every step is dangerous as the duet seeks the truth of the portal but learn the peril of the new world they now live in.

This is an exciting science fiction romance tale that is at its best when the lead couple bravely explores this strange new world. Odette is a wonderful heroine, but it is Aaron who steals the show as he whimsically dreams of a dog with a beer at Gehrig’s Yankee Stadium. Though the final twist is well conceived it weakens a powerful tale of urban dwellers residing in a prehistoric world that is worth reading by the Jurassic Crowd.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner