I've been a fan of this author since very early on and I've generally liked everything he's put out - this one particularly. It was a fun read - a little land of the lost (by his own admission), and a little jumanji (I was feeling a little Ready-Player-One meets Willy Wonka, but it never really got there, which is a good thing). I thought I had seen all the twists coming a mile away - until I didn't. He stuck the landing with the ending (which is a big deal to me, considering the time investment). Great book that locked me in. Well done as usual Peter! On to the next adventure....

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I bought this for ebook.

Thoughts: I enjoyed the puzzle behind this strange story. It has elements of time travel, dinosaurs, aliens, and general strangeness. It moved along at a decent pace and kept me guessing as to where the story was going.

The Gather family disappeared on a whitewater rafting trip and, five years one of the Gather family members (Billy) returned on the other side of the world. Billy had stories about a valley of dinosaurs and Neaderthals, but of course everyone assumed he was a traumatized kid. Billy changed his name to Noah, became a professor, and spent his career learning quantum physics. Now it's time to for Noah to go back to the mysterious valley of his childhood. Unfortunately, he accidentally drags some grad students along with him. Noah was confident he could get them all home, but things have changed in the valley and now he is not so sure.

There were a few things about this story that really grabbed me and kept me turning pages. The first was the mystery of the valley and how (and why) it had changed over time. The second was the pure wonder of strange things that were found within the valley; you never really knew what you were going to find when you turned the next page.

I enjoyed the characters here. They don't have a ton of depth to them, but they are entertaining. There is a pretty high (and swift) body count in this book, so it's best not to get too attached to anyone. Noah/Billy is a bit of a puzzle and I found his stubbornness in admitting things had changed a bit frustrating. Although to be fair, he had been planning this return to the valley his whole life, and to have it all go so amiss had to be mind boggling.

I ended up liking how the story wrapped up. At first I wasn't sure how aliens, dinosaurs, Neaderthals and robots were going to come together in a cohesive story but Clines made it work. He made it work in a way that was cohesive, easy to follow, and entertaining. Whenever I want something a bit weird and quirky, I pick up a Clines book and am never disappointed.

My Summary (4.5/5): Overall I really enjoyed this. This story is a bit weird and different, but I liked that it kept me guessing and really enjoyed the wonder of all the weird surprises throughout. If you are looking for an odd mystery adventure story that involves dinosaurs, Neaderthals, aliens, and robots, I would recommend. Trust me, it all works together great and will keep you on your toes. Can't wait to see what Clines comes up with next!

Don’t know how I missed this release but it’s a fun ride! Highly recommend!

Fair, a bit of Land From the Lost feel

Peter Cline does it again!

he takes a story that you know, perhaps a story that you loved as a kid, and retells it is such a way that it becomes even better!

the story that you THOUGHT you knew, a family rafting falls thru a hole in time and space, and lands in a strange land find with danger. and THEN he tells a story about a young boy who somehow gets BACK to earth, and sends the majority of his life trying to figure out how he got there, and how to get back, so he can save his sister.

BUT, as he is transported back to that land, others are drawn in with him, and the land he thought he knew, is VERY different.

I loved this story, Mr. Cline has a great knack for story building, of saying, yeah we have this story here, BUT what if, WHAT IF, there was MORE to the story.

this story is like another story of his, Robinson carouse, lycanthrope, another great retelling of a story that you thought you knew. Mr. cline drops hints in his stories of themes that are in a lot of his stories, eldritch, multidimensional adversaries who are fighting a war that humanity is unaware of because humanity is jusr beneath these beings notice... most of the time. those themes seem to be there in the background, and if you are unfamiliar with his works you could miss it, and that's ok, but if you know, you know. get this book, you will not be disapointed.

Great story. Ending could have been better. Nice full circle. Plot very interesting and had me guessing. Very cool twist

I really enjoyed this modern retelling of the "Land of the Lost." I didn't realize it was intentional at first, as I was noting the parallels. No sleestaks, but add an multidimensional being. It was a fun read. I'm actually glad I didn't know about the LotL connection before reading, so if I spoiled it for you, I apologize. I especially liked how the disappearance and reappearance was captured via news articles, instead of straight narration.

Great story! Kept my interest and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys an adventure.It is like the old television series Land of the Lost which I loved when I was young.

Just like the second drawer, the plot line extents to include all the Sci-Fi entities from the deep past, the near-present and the future, with a closed time loop for an ending.

Be amazed and enthralled...

I have enjoyed, maybe even loved many of the books by Peter Clines. Since the first words of Ray Porter reading 14 to the last page of this book.

The story is good, if you've seen the show Land of the Lost, both the 1970's and 1990's versions and the 2009 movie, you'll know the very basics of this book, but like certain characters, you won't understand it full.

It's a good read, I tried taking it slow, to savour it. But Mr Clines, if you happen to ever see this. For the love of all this is unholy, please write more frequently.

Lost interest around halfway through

Killing off characters leads to confusion especially as to why they were included in the first place.

The book was Repetitive and there is no reason for this book to be so long.

What the author fails to do is to engage the reader in an interesting way of describing time travel.

What is missing for instance is more descriptives about time science or the wormhole the protagonists went through

Instead, we get a mish- mash of pseudo scientific and unbelievable means by which they arrived at the paleo past

And then there are the usual arguments between young and immature students that frequent such stories whenever young people are involved in the narrative

It would have been interesting to hypothesize on what it would have been like to have humans present alongside dinosaurs, but sadly this is not even touched upon.

There is some effort made to explain differences in earth’s climate during palaeolithic times and the present but this happens too infrequently.

What a sad waste of time

Very good. Almost back to the level of '14'. Super story, great characters, brilliant world building and a super twisty plot. Felt a bit 'tropey' in 1 or 2 places, but overall a snorktastic read!