BOOK TITLE: The
Mine
ISBN: -
AUTHOR: John
A Heldt
GENRE: Fiction/Sci-Fi/Romance
NUMBER OF PAGES: 286
FORMAT: Digital
SERIES / STANDALONE: The
Northwest Passage #1
REVIEW BY: Dhivya
Balaji
HOW I GOT THIS BOOK: The
author filled up our review form and sent us an ePub copy for review.
SUMMARY:
In
May 2000, Joel Smith is a cocky, adventurous young man who sees the world as
his playground. But when the college senior, days from graduation, enters an
abandoned Montana mine, he discovers the price of reckless curiosity. He
emerges in May 1941 with a cell phone he can't use, money he can't spend, and
little but his wits to guide his way. Stuck in the age of swing dancing and a
peacetime draft, Joel begins a new life as the nation drifts toward war. With
the help of his 21-year-old trailblazing grandmother and her friends, he finds
his place in a world he knew only from movies and books. But when an
opportunity comes to return to the present, Joel must decide whether to leave
his new love in the past or choose a course that will alter their lives forever. THE
MINE follows a humbled man through a critical time in history as he
adjusts to new surroundings and wrestles with the knowledge of things to come.
Note
to sci-fi readers: THE MINE is a novel that spans several genres.
Though it features time travel and offers elements of science fiction, it is
primarily a love story set in Seattle in 1941.
REVIEW:
When the author filled the review
form on the blog, the blurb of the story interested us. And when we replied,
the author promptly sent us a copy. The story and the summary did contain very
little in common. But if you expected sci-fi or anything even remotely
scientific, back off. The main theme of the novel is romance.
Joel, a neo modern guy lives in
Seattle in the year 2000. While on a trekking trip to a nearby abandoned mine,
the adventurous Joel gets a blinding flash of light, falls down and comes out
of the mine, only to find himself in the year 1941 when he comes out of the
mine. He feels much disoriented and thinks that he would be able to go back if
he drops in the next day.
Fate has a different plan in mind. Joel
cannot find his way back into the future and instead roughs up a living in
Seattle of 1941. Armed with nothing but knowledge of the future, Joel tries to
settle himself in the world that he has been forced into. Much as he tries not
to make friends or influence life of the past, Joel falls in love with a
beautiful maiden. Things turn murky when he meets the younger self of his own
grandmother.
Thoroughly settled into the old life,
Joel gets another chance to reclaim his life in the new millennium. The rare occurrence
that shunted him into the past occurs again. A portal to the new world opens.
But Joel is faced with a dilemma. To return would mean to leave the love of his
life, his new found friends, and the comfortable life he had settled into. But
to stand back would mean the loss of his normal life and parents and friends he
had known in 2000.
Does Joel take the chance, or does he
stay back forms the rest of the story. The plot is new and the concept is
refreshing. The characters are well sketched but the story line is too
fantastic to be real. The perfect boy perfect girl and perfect landscape story
does not fit into reality and is merely an escape for the imaginative mind to
revel in its fantasies.
WHAT I LIKED: The
concept, the description of life in the 1940s.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER: The
story itself needs some brushing up. Though it is good in the way it’s written.
VERDICT: The
author has extended a ‘reflection into your own past’ idea to a new level. It
is a well written story. Go for it. But don’t expect sci-fi or you will be
sorely disappointed.
RATING: 3.8/5
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
John A. Heldt is a reference librarian and the author of THE MINE,
THE JOURNEY, THE SHOW, and THE FIRE, the first four novels of the critically
acclaimed Northwest Passage time-travel series. The former award-winning
sportswriter and newspaper editor has loved getting subjects and verbs to agree
since writing book reports on baseball heroes in grade school. A graduate of
the University of Oregon and the University of Iowa, he is an avid fisherman,
sports fan, home brewer, and reader of thrillers and historical fiction. When
not sending contemporary characters to the not-so-distant past, he weighs in on
literature and life at johnheldt.blogspot.com.
EDITIONS AVAILABLE: Kindle.
PRICE: Rs.
187
I enjoyed this book and the series.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.teenaintoronto.com/2013/10/book-mine-2013-john-heldt.html
This is one amazing book, surely! Unique in perspective. Glad you liked it... Did our reecommendations help?
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