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Time in Yellowstone #3
Finding Home
No one ever talks about being left behind, but James
McManis knows that one in spades. Not knowing quite
why, he felt abandoned all his life. And when his wife died
in childbirth, he clung to his son with everything he had.
But the harder James held on over the years, the more
Chuck fought what his father wanted for him. Until
finally one day the boy slipped through his fingers and,
in the aftermath of a horrific disaster, vanished altogether.
When James discovered what really happened to the son
he tried so hard to protect it turned his whole world
upside down.
James needs to learn more. About his son. About himself.
About his past, and his future. But what if the knowledge he
gains proves everything he thought real a lie?
McManis knows that one in spades. Not knowing quite
why, he felt abandoned all his life. And when his wife died
in childbirth, he clung to his son with everything he had.
But the harder James held on over the years, the more
Chuck fought what his father wanted for him. Until
finally one day the boy slipped through his fingers and,
in the aftermath of a horrific disaster, vanished altogether.
When James discovered what really happened to the son
he tried so hard to protect it turned his whole world
upside down.
James needs to learn more. About his son. About himself.
About his past, and his future. But what if the knowledge he
gains proves everything he thought real a lie?
278 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2013
1 person want to read
About the author
M.M. Justus
9 books10 followersI am fascinated by the possibilities of what if. The memories of place that some people call ghosts, the mobius effect of time travel. You won’t find vampires or werewolves here. Or horror. I am more interested in the potential effects of the fantastic on normal folks, and in inserting it into well-researched historical events, populated mostly by people who really lived.
My favorite period is the not-so-distant past of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and my favorite place, the one that draws me back over and over again, is Yellowstone National Park. Ten years ago, on a three-month cross-country adventure, I spent five days in Yellowstone, wandering the geyser basins waiting for things to go off. Watching my first-ever eruption of Grand Geyser, five lovely bursts 150-200 feet high, I suddenly thought, now wouldn’t that make a terrific time travel device. Other places and events have struck me in similar ways, and this is the basis for the stories I tell. I hope you will enjoy them.
My favorite period is the not-so-distant past of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and my favorite place, the one that draws me back over and over again, is Yellowstone National Park. Ten years ago, on a three-month cross-country adventure, I spent five days in Yellowstone, wandering the geyser basins waiting for things to go off. Watching my first-ever eruption of Grand Geyser, five lovely bursts 150-200 feet high, I suddenly thought, now wouldn’t that make a terrific time travel device. Other places and events have struck me in similar ways, and this is the basis for the stories I tell. I hope you will enjoy them.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 19, 2014
Having read the first two books in this series, I was looking forward to reading the third one, and it didn't disappoint. I think that this book will make more sense if read after the first two. I read the first two out of sequence and that didn't seem to matter all that much. But this one refers to things you learn in the first two. Ties up some of the loose ends.
May 16, 2015
Wow, I have to go into this by saying that as much as I would have liked, I simply cannot agree with my colleague. For me Finding Home was not such a great read but for different reasons than most. This is really upsetting to me because I wanted to like this book, but it is what it is. I didn’t.
For many reasons I feel like I was reading the wrong book, or a different version than what others read but in looking at the synopsis from others, I realized that I did in fact read the same book.
Before diving into my thoughts, I want to say that my views are my own and they do not reflect on the abilities of the author.
First I’ll start with a little bit of the premise, although Harmony did a great job of covering that. Nevertheless, here it goes.
James McManis is the main character, he has a rough exterior and most people would consider him pithy, although he’s a good guy at heart. James’ wife died leaving him in charge of his son. James has always had an issue with abandonment–an inner demon, if you will. His son has gone missing in Yellow Stone Park after an enormous earthquake leading James to go on a venture to find him. While there were some other elements to the story, the aforementioned was the gist of it all. The rest that transpires is subsequent to the catalyst which was the disappearance of his son. Within those things are the teaming up of the Park Ranger & James, the eruption of geysers and how they effected time and the uncovering of other elements.
Truthfully, the idea of the story was a nice one. The premise has potential, but there was so much more that simply ruined this read for me. I will go into detail as to what and why.
What Genre is it?
The first thing that put me off was the inability to identify what genre this book was. While it read like a Historical Fiction, it wasn’t described as one. There were many instances in which time travel was mentioned in the story.
Time Travel = Science Fiction
Right? Right!
Yet, there was very little in the way of “Science” per se. It was much more of a Historical Fiction, yet I’m being led to believe that it’s Science Fiction.
How can I properly mentally place the story if I don’t know what the true genre is? Also, if it’s a Mashup, why wasn’t that mentioned? If that is the case, it wasn’t depicted as a proper Mashup.
Definitely NOT a stand alone.
When I dove into this book I was led to believe that it could work as a stand alone. PERSONALLY (and I can only speak for myself), it did not work like a stand alone for me. I had too many questions. I wanted to know more about James’ background and all of the things that led to the “time travel” bit. There were moments when certain references were made that I was sure came from the other books, however since I’d not read them I remained confused.
It would have been much easier on me if I’d read the collection as opposed to just this last installment.
An Editor Never Hurt Anybody.
Alright, in order to best prove this point, screenshots are imperative. There were SO MANY irksome things in the syntax of this story that I felt overwhelmed with them. It’s really bad when you cannot enjoy a story due to massive amounts of grammatical error. While it might be a bit of an overstatement, it felt as though every single page had typos/mistakes and the like.
One of my biggest pet peeves are innumerable amounts of conjunctions, particularly at the beginning of sentences. This isn’t to say that you can never use them, but there is a time and place for every conjunction.
Then there was the misuse of punctuation, weak sentence structure, and so many other things. Suffice it to say that this book could have used a look-see by a professional editor.
Am I Sight Seeing?
Granted that the “visual” aspect of the story was nice. The author did a great job with description and depiction of places, particularly the mountains, buuuuut …
Okay, so here is the thing, it’s not good when the best bit of the book is the description of the mountains. Admittedly, they were well written, minus the grammar and punctuation. However, this got me thinking. I was like, “So why is the look of the mountains so important? Why is the character gazing at the bird so imperative? Is this a Sight Seeing story? What’s going on with everything else? Wait! Isn’t this a Sci-Fi?!” Needless to say while the descriptiveness of the sights were nice, I felt like they were out of place in a book like this, or at least what I thought this book was supposed to be about—time travel and the conflict of finding a lost son after a catastrophe.
I’m my own Grandpa.
You ever seen the movie “The Stupids”? Remember the song that Tom Arnold sang, "I'm My Own Grandpa"?
Okay, so … here is this;
“At least here he wasn’t reminded of his son’s/grandfather’s harrowing story. He wished he knew what to call him now – the one man he’d always thought were two, and two he’d have thought to be so different from each other – he was my son, James thought.“
Not only is this grammatically incorrect, but it’s highly confusing. For a long time I was steady trying to put two and two together about this “Grandfather and/or Son” situation. A lot of the confusion stems from not being able to decipher if the story was a Historical Fiction or a Science Fiction. Personally, I wasn’t a fan.
In summing up my thoughts I have to say, this isn’t the worst book I’ve read, but it’s certainly not one of my favorites. It seems that the reason is the “technical bits”, if you will. I think that if this book was nicely tended to/edited, properly classified and not pushed as a stand alone, could have lots of potential. Yet, as it stands, I can’t advocate for it.
I am giving “Finding Home” 2 Stars.
For many reasons I feel like I was reading the wrong book, or a different version than what others read but in looking at the synopsis from others, I realized that I did in fact read the same book.
Before diving into my thoughts, I want to say that my views are my own and they do not reflect on the abilities of the author.
First I’ll start with a little bit of the premise, although Harmony did a great job of covering that. Nevertheless, here it goes.
James McManis is the main character, he has a rough exterior and most people would consider him pithy, although he’s a good guy at heart. James’ wife died leaving him in charge of his son. James has always had an issue with abandonment–an inner demon, if you will. His son has gone missing in Yellow Stone Park after an enormous earthquake leading James to go on a venture to find him. While there were some other elements to the story, the aforementioned was the gist of it all. The rest that transpires is subsequent to the catalyst which was the disappearance of his son. Within those things are the teaming up of the Park Ranger & James, the eruption of geysers and how they effected time and the uncovering of other elements.
Truthfully, the idea of the story was a nice one. The premise has potential, but there was so much more that simply ruined this read for me. I will go into detail as to what and why.
What Genre is it?
The first thing that put me off was the inability to identify what genre this book was. While it read like a Historical Fiction, it wasn’t described as one. There were many instances in which time travel was mentioned in the story.
Time Travel = Science Fiction
Right? Right!
Yet, there was very little in the way of “Science” per se. It was much more of a Historical Fiction, yet I’m being led to believe that it’s Science Fiction.
How can I properly mentally place the story if I don’t know what the true genre is? Also, if it’s a Mashup, why wasn’t that mentioned? If that is the case, it wasn’t depicted as a proper Mashup.
Definitely NOT a stand alone.
When I dove into this book I was led to believe that it could work as a stand alone. PERSONALLY (and I can only speak for myself), it did not work like a stand alone for me. I had too many questions. I wanted to know more about James’ background and all of the things that led to the “time travel” bit. There were moments when certain references were made that I was sure came from the other books, however since I’d not read them I remained confused.
It would have been much easier on me if I’d read the collection as opposed to just this last installment.
An Editor Never Hurt Anybody.
Alright, in order to best prove this point, screenshots are imperative. There were SO MANY irksome things in the syntax of this story that I felt overwhelmed with them. It’s really bad when you cannot enjoy a story due to massive amounts of grammatical error. While it might be a bit of an overstatement, it felt as though every single page had typos/mistakes and the like.
One of my biggest pet peeves are innumerable amounts of conjunctions, particularly at the beginning of sentences. This isn’t to say that you can never use them, but there is a time and place for every conjunction.
Then there was the misuse of punctuation, weak sentence structure, and so many other things. Suffice it to say that this book could have used a look-see by a professional editor.
Am I Sight Seeing?
Granted that the “visual” aspect of the story was nice. The author did a great job with description and depiction of places, particularly the mountains, buuuuut …
Okay, so here is the thing, it’s not good when the best bit of the book is the description of the mountains. Admittedly, they were well written, minus the grammar and punctuation. However, this got me thinking. I was like, “So why is the look of the mountains so important? Why is the character gazing at the bird so imperative? Is this a Sight Seeing story? What’s going on with everything else? Wait! Isn’t this a Sci-Fi?!” Needless to say while the descriptiveness of the sights were nice, I felt like they were out of place in a book like this, or at least what I thought this book was supposed to be about—time travel and the conflict of finding a lost son after a catastrophe.
I’m my own Grandpa.
You ever seen the movie “The Stupids”? Remember the song that Tom Arnold sang, "I'm My Own Grandpa"?
Okay, so … here is this;
“At least here he wasn’t reminded of his son’s/grandfather’s harrowing story. He wished he knew what to call him now – the one man he’d always thought were two, and two he’d have thought to be so different from each other – he was my son, James thought.“
Not only is this grammatically incorrect, but it’s highly confusing. For a long time I was steady trying to put two and two together about this “Grandfather and/or Son” situation. A lot of the confusion stems from not being able to decipher if the story was a Historical Fiction or a Science Fiction. Personally, I wasn’t a fan.
In summing up my thoughts I have to say, this isn’t the worst book I’ve read, but it’s certainly not one of my favorites. It seems that the reason is the “technical bits”, if you will. I think that if this book was nicely tended to/edited, properly classified and not pushed as a stand alone, could have lots of potential. Yet, as it stands, I can’t advocate for it.
I am giving “Finding Home” 2 Stars.
May 14, 2015
Reviewed on behalf of The Review Board by Harmony Kent.
I received a PDF copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review. Finding Home is the third book of a trilogy, and I haven’t read the first two. Although it would have helped to have read the series in order, and may have enhanced this read, I feel that this book works well as a standalone novel too. The book begins with an earthquake at Yellow Stone Park in 1959, and James McManis’s son goes missing. A thorough search by James and the Park Rangers proves futile, and then the family solicitor gives James some information that changes everything. All is not as it seems, and strange things happen to time when certain geysers erupt at certain times.
All the way through this book I had no idea where it was going, and had to read up to the last few pages before all became clear. I love a book that keeps me guessing. The opening felt strong and intriguing, while the middle part of the book felt much slower going for me. Having said that, there are a few good plot turns and enough mystery to keep you guessing. The main character is an older man who is rigid and set in his ways, and rather intolerant of the world. For this reason he is hard to like, but this shows me how well the author developed this character, because it was done well enough for me to react to … whether that be like or dislike. So, all kudos to the writer. What I liked, too, was how James changed and mellowed as the story progressed and he found some of his truths. Throughout, the narrative is rich in description, and the scenes and settings all felt authentic and real enough to be there. It may have been just in the PDF copy I had, but there were a lot of missing quotation marks around dialogue and a lot of them were reversed, which while not major, did occur enough to be annoying. A number of times, I had to go back and read the paragraph again when I suddenly realised we were back in dialogue, or had left dialogue behind some way back. However, apart from this hiccup, the spelling, grammar, and punctuation were all written well.
This story engaged me throughout, and while not a page turner for me, it has caught my attention enough to be interested in reading the first books in the series at some point. Although the book does make some references to time travel, I would say that it falls more into the genre of Historical Fiction than it does science fiction. If you like a good, clean read, with a tad of later-life romance, and an element of mystery, I think you will like this book. It gets a hearty 8 out of 10 stars from me, using the TRB scale, which equals 4 out of 5 stars on other rating scales.
I received a PDF copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review. Finding Home is the third book of a trilogy, and I haven’t read the first two. Although it would have helped to have read the series in order, and may have enhanced this read, I feel that this book works well as a standalone novel too. The book begins with an earthquake at Yellow Stone Park in 1959, and James McManis’s son goes missing. A thorough search by James and the Park Rangers proves futile, and then the family solicitor gives James some information that changes everything. All is not as it seems, and strange things happen to time when certain geysers erupt at certain times.
All the way through this book I had no idea where it was going, and had to read up to the last few pages before all became clear. I love a book that keeps me guessing. The opening felt strong and intriguing, while the middle part of the book felt much slower going for me. Having said that, there are a few good plot turns and enough mystery to keep you guessing. The main character is an older man who is rigid and set in his ways, and rather intolerant of the world. For this reason he is hard to like, but this shows me how well the author developed this character, because it was done well enough for me to react to … whether that be like or dislike. So, all kudos to the writer. What I liked, too, was how James changed and mellowed as the story progressed and he found some of his truths. Throughout, the narrative is rich in description, and the scenes and settings all felt authentic and real enough to be there. It may have been just in the PDF copy I had, but there were a lot of missing quotation marks around dialogue and a lot of them were reversed, which while not major, did occur enough to be annoying. A number of times, I had to go back and read the paragraph again when I suddenly realised we were back in dialogue, or had left dialogue behind some way back. However, apart from this hiccup, the spelling, grammar, and punctuation were all written well.
This story engaged me throughout, and while not a page turner for me, it has caught my attention enough to be interested in reading the first books in the series at some point. Although the book does make some references to time travel, I would say that it falls more into the genre of Historical Fiction than it does science fiction. If you like a good, clean read, with a tad of later-life romance, and an element of mystery, I think you will like this book. It gets a hearty 8 out of 10 stars from me, using the TRB scale, which equals 4 out of 5 stars on other rating scales.
September 28, 2014
Another interesting time travel book. This one had several time travelers, both back and leaping forward. All the twist and turns, really kept my interest. Love the time travel books from M.M.JUSTUS
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews