The Fossil

by Greig Beck

Klaus and Doris have just made the discovery of their lives - a complete Neanderthal skeleton buried in a newly opened sinkhole. But on removing it, something else tumbles free. Something that switches on, and then calls home.

Soon the owners are coming back, and nothing will stop their ruthless search for their lost prize.

Gruesome corpses begin to pile up, and Detective Ed Heisner of the Berlin Police is assigned to a case like nothing he has ever experienced before in his life. Heisner must stay one step ahead of a group of secretive Special Forces soldiers also tracking the strange device, while trying to find an unearthly group of killers that are torturing, burning, and obliterating their victims all the way across the city.

The Fossil is a time jumping detective novella, where humans soon find that time can be the greatest weapon of all.

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Time Travel, Thriller, Fiction, Novella, Adventure

Audible Audio

Published March 5, 2021

About the author

Hi GoodReaders, I’m an Australian author residing in Sydney with my wife, son and a mad Golden Retriever named Jessie. My novels are now available globally, also in Large Print and now in full AUDIO format.

I grew up spending my days surfing at Bondi Beach before entering a career in Information technology which took me around the world. After completing an MBA, i was appointed both an Australasian director of a multinational software company, and tasked with setting up the USA arm of the organisation.

Today, I spend most of my time writing... with plenty left over for surfing.

More information about me and my works can be found at either www.greigbeck.com, or join me on FaceBook (Greig Beck Author).

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fast, fun read. It's something of a kitchen sink story, with lots of plot branches and quite a few characters bouncing about over a time travel/police investigation/special ops adventure playing field, and it kept my attention throughout. The 50,000 A.D. world wasn't too convincing, but other than that my only complaint is that it was too short to develop the characters very well, and ended somewhat abruptly just where it should have gone in a different direction. (I know, I usually complain that novels run on for too long when considering length... sometimes you just can't win.) I was initially attracted by the nifty cover, and I'm glad I decided to pick up the book.

[Cam · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book didn’t do much for me...I was very intrigued at the beginning of the book which dealt with cavemen and time travel. And then it turned to modern day cat and mouse game.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5.0 stars.

[OutlawPoet · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short novella, and my one complaint is that I wanted more. I so wanted this to be a full-sized book! I wanted to know more about our characters and our worlds, present, past & future!

That being said, this was a lot of fun!

The author manages to pack a lot into a few pages and there's a ton of action, some heartbreak, and some very interesting characters.

Will happily read the author in the future!

*Book downloaded via KU

[Elentarri · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Fossil is a time-travel, portal, science-fiction detective novella.  This short, action packed story bounces between different time lines that are almost completely different worlds.  An object from the future was accidentally dropped and picked up by a Neanderthal, and then found again in the present during a fossil hunting expedition.  Enter the Clean Up Crew, who are authorised to retrieve this object at all cost.  Mayhem and murder ensue.  Followed by the involvement of a Berlin police detective and the mysterious Special Forces.  I found the concept more entertaining than the actual execution of the story, which devolved into a generic detective story with the authorities chasing the villains.  It was, however, fun to listen to. 

PS:  I really do wish American narrators would learn how to pronounce foreign names correctly! 

[John (JC) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great novella

[Luciano Bernaroli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carino, ironico, horror scifi ben strutturato, gradevole seppur brevissimo.
Consigliato!

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Fossil by Greig Beck has a cool core idea. It started off really well, but I wasn't as fond of where it went. Luckily, it was a quick and short read though. There were also some elements that I wish were developed further.

[BookzBookzBookz · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Fossil is all about the future maintaining control and ensuring nothing from the past can cause any strange anomalies. Something from the future was accidentally left in the past- something that could cause tremendous trouble in the present, and destroy the distant future. The situation requires a Clean Up Crew, who are following its movements, bringing awful incidents for those investigating the occurrences present day. This story is spectacular- I didn't want it to end! I know my synopsis is vague, but I can't tell anymore than that. Really!

What takes place is a wicked experience all Beck fans can appreciate. It’s a fast read and just as great as one of his full-length novels. You can’t let this one get away. Purchase, borrow or KU The Fossil to see what the hype's all about. This one won't come in an audiobook, which is a bummer, but I do own the ebook and physical version. It's that good to me. Well, I’m off to the next read.
Cheers!
*For the full review, visit http://bit.ly/WatchOutfortheCleanUpCrew

[Scott S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well narrated short story.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short but fun! As always Greig Beck delivers an interesting and imaginative tale. This one is pure sci-fi and involves time travel, a Neanderthal and a modern day mystery for the police. One minor criticism - they don't use Fahrenheit for temperature in Germany.

[S.W. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Fossil was under 100 pages. In a nutshell, it’s a time-travel mystery that spans from Neanderthal times to well into the future. A number of plots in different times are in play and they all have something in common. Over the course of the story the links are revealed and things tie together. I’d describe the underlying story as the future returning to fix mistakes of the past.

Given that it was only a novella, the story was brisk and light on detail. But it was the switching between multiple plotlines and settings that I found a little bit unsettling. Each chapter was short and moved from one to plotline to the next just as I was becoming invested in what was happening. This made it difficult to keep up with which characters were which, who was with who, and who was doing what.

The Fossil is a quick read. I think the story has loads of potential and feel that its complexity would suit a full length novel. With the addition of more mystery, detail, and character development I think it would become a great read. (Oh, and I do love the cover)

[Rakib_khan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novella length story is really held back by one thing, it’s short length. This had nice setting, engaging mystery subplot and interesting characters. I really enjoyed different viewpoints and speedy story, but none of its potential were fully realized because of the short length.

The fossil begins in prehistoric time telling the story of a dying Neanderthal then quickly jumps to different time periods. We get to meet the couple that discovers the fossil of the Neanderthal and the group from the future that time-jumps to retrieve their little device. And there is also the puzzled detective who attempts to solve the mystery of the deaths that this bizarre occurrences result in.

I liked the character of detective Heisen quite a lot and would have liked to read more about his personal story. Some of the other characters were promising as well, but really suffered from the overall short length of the story.

The plot progression was very fast and kept me reading to find out what would happen next. I really liked the setting and the main conflict, and would have loved to learn more about the world. But everything was cut short due to length and somewhat abrupt ending.

I will give this 3 out of 5.

Find other reviews and stuff for 'Black Library' fiction on my blog - https://theoctedpath.wordpress.com/

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a novella, which is 90% of the problem I had with it. It needed to be fleshed out a good deal more; there were missing bits of information that left the plot wide open in ways that didn't quite work for me. I'm okay with the mysterious "Defence", but the lack of information surrounding their knowledge of the little people or the technology they possessed bothered me. I wanted to know more about them and why they knew what they knew, who was behind them, and what was going to be done now that five of the best of them were obliterated. I was really digging the neanderthal stuff at the beginning, and the time travel stuff was okay. I also wanted to know more about the little people themselves. Is "monst" a shortened form of "monster", and are these a futuristic evolution of mankind or something else entirely? How did the little people branch off from us?

There were a lot of hole left open for a potential sequel, but I would've just liked more content and a fuller novel. It felt more like a prolonged synopsis. I wanted to know more about the future. There's time travel, and there's the little people that obliterate things, and that's it. There's just a lot of gaps.

I wanted a part two that continued Ed's story. A one-armed detective with a solid lead and a knowledge of little people. What next? I needed more to actually enjoy it.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE FOSSIL is an an 85 page expansion of a shorter story previously published by Beck. It opens with a badly injured Neanderthal c. 50,000 BCE and then jumps head almost 100,000 years before settling in our present. It's quirky because various chapters are told from the point of view of different characters from the three eras. That made it a bit confusing at first which was part of the fun. It's a lighthearted short detective story that runs through 100,00 years (for which I paid list price only to have it eventually become free as part of Kindle Unlimited to which I also subscribe) but only takes an hour and a quarter to read. Between 3 and 4 stars.

Recommended for Beck fans.

JM Tepper

[N.L. McFarlane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Fossil is a standalone Novella which is a perfect little evening read, I enjoyed how looking at the cover I thought one thing, but reading it was something else entirely. This book will not at all be what you expect but I loved every page of it. I even loved the reference to a character we've seen before in other series, it's great to see that even the little stories make up larger ones to create a world in books. This Novella isn't filled with the same energy as the Alex hunter series as it's not filled with suspense, horror etc... but I enjoyed the genre change to more of a detective, mystery hunt for a highly illusive killer.

[Ami Morrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally posted on the book blog Creature From the Book Lagoon.

The Fossil is a very quick, strange little novella. The pacing is very fast. It does not take long to readd at all.

A very fun novella. I loved the plot! However, I did feel a little confused at times. Like, what exactly was the item? Who were the time travelers? Why were they time traveling in the first place? I would have loved for the story to be a little bit longer with a little bit more details / explanation. Entertaining though, even when been left with a few questions. 🙂

[Mikey Bunches · Rating 2 out of 5]

This just wasn't a very good read. There's several aspects that I enjoyed about this story, but it also feels like it tried to do too much with only 125ish pages. The ending wasn't satisfying, either. It felt more like a last minute "Hey, read this other series about this one character that gets mentioned twice briefly" bait and switch. The ending barely answered anything, and not in the crafted "less is more" way. It had potential.

Also, all three main male characters from whom we get a PoV (Klaus, Ed, and Monroe) came off as creeps the way they talked about their girlfriend/ex/colleague (respectively).

[Cora Pop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite at the level of To the Center of the Earth but still very entertaining. Perhaps too many characters crammed in the space of a novella, with many (if not most) displaying somewhat cliched behaviors. Thinking back, I find that I liked Doris most.
As I learned with Greig Beck's works, for this one also I couldn't stop turning the pages.

[john r. reeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

John boy says

I have it 5 stars because it was fun to read. That alone is what fiction reading is about. You do not have to analyse it in the terms English literature. You just turn the pages and enjoy the characters, and the story line. I like short books do not care much for series books the same story goes on for to long and the characters then get boring. Read and enjoy the book it is a one night stand

[Monica Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty interesting premise for a story, but I don't think it went far enough....I would have liked to have read a full-length novel, to be honest! Just not quite enough pages to tell the story properly, I think.

I have been following Greig Beck as an author for years and I usually really love his work, but this one fell a little bit flat for me, a bit disjointed, somehow. I liked it, but I didn't love it, you know?

4 stars.

[D. E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A GB. SYFY. Time Travel Horror Story

GB. has. penned a SYFY. novel of a different approach to Time Travel and why Time Travel errors can extreme ripples in time. In this instance a man and woman find a futuristic device that is thought to be. 50k years old. They take the device and the War begins between Time Travelers. This is an excellent read for the genre.....DEHS

[Myra Gabor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story take place in several time lines from 48,000 BC to 50,000 AD. A scientist from way in the future leaves an artifact way in the past which is discovered in the present. There's lots of killing as the object is chased around Berlin by those who want it. It took a little while to get into the timeline. My only complaint is that, good ending aside, the story wasn't long enough.

[Pravin Hector John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read.

The initial few chapters start off convoluted. The timelines seem odd, you think it's a typing error. Then you realize it forms the premise of the book. The pace picks up and it's a roller coaster of a read! Just what you'd expect of a Beck novel. The ending leaves you hoping for another adventure.

[Jacques Hollands · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Fossil is a short story (novella) by Greig Beck that I only recently discovered. It was a fun read and I found myself disappointed that it wasn't a longer story. It had everything I like in a good book: action, monsters, fossils, adventure and best of all, time-travel.

A quick fun read to pass a leisurely afternoon.

[Elaine Gardiner · Rating 1 out of 5]

It may have been a good read but I got tired of the four letter words. A story line does not have to have Lots of swear words in order to be a good read. Taking the lord's name in vain is not my idea of a good book. I know the author can write a book without a lot of swear words because I have read some of them but I am not going to read them anymore.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting thrill ride through the Twilight Zone

This was a very exciting, fascinating adventure that begins with an encounter between a tribe of Neanderthals and two mysterious strangers. From there it quickly becomes a hunt for a lost item that holds great power very reminiscent of the Twilight Zone episode "The Invaders". Excellent adventure!

[John R. Dailey Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE MUNCHKINS ARE AT IT AGAIN, THEY ARE...

Hello, this is a real good story. The villains are somewhat less than one would normally picture. I was entertained through the whole thing. Thanks.

[Shon S-R · Rating 4 out of 5]

My only complaint is that it was a (short) novella. I wanted more. This is the first novella that I've read from this author and ss usual Beck weaves a tale that reels you in and keeps you close.
A fun and interesting quick read.

[Barbara J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story

I liked the idea of the story, but was shocked by the conclusion! Is there a sequel? I would follow the adventure, if possible. Definitely will look at the author's other books.