Epoch Shift

The Histories of Newten #1

by Jake Lingwall

A thousand years ago humanity crash landed on a dangerous new planet filled with as many wonders as dangers. The human race settled the only place on Newten where they could survive, a canyon. But when the shared dream predicts a dire fate for their refuge, Elle and Jak set out to save their people by any means scientific or magical. However, the exploration of Newten leads to discoveries that change the future and the past.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 25, 2016

Reviews

[Thistle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This sort of book is exciting neither to read nor to review. It wasn't awful, it wasn't good. Some of the characters were fine and believable, some of them completely not. The world setting was interesting enough that I kept reading the story. The story itself was fine. The editing was mostly okay. All in all it was far from good, but it was nearly as far from awful.

Set on another world, generations ago humanity escaped a dying Earth to live there. Probably the most interesting aspect of the book was that something in the world made humans share dreams -- one person in each cluster of humans would unconsciously share his or her dreams with the other each night. The rest of the plot was just conflict within a group of humans and between them and another group. I'm not sure if this was a YA book or not, but it sure felt like one. (Edit: Ah, Amazon says it is YA.)

The rest of the book was just... okay. The first half of the story was better than the second; believably was not just stretched, but by the end was pretty soundly stomped on. The romance in the book, while dull, was at least slow enough to be realistic.

[Ross Argabrite · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good read.

Jak and Elle have captured my attention and will have to be followed. Starting from scratch in re-establishing a civilization sounds like a most interesting story to read. After reading the first book in The Histories of Newten , I think Jake Lingwall will be up to the task.

[Janie · Rating 5 out of 5]

FaScinating story. Intense and believable

Great character building. Fascinating story of the human survival and spirit. Looking forward to the follow on. An author to watch

[Vonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this fantasy of humanity's struggle to survive on a different planet, generations after they arrived.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a new world fraught with danger, an outpost of humanity dares to survive. Their only hope is that one day the Earthships will come. Elle is the younger daughter of the ruler of the colony, and her dreams warn that their precious water source will dry up. When her mother and her sister (the ruler-to-be) tell her to toe the party line of “everything is fine,” Elle decides to take matters into her own hands.

By a stroke of fortune, she enlists Jak to travel with her on the quest to save the river. Much to their astonishment, another colony of humans are found, only these are bent of using the river as a barrier to the sensate local lifeforms, beings that want to exterminate the humans from their planet.

Elle and Jak realize there’s a disconnect with their colony’s history on Newten, though others are content to live for today only. But Elle and Jak must stop this other group. Can they do it in time to save their friends and families?

Maggie Toussaint and Rigel Carson for Muddy Rose Reviews

[Mike Nemeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jake Lingwall wrote the fantastic trilogy of a wayward computer programmer turned revolutionary that starts with "Freelancer." The books show an America in the not too distant future that reveals a more stark conflict between the coasts and the interior, self-driving cars that have all but replaced the human operated versions and programming enabled by an embedded chip connected directly to the brain. So when I downloaded "Epoch Shift" some departure of that was expected but not to the degree I would soon find out. Not only did Lingwall dump any connection to current technology, he chose to head to a different planet, different future and far different conflicts. The premise is that a spacecraft set out from earth and rather than establishing a colony as planned, crash lands. Under great peril, the people establish civilization in a canyon, safe from the the massive predators of the planet. But the crash was so long ago that its details have largely faded into myth. The survivors established a feudalistic society based on a family hierarchy. Lingwall tells the story through two young people: Jak, a young man who has evidently failed in his quest for manhood, and Elle, the daughter of the small society's leader. Elle learns of Jak and seeks him out for a clandestine mission beyond the safety of their valley. She's had a vision of the future, and it's not good. The life-giving river will cease to flow unless something's done. Her talks with her mother yielded nothing. Their group believes in visions, but hers is considered nothing more than the wild thoughts of a rebellious girl. Jak, Elle knows, can take her out of the valley because he's already gone on his quest. While the community sees him as a failure for not returning with the firebird feathers, she sees opportunity. He will do what she says. And he does, to a degree. Their mission results in them learning more of the truth of their society. That much of what they had been told is not true. And through the narrative Lingwall reveals how society can go wrong one lie at a time. An entire history has been built with blinders. The survivors established strict parameters that not only didn't enable them to expand beyond their safe valley in nearly 1,000 years but to believe that somehow they would be saved at some future date by another ship. Elle's family is descended from the woman who took charge after the crash. She hid much of the truth, and the lie continued. The ramifications have resulted in the extinction of the society she founded unless Elle and Jak can somehow avert disaster despite massive odds against them. The novel is one of the most interesting I've read in some time and another excellent example of an author to watch.