Time Pebbles

by Jerry Merritt

Tekla, son of an ancient shaman, loses Ka Li whenshe is torn from his life by a brutal tribe of Denisovans in a Late Pleistocene kidnapping.Ka Li escapes but is unarmed and forced to flee across the Bering land bridge where she becomes hopelessly lost in the endless tracts of North America. Only Tekla cares enough to search for her over the years. As Ka Li survives fierce predators and scarce resources, she leaves behind a series of signal cairns to help Tekla find her.Skipping forward 60,000 years, Helen Ryland, a mid-20th-century archaeologist, unearths one of Ka Li's surviving signal cairns and realizes she has found trace of people who populated the Americas even before the Clovis culture.Helen's detective work tracking Ka Li's timeless signals across the Alaskan wilderness now intertwines with Ka Li's story. As Helen solves the puzzle of the signal cairns she finds universal fame and suffers devastating misfortune.In the end, Helen discovers that science in isolation cannot answer all of her questions for Tekla's devotion to Ka Li had not died even though 600 centuries had passed.For maps of the routes and background on this novel you can visit

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Audiobook, Historical

301 pages, Paperback

Published May 22, 2018

Reviews

[John Min · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do like books that play with time. Good story(s) that captured me early on, I liked the idea of the stories, as well as the trashing of the Clovis theory. Deep history is intriguing and I WISH a modern archeologist / anthropologist / geologist, could find such discoveries going back tens of thousands of years to a specific person or persons. I wish. Still, great story and a fine ending. I like this author, this is the second book I have read by him and will be looking into more soon.

[Allen Hyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but not great

This was an entertaining read, but both confusing and transparent at the same time. The book takes place in three distinct time periods though it isn't clear in the beginning that the first "modern" time is actually 40 years before the present. If this had been explained better it would have made a better book.

[Allan Hubbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book

It grabbed right in the beginning and kept me there throughout. I didn't want it to end. I am becoming a big fan of this author

[Roland Taub · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very different tale

It's a book that can be criticized for being too far fetched. However isn't a good story often one that takes a different approach. I was caught up in this double story and was entranced by the ending. I am now looking forward to seeing if Mr Merritt's other books are as good.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars...an original story no doubt.

[Psionmark · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think I must’ve read a different book to those giving this 4 or 5 stars.

I read this after reading A Gift Of Time which I loved and happily gave 5 stars.

Time Pebbles felt like it was written by a different author. I would’ve happily given up with it about a quarter of the way in but I kept checking the review scores and thought either I must be missing something, or some great stuff happens in the rest of the book.

Just finished it. It was predictable, amateurish, repetitive (do I really need to be told that many times what the dead animal brains were used for?) and I feel like the entire story could have been covered in about a dozen pages.

Might’ve made for a good short story but, honestly, I felt like this was a waste of time.

I don’t often leave reviews, and even less so bad ones, but this does feel a little like a case of the Emperor’s Clothes...

[Ogden Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jerry is totally racist in this book.

Seriously? The only tribe of dark skinned people are cannibals, thieves, horribly smelling, incapable of anything etc? The sought after woman is white skin with blonde hair?

The book is interesting, his writing is ok. But, the racism is just too much.

I was going to finish the book, then I remembered that Kindle unlimited authors get paid by the page... So, I'm done with the book.

[Richard Conrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read. It was hard to put down and I could not wait to come back to it.

Lots of Acton. The way the story was laid out it was like I was actually there. The ending was superb and unexpected.

[Ronda Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually listened to the audible edition (which wasn't listed on here). It was an interesting story, I just don't enjoy hunting stories, and with the 60,000 year old human part of the story there was a lot of that.

[Sarah Jo Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Long, dry story for a rather "cute" payoff at the end.

[Jesse Armstrong · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of the most boring books I have ever read to the finish. I kept waiting for it to pick up and once I was in the back quarter I just finished because I was that far along already. I am surprised to have this experience as Jerry Merritt authored one of the best sci-fi books I've read in years (A Gift of Time). If prehistoric stories of early humans hunting things is an ideal narrative device for you, then this might be exactly what you are looking for. I will say that I did enjoy the ending, but for it to have worked well for me, this would have been a much larger part of the story. After reading A Gift of Time I expected a lot more, and maybe that's where my issue with this book lies, it sits in the shadow of a much better work.

As for the prose itself, the writing is very ingestible and well structured. Just boring. I look forward to the future for this author. If you need something to help you get to sleep, you could do worse than this book.

[DaleE Boland · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an actual archaeologist, I found the field portions of the story a little forced and fake. Probably not a fair judgement but that’s what happens when one spends real time looking for and digging up the past. Helen never felt like a real scientist to me.
However, the fantasy part of the story with Tekla and Ka Li was a really fun journey (and at times scary and even despairing) through the Pleistocene and the Bering Land Bridge. Sloths AND scimitar cats!? Hapu is a wonderful character and I wanted much more of him! Pretty cool imagining being there, then. I also liked these people and their trials and successes. Overall, decent but fluffy to an extent for this reader. Recommended but cautionary that this is more fantasy than science.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book!!!

What a terrific read! Wow!! This book can be enjoyed across so many genres. I loved the story, but I was also accidentally educated about a history I knew nothing about, and the human component. Everyone I know, regardless of the types of books they like to read would love this book (and I'll definitely recommend it!!) I read a lot of books, and generally only write reviews of books I've really enjoyed so I give them five stars, but this book makes me wish I could give six stars. Really impressed with this author. Terrific work.

[Aaron Marcotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of a 3.5 than a 4, but it was entertaining enough to bump it up. The ending was pretty easy to figure out as the stories start to converge, which takes away some of the allure for me, but I still powered through this quickly.

My favorite thing about the book was the way the story was told from the perspective of humans 60,000 years ago. Really cool to imagine how they lived, traveled, thought, etc. If you need a short, light-hearted story between series' or serious readings, this is a good one (although I'd recommend his book, A Gift of Time, first).

[Scott Groff · Rating 5 out of 5]

The very old juxtaposed to the modern

I have never read a book like this one. You will .learn about making tools, how to hunt and carve up game, and generally learn how to persue life in prehistoric times. In the modern times, you will learn how modern archeology is prosecuted. All in all, a definite "keeper" book. Really well done.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Great story. I have a little bit of archaeology experience, and felt this was really authentic. I thought the interlaced story was a great and creative. Whenever you study history and find historical artifacts you mind always goes to... "who was the last person to touch this", "what does this mean" etc.

[Anthony Armstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Story

Intriguing premise on the Bering land bridge and dating of humans reaching the Americas. Also great 'twist' in the story. Well worth a read even if the archaeology doesn't interest you.

[Philip Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommended

This is a really good read. The format is unusual which makes story very interesting. Amazon wants five more words before I got the submit button. And here I thought brevity was a virtue.

[Marjorie Brown]

If you liked Clan of the Cave Bear, you'll like this book. The archeologic techniques are mostly correct. The story is fantastic (in every sense). Beautiful love story on many levels and epic saga of the first people to cross the land bridge.

[JT · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was well worth the read. Characters were easy to keep track of, everything was well thought out and making for a very believable story. I was hoping it would be another "Gift of Time". -it wasn't but still a good read!

[Kelly Peters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it!

This is an absolutely awesome book !Could not put it down! Love the characters love the story, just was absolutely fantastic!

[Shelly Lincoln · Rating 3 out of 5]

Speculative, overly burdened with detail, and the last quarter felt contrived. If you're expecting Jean Auel, this isn't it. But for a quick read, it isn't bad.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book

Couldn't put it down, surprisingly very interesting and we'll written, time pebbles was a very enjoyable read i would recommend it

[Jeremy Letendre-Cpte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great audiobook! Loved the ending.

[John Gornall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story well crafted I loved it.

I loved the way you crafted the two story lines together, it was a heartwarming presentation. The final chapters were really great.

[Shannon Blanchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are not enough stars to rate this book. This is my new all time favorite book I’ve ever read. MY HEART!!!! I’m done 😩😩😩😩

[Todd Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time Pebbles started out a little slow for me but after a few chapters I was really getting into the story. Pretty good story and narration.

[Jason Willoughby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bottom Line Review
- Reading about hunting, camping, and archeology
- Shallow character development
- NOT IN THE SAME BALLPARK AS "A gift of Time"
- Boring

[Robin J · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book by Jerry Marritt that I've had the pleasure of reading.

[Joachim F · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just got the year in review thingy from Goodreads, which told me that Time Pebbles was the least popular of all the books I've read this year. Which is kind of sad, because of all the books I've read this year, this is actually the one that I keep returning to, in my mind. I just can't stop thinking about it.

I kind of loved this book. I also kind of disliked it. I wish it had been different, but I know that if it had been different it wouldn't have been the book that I loved. It's hard to explain, without spoiling it.

I guess the only reason I'm trying to write something sensible about it (and failing) is that this was if nothing else the most _interesting_ book I read this year, and I really think more people should read it.