Ron Magnusholm is an AI researcher, a novelist, and a married father of three. With a broad academic background and early experience serving in military intelligence, he brings both technical and tactical depth to his fiction. He has a strong interest in linguistics and has studied thirteen languages, with a particular focus on rare European languages.
His novels explore artificial intelligence, human enhancement, and global conflict. He is the author of the bestselling Back to the Stone Age trilogy, as well as House of Cain, Roula, and Galatea.
His latest novel, Last Tango in Moscow, is a spy thriller set against the collapse of the Soviet Union.
What a pleasure to read another book by R. Magnusholm’s books. This one is the sequel to The Door to September, and this time there’s a single enemy: a monstrous beast who hunts John and Liz and their two little ones.
The Ra raft took them to the island where they live 3 years ago. George is now 3 years old—or is he four because of the longer years? He has a baby sister, Hazel. The days last 26 hours on this alternate world.
The book is pleasurably long enough to cozy into over several nights, yet thrilling enough to keep the reader clinging to the next page on a sunny afternoon at the beach. A perfect summer read.
Didn't enjoy this one as much as the first one; the reason is simply that the story barely moved. There are a few ruminations about how they got there, but none of the questions raised in the first book were answered here.
It was still a good book, but I expected more. I certainly expect a great deal more forward movement to the story if there are subsequent books.
I read book one and found it very entertaining. Throughout all their trials and tribulations, they managed to secure a reasonably safe home. Considering that no modern tools were available, John and Liz fashioned tools that were adequate for their needs. Having accepted that there was no chance of getting back to their own world, they embraced the new world with some trepidation. It was really a shame that they were forced to escape their stockade because of cannibalistic natives. The first book was a really good read and a precursor of what was to come in book two. However, and speaking personally, I was very disappointed with book two. Whatever possessed the author to focus the whole book on a vengeful sabretooth tiger, left me in no doubt that he struggled with a sensible and viable storyline. I struggled with reading this second book, and ended up skipping pages because it was boring. This second book just had no credibility and no real plot. Perhaps the author could address the shortfall with a third book, and expand the horizons to include more adventure and exploration.
John and Liz are back in this story set four years after the first tale. While I was scathing of the first novel, especially the insertion of political biases, this story is thankfully free of any; it's adventure survival against an apex predator, and for a twist, believably shows the predator in interesting ways.
Their small island is fascinating, but as it's east of the Thames as they knew it, it has to be Doggerland, a location dependent on glaciation. Not a critique, mind you, but if their world is warming, the island will gradually submerge and their descendents will be force to immigrate back to Britain, or try the longer sea journey to mainland Europe.
Book two. John and Liz, who hardly knew each other, were previously transported back to the Pleistocene era. No other humans. Here, they've escaped the dangers of the mainland and settled safely on an island. They also now have four year old George, and baby Hazel. They've built a mud and clay home and have used untapped ingenuity to make a life for themselves with no tech or automation. It's a difficult but satisfying existence. A vicious, angry predator has found its way to the island though, and now threatens to eat them all. An eye opening insight into human survival, using nothing but our wits and instinct.
Magnusholm has written two books in this series, and they are truly top-notch. I lost myself in these tales of two modern humans (and their growing family) surviving and thriving in a primitive world against all odds. I hope that he writes more in this series.