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The Tiber Runs Red

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527 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 23, 2022

164 people are currently reading
7 people want to read

About the author

R. Magnusholm

7 books28 followers
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.

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5 stars
111 (53%)
4 stars
72 (34%)
3 stars
18 (8%)
2 stars
4 (1%)
1 star
1 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
Profile Image for L.S. Sharrow.
Author 6 books8 followers
July 3, 2022
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.

Not giving more than that away, but the author has a wonderful imagination!
The Tiber Runs Red: An Alternate Reality Novel: Survival in Prehistoric Wilderness
The scenes between John and the beast are thrilling and terrifying. I couldn’t put the book down. Read until the wee hours of the night, until finally I finished.

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.
350 reviews5 followers
June 30, 2022
Liz’s dad saves the day

Good followup to book one. Just like the first book, I liked the factual bits of survival tips interspersed throughout the book.
Profile Image for Steve.
1,648 reviews63 followers
July 18, 2022
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.
150 reviews2 followers
September 22, 2022
Alternate Reality

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.
Profile Image for Dannan Tavona.
1,043 reviews12 followers
July 29, 2023
Better than expected

Alternate universe, stone-age survival, adult situations

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.

Well done. If there is a sequel, I will buy it.
Profile Image for Robert Reeve.
103 reviews
September 8, 2023
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.
41 reviews
July 15, 2022
Wonderfully immersive

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.
312 reviews2 followers
September 9, 2022
Cat vs family

I thoroughly enjoyed this tale. The hero has a few flaws which required. The saber tooth also has flaws. Superb!
19 reviews
June 30, 2023
Started and ended well. Even the middle was good, but the pacing and overall episodic slow pace dragged this book down.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews