This is really a “pass it on” from one of my readers. Within a week of the release of my thriller Echoes in a Stone, I began getting feedback from readers on the book. It is a Team Walker adventure that drifts into what some have called mystery science fiction. Much of this genre of the last century begins by taking hypothetical guesstimates from current science and extending the ideas into reality sometime in the future.
Echoes in a Stone explores how our current society might react to some impossible, unique and therefore priceless object literally dropping out of the sky. Where did it come from? How could it possibly have been built? Is the object itself the mystery or does it carry something even more mysterious? And, if it does, will the world ever learn more if the object disappears into the hands of a wealthy collector willing to pay almost anything to possess it?
One of my readers pressed me on creating a story in Echoes in a Stone that “might” include steps into our future. That same reader gave me a lead on a great book that did just the opposite. She recommended Lee Goldberg’s book Calico, which takes the reader the opposite direction. Calico explores a mystery set in the present about time travel, not into the future but into the past. My reader noted that if Calico could take us back in time, travel into our future should also be possible. I just finished reading Calico.
It was a great book from one of the era’s most experienced guides to entertainment. Echoes in a Stone is being compared to Calico, with one stepping back while the other steps forward. I don’t know if that is an apt comparison, but each takes us seemingly impossible places while solving a mystery. Both explore the intriguing plot line of Back to the Future.
After you read both, I’d love to hear your comments on each.