Thursday, November 20, 2014

The Murder of Adam and Eve by William Dietrich

 Time Travel

From Goodreads:  

In this fast-paced and though-provoking thriller, two teens time-travel to prehistoric Africa to judge whether to save our ancestors: the genetic "Adam" and "Eve" whose descendants will go on to populate the world. When 16-year-old Nick Brynner explores an old fort on a forbidden island for a school history project, he stumbles onto a time wormhole. What follows is a mysteriously deserted village with a prowling sentry that looks like a gargoyle, and narrow escape with the help of fellow teen Eleanor Terrell. The two are hurtled into a grim series of challenges by an alien race called the Xu, which are considering a Reset of human history because of our poor planetary stewardship. If Adam and Eve are murdered, will another couple, or another species, do better? Nick and Ellie are ruthlessly deposited onto the African savanna of fifty thousand years ago, and the hunt is on. The Murder of Adam and Eve is a coming of age story, a love story, a war story, and an environmental fable with a deliberately provocative ending, inspired by such books as "Walkabout," "Ishmael," "Lord of the Flies," and the author's own "Getting Back."

The Murder of Adam and Eve is fast-paced and thought-provoking as the blurb states.  While I was reading The Murder of Adam and Eve I was just enjoying the story. Watching Nick  and Eleanor learn how to live and survive in prehistoric Africa kept my reading to see what would happen next.  The thought-provoking came after I had finished the book and moved on.  Dietrich very cleverly worked a lot about humans and how they have treated the planet into a well-constructed and entertaining story.

It was after I finished that I realized that the story was causing me to think.  Were we better off as we are today or would we be better off still being hunter/gatherers.  What kind of trade offs have we made and do we need to change how we live today.  Just a spoiler – that is what Nick had to decide as he thought about everything we have accomplished versus changing the past to change humans.

The Murder of Adam and Eve is a Young Adult book but don’t let that stop you from picking it up.  If you are part of a book club this would be a very good choice to generate a lot of discussion.

Burrows published The Murder ofAdam and Eve by William Dietrich in 2014.


I received an ARC of The Murder of Adam and Eve from Netgally in return for an honest review.

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