Scott McElhaneyCritiques

What can I say about this? First of all, it is a lot better than most independently published books. The beginning is more detailed than the end, which feels rushed. The storytelling is competent, and I could clearly visualize the locations and situations the author described. The plot is quite imaginative, but feels somewhat unsophisticated. One of the best aspects is that there is no objectionable material or language in any part of the book. Personally, I dislike cynicism, arrogance and nonchalance, and I think it was the honesty of the narrative voice which carried me through to the end.

I was actually enjoying this until I got about 40% in and, all of a sudden out of nowhere, it started getting very, very preachy and in-your-face religious. I immediately deleted it from my kindle and moved on with my life.

The Christian nature of the time travel scenario was an interesting way to go. At first, it was a little strange, but I ending up really liking how the story progressed.

However, a minor complaint is the formatting of the book was a little bothersome. Sections of a lot of pages would be indented, while other parts would be flush with the margin.

This is a fun yarn of treasure hunting by three teenagers, who work together in a thrift store When an old employee dies, they clean out his locker, and discover he has been searching the building for treasure. During the many years he worked there he searched, leaving behind a record of the steps he had taken. Now follow them as they try to locate a single bank bag of money. This bag, containing more than a million dollars, was taken in a bank robbery more than 40 years earlier. They work together, trusting each other, as they retrace some of his steps. And follow the clues they have unearthed in old letters, his journal and interviews. ... Well you need to read it for yourself, I don't want to spoil the story for you. This is a SHOULD BE READ story for all age groups, from teen to senior. It has action, adventure, romance, and family. Don't let the label of Christian fiction deter you, there is no preaching or bible thumping This is a fun and fast read waiting for you

This story showed a lot of promise to begin because the story hook was good. Unfortunately, the rest of the story doesn't live up to the hook. Part of my difficulty with the story is that it's set in space on a ship; so my expectation was that it'd have a fairly strong sci-fi component to it, but the ship comes off as no more than a lifeless backdrop. I ended up feeling about the same way for the majority of the characters too -there only to move the story along and deliver the ending.

Not on board with this saga. I just couldn't connect enough to the story. This doesn't mean you should avoid it. You need to read and decide for yourself if the story works for you.

This is a really terrific story. It has a lot off action and suspense. The characters are interesting, complex and understandable.

I was really disappointed by this book, all the more so because the premise was so intriguing. A man wakes up from cryogenic freeze to discover that not only has his cancer been cured but that he's untold thousands of years in the future and on a ship exploring another galaxy. The mystery of why they wanted him and a few other "popsicles" for this mission was enough to pull me forward through the story.

Alas, I found most of the other characters frustrating as their moods flipped around unpredictably, and the rest of the backstory around their mission and what's happened on Earth was not very compelling. Then the story seemed to run out of steam and jump to the climax without much of any build-up, and when the mystery of why they wanted these 21st century popsicles for the mission, I was sadly disappointed. I won't spoil it here, but I found myself saying, "Really? That's the best they could do? Who the heck planned this mission?"

With better characters, better plotting, and a better explanation for why these guys were there, this could have been an awesome book. But it wasn't. I hate to write bad reviews, but this one just didn't work for me.

I got this as a free book off of Amazon.

What a terrible book. And a disappointment too since it started off decently-- with an interesting premise of the protagonist mistakenly getting stuck in the future. The computer he interacted with there was probably the most interesting character in the book. Then suddenly, we get thrust into a spaceship with a bunch of people that we've never met or cared about, and from there, get stuck on the planet where they are headed, again with new characters (a lot of them!!!) that we don't care about. Nothing seems to come together, no good development of the characters.

I just received a comment from someone that told me that my review was mistaken. I agree that the wording of my review was incorrect. This book doesn't preach Christianity as I said prior in my review, but I felt that the way it was dealt with could have been handled a lot better. Just to clarify, I'm a Christian myself, and have found "Christian" views in other novels that were developed in a beautiful, meaningful way. For example, Orson Scott Card rewrote The Book of Mormon in his Call of Earth series, which was extremely well done. Mormons appreciated the rewrite, and science fiction fans were drawn to the story anyway. In his Alvin Journeymaker series, he rewrote the story of Joseph Smith. Again, well written, fascinating story and new world without beating our head with it. The fact that this was a Christian novelist does not bother me; the way the novel dealt so heavy-handedly with the topic was the issue. Thank you to Stephanie for helping me clarify my viewpoint.

Regardless, I still believe, Christian or not, you would do better to read another science fiction novel.