Cool idea, well realized. ( )

150

En el año 2034, Theo Guderian, un físico francés, hizo un curioso pero impracticable descubrimiento: la forma de utilizar una flexión temporal de un solo sentido que se abría a un lugar en el valle del Ródano durate la idílica era del Plioceno, hace seis millones de años. Pero, a medida que iba pasando el tiempo, este descubrimiento reveló una cierta utilidad. Los inadaptados y rebeldes del futuro -muchos de ellos gente brillante- empezaron a buscar aquella puerta de salida hacia un misterioso pasado. En el año 2110, un grupo particularmente extraño e interesante se estaba preparando para iniciar ese viaje: un capitán de astronave, un chica atleta, un paleontólogo, una sacerdotisa, y varios otros que tenían razones para huir de aquella perfección tecnológica del siglo XXI.

Loved this sci-fi/fantasy book. Though I usually don't care for the sword-slashing, ogre-filled type of fantasy, this I did like because of its combination of science-fiction, with time-travelling to the Pliocene era of Earth.

In the 21st century, a French professor living in the hills above the town of Lyons perfects a one-way time tunnel back to the 6 million B.C.
Everyone who feels that they just don't fit in with modern society, and who can pay the very costly price, applies for the trip. Those who are approved (there are restrictions besides that of 28-year-old mandatory age) get preparatory training and plenty of tools and supplies to take with them. But there was no way the inventor, or his later, widow, could have known what lay on the other side.

Before their trip to the past, two of the would-be time-travellers have met up in Lyons. One of them is a disgraced rocketship captain, and the other is a heavy machinery operator who is enthralled with his ancestors' Viking past. They eat in a restaurant that seems to specialize in a menu of every body part of as many Animals as possible.
P.71:
"The host brought a napkin with two small pastries and a little silver dish full of white steaming lumps. 'brioche de foie gras, croustade De ris de veau a la financiere, and quenelles de brochet au beurre d'écrivisses. eat! Enjoy!' he swept out.
'financier, huh?' muttered Richard. 'there's a good epitaph.' he ate the pastries. One was like a cream puff stuffed with delicious spiced liver. The other seemed to be a fluted tart shell filled with bits of meat, mushrooms, and unidentifiable tidbits in Madeira sauce. The dish with white sauce consisted of delicate fish dumplings.
'this is delicious -- but what am I eating?' he asked the host, who had emerged to take the credit cards of the local diners.
'the brioche is filled with goose liver pate. The tart has a slice of truffle, braised veal sweetbreads, and a garnish of tiny chicken dumplings, cock's combs, and kidneys and wine sauce. The pike dumplings are served in creamy crayfish butter.'
'good God,' said Richard.
'I have an outstanding vintage coming up with the main course. But first, grilled baby lamb fillet with little vegetables, and to set it off, a splendid young fumé from the chateau du Nozet.' "

Members of Group Green, kidnapped and enslaved on the other side of the time gate are taken down the river Rhone in a thrilling boat ride that had me wishing I were there.
P.217-8:
"The vibration increased to an audible roar as the boat came charging around a sharp bend. The walls of a canyon Rose on both sides.
Sukey screamed and Raimo yelped an obscenity.
Ahead of them the narrowing Rhone slanted downhill at a one-in-five gradient, the river lashed to a foaming frenzy by the rocks of its tilted bed. The boat seemed to dive into the rapids and a great avalanche of ochre water crashed over the canopy and temporarily engulfed them. Then Mojo broke Free and came to the surface, planing along among monstrous standing waves and granite boulders, rolling so steeply that yellowwater climbed halfway up the watertight bubble first on one side, then on the other. The noise was almost insupportable. Raimo's mouth was wide open but his yells went unheard amidst the uproar of the cascading Rhone.
A dark Mass loomed ahead. The boat heeled nearly 60 degrees to starboard as they went whipping around a tall rock Pinnacle into a crooked slot between files of huge boulders. The air was so filled with flying spume that it seemed impossible that their Skipper could see where he was going. Nevertheless the boat continued to Zig and zag among the rocks with only an occasional bump against the pneumatic fendors.
a respite came in the form of a deep cut where the River flowed free. But the voice of highJohn yelled, 'One last Time, folks!' and Bryan realized that they were rocketing through the defile toward a veritable fence of sharp crags, fanglike chunks of broken granite against which the yellow River Waters crashed in overlapping curtains of spray. There seemed to be no way through. The stunned Time travelers gripped the arms of their seats and braced for the inevitable impact. Mojo raced toward the tallest of the rocks, pitching violently. It crashed into the foam -- but instead of hitting solid rock or sinking, it Rose higher and higher on some unseen surge. There was a thrumming blow against the port side as they bounced off a rock face, completely drowned in the opaque pother. The boat seemed to roll a full 360 degrees and then Wallow free to sail through the air. It landed with a bone-jarring impact, water closing again over the top of the canopy. Almost immediately it popped to the surface, floating in complete tranquility across a broad pool that spread between low walls. Behind them was the cut that they had just Traversed, spewing a horsetail cataract, like the outflow of a Titanic drain, into the basin 30meters below." ( )

Loved this when I first read it. ( )