https://www.starburstmagazine.com
  • Subscribe
  • Featured
  • Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • News
  • Trailer Park
  • Subscribe
  • Film Festival
  • Store
  • Cart (0)
  • (0)
  • Account

Sorry there are no results, please try searching for something else

Please Use the search box on the left to search the site.

Search Results:

News

Issue 467 – Out Now!

In the new issue of STARBURST we look forward to ...

News

THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER Makes Two New Additions

With Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier ...

News

Jonathan Entwistle to Direct New POWER RANGERS Movie

Ready for another attempt at bringing the Power ...

reviews

SUPEREPIC: THE ENTERTAINMENT WAR

SUPEREPIC: THE ENTERTAINMENT WAR / DEVELOPER: ...

reviews

THE MANY LIVES OF JAMES BOND

THE MANY LIVES OF JAMES BOND / AUTHOR: MARK EDLITZ ...

News

STARBURST Film Festival Announces First Guest and Movies

We’re delighted to announce the first guest and ...

reviews

ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD

ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD / CERT: 18 / ...

News

THE MATRIX 4 Adds SENSE8’s Toby Onwumere

Hot on the heels of Mindhunter’s Jonathan Groff ...

News

Thomas Lennon is SUPERGIRL’s New Mr. Mxyzptlk…

In some fun news for Supergirl fans, Mr. Mxyzptlk ...

trailers

RESIDENT EVIL 3: NEMESIS

Developer & Publisher: CAPCOM Platform: ...

News

Horror Channel Announces Stranger Fears Season for January

As we reach a new year, things are getting retro ...

Reviews | Written by Paul Mount 18/06/2012

Book Review: TIME’S LAST GIFT

Time's Last Gift Review

Book Review: Time's Last Gift / Author: Phillip Jose Farmer / Publisher: Titan Books / Release Date: 22 June

Superficially Phillip Jose Farmer’s 1972 novel Time’s Last Gift, another of Titan Books’ excellent and thoughtful programme of Farmer reprints, is an absorbing and stately time travel story. However Farmer fans familiar with the broader sweep of the author’s work will recognise the book as falling into his famous Wold Newton Universe series and the book is generally accepted to be a prequel to Farmer’s Gods of Opar.

In Time’s Last Gift a scientific expedition from 2070 travels back to 12,000 BC, the furthest point back in time their technology will allow them to voyage, to investigate and chronicle the ancient Magdalenian culture. The four scientists - led by the mysterious and charismatic John Gribardsun - quickly fall in with a primitive tribe who, not surprisingly, regard them as Gods. The scientists are in it for the long haul; they’re due to spend four years in the past and as time goes on they not only ingratiate themselves with the tribe and its customs, their own weaknesses and secrets are exposed, conflicts and jealousies flare up. It also seems that there’s more to Gribardsun, who adapts to his new environment and his way of life with remarkable ease, than the others might have suspected.

If, like me, you’re largely unfamiliar with Farmer’s Wold Newton series and the complexities of the characters and the chronology they present, it might be best just to enjoy Time’s Last Gift as a languid, thought-provoking time travel yarn rather than struggle to make sense of the paradoxes thrown up by the machinations of Gribardsun which are, thankfully, made a little clearer by the addition of the detailed afterword ‘Gribardsun Through the Ages’. Gribardsun is, in fact, none other than Tarzan, Lord Greystoke (TLG - Time’s Last Gift) and Gribardsun has worked his way - by both fair means and foul - into the time travel expedition, with the intention of staying behind when the exhibition returns home, using a 21st century rejuvenation process to keep himself alive across the ages.

Beyond all this though, Time’s Last Gift depicts its futuristic time travellers/explorers almost as dispassionate observers, accepted by the tribe and other locals they encounter, without really accepting them. Apart from Gribardsun who has his own agenda, the others have to deal with the psychological effects of living for four years in the distant past, their own personal demons and the brutal, savage lifestyle they find themselves having to adjust to. Time’s Last Gift doesn’t blind us with science - Farmer’s own preference for pulpy SF means that 21st century time travel just requires “enormous amounts of energy” and the time vessel has “dials” and “instrument panels.” Farmer’s not interested in how his characters get to the past, he wants to tell us what they find when they get there and how they come to terms with it and how it affects them.

Time’s Last Gift may ultimately frustrate those not familiar with the mythology it’s clearly part of but there’s enough going on here to satisfy those just looking for an old-fashioned time travel adventure which, if never hugely exciting or packed with jeopardy, is rarely dull but always immensely readable and entertaining.


Reviews you may like

Read More

reviews | 14/12/2019

THE MANY LIVES OF JAMES BOND

THE MANY LIVES OF JAMES BOND / AUTHOR: MARK EDLITZ / PUBLISHER: THE LYONS ...

View Article Read More

Share

reviews | 8/12/2019

THE ANDROMEDA EVOLUTION

THE ANDROMEDA EVOLUTION / AUTHOR: DANIEL H. WILSON / PUBLISHER: HARPER / ...

View Article Read More

Share

  • THE MANY LIVES OF JAMES BOND

    THE MANY LIVES OF JAMES BOND / AUTHOR: MARK EDLITZ / PUBLISHER: THE LYONS PRESS / RELEASE DATE: 1ST JANUARY There is something inherentl...

    Read More
  • THE ANDROMEDA EVOLUTION

    THE ANDROMEDA EVOLUTION / AUTHOR: DANIEL H. WILSON / PUBLISHER: HARPER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW To celebrate five decades since Michael C...

    Read More

© STARBURST Magazine - all rights reserved

  • Contact
  • Privacy