The reviews for the author's work are all over the place, for instance, someone complained about the time sequences being “all over the place” in this book about time travel. As my children would say, DUH! In fairness there are others which say, wake up this guy can write, try him you should like it, if you like science fiction. I guess I'm squarely in this camp. Got to find more by the author if for no other reason than to see if he keeps up the excellent quality of his work. Once again, thanks to NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to find this work, reviewing it is a small price to pay for the enjoyment provided by reading. ( )

It has been a long time since I have dipped my toe into the pool of science fiction so I was excited to get started. I had just signed up for NetGalley and basically requested to read one of the first books that I found in the science fiction category. I was immediately given access. Uh oh...did I just choose a loser book that I was now required to review so that I could read better books?!? I began a search for reviews of his books to see what I had gotten myself into.

What I discovered is that he has written several books, a few of which had zero reviews or ratings, with the remainder of the books having very few. The book with the largest number of ratings and reviews was The Far Side of Silence which was reviewed or rated by less than 40 people. Those people seemed to like it though as it had a 4.29 average on Goodreads and 4.5 on Amazon.

Why aren't his books being read? Do people think that an oncologist can't write good fiction?

WAKE UP PEOPLE! This book is worth reading. No piece of junk here lurking for unknowing bibliophiles. This was a book that rapidly gained my attention and kept it. I found it to be a quick read, as in I finished it in a day because I didn't want to stop reading it. It had some great action and some twists and turns. Best of all, it lives in a unique space and time that is not crowded by everyone else's already done to death ideas.

The characters were engaging. My absolute favorite was Genghis Kahn, described as "a fat, ugly registered purebred bulldog who was over seventeen years old." Why was a dog my favorite? Probably because he is brave and completely stubborn. Read the book and I bet he will be your fav too.

FYI - I love science fiction but am completely and totally clueless about the science part. So I must leave it to you to determine whether any of it is accurate or not. I did mention that the author is an oncologist right? I bet he knows a bit about science. While I did recognize one or two of the terms floating around (I got DNA!) there is no doubt that the science involved is WAY over my head, so it should definitely mean something to those of you that love the science over the fiction part. I love that I don't understand all of the science. It just shows how much smarter the characters are than me so they have to be heroes, and they are. My only semi-spoiler...they save the world folks!

Now just a friendly warning. Begin this book after a restful sleep and a full stomach. You will be reminded, maybe more than necessary, that the protagonist doesn't get much of either.

To recap, this is a book that is definitely worth reading. I'm signing off now in order to seek out another of his books and curl up for a good read.

For all of my reviews please see my blog at: https://blessedandbewildered.wordpress.com ( )

The title, “House of the Last Man on Earth” sounded intriguing but ultimately had no real significance to the outcome of the story. Richard is a struggling college student whose life begins to unravel when he discovers a gate to another dimension in his neighbor’s bathroom and enters it. There he discovers a lone house on a hill. He realizes the location is the same area where he currently lives, Boulder, CO, but sometime in the distant future. He begins to investigate more about his neighbor, Thaddeus Rumpkin or the Ghoul as he refers to him, and finds that he has been doing genetic experimentations. He convinces a colleague of the Ghoul, Sam, to travel through the gate with him; after one unsuccessful attempt and much convincing they try again and find themselves in the future. On this journey they are also accompanied by Summer, Sam’s sister and also Richard’s math theory professor whom he is infatuated with. They meet a man, Tao Benrobi, in the house that convinces them the Ghoul needs to be stopped because his genetic testing is what ultimately causes the destruction of mankind. Together they try to stop him but eventually discover that Benrobi not the Ghoul is the one they should be trying to stop. They end up going through a wormhole to save their lives but find themselves in a battle in space where they run again into the Ghoul. Here, they realize their mistake in trusting Benrobi and together with the Ghoul they begin to fight their way back to present Earth in hopes that they can save mankind. The book jumped all over from present to future from space to Earth, it’s almost as if every idea the author had he was trying to fit it all into one book. ( )