"Unique Time Travel Saga"
New Mexico 1997:
After ten years a gifted and once idealistic young man
finds himself in a dead end government job. Phil Nelson has
been virtually pushed into obscurity by his more aggressive
coworkers. All that is about to change. The young
cryptographer had cracked the code which would make the
CSAW (Crystal Ship Alien Wave Front) operational. The alien
ship had been the only one to survive relatively undamaged,
a multi-crash in the desert half of a century earlier. It
was a closely guarded secret. Once the code was broken,
Phil had made a startling discovery. Not only can the ship
be move through space, it could move through time. Phil was
well on the way to personal fortune, if he didn't get
caught. Phil would travel into the past, sell the technology to an
interested party. He would make his fortune and return the
ship to his present before it was missed. He had chosen the
perfect candidate for the purchase, Ziggy Zurn, CEO of the
Cleveland based Rockit Corporation. Phil's destination is
1989, where he will offer Zurn the opportunity to change
tragic events which had resulted in the death of his one
true love some twenty years prior. Zurn jumps at the opportunity, but his second in command,
Jon Paul Shay, is a bit more cautious. He suggests a
personal trip to the future, mid twenty first century, to
see if the results of Zurn's venture would significantly
change the course of the future. Zurn agrees, but is too
impatient to wait for testing. Shay embarks on a trip to
the future with no real idea of how the journey will affect
him. Quebec, Canada 2063
Ironically in his quest to restore Ziggy's happiness, Jon,
here known as Carter Georges, meets the love of his own
life. Unfortunately future time travel seems to have
drawbacks. Carter, aka JPS is yanked back into the past
without warning, leaving his beautiful young fiancee' alone
and expecting. Jon's backward journey takes place in two stages. His first
stop is in 2030 where he sets into motion events that will
affect the rest of his life. Returning to 1989 he learns
that subsequent testing has proven that any return to the
future would be deadly for him. In fact the trip he's taken
may have already jeopardized his health. He is broken
hearted but is determined to get a message to his love at
some point in the future to let her know what had happened. Meanwhile in 2087 another young man, by the name of Carson
Shay stands by helplessly as a mysterious and debilitating
disease threatens the life of his surrogate mother. Denise
aka Neecee, is none other than Jon's lost love. Now nearly
forty, she has never married. She had taken on the raising
of Carson and his sister Jackie when his adoptive parents
had died. Carson considers her to be like a mother. Neecee has a bizarre medication induced dream that gives
her the key to her illness and its only cure. In relating
the dream to Carson, she reveals the truth about his
origins. Carson had never known who his biological parents
had been. The dream and revelation leads Carson to take a
desperate gamble. Aided by his sister Jackie Belue, an
employee of the current Rocket Corporation, Carson uses the
CSAW technology to take an unauthorized trip back to the
year 2005. His destination a Prism University fraternity house located
in Erie, PA. There Carson enlists the help of five
fraternity brothers, all members of a band known as The
Boozygods. Each in turn travel back to various time periods
in order to find two Egyptian porcelain cat figures by the
same name, which contain the medicine that will cure
Denise. As the boys soon learn it is fairly easy to forge a
new identity in the past (readers will be surprised at the
results). If they should find love, so much the better. The Boozygods is Mr. Von Zierenberg's debut novel and the
first book in a series. I do suggest that the reader
reserve a significant amount of leisure time before
beginning this read, due to length and the fact that the
story involves a variety of travelers and settings/time
periods. The POV changes every couple of chapters requiring
a fair amount of concentration, but it all ties together
nicely in the end, with a HEA for at least several
travelers. Still the Boozygods, both cats and boys are
missing in action. Carson has at least one more mission
ahead. The saga continues with The Boozygods Vol. 2, IN
CITY DREAMS. If I had one criticism it would be that the
frequent passages regarding the characters' personal habits
(i.e. coffee, scotch, and cigarettes), which didn't
contribute to the plot, really interrupted the flow of the
story at times. All in all though, it was an interesting
read. Copyright © 2001
Reviewed by Leslie Tramposch
Posted July 4, 2001
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