Book Review: Survivor, By Robert Steele Gray

Last night I started a new book, Survivor, by Robert Steele Gray. It was selected by my wife with utterly random abandon. “What book should I read next?” I asked her in bed. “Third shelf down, third book from the left.”

Hm. Okay… might as well…

So I picked it up and dug in. Here’s the blurb from the back cover:

“Mark Lewellyn is an overweight, forty-something couch potato leading a life dominated by computers, television, and an array of other electronic gadgets: in other words, the typical modern man. Incredibly, while out in a rainstorm, Mark is struck by twin lightning bolts that steal him from his lazy suburban slumber and propel him back into stone-age America. The absence of today’s modern conveniences proves to be the least of Mark’s troubles, as he’s forced to confront the very essence of life: basic survival.

Suddenly he faces buffalo herds, bears, floods, primitive villagers, and warring Indian tribes. This is not only a thrilling adventure story, but also the fascinating account of a “nobody” lost in a modern anonymity who learns what it really means to be a man.”

The story is far-fetched, but I still liked the premise. A guy on the run in prehistoric times? I’m there! Battling dinosaurs, fighting the elements and terrain… yowza! Gray did a great job starting straight out of the gate, and by page 3 the guy’s been zapped. No time wasted building everything up or nothin’ (which could be a good or a bad thing, depending on what kind of novels you like…).

But then it kinda bogged down after a few more pages, shifting in viewpoint from Mark’s struggles to his wife & kid’s lives back in modern day Texas. And, alas, not a dinosaur in sight. (At least, not that I found when I started speed-browsing after page 40…) So I’m afraid it’s going to the Paperback Swap list for someone else to snatch up.

Again, though, great premise. Nice to see wild plots still get published these days…

Kevin