Heather’s Bookshelf: The Lazarus Taxa
Author: Lindsey Kinsella
Released: 01/03/22
Genre: Adult SciFi/Time Travel
“This is the next frontier, Mr. Starley. Not some mountain in Bhutan, not the poles or the desert or the jungle. Not even space…but time. Fulfil your potential. Join my team and make history.”
“The Lazarus Taxa” introduces Sidney “Sid” Starley, an ambitious explorer who finds himself bailed out by Richard Mansa, owner of the Genesis corporation. Richard proposes Sid join his expedition back to the Cretaceous period. Though a little apprehensive, Sid agrees to join the rest of his team after meeting Lazarus, a Leptoceratops.
Arriving safely in the Cretaceous Period, Sid and his team setup camp. There’s Dian, the paleontologist, Kiara the doctor/scientist, and Alexei the muscle/security lead. They encounter creatures—-both majestic and terrifying, but also come across things that shouldn’t exist in that era. Working together, they soon realize Mansa hasn’t been forthcoming with what came before them.
They quickly find themselves in danger from expected and unexpected predators. Will Sid and his team be able to make it out of the Cretaceous in one piece?
Trigger Warning: violence, death, murder, animal poaching
Overall, I enjoyed this story. It’s a time travel novel involving dinosaurs, so it gets pretty violent at times but is not gratuitous. The time travel element is explained as “Avengers rules rather than Back to the Future rules”, which I thought was perfect for the ease of the story. I wish the tale would have included pictures of the dinosaurs as their descriptions were important and many were less known (at least to me). The first two-thirds of the novel felt intriguing with a little bit of mystery about what exactly was going on, but when the background and answers were revealed I found it a little convoluted and underwhelming. No spoilers…but I didn’t feel as emotionally connected to many of the main characters as I should have. The lead character of Sid was likable with a chip on his shoulder that was dismissably explained and related to a learning disorder but not really delved into. His team was similarly characterized- more told of their strengths and flaws than shown. Their traits were interesting concepts, but didn’t really translate into their behaviors—-contributing to a lack of emotional connection. The highlight of this tale was, of course, the scenes with the dinosaurs. Absolutely terrifying and full of tension, I kept flipping more pages to see what would happen. The ending was satisfying, setting up future stories if desired while wrapping up the current book as one complete tale.
I received a copy of this story in exchange of a fair and honest review.
OVERALL REVIEW:
A tension-filled time travel involving a team of explorers/scientists and dinosaurs. Unfortunately the dinosaurs stood out much more than the humans.
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