Time's Last Gift (Wold Newton Prehistory)

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Time's Last Gift (Khokarsa #1)

3.49 of 5 stars 3.49 · rating details · 134 ratings · 21 reviews

Three men and a woman onboard a timeship travel from 2070 AD to 12,000 BC - a journey that could never be repeated. For the passengers, all anthropologists, it was a once-in-a-million-lifetimes expedition... a chance to study primitive man as modern man never could. But none of them was prepared for what they would discover - or for the impact of their travels in a time th...more

Paperback, 208 pages

Published June 12th 2012 by Titan Books (first published January 1972)

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Jul 29, 2012 Monique Snyman rated it 4 of 5 stars

The year is 2070 A.D. when John Gribardsun assembles a team of highly trained scientists who then travels back in time to the year 12,000 B.C. to learn about the Magdalenian culture. It’s now or never to travel back to that time and the scientists have a lot riding on their shoulders for this expedition, but the scientists seem more focused on the enigmatic leader… Gribardsun is much more at ease when it comes to adapting to the native’s primitive ways and frankly it seems almost as though he be...more The year is 2070 A.D. when John Gribardsun assembles a team of highly trained scientists who then travels back in time to the year 12,000 B.C. to learn about the Magdalenian culture. It’s now or never to travel back to that time and the scientists have a lot riding on their shoulders for this expedition, but the scientists seem more focused on the enigmatic leader… Gribardsun is much more at ease when it comes to adapting to the native’s primitive ways and frankly it seems almost as though he belongs in those surroundings. Then again, what they don’t know is that John Gribardsun is no stranger to living in harsh conditions.

Time’s Last Gift by Philip Jose Farmer is what many will deem the ultimate time travel novel, which is filled with sci-fi, history and an amazing amount of creativity. A whole alternative history is created whilst keeping the historical facts practically sound and still we have a wonderfully written novel that will keep sci-fi readers intrigued from the beginning to the end. Our hero, John Gribardsun is no ordinary human being too, a loveable character nevertheless, he’s got a hidden history, which is further explained in Tarzan Alive which is also written by author Philip Jose Farmer and other sources. Titan Books re-released this spectacular piece of literature, which inspired an almost cult following of fans who are all obsessed with the life and times of John Gribardsun. We have an in depth timeline that also gives the reader an indication of the adventures that Gribardsun faces throughout his travels through the ages, which will help the reader to understand the historical references and the like that is introduced in Time’s Last Gift.

Time’s Last Gift has a lot of redeeming qualities to it for the reader that is unsure of embarking on a sci-fi novel. We have a lot of creativity and yet Farmer is able to explain in depth about an era that is often only described in archaeological findings (and usually with a lot less entertaining aspects, which scholars often deem unnecessary). However, don’t think that you won’t find any errors in this novel either. If you’re a close reader, you will notice a handful of editorial mistakes that may make the sentences a little unclear, but it won’t hinder the strong plot in any way.

Personally, I’ve found Time’s Last Gift fun, dramatic and incredibly entertaining. There’s a lot of imagination that went into creating the storyline and even more research that went into keeping the facts accurate. So, from a personal perspective, I will definitely advice anyone to read this novel to get a better feel to history, creativity and the like. Anyone can expect something wonderful from a Nebula Award-winning author and Time’s Last Gift won’t disappoint.

(Originally posted at http://www.killeraphrodite.com/2012/0... )(less)

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Jul 24, 2012 Random Jordan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Time travel is one of those long sought-after pieces of science fiction that most everyone loves. Some of the most famous science fiction pieces have time travel in them or is central to them, like Doctor Who or Star Trek. So it really shouldn't be any surprise that I'd eventually dig my nails in to a time-travel centric piece like an oldie but a renewie - Time's Last Gift by Philip Jose Farmer.

This book had originally been published well before I was ever born, but was re-released with Titan P...more Time travel is one of those long sought-after pieces of science fiction that most everyone loves. Some of the most famous science fiction pieces have time travel in them or is central to them, like Doctor Who or Star Trek. So it really shouldn't be any surprise that I'd eventually dig my nails in to a time-travel centric piece like an oldie but a renewie - Time's Last Gift by Philip Jose Farmer.

This book had originally been published well before I was ever born, but was re-released with Titan Publishing lately. It tells the tale of John Gribardsun (Don't even ask me how to pronounce that) and a bunch of his little peons as they travel back in time from the 21st century to 12,000 BCE. There's a lot I could honestly say about this short novel, but I'd rather keep most of that to myself as they are largely my personal opinions on what could have been done better with this re-release.

The truth is, I was actually rather disappointed with this book, especially considering this comes from the same writer who had done the Riverworld series, which many people might recognize from SyFy a while back. The book itself was filled with errors that although minor and jarring from the story was rather strange to see for a re-release. But the story itself was rather well done, if anything I could get behind the story being told, once I managed to get past the first forty pages or so. That's something to be expected though, and generally why I have a much harder time reading books before the 1990s since most books before then never actually really get into the functioning and world creating story until forty pages into a book. So I won't hold that against Farmer.

My particular amusement with this novel largely came from two aspects. The first of which was a shaman in the story that they met who made the universal rock-on sign, with middle fingers and thumb closed into a fist and pinky and pointer finger extended. I was laughing at that, just for the simple notion of seeing this highly painted man with a bone rattle making the rocker sign, apparently shamans were the first rock stars. It fits, considering all the dancing and singing they would do.

The second amusement came well past the end of the book, with the inclusion of the epilogue and also all the little tales about the main character's adventures from 12,000 BCE to 1982. Oh yes, the main character 'Gribardsun' certainly managed to live that long. It was from this epilogue and the ending that you discover that not only is Gribardsun actually Tarzan originally, which I absolutely love when people extend upon already established characters like Tarzan who came from the same author to do the John Carter series. But then you discover that apparently Tarzan is all of our ancestors numerous times over from the amount of children he had and was also Terah the father of Abraham (From the old testaments of the Bible).

Normally I hate giving away the endings to a novel, and I haven't actually given away the real ending to the novel, but if I hadn't gone to this particular area, I would have been hard pressed to actually find worth while things to talk about with this book. Many of the characters, even the main one Gribardsun had no real substance to them, other than Gribardsun was a 'mysterious' man with a strange past. The only character I thoroughly enjoyed in this novel was a native of 12,000 BCE, a cave-girl named Laminak. And of course, she was also one of the characters to die in the novel which I hated so much, but because I hated it, it showed how well Farmer had managed to at least tell a story, since I had been largely wanting Laminak to end up with Gribardsun.

I won't deny there was clearly definitely good story in this, but the large majority of the novel felt like filler and that was with also the notion that the writing style was very much like summarizing everything in the same context that I use when I write a short story. There were many areas were conversations were just mentioned rather than actually happening on the pages right before you with quotes. Really, this novel should have either been pulled out more to be a full novel story, or shortened down to a simple short story. Instead it sits somewhere between a novel and a novella with plenty of information not even needed. I got more out of the Afterword notes at the end of the novel than I really did throughout the whole book.

I'd still at the very least recommend this book to people who particularly enjoy time-travel type works, or even historical fiction. I'd more likely call this piece historical fiction than science fiction, but because of the time travel aspect it holds well to science fiction. If you don't like those particular things then this novel is going to be difficult to push through unfortunately. The characters themselves tell a story better than the characters actually showing a story unfold. More story came out of five pages of one character telling another character about the story of Gribardsun than entire chapters of this book.

It seemed a lot like Farmer had been trying to write an epic, accounting the tales of Tarzan much in the same way Greeks used to account the tales of Heracles. And although I think it did a decent job, it could have been so much better. There was so much potential in this book and I always hate to see wasted potential. (less)

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Jul 19, 2012 Andy Love rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction-fantasy

There's a lot of good in this short novel about an expedition of time travelers studying humanity circa 12,000 B.C. but after setting up a consistent time travel scenario throughout the book (the time-travelers need not worry about changing the past, because the past is unchangeable - anything that they do in the past is what always happened in the past (physicists who believe time travel is possible generally accept this principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novikov_...))), Farmer then contra...more

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Oct 07, 2011 Horse N. rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book had a lot of potential. I love time travel stories and I love history. From the description, I was hoping that this would be a team of scientists who visit many time periods for scientific study. While that was the premise, this book only described one such study. At the end, Farmer just told you how the other expeditions worked out. I think it would have been much more interesting to write books about the other expeditions, but I guess that's just my opinion.

The only thing about the s...more

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May 21, 2011 Robert rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of Farmer and ER Burroughs

Time's Last Gift is most likely my favorite of all Philip Jose Farmer's books. The basic story tells of a time machine has been sent back to 12,000 B.C., the farthest time possible to send back the machine. The four scientists sent in the time machine have to deal with not only the fact that they become far too involved with the tribe of early humans, but with their own interpersonal relationships. Key to the book is that the leader, John Gribardsun, not only becomes the center of the both his f...more

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Jun 05, 2009 Marjorie Snook rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a fun book, and I enjoyed it, but it really just needed to be a short story. Like so many science fiction concepts, it was a bit of a one-twist story that works excellent in short fiction but has a big, pointless middle at novel length.

One of the reasons Ray Bradbury is a master of science fiction is that he recognized this fact and most often just stuck with the short story. Short stories are an art form all their own that are just as worthy as novels, but since they are harder to make...more

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Dec 30, 2010 Adam Moore rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 28, 2012 Tara Gross rated it 2 of 5 stars

While I certainly suggest that fans of Farmer or time travel novels in general check out the new Titan Books edition of Time's Last Gift - mainly for the enlightening Afterward and Timeline that are included - as a whole the story was not my cup of tea. See my full review at http://ageeksaga.blogspot.com/2012/07...

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Jul 16, 2012 John rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Probably my favorite Phil Farmer novel (followed closely by the Opar novels, "The Peerless Peer," "Escape From Loki" and "The Dark Heart Of Time"). In my humble opinion anyone who reads this one and comes away not caring for it or not understanding it either didn't read it carefully or has lost their sense of wonder.

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May 02, 2013 Thom rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Starts off as a culture exploration novel, transitions to something like The Man from Earth (a highly recommended movie incidentally). The middle section is a little rough; the hints are all dropped towards the end instead of being sprinkled around. It also feels quite rushed - the first third of the book moves at a pretty slow pace comparatively.

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Jul 27, 2011 Erroll Treslan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This one is real treat if you appreciate Philip Jose Farmer and/or enjoy well written science fiction that delves into time travel. I found this gem while browsing in a bookstore in London, Ontario and I highly recommend it.

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Feb 28, 2013 Alex Constantinescu rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-have

those 2 stars are 1.5. It's hard to think that a story about immortality and time travel together could be boring. This book does that. It takes its main character and put him up on a pedestal where only he is right. The characters around him know something is not right but they love him so much that they let it slide as if it does not matter. And the book makes a villain out of the guy that could see mos clearly that the guy was fucked up. Also the epilogue just shits on the entire science of t...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Charlotte rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

loved this book!First time-travel novel I've read that made sense to me!

My complete review is here!

http://dnmmagazine.com/2012/07/12/tim...

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Nov 08, 2011 Katie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2005

I think this was about a time-travelling anthropologist. I know that I thought the Riverworld series was a whole lot better.

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Dec 30, 2012 David rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: dnf, passion-pop

Not looking good as at page 50. Bugger, as I liked many of his books. Wonder if this is one that has been re released to get a few more rupees into the family trust treasure chest.
Gave up. What a disappointment. Its just too unbelievable

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May 07, 2012 Peter rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: alternate-history, time-travel, science-fiction

Frustrating - good read but could have been much more

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Jun 13, 2010 Travis rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: manly-literature, sf-fantasy, the-farmerverse

The first working time machine sends a team of four back to when mammoths roamed the world. Dealing with this primitive world as well as tensions within the group, make for a dramatic bit of adventure.

Then Farmer gets cute and throws in a little twist that ties into some of his other books.

One of Farmers more straightforward adventure books.

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Mar 16, 2011 Babete rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

( Tempo Suspenso )

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Jan 13, 2012 John rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Grade B.

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Jan 17, 2013 Shafeeq rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

You really need to get to the end.. This book is a revelation in its self.. The ending is thought provoking ..

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Jul 13, 2012 Peter Telck rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Needed a bad book to read before bed.

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May 15, 2013 Leoncio Sánchez is currently reading it · review of another edition

May 06, 2013 Daisy marked it as to-read · review of another edition

May 15, 2013 Hank marked it as to-read · review of another edition

May 01, 2013 Becky marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Apr 20, 2013 Jacqueline O. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction

Apr 18, 2013 Alberto López Aroca rated it 5 of 5 stars

Apr 15, 2013 Gregory rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Apr 11, 2013 Charles Fractional rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Apr 13, 2013 Lian Tanner added it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, did-not-finish

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About Philip José Farmer

Philip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories. He was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, but spent much of his life in Peoria, Illinois.

Farmer is best known for his Riverworld series and the earlier World of Tiers series. He is noted for his use of sexual and religious themes in his work, his fascination for and reworking of th...more

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Time's Last Gift (Khokarsa #1)

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