History of Jur

The Jur novels came about during slow night shifts in France. Around 1965 I was a squad leader for a bunch of Army MPs in Southern France. At night, while working the desk and my patrols were keeping law and order, to pass the time I created plots and characters attempting to write fiction. Nothing became of my interest in writing until 1970, after a tour in the jungle of Vietnam, and those plots came back to me. I wrote the first two novels during that year, and sent the first to publishers. Basically, my main characters were an Army Green Beret and a French archaeologist, who accidentally fall through a time tunnel to the Jurassic Period. When the first novel didn’t go anywhere I set the manuscripts aside. James Reasoner suggested I change the Green Beret and set the beginning after the Stock Market Crash of ’29. The rest is history. The sequence of the novels are: “Jur: A Story of Pre Dawn Earth”, “Savage Land of Jur”, “Lost Land of Jur”, “Queen of Jur”, “Treasure of Jur”, and “Drums of Jur”. "Pangaea: Eden's Planet" actually takes place in the Permian Period, prior to the Jurassic, but it is the story that truly begins the JUR series.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Pangaea: Eden's Planet Reviews

Pangaea: Eden’s Planet Reviews

Marsha Lyons, Co-Author of MURDER: TAKE ONE
5-Stars

If you like your action Jurassic-style, you’ll really enjoy Tom Johnson’s Pangaea. Though technically there are no big dinos (it takes place way before them) there are plenty of lizardy creatures to threaten the hardy group of waylaid astronauts struggling to survive in a lush, but savage environment.
The adventure begins when the team of seven scientists is sent by NASA on a mission to try to colonize Mars after the Earth is devastated by a nuclear war. The ship runs into trouble shortly after lift-off propelling it into an ancient Earth inhabited by prehistoric creatures.
Beyond the “eat or be eaten” thrills, there is also a surprising element- a message of true hope and redemption that lifts the novel from the normal plane of syfy time/space stories.
I would recommend it for adult fans of science fiction and teens over about the age of sixteen, or anyone else (like me) whose usual read is not syfy.

April Kelly, Co-Author of MURDER: TAKE ONE
5-Stars

After half the Earth is destroyed by nuclear war, the surviving scientists at NASA send seven astronauts on a desperate mission to pre-colonize Mars in Tom Johnson's thought-provoking novel.
A time/space incident propels the ship far from its destination, landing the pioneers in a savage environment, which begins claiming lives almost immediately.
As they struggle to survive in a seemingly random hell-scape, the remaining astronauts start to see a larger picture forming...a magnificent potential future requiring effort, ingenuity and personal sacrifice to attain.

The intensity of some scenes of natural violence may at first put off a few readers, but the journey leads to a surprising, uplifting destination and is well worth the trip.
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