Cretaceous Sea

KLIATT

Temporal Transport is offering a unique travel experience to the fabulously wealthy —a trip to the Cretaceous time period to see the dinosaurs firsthand. Paleontology student Rick Clements has signed on as naturalist for the first trip to take John Greighton, his new wife, and daughter, Constance (Con for short) to Montana Isle. Rick and Con soon realize that the people who set up the trip don't know much about time travel, or that the strange moving numbers in the "building" are really counting down to the K-T event, the nine-mile-wide meteor that stuck the earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. Con, Rick, and another man actually survive the K-T event; only Rick and Con make it back to Montana Isle to be picked up by the real time travelers from Earth's distant future. The time travelers have to decide if Rick and Con need to be eliminated so they do not alter history. In the end, they are sent to 1878 as Con's eccentric ancestor, Constance Clements. Although it is more than 50 pages before this novel takes off, the ending is a roller coaster ride. There is sexual tension between Rick and Con. He sees her naked while saving her from a mosasaur; at the end, she is pregnant. (This is integral to the plot, since she knows for sure she is meant to become her ancestor when she realizes she is pregnant.) For good readers who enjoy an offbeat, riveting, incredulous tale. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2002, Berkley, Ace, 341p., Hoy