Smorgasbord Bookshelf – Summer Book Fair 2022 – First in Series – #Dystopian Terry Tyler, #Prehistoric Jacqui Murray

Over the course of the next three months I will be sharing the authors who feature in the Smorgasbord Bookshelf with the books that I have reviewed and can personally recommend.

In this first part of the summer fair, I am sharing books that are the first in a series in both adult and children’s books along with one of their five star reviews. I hope that this will encourage you to enjoy the series in full. I will feature every author on the shelves by the end of the summer. I hope you will enjoy.

The first book today is the first in the dystopian Renova Series, Tipping Point by Terry Tyler. A gripping look at the aftermath of a virus that has devastated both population and its humanity. I can highly recommend all the books in the series.

About the book

‘I didn’t know danger was floating behind us on the breeze as we walked along the beach, seeping in through the windows of our picture postcard life.’

Year 2024. New social networking site Private Life bursts onto the scene. Across the world, a record number of users sign up.A deadly virus is discovered in a little known African province, and it’s spreading—fast. The UK announces a countrywide vaccination programme. Members of underground group Unicorn believe the disease to be man-made – and that Private Life might not be as private as it claims.

Vicky Keating’s boyfriend, Dex, is working for Unicorn over two hundred miles away when the first UK outbreak is detected in her home town of Shipden, on the Norfolk coast. The town is placed under military controlled quarantine and, despite official assurances that there is no need for panic, within days the virus is unstoppable.

As the country descends into chaos, there are scores to be settled further north….

One of the excellent reviews for the book.

Jeanette Reeve 5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely gripping!  Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 January 2021

Gripping! An excellent page turner , especially under the present climate with COVID-19 on the rampage.

Vicky wonders if her boyfriend Dex is yet another one of those ‘conspiracy theorists’ that you often hear about. The way he goes along with his secrecy. Surely everything he says is too far fetched! Isn’t it?

Then life as everyone knows it changes, rapidly! The virus taking over, soldiers on the streets, looting, violence. Everyone has to fight for themselves now. This cannot be happening.

The characters are just like you and me; normal, down to earth everyday people. It is easy to become part of this story and I found myself absorbed like water into a sponge at every turn of the page.

Terry Tyler is so good at what she does, she writes with depth and complete understanding of how each character and each situation will evolve and she takes the reader with her every step of the way! Absolutely brilliantly written. I am now going to start on part 2 of the Renova series……and I cannot wait!

These words ring very true and say it all ‘Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they’ll believe it.’ 

Read the reviews and buy the book: Amazon UK – And: Amazon US

A small selection of other books by Terry Tyler

Read the reviews and buy the books:Amazon UK – And : Amazon US – Follow Terry Tyler: Goodreads – Blog: Terry Tyler Blogspot – Twitter:@TerryTyler4

About Terry Tyler

I am self-published and proud to be so, and have twenty-two books on Amazon. My latest release is Where There’s Doubt, a psychological drama about a romance scammer and his victims. Other recent releases include Megacity, the final part in the dystopian Operation Galton trilogy – the follow-up to Hope and Wasteland – and The Visitor, a post-apocalyptic murder mystery set in the same world as my Project Renova series, but a separate story, with new characters.

Brewing in my mind I have another virus series (3 novellas, I think), another psych drama, and a dystopian stand-alone. Not sure which one to write next!

I’m a Walking Dead addict; I love watching great TV series, and reading anything to do with history, post apocalypse, dystopian scenarios, anthropology, mountaineering and polar exploration.

Favourite writers: Gemma Lawrence, Kate Mary, Blake Crouch, Deborah Swift, Carol Hedges, Douglas Kennedy, John Boyne, Deborah Moggach, Judith Arnopp, Mark Barry, Jon Krakauer, Phillipa Gregory, Robert Leigh, John Privilege, Dylan Morgan, Kate Atkinson, Norah Lofts, Dorothy Parker, Bill Bryson, PJ O’Rourke, Ann Swinfen, Keith Blackmore, Frank Tayell.

I have enjoyed all the books by Jacqui Murray I have read and if you enjoy the books by Jean M. Auel you will enjoy them too. They are wonderfully researched and draw you back in time to the beginnings of man and the challenges humankind faced in a hostile world. Today I am featuring the first in the Crossroads Trilogy – Survival of the Fittest

About the book

Five tribes. One leader. A treacherous journey across three continents in search of a new home. Written in the spirit of Jean Auel, Survival of the Fittest is an unforgettable saga of hardship and determination, conflict and passion.

Chased by a ruthless enemy, Xhosa leads her People on a grueling journey through unknown and dangerous lands following a path laid out decades before by her father, to be followed only as a last resort. She is joined by other fleeing tribes from Indonesia, China, South Africa, East Africa, and the Levant, all similarly forced by timeless events to find new lives. As they struggle to overcome treachery, lies, tragedy, secrets, and Nature itself, Xhosa is forced to face the reality that her enemy doesn’t want to ruin her People. It wants to ruin her.

The story is set 850,000 years ago, a time in prehistory when man populated most of Eurasia, where ‘survival of the fittest’ was not a slogan. It was a destiny. Xhosa’s People were from a violent species, one fully capable of addressing the many hardships that threatened their lives except for one: future man, a smarter version of themselves, one destined to obliterate all those who came before.

One of the many wonderful reviews for the book

Mike Billington author of Murder in the Rainy SeasonTop Contributor: Star Trek

VINE VOICE  5.0 out of 5 stars A unique heroine for a unique time  Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2020

I am not normally a fan of prehistoric literature simply because most of it that I have read in the past suffers from a lack of research.As a result, the stories are what you might call “too modern” in their plots and storylines. They fail to capture, in other words, the brutal truths of life at a time when humans were both predator and prey… and more often prey.

“Survival of the Fittest” does not make that mistake. It is well researched and author Jacqui Murray does an excellent job of capturing the harsh realities of life at a time when homo sapiens were emerging as the dominant human species, much to the detriment of those “other” humans they shared the planet with.

Xhosa, the leader of a tribe of those “other” humans is something of a rarity among her species. Generally, women were relegated to gathering food and caring for children. She, however, is taller than most men in her tribe, fast on her feet, fearless, and strong. She is also smart. When her tribe of homo erectus people are threatened by homo sapiens she realizes early on that it is all but suicidal to stand and fight for their traditional homeland.

The newcomers are too numerous and have superior weapons. As a result, she leads her people in search of a new land.

She is joined on her journey by other tribes of homo erectus people who have been forced out by the newcomers, which she refers to as “Big Heads,” and together they keep searching for a safe place to live.

Murray has a dramatic writing style. By that I mean she does not shy away from the brutality of that time in human history. She also makes good use of description, putting the reader in the time and place where Xhosa and her tribe live. The narrative remains consistent throughout the novel, by which I mean one event follows another in a logical order. Although there are many characters, Murray does not shortchange any of them. If they are included in this novel, they are all well developed.

This is the first novel in a trilogy and, although I am not normally a fan of this kind of literature, I have become a fan of Xhosa and her companions. As a result, I will read the next two novels in the series.

I can’t give a stronger recommendation than that.  

Read the reviews and buy the book: Amazon US – And: Amazon UK

A selection of books by Jacqui Murray

Read the reviews and buy the books: Amazon US – And: Amazon UK – Follow Jacqui: goodreads – Blog: Worddreams – Twitter: @WordDreams

About Jacqui Murray

Jacqui Murray is the webmaster for Worddreams, her blog about all things writing. She is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy, the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers, and the upcoming prehistoric fiction, Born in a Treacherous Time. She is also the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, webmaster for Ask a Tech Teacher an Amazon Vine Voice a columnist for TeachHUB, monthly contributor to Today’s Author, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics.

 

Thanks for dropping in today and I hope you will be leaving with some books.. Sally.