A Pivot in Time

Alien Artifact, Book 2

By: Douglas E. Richards

Narrated by: Dan Bittner

Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Kelly, Justin, and Otto return in a riveting near-future thriller. From the million-copy New York Times best-selling author.

"Richards is an extraordinary writer" (Dean Koontz) who can "keep you turning the pages all night long". (Douglas Preston)

The Enigma Cube is an alien object of unlimited power, with technology that can catapult civilization to dizzying heights - or destroy it entirely. Kelly Connolly and Justin Boyd are determined to wield its power for good. But China has a cube of its own, and its motivations are much less benign....

Otto Richter is an unparalleled genius. To save his own life and reunite with Kelly and Justin in 2027, he's forced to travel back to ancient Rome. But when he arrives things go horribly wrong. Now their reunion can take place only in the past. Worse, he learns that the alien cube plans to meddle with the timeline. To intervene at a point so pivotal, one wrong move by the time travelers could completely obliterate all of modern history.

"Richards is a worthy successor to Michael Crichton." (SF Book dot com)

Near-future science fiction thriller by Douglas E. Richards

©2020 Douglas E. Richards (P)2020 Audible, Inc.

we'll have you listening at all times during the d

I like the story arc for part one and part two the character development was great. you actually felt like you cared about the main characters. again this man writes great books and I look forward to reading his next

superior novel by Douglas E. Richards

I really like all of the the novels written by Douglas E Richards, but this and previous novel The Enigma Cube are my absolute favorites. The premise is amazing, the story is superior. I couldn't recommend them more.

Loved it.

Loved it. Makes me think and reminds there is hope in the universe. I always look forward to the authors notes at the end.

Admire the bold choice of plot, but it did not live up to expectations

I like that Richard’s went outside the box here, even being one who believes Christ to be our Savior. We need daring, new ideas so we don’t get the same repeated drivel we often receive in mainstream entertainment that only pushes the envelope with increasingly extreme violence and disturbing concepts. So Richards did great with such a move IMO.
My issue is it fell flat. No major details as to why, that was just my natural reaction.
Additionally, I want to add one sincere critique to Richard’s writing, and I’d love if he saw this critique, there is too much telling/explaining by the characters about events happening within the story. Show don’t tell. Lay the events out piece by piece in a variety of ways. There is too much long unnatural conversation between characters about how they did something in the story, or the antagonist explaining forever (and unnecessarily might I add) how he outsmarted/outwitted the protagonists. Can’t you show us how Richard’s?
I really like your concepts and ideas but your stories would greatly improve if you’d work to improve this.
Thank you.

Another fantastic read, or in my case a listen.

I really like this series, for two reasons. The first being that Richard's great use of time and not confusing the storyline. The second if you can include Christ in a sci-fi and make it a good story, you've done a great job.

Really great read!

I really enjoyed Book 1 and dint realized that I was going to like book 2 even more. Every time I had a free moment, I would listen to this audio book, That is how much I like it. Hopefully the Author will have a book 3 out soon.

Nonstop

I couldn’t put it down it was nonstop from beginning to end very well written historically very fun

Dan Bittner does a very compelling read.

Richard's novels are well researched.
He does stumble upon things that he doesn't know about. Like "gut feeling".

Daring Topics Well Executed

Using Christianity and Jesus Christ himself as the basis for a science fiction plot is not for the faint of heart. But, Douglas E. Richards does a brilliant job of it.

Children's book with adult language

The book, and the other 2 I have read by the author, tend to have the feel of a children's book with adult language rather than being an adult book.

There's not one singular thing that does this, but rather several small, but consistent, items. Every character spouts exposition in excruciating detail in every "conversation" to the point that none of it sounds real and all of them have the same quasi-narrator perspective/voice. Not only does this blurring of characters not allow for characters to differentiate themselves, but inherently prevents them from ever having the possibility to grow. This is only exacerbated by the content of the conversations themselves, given that most adults know what sex, love, and relationships are and don't need it spelled out for them everytime characters interact. There just isn't any subtext in any interaction, conversation, or dictated note.

The singular nature of the entire cast of characters.. or rather singular natures of all of the protagonists and all of the antagonists.. is either a result of the lack of subtext and extremity of exposition or is a cause of it, I'm not sure which. Regardless, it gets old.. particularly when modus operandis are established based on faulty/no research and then pounded into the ground every 20 minutes.