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A review by heather4994
Mammoth Trouble by D. Robert Pease
5.0
I loved this story! It was fresh and fast paced and as the title tells you it's based loosely on Noah's Ark, but this Noah is part of the family Zarc and their spaceship is called the ARC. It's huge, large enough to house ten blue whales in a natural enough habitat that they won't be crowded and elephants on a realistic African savanna. Their mission is to travel through time saving a male and female of each species of every animal so they can repopulate the planet Earth. Earth experienced a cataclysm and all life was destroyed, but that was eons ago and now it is deemed habitable.
Of course, there is an evil man that wants to stop them. People don't need animals anymore as they eat synthetic meat and he doesn't want the Earth to be a zoo. He wants people to live on Earth instead of Venus with it's inhospitable air. So they are in danger whenever they collect their specimens.
But more than being an exciting story about racing through space and saving Earth and animals and trying to beat the bad guy, all of which I'm quite sure children will love, this story is also about family. Noah is very aware of his family and discovers a huge secret about himself during the course of the book. He has to come to terms with it and what it means. A lot of the novel is taken up with him trying to rescue his parents. His siblings take a back seat in the novel but there is no doubt that this family is close knit and love each other first and foremost. It was good to see that tied in to the story so subtly yet feel it's importance to the outcome.
A second book is due out next year and I cannot wait for it!
Robert Pease's writing is easy to read and engaging. It wasn't bogged down with too much Sci-Fi language that I felt like I didn't know what was going on. And every time there was something about moving through space and time, some of the characters understood it, but Noah fessed up that he never did understand it and frankly neither did I. But it never kept me from thoroughly enjoying this novel!
Of course, there is an evil man that wants to stop them. People don't need animals anymore as they eat synthetic meat and he doesn't want the Earth to be a zoo. He wants people to live on Earth instead of Venus with it's inhospitable air. So they are in danger whenever they collect their specimens.
But more than being an exciting story about racing through space and saving Earth and animals and trying to beat the bad guy, all of which I'm quite sure children will love, this story is also about family. Noah is very aware of his family and discovers a huge secret about himself during the course of the book. He has to come to terms with it and what it means. A lot of the novel is taken up with him trying to rescue his parents. His siblings take a back seat in the novel but there is no doubt that this family is close knit and love each other first and foremost. It was good to see that tied in to the story so subtly yet feel it's importance to the outcome.
A second book is due out next year and I cannot wait for it!
Robert Pease's writing is easy to read and engaging. It wasn't bogged down with too much Sci-Fi language that I felt like I didn't know what was going on. And every time there was something about moving through space and time, some of the characters understood it, but Noah fessed up that he never did understand it and frankly neither did I. But it never kept me from thoroughly enjoying this novel!