Time travel, dinosaurs and astronomical anomalies. These three combine to deliver the rollercoaster science thriller God’s Junk Drawer.
What Is God’s Junk Drawer?
Our story opens with a group of university scientists heading out into the wilderness to collect astronomical data from the night’s sky. Little do Noah Barnes’ students know that he has an ulterior motive for travelling to this particular spot on this particular day. Noah does not intend to return.
Noah has a secret. He is Billy Gather – a boy who went missing 30 years previously, while on a rafting trip with his dad and sister. Billy turned up 4 years later in Thailand, telling stories of a strange world, filled with dinosaurs. His stories left him only with years of trauma therapy and the moniker “Dino Boy.” Nobody believed his story, instead believing he was a victim of a child trafficking ring.
Yet, Noah knows differently. He has worked out how to return to this world after years of studying astronomy. His sole goal? Return to the distant past to save his sister.
His plan is made immediately more complicated when his intention to travel by himself goes wrong. Noah ends up being flung back into prehistory along with several of his students. Can Noah find his sister? Can they survive the perils of the land that time has, apparently, forgotten? Is it possible for any of them to return to their own time?
Why Read God’s Junk Drawer?
To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with God’s Junk Drawer. Often these brick-sized, hi-concept thrillers are easy to read, but have stories that lack substance. They’re readable froth. God’s Junk Drawer is certainly readable but it has backed by substance, too.
There are all sorts of things to discover over the course of the novel’s 600 pages. Where exactly are these time travellers going? How did Billy get back the first time? What has happened to his sister? Clines feeds us more, ramping up the intrigue, as the novel progesses.
The opening chapters are pretty brutal. Untrained students arriving into a world of hungry carnivores should and does end badly. This danger immediately adds an edge to the story. Clines gradually peels back the layers so we can see what is going on. New concepts are introduced as the survivors try to puzzle out the conundrum offered by their surroundings. The answers deliver us a satisfying mystery.
If you’re looking for a sci-fi thriller, that keeps you guessing then definitely give God’s Junk Drawer a try. The middle sections of the novel are particularly good. The novel’s conclusion is satisfying too. Sometimes these elaborate confections can disappoint with their final delivery, but Clines gives us a an ending that befits the quaity of what has come before. All in all, I very much enjoyed the hours I spent reading God’s Junk Drawer.
If you would like to pick up a copy of God’s Junk Drawer, you can do so here in the US and here in the UK.(Affiliate Links)
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I received a copy of this book in order to write this review.
