Customer Reviews

Mists of dawn (The Gregg Press science fiction series)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read "Mists of Dawn" when I was in 4th grade, in 1952-53. My teacher caught me reading it instead of whatever dirt-dull "reader" we were supossed to be working through at the time. He had me read "Mists..." to the class. They loved it. It shaped a lot of my subsequent reading and interests. After a career in Special Forces I retired, went to grad school and became an archaeologist. While working at a now-famous deep prehistoric site in South Carolina I attended an annual "carnivore's ball" at the home of a distinguished archaeologist who lived nearby. In his house I noticed that he was a serious collector of sci-fi literature. I perused the shelves for "Mists of Dawn" but didn't find it, though I suspected that it was there somewhere. Back outside in the South Carolina night I grabbed another of my hosts's excellent home brewed beers and went looking for him in the crowd. I found him in a group of other professionals. In the first break in the conversation I comented on his great sci-fi collection, then asked him if he'd ever read a book called "Mists of Dawn". Long silence, with an undefineable sense of surprise. Then, " 'Mists of Dawn' is why I'm an archaeologist." Well, me too. I'll bet there are a lot of stories like that out there. Chad Oliver was himself an archaeologist, retiring, I believe, as Chair of the University of Texas Department of Anthropology. He wrote a lot of other, "adult" anthropological science fiction, but "MOD", what would today be called "young adults fiction," is his masterpiece. And don't let the "young adult's" label put you off. My local library carries "Laughing Boy" (Pulitzer for fiction, 1929 by anthropologist Oliver LaFarge) in the "youth materials" section, along with "The Yearling" (Pulitzer 1939) and "Kim".

Chad Oliver is an excellent writer, and this is one of his best juvenile scifi stories. A boy becomes a man because of a time machine and CroMagnon man. I read this book in junior high (late 50s) and loved it. It is NOT worth $110, however. I hope that the publisher will come out with a reasonably priced edition someday

It seems that most of the reviewers of this old SF novel first read it as a child in the mid-50s (like me) and have preserved a love for it until the present time (like me). As I lay in bed last night carefully fondling my very expensive First Editon copy, my wife asked me how many times I had read this particular book. I guessed at roughly 100-200 times! I know most of the lines by heart, I think, and often imagined myself in Mark's shoes, pondering how I would have handled things or how the book would have been if the time machine had gone to various different times. I would not have picked Rome for a one-shot time travel adventure as I guess the time of Jesus or the War Between the States interests me more. I imagined staring into the eyes of Jesus as he carried his cross through the city...I imagined meeting my g-grandfather as he rode with the Confederate cavalry at Gettysburg or perhaps getting a glimpse of Robert E. Lee. It's really too bad that most of today's children don't get to use their imaginations as much as we baby-boomers did...I think it made us better persons later in life. This book is available through various internet bookstores in various conditions at inflated prices. A readable copy can be found for around $30.

First read in 1963 as a high school student and found it to be imaginative and involving. It was as if I were the main character transported back in time to the Neanderthal and experiencing their daily existence and survival. Since then there have been more venues for time travel fiction and certainly more descriptive technology and special effects but still nothing to compare with the mental visions evoked by this fiction narrative of a boy thrust into a violent environment of hunter gatherers who themselves were in turn hunted.

This book put me on the trail of Si-Fi when it came out in 1954(?). I've re-read it many times since (by reserving it through the library system) and have been searching all the nooks and crannies of used book stores for lo, these past 20 years, to no avail. I can't expalin its hold on my psyche, but it's not to be denied. Chad Oliver penned a classic with this one. I'd like to give it 10 stars.

This book put me on the trail of Si-Fi when it came out in 1954(?). I've re-read it many times since (by reserving it through the library system) and have been searching all the nooks and crannies of used book stores for lo, these past 20 years, to no avail. I can't expalin its hold on my psyche, but it's not to be denied. Chad Oliver penned a classic with this one. I'd like to give it 10 stars.

I read this book several times when I was younger; I loved science and science fiction, and this was a great book for both. I haven't seen it in years, but I wish I could find it again. I still think of this when I want to get away for a while.

The first time I read MOD was 6th grade and it lit my imagnation on fire. The next best book on fantastic time travel is The Time Machine- H.G. Wells. It's shocking how engrossing this book is. Now try and find a copy, yeah right, I've been searching for 15 years.

I read this book when I was 10 years old. As a young girl I not aquainted with Science Fiction writing but I loved the book. I brought it to class and the teacher read it everyday. The entire class truly enjoyed it. It has never appeared again on any bookshelves but now that I have a 10 year old I would like to give her the book for her birthday June 8th, 1998.

Ok...like the kid activates his uncles time machine and goes back to see cavemen. I really liked the book...it's a old plot but done very well. Young adult..rated w for wholesome. Actually I might recommend it for adults but I have't been able to find a copy since I first read it.