The Stonehenge Gate [Hardcover]

Jack Williamson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 28, 2005

A dark mystery has been buried beneath the sands of the Sahara desert since the beginning of time. In a basement in New Mexico, four poker buddies find reason to believe that a startling secret is out there. . .

These four amateur adventurers are about to uncover the key that could unlock the vast reaches of the universe.

A sudden burst of curiosity propels mild-mannered English professor Will and his three friends to the Sahara to excavate a site where radar has evidently detected trilithic stones hidden beneath the sand. There they stumble upon an ancient artifact that will change their lives, and the world, forever...a gateway between planets, linking Earth to distant worlds where they will discover wonders and terrors beyond imagining.

Jack Williamson, the dean of science fiction writers, weaves an exciting tale that takes the friends to the far corners of the universe. One leads an oppressed people to freedom. Another uncovers clues that could identify a long-dormant civilization of immortal beings. Now each traveler must play a crucial role in unraveling an ancient mystery, the solution to which may reveal the true origins of the human race.

If they can just survive their journeys back to Earth . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This trippy stand-alone from Hugo- and Nebula-winner Williamson reads like a novelization of Paul Verhoeven directing Jules Verne's combined rewrite of H.P. Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath and C.S. Lewis's Perelandra. It follows the world-hopping adventures of four poker buddies: physicist Derek and archeologist Lupe, both so obsessed with exploration and getting grants that they have no sense of personal safety; Ram, a linguist descended from an extraterrestrial deity; and Will, a weak-willed English professor who just wants to go home. Williamson's artificial creatures are brilliant as always, so much so that the shape-shifting intelligent metal caretakers of these distant planets are more lovingly and intricately described than the people. Derek and Lupe's absence through most of the book renders them mere plot devices, and Ram and Will's search for their compatriots turns into a humorless parody of the clever dark-skinned native leading the stumbling white man through the jungle. Lush descriptions and a refreshingly brisk pace buoy the novel, but the characters are so uninteresting that disbelief soon becomes as hard to suspend as the space elevator that carries them between worlds.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The venerable Williamson's latest puts the quest for mysterious origins and grand destiny in the hands of four academics. Physics professor Derek brings a set of ground radar pictures to poker night. They show what appears to be, deep under the sands of the Sahara, the remains of a Stonehenge-like structure. They remind African professor of linguistics Ram of stories his mysterious great-grandmother told. Field anthropologist Lupe, however, is skeptical. It's up to English professor Will to narrate the story of their journey, first to the Sahara, where they find the ruins, and from there, on a path they find through an ancient, interstellar empire to a still-populated planet. There they become embroiled in a conflict between the peoples of Norlan and Hotlan. They lack a way home but, still driven by curiosity, try to discover all they can of the empire and its role in the origins of life on Earth. Williamson's combination of sf technological inventiveness and heroic quest is surprisingly successful, offering a neat origin story for humanity, to boot. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (July 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765308975
• ISBN-13: 978-0765308979
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,759,423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, old-fashioned sf adventure, November 19, 2005

By 

Elisabeth Carey (Lawrence, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Stonehenge Gate (Hardcover)

Seventy-seven years after his first sale, Williamson is still producing sf worth reading. Will Stone, an English professor at Eastern New Mexico University, and three of his friends (Derek Ironcraft, a physicist; Lupe, an archeologist; and Ram, a professor of linguistics and African history) become interested in a recent discovery of a Stonehenge-like structure buried deep in the Sahara, and wind up planning an expedition to investigate it. In a bit of a good news/bad news development, they find it, and it turns out to be an interstellar gate-and the first stop is really unpleasant, and guarded by very hostile critters. Lupe gets snatched, and the others have to go after her. As they keep following the trail, they travel through several more worlds where there's clear evidence of a stellar empire that fell. Eventually Will and Ram, now separated from Derek also, land in the midst of a war that's still going on, albeit at a far more primitive level than the first stages of the war must have been. And since this war is humans against humans, and white against black, white Will and black Ram land themselves in trouble almost immediately, and never really get out of it.

This is good, solid adventure sf, not Williamson's best, but "not Williamson's best" is still pretty good. A fun read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Try your little mama's magic key!", December 10, 2006

By 

Shadoxfire (Pacific Northwest USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Stonehenge Gate (Audio CD)

If they make a movie out of this it will probably be one of those so-bad-it's-good hits. It is too hard to take this story seriously. I tried, but I lost it at the above quote. I was listening to a book on CD I checked out of the library so imagine Harlan Ellison's voice delivering the line....

The not so intrepid heroes of this story start belly-aching about wanting to go home barely seconds after passing through the mysterious ancient gate. (Think Stargate rip-off.) This would not be so bad except they invested a lot of time and money preparing for the trip. The story is therefore kinda ruined from the get-go.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Impressed, February 2, 2006

By 

Tracy Leach "History Buff" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Stonehenge Gate (Hardcover)

When I first read the synopsis of this book, I thought that it would be an interesting read. After the first 20 or so pages I was not sure what I had gotten myself into. The writing style seemed awkward and the phrase "I'd like to know" came up so often it became extremely annoying and at times out of place.
Writing style aside, the premise of this book was very similar to the movie and series "Stargate" but less interesting and more confusing. The book itself seemed to be a mishmash of different stories and ideas. The book never seemed to flow. Sometimes the story went quickly and the reader was left trying to figure out what was going on. The author created situations without any explanation and many times I was left to wonder "how did that happen?"
In other sections of the book, the author seemed to drag on forever. The longest subplot in the book seemed to be an odd take on Slavery in American and Colonial History. It seemed out of place and more of a rant on black and white culture and relations.
This book was so odd that I never could figure out what the author was trying to accomplish in writing this book. Of course, Williamson did leave an open ended ending which leads me to believe he was thinking of writing other books about the different subplots he created. In the end, who knows? All I know is that after reading this story I am not inclined to purchase another book from this author.