Deep Past: A Novel

Deep Past is a fascinating sci-fi thriller about events not in the future but in the past, not the recent past or ancient history, but five and a half million years ago. Claire Knowland, an adjunct professor studying animal intelligence, is in Kazakhstan overseeing a project on the domestication of horses when an incredible discovery is brought to her attention — elephant bones where elephants never existed. Moreover, the bones are purposefully arrayed, suggesting the presence of intelligent beings long before man came on the scene. Could earlier species with their own particular types of brain power have existed in the past, only to disappear without a trace? Is the find in Kazakhstan evidence of one such species? Claire believes so and sets out to piece together the story of an extraordinary species of elephants and how evolution, intelligence, and climate interacted in determining their fate. To complicate matters, she must also deal with the sniping of jealous academics and, more seriously, the power plays involving Kazakhstan, Russia, and the USA over the phosphorite deposits found in the region. The riveting prose of the opening pages captures the desolation and mystery of the wind-scarred Kazakh Steppe to perfection. Thereafter, the writing comes down from the heights but remains clear and focused. For those who enjoyed Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, Deep Past is an obvious choice.