In rural Wisconsin, wonder clashes dangerously with corporate greed
when an alien visitor opens up a gateway through time into a
breathtaking prehistoric lost world
On sabbatical from teaching at a small university, paleontologist Asa
Steele is content to relax amidst the pastoral splendor of his Wisconsin
farm. That is, until his dog starts bringing home unrecognizable
artifacts and, strangest of all, fresh dinosaur bones. Since boyhood,
Asa has heard the rumors of a UFO crash site nearby, and his encounter
with a cat-faced alien life form proves the old story to be shockingly
true. A gregarious immortal stranded on Earth for fifty thousand years,
Catface has the power to create portals in time, and now he has opened a
gateway into a prehistoric world of wonder and beauty, a place Asa calls
"Mastodonia." But keeping this idyllic realm a secret from a prying
government and the greedy corporate entities it serves could prove
impossible--and perilous--when there are resources to drain, land to
despoil, and gargantuan vanished beasts from a distant age to hunt down
and destroy in the name of profit.
Clifford D. Simak's glorious vision of a gateway to the past and of the
tantalizing commercial potential of all things prehistoric predates
Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park by many years, yet it remains as
provocative, enthralling, and fun for twenty-first-century science
fiction lovers as it was for its original readers. Breathtaking,
thrilling, imaginative, and awe-inspiring, Mastodonia is a world that,
once entered, can never be forgotten, such is the unique creative genius
of legendary science fiction Grand Master Simak, one of the most revered
writers ever to dream the future . . . and the past.
