I didn't know much about the premise of this book before I started reading, and that may have been a good thing because I greatly enjoyed it and I don't know if I would have read it if I knew more about it beforehand.

Goldberg did a wonderful job introducing us to Wyatt and Travis and allowing the reader to really get to know their individual histories and personalities. The parallels between their lives and their desires for their futures really made the story interesting, and I appreciated the subtle way the author devised it so that it wasn't overtly pointed out.

I also loved that their were differences between the two - they were very much individuals, which made the conflicts in the plot that much more interesting. '

If you want an enjoyable read I can highly recommend "The Ancestor".

Fantastically written, thriller/mystery. I'm sure the concept of someone being frozen in ice for years and being re-awoken is not a new concept to anyone at this point, however, Lee Matthew Goldberg does give us a fantastic entry into the genre.

Wyatt has memories from the Alaskan gold rush, now he needs to figure out if they're real or simply figments of his imagination.

I feel like both Alaska and the gold rush are topics that don't get a whole lot of attention in the realm of books, but maybe I just haven't read them. Either way Mr. Goldberg does a fantastic job filling in the details of this highly interesting time frame. His descriptions of the Alaskan wilderness are superb and paint an incredibly vivid picture of the beautiful landscape, I found myself almost wishing for more scenery descriptions! He also describes the culture and people of the area fantastically.

While I would have liked more flashback chapters to Wyatt's past I still greatly enjoyed the book. and will be giving it a second read once the weather cools down, seems like a great winter read!

This book is set in Alaksa, and is very atmospheric. It is both a thriller and a mystery. Can Wyatt believe his memories ? Has he lived in 1800 ? The reader is as confused as the main character until piece by piece the mystery unfolds. Good story

Good story though the premise has been done much better before. (“The Curiosity” by Stephen Kiernan, “The Body in Ice” by A.J. MacKenzie among many others). To me, the writing was stilted. The dialogue seemed forced as if the characters really seemed to have no feelings. I don't know I may give another shot when released to see if I was just not in the mood at the time to be fully engrossed in the story, but I doubt it. Thanks NetGalley for he chance to preview this title.

Linda’s Book Obsession Reviews “The Ancestor” by Lee Matthew Goldberg, All Due Respect, August 2020 for Suzy Approved Book Tours

Lee Mathew Goldberg, author of “The Ancestor” has written a chilling thriller that is intense, captivating, intriguing, riveting and enthralling. The genres for this story are thriller, psychological thriller, mystery and suspense, adventure, and fiction. There is a dash of possible fantasy in this story as well. The timeline for this story spans a century and then continues with the story. The story goes to the past and future when it pertains to the characters or events in the story. The author describes the characters as complex and complicated. There are betrayals, deep reaching secrets, lies, danger and murder. There is some historical background of gold prospecting.

Wyatt Barlow, wakes up after being frozen in Alaska. As he breaks through the ice that he was captured in, his memory starts to awake. He remembers his wife and child, and the time that he is now in, is not at all the one he woke up from. How is it possible that Wyatt was able to survive 100 years? Wyatt notices a fellow hunter, that looks identical to him. This doppelgänger is Travis Barlow, who lives with his wife and son.

Wyatt starts to obsess and follow Travis, and becomes aware of the lifestyle that is 100 years later than he is familiar with. Wyatt is convinced that he is a relative from long ago, and tries to see the family history. As Wyatt’s memory gets sharper, he remembers his days a gold prospector. He may actually remember where there is gold hidden.

In this edgy, well written story, I was surprised at the ending, and how it possibly could make a difference. I do hope the author writes a sequel. I highly recommend this amazing story.

I really enjoyed The Ancestor by Lee Matthew Goldberg. The story follows the Barlow family through several generations, with different members taking on different character personas such as materialism, grief, generosity, trust, and sacrifice. We are treated to several points of view, but Wyatt is the central line throughout as the unreliable narrator and gold prospector who has been frozen in the Alaskan wilds for over a hundred years. While the science/fantasy behind this deep freeze requires a bit of suspended disbelief, Goldberg pulls you so deeply into the characters’ current and past lives that you will quickly move beyond those questions. Like so many who are at crossroads in their life, Wyatt searches for purpose amidst so much uncertainty. The reader will sympathize with Wyatt and the heartache he’s facing, but as his past is revealed and tensions rise to an untenable peak, the reader will be questioning Wyatt just as much as his fellow characters. The ending provided an unexpected twist and left me wanting to read more of the Barlow family story.

Thank you to the Netgalley, the author and publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to #netgalley and #allduerespect for the advanced readers copy.

Hard to pinpoint the genre/s however I would describe as historical fiction, thriller, mystery.
The story begins with Wyatt Barlow waking up after over a century frozen in ice, he awakens to see two men in the near distance - one whom he recognises as his double - Travis! Wyatt having little to no memory of his life and what happened to him soon discovers that everything he sees is unfamiliar. The only clues to his identity - a notebook with the date 1898 and a small silver mirror found in his pocket. After seeing the present date on a newspaper he finds himself in 2020!
We learn through the notes in his book that he left his family back in 1898 to go on a quest to Alaska to prospect for gold - yet he never made it back to them, instead he wakes in the present time to coincidentally meet his great-great grandson Travis.
The two men meet and soon realise that they have a connection. Wyatt quickly becomes obsessed with Travis and his family and soon starts having flashbacks to his own long lost family.
The story takes place in two time frames, present day and through the notebook and flashbacks of 1898. I enjoyed this aspect of the book as it gave us snippets of the different times and gave a lot of descriptive content.
The two main characters I both liked and disliked them throughout the book as I discovered more about them. I wasn’t quite keen on some of the other characters of the book, particularly Grayson - Travis’s best friend - the towns deputy I felt although well written I just couldn’t like the character and wished he featured less in the story.
Overall I did enjoy the book, the premise extremely interesting. The story did take a few chapters to get into and was slow going in some places but definitely picked up as you get going. Although the ending I saw coming it had a satisfying conclusion however I was left wondering - what happened next? I can see this being made into a film - one that I would watch!

Recommended for those who enjoy a good adventure thriller story.

"The Ancestor" by Lee Matthew Goldberg is an ambitious story to be sure! At once a beautifully descriptive historically accurate tale of the Alaskan gold rush in the late 1890's, it morphs just as beautifully into an inciteful examination of the dark side of human nature. It presents its protagonist, Wyatt Emmett Barlow, as a man sorely tested by his times, his goals, his conflicted moral compass, and ultimately a conflicted man in a battle for his very soul. And then...he wakes up 122 years later. An unfrozen wild man-thing in the arctic woods of his Barlow descendants. In modern day Alaska. Seriously.

So. What ensues is a story that presents a battle for dominance, if you will, between Barlow and his doppelganger great, great grandson Travis. As wild as all of this may sound, I will refrain from providing more details. This novel is one of those genre defying efforts that will play out heavily reliant on the reader's ability (or willingness) to buy into the magical/mythological/spiritual realism at the core of Goldberg's tale.

I will leave it to future readers to decide for themselves. For me, I loved the Alaskan descriptions, depictions, and characterizations. I'm a huge fan of magical realism or fantasy when all of the *realistic* ducks are in a row. Most of Goldberg's were...until they weren't. It is this unevenness that I struggled a bit with toward the later part of the novel. But overall, an enjoyable escapist tale of fate, love, and second chances.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced digital copy of this book. Thanks also to Lee Matthew Goldberg for the Alaskan adventure!

#NetGalley
#TheAncestor

The Ancestor is one of those books that's perfect for hot weather, as we are currently experiencing (at least we're experiencing it a lot in France !). Set in Alaska, telling the story of a man frozen in a cave for over a century, this book is bound to refresh you !

The aspect I loved the most about the story, is the way the author wrote about Alaska, its nature, its culture, its people. I completely traveled there, could totally see everything the author was writing about, even though I never even set foot in the US. That talent for descriptions and realistic people and environments is the biggest asset of the book.

The action takes place in Laner, small Alaska town, barely a stop on the way to a bigger city. Travis lives there with his wife and kid, more or less happily, dealing with unemployment and confidence issues. Enters Wyatt, his ancestor, newly defrosted after a 100~ years sleep in the wilderness after he got into trouble while looking for gold in 1898.
Soon, Wyatt realizes Travis is almost his clone, and gets curious about him. In him, he sees himself, and in his family, he sees his lost wife and son, now long dead.

I really liked Wyatt's character. He starts off as quite likeable, because he's entirely lost in this world he doesn't know, and then, slowly, we see his evolution as he finds out about Travis, and finds some bits of his lost memories. Little by little, his mind twists, and we as reader discover Wyatt is far from being an innocent man, and an insidious mood installs itself, replacing the rather friendly one from the beginning. He gets unpredictable and starts making his way into Travis' life, to the heart of his family, wanting to BECOME Travis, and have it all for himself.

However, if Wyatt and Travis are the main characters, we get some side characters, that I didn't necessarily liked a lot. Stu, Travis' dad, and local sheriff, as well as Grayson, drunkard cop desperately in love with a woman whose trust he lost, completely annoyed me, and I got a little bored during the moments when they were the main focus of the narration. I just couldn't care for them at all.

To that, I'll add that I didn't care much for how Wyatt's past is given to us. Flashback chapters are sprinkled weirdly in the book. Sometimes you will have 10 chapters of present narration, 2 of Wyatt's past, 1 of today, and 6 from Wyatt's, and then the rest of the book is present day, etc. (the numbers are not checked haha. I just meant that sometimes you get big chunks of past narration, out of nowhere). I would have liked a more regular placement of the flashback chapters, because too much of them just annoyed me a little, because I didn't want to read about Wyatt's past too much. Sure, I wanted to know a bit about his past life, but not all at once. I wanted to focus more about Wyatt's adaptation to the modern world and his interactions with Travis.

Overall, The Ancestor is a great book that will take you in the heart of Alaska to discover some great characters revolving around a rather original story. It's definitely a great read for people who like adventure and bits of historical fiction !

First I want to thank @netgalley and All Due Respect for the advanced readers copy.
This book is about Wyatt, who awakens in snow after being frozen since the 1890s while searching for gold in Alaska. His memories return very slowly as he thaws and returns to his body. He finds a family he can relate to and believes he is related to them, desperately wishing to be included in every aspect of their lives. I wasn't sure what to expect from this book when I started reading it. For me, the beginning seemed to drag on and didn't capture my interest right away. At times, I struggled to pick it back up and continue reading. However, halfway through, the story did pick up and I felt like I flew through the last 1/3 of the book. For me, it was hard to get on board with the mystical, science fiction part of the book. I did enjoy the parts containing Wyatt's journal, as well as most of the present day chacters. I could tell how the book was going to end with a few chapters left and although I wished it ended differently, I can understand why the author did what he did. Overall, this book was good, especially if you like the sci-fi aspect of it. I enjoyed the historical fiction part a lot more. Again, thank you to @netgalley for the ARC of this book!

I'd like to start this post by saying I am incredibly grateful and thankful to #NetGalley, #DownAndOutBooks, and #AllDueRespectBooks for giving me this opportunity to review this title.


Given the chance to pick a mystery/thriller to review is a dream come true for me. I was first captivated by the title and description. Lee Matthew Goldberg paints such a beautiful picture in your head of Alaska you can feel the chill around you. The Ancestor is a well thought out story of two men related by bloodline, but how and when? As you read on and start to connect the dots, as you start to uncover the truth about these characters, they are learning about it themselves; and that's brilliant.


As you follow Wyatt Barlow on a path of self-discovery and uncovering the memories of his wife and child, you are simultaneously following Travis Barlow the descendant of Wyatt. Travis seems to live a pretty mundane life and has a marriage that is less than thrilling. The book jumps times between the 1860s to 2020, and Wyatt occupying both times. Wyatt at the end of each day wants his family back and is uncovering the truth of how he time traveled. As the story goes on, Wyatt chillingly gets closer to Travis and his family, always keeping you on the edge of your seat. Eventually, Wyatt must tell Travis the truth of who he is. Will Travis believe him?


I will admit it is slow-moving and sometimes feels a bit redundant in the usage of vocabulary, verbiage, and stories. It was hard for me to get past it on occasion. On the flip side of this statement, I'd like to give credit where it is due. Goldberg executes small plot lines throughout that keep pulling you back into the story. There will be some chapters that are super short and some are quite lengthy, and I'm not upset about that at all.


I found the characters adequate. The two main characters really popped and painted pictures for me but the other characters I found hard to like. I didn't particularly enjoy the characters or their personal "glue" to this story if you will. I also found myself longing for more time travel discovery and explanation.


In the end, I'm glad I read it. I'm glad I was given the opportunity. I feel like this book is the perfect match for someone that can take slower stories and a great deal of mystery and suspense. And that's not a bad thing by any means. I enjoyed this book, but it wasn't one of my favorites. I look forward to seeing more from Goldberg.


I will give this book a rating of 3/5.

I liked this book more than I thought that I would have. I really kind of went in blind to what I was reading and I’m I did.
So, this book has a different aspect that I haven’t really looked at before. I really enjoyed it. So, the story covers two men Wyatt and Travis. These men are from two different time periods one from 202 and the other from around 1860. Wyatt was frozen in the snow since the 1860s looking for gold to provide for his family. I like how Wyatts memories slowly resurface and then how he communes with his spirit animal, that is a really neat aspect of the book and his character! Travis is like your average guy with average problems like he is struggling and finding himself over his head for the most part trying to provide for his family. I liked the whole time travel aspect, I think the plot was well thought out and I enjoyed it. At times it was slower than I would have liked but I am glad I stuck with it because the ending was amazing. This is one of those books that you will keep thinking about it days after you finish it! I recommend this book for books about family and sci-fi lovers too! This is the first that I’ve read by this author and I would definitely check out anything else by the author

I wasn’t sure exactly what I was getting into before I read The Ancestor. Upon completion, I’m still not sure what to make of this book. I liked it more than I expected to. This was unlike most any story I’ve read. It wasn’t difficult to suspend disbelief with the well-thought out plot that mixes mystery, the mystical, spirit, and science fiction. Wyatt is a man who awakens in snow after being frozen since the 1890s while searching for gold in Alaska. His memories return very slowly as he thaws and returns to his body, hunts, and communes with his spirit animal. He finds a family he can relate to and believes he is related to and gloms onto them, desperately wishing to be included. The characters and subplots were well fleshed out; even with many different characters it wasn’t difficult to keep them all separated. This story slowly unwound, and was told beautifully along with much ugliness. Somehow it all meshed together quite well, making for a fascinating read. I was ready to not finish because I felt uncomfortable with the way the story was headed, then realized I was 90% done and did finish and am glad I did. This was a very good and very curious read. If you’re looking for something completely different than most of what’s out there to read, you will enjoy this book.
Thank you to the Netgalley, the author and publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Ancestor is a hard book to pin down, it has some elements that you could describe as science fiction, or perhaps even fantasy, yet has such a grounded and human story mixed in too. If you were to force me to pick one category to put it into it would have to be speculative fiction, even though that's such a broad term. It's a fantastical book for those who don't normally read that kind of thing, and literary fiction for people used to reading sci-fi. It mixes together so many genre's and styles that I really believe that everyone can pick up and enjoy this book.

The story follows Wyatt, a man frozen through time. Having come to Alaska in the 1890's, searching for gold, something awful happens to him and he becomes frozen in time. He wakes up in modern day, with much of his memories missing, and unsure how he got there. Lost in the wilderness he discovers a pair of hunters and follows them back to town when he sees that one of them looks just like him. He discovers that this man, Travis, shares his surname as well as his face; and Wyatt becomes convinced that he's Travis' ancestor.

Wyatt becomes drawn to Travis and his family, drawn to Travis' wife and son. Seeing his family helps to bring back memories of his own wife and child, and he quickly becomes obsessed with them. When he and Travis finally meet the both of them find something that draws them to the other, and the pair quickly form a friendship.

I won't say much more about the plot and what happens with the two characters, because I don't want to spoil what happens or where the story will take the characters, but I will say that Lee Matthew Goldberg always keeps you on your toes, that he keeps the story shifting and changing right up to the tense conclusion. Even in the final pages I didn't know how the book would end, because he manages to make a narrative that could go more than one way, that doesn't feel predictable or locked on a certain course; which is the sign of an amazing writer.

He also manages to make the world of The Ancestor feel really real and lived in, and all of the characters are interesting. Travis and his immediate family get a big focus, but there are so many characters in the periphery and background that grab you too. Some of the supporting cast in this book are more realised and well written than some lead characters I've read. They have backstory, they have complex motivations, and they feel so real. I'd have been happy to read a book that was twice as long as this to have more time with these characters, or books centred around them that didn't even involve Wyatt and his travel through time. I'm normally aren't drawn to literary fiction as I like to have something a bit more fantastical in the books I read, but the characters here are so engaging I'd be happy to read stories about them just living their lives.

I honestly didn't expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. When I realised that Wyatt's story of travelling through time wasn't going to be as front and centre as I thought, that it would be more about the lives of these people, I was worried that my interest would wane. But I was so wrong. I found everything about it fascinating. I kept reading long past the point I should put my book down and go to bed. This kept me awake way longer than it should have, which I always take as a sign of something special.

If the blurb for this book captures your interest in any way, do yourself a favour and pick it up. Give it a read, because you'll end up being sucked into this amazing story.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

"A man wakes up in present-day Alaskan wilderness with no idea who he is, nothing on him save an empty journal with the date 1898 and a mirror. He sees another man hunting nearby, astounded that they look exactly alike. "

An interesting time travel premise. Some slow sections as the plot was built. Liked it, didn't love it.

2.25☆