Valley of Time

A few things I'd like to get out of the way first:

1. I haven't read the first book. A few pages in, I realized that there's a background story to the characters that I obviously know nothing about.

2. I'm not a huge fan of the first-person narrative and I wasn't pulled into the plot from the start.

But somehow this book managed to keep me interested and I wasn't disappointed. I'm talking UFO's, time travel & eccentric billionaire's - it's hard not to like this book. My favorite part from the book was where Mal, Del and Oliver sit down to develop the "Look Up" marketing campaign. I absolutely love the process of throwing around random ideas before reaching a creative breakthrough - it's intoxicating. And reading about it was just as exciting.

I did find it a little hard to believe that everybody, including the Government, was suddenly on board with everything when Space Rider finally made the big reveal. The point in time that they chose to go back to wasn't particularly that interesting either. But the point leading up to the launch of the spaceship was fun to read about.

Editor's note: This review was published as part of a package of October/November 2017 reviews in Mountain Times (Boone, N.C.). View at http://www.wataugademocrat.com/mountaintimes/reformer-to-reformist-five-new-reads-to-bookend-a-month/article_b655fd3f-8240-55df-ba68-353156ac5420.html

'Valley of Time' by Jeremy D. Holden

As a master marketer, Jeremy D. Holden is no stranger to out-sized ideas. We saw this in his novel,
“Sea of Doubt: The Greatest Story Ever Sold: A Mal Thomas Mystery,” which took readers through the
generation of the present-day publicity of the alleged second coming of Jesus Christ.

In his standalone sequel, “Valley of Time” (Clean Publishing), Holden resurrects the unlikely spiritual
leader Thomas from the tranquility of his Blue Ridge Mountain home with the thematic question: if you
could go back in time to the pivotal moment that shaped your life, would you?

In this novel, Thomas is tasked with managing a news item almost as daunting as that which made his
published story from “Sea of Doubt” a best-seller. Here, our protagonist joins forces with an eccentric
billionaire whose plans to capture the space tourism market could be derailed by the evidence of a UFO
encounter.

The journey for Thomas is not so much one that is out of this world, but across the globe as he attempts
to quiet from the FBI, his friends and himself, the storm that could not only devastate his employer, but
change history.

Holden, who co-runs the integrated branding agency Clean, offers here a fun, quick-paced read that
raises — and answers, in its own way — the biggest of questions.

This book tells the story about Mal Thomas, writer and spiritual leader and survivor extraordinaire. Mal will be caught in the web of billionaire Huw Hudson who built a space ship capable of travelling at light speed and therefor time travel. Considering Mal is the guy to go to for public relations it will be his task to sell it to the public.
There is not much I can say about this book because there is nothing wrong with it, however there isn't much to revel about either. It was entertaining to read mainly because the characters are funny and the story it fast paced. The writing is clever but the story didn't manage to grip me that much. In the end it is a nice book for anyone looking for an easy and enjoyable read.

https://youtu.be/rKRLjLQlo28

Given how much I enjoyed Sea of Doubt, I eagerly jumped into this novel as soon as I had finished, excited for more adventures with Holden’s very loveable characters. And I was not disappointed in the least—this is a wonderful follow up to the first story. Though I think that I slightly preferred the first story, this one is another fast and extremely entertaining read. And the comedy is superb. Holden knows how to captivate his readers and hold them all the way through the final page. I just have so much fun with his work—I’ve completely fallen in love with it.

In Valley of Time, we are back again to witness another crazy situation Mal finds himself in, as well as to see further examples of the incredible skills he and his entire CREATIF team possess when it comes to advertising outrageous subjects. And this time around, they are presenting an astonishingly major scientific development that will forever change humankind—space tourism.

Huw Hudson, the creator of a company called Space Rider, reaches out to Mal for help promoting his offered space tourism, with the goal of establishing Space Rider as the top company in the world. He also tips Mal off about some alleged evidence of extraterrestrial life popping up around the world. Sworn to secrecy, Mal is put in charge of investigating these reports as well as controlling the portrayal of these stories—and Space Rider’s accomplishments—in the media. As things progress, Mal uncovers a hidden purpose in the background of these events, one that challenges what the world knows about space and time.

At the start of the novel, I was feeling a little bit apprehensive due to the fact that it begins very similarly to the previous story in this series. However, it becomes obvious fairly quickly that the plot is going in a completely unique direction. Once again, Holden’s character depiction and development is top-notch and still my absolute favorite part of these novels. I cannot talk enough about how much I love everyone and how he involves them in the events of the plot. This is a very character driven novel, and those characters are some of the strongest I’ve seen.

Holden’s writing continues to be quite easy to fall in to, and his style of storytelling is highly engaging. He weaves very fascinating and extremely unique plotlines full of adventure and excitement. Just like the previous one, I found this story to be full of surprises, and I never really guessed what was coming next or how things would resolve. Holden manages to turn the very fictional elements into something that feels believable—it’s easy to imagine Mal going through these experiences.

Again, one of the only complaints I have in regards to the writing itself is that there is far more telling rather than showing in this novel. With this particular plot, as opposed to the first novel, that style of narrative slows things down quite a bit more. There is a lot of talk about science and technology, so the story is very description heavy. The balance between this and the action is a bit unequal, and even though I am a huge fan of science fiction and, in particular, anything to do with time travel, even I felt like the narrative occasionally dragged.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Valley of Time, and continue to love Holden’s plotlines and characters. I’ve heard numerous people say that this novel works as a standalone, and while the plot is unique in itself and does not give away much information about the first book, there are still enough important, potentially vague references made that these stories should really be read in order—I personally feel this would make for the most enjoyable reading experience. As with the first novel, I am extremely glad that I got the chance to read this, and I am very much hoping there will be plenty more installments in this series in the future. I very highly recommend giving these novels a read.

Surely someone as smart as Mal couldn't be this gullible twice?! Is Valley of Time presenting much the same scenario as was posed in his first book of the genre, Sea of Doubt, in which he barely escaped with his life? Much of the first half of this book is uncomfortably close. Valley of Time presents Mal Thomas with an interesting proposition--one at first blush would look like he has no choice. Billionaire Huw Hudson wants to insulate his company, Space Rider, against a possible UFO sighting that may damage his position as an unfolding leader in commercial space tourism. Mal stipulates that he must investigate the UFO sighting in South Africa before he will commit to joining Hudson in a protracted marketing effort after which he contacts his former cohorts and together they brain storm findings and formulate a possible plan to cloak and promote Hudson's company.

The characters from his first novel are back, unchanged, skeptical, and it takes some effort on Mal's part to bring them to the "light." Del is her usual profane self, well developed in the former novel, not so much this one. Mal is confronted by his friend at the FBI. Mal begins a globe-hopping odyssey to see for himself up close and personal that which Hudson has privately divulged to him. No, the man isn't selling the second coming this time, but is absolutely brilliant in putting together with his team a very successful campaign. And, yes, there is a twist--a stunner--though not nearly as dark as the first novel.

If I had a problem, it was that he was so easily "sold" on Hudson's hidden agenda, which is a douzy. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. (After all, I read the first book.) Certainly no excessive dialogue, Holden tends to more telling than showing, but he does have an amazing way of presenting arguments and scientific terminology in easily understandable language. While it may be possible this novel could function as a stand alone, reading the first, however, would go a long way to explaining the whole function of the CREATIF team members and their far-reaching capability.

The plot is well crafted and heavily swoops into sci-fi. Having expected the other shoe though (what you see is what you get), I felt a little let-down by the climax. Additionally, I bumped into a number of edit misses, errors, and typos. I received a request from Smith Publishing and downloaded from Clean Publishing and NetGalley and appreciated the opportunity to read and review. Recommended for any who enjoy the beauty of a well-designed marketing plan, sci-fi, and international mystery.

If you can get through the introductory start of this book, you are in for an intense treat. I did find the beginning confusing, however, I read on and the story began to gel. I could not let my mind wander as the sheer magnitude of what was proposed and what actually happened took all of my thought processes. Starting with a number of sightings of bright lights in South Africa, Mal Thomas is thrown into a fantastical journey that culminates with his ruminations after traveling at the speed of light. Actually, going back in time instead of forward. First widely to be believed as a Hollywood hoax, The FBI, President of the United States, and others are swept into this concept. It seems as if all involved have their own agenda, whether it be humanitarian or personal. I did enjoy this book and recommend to anyone interested in time travel, aeronautics or time/space. Many thanks to Clean Publishing and NetGallery for the opportunity to read and review this book!

I enjoyed reading this book overall, but at the beginning I wasn’t too sure on it. As this is the second book in a series (I have not read the first one as I wasn’t aware there was one – silly me), there was a few things that I didn’t quite understand as they did need a backstory, leaving the first few chapters a little dreary and tiresome. However, after around 3/4 chapters I started to get into the swing of things and it started to become really interesting. Up to the point I read it in one sitting as I literally couldn’t put it down. Another slight qualm I had was that I felt like I needed some basic knowledge of science to fully understand the book, as there was a lot of science terminology such as elements and astrophysics. I did find this very interesting as I, personally, am a fan of all things science so was very interesting to read about it, but I just don’t know that much about it regrettably.

One thing I did thoroughly enjoy about the book was that it always surprised me. Jeremy had the habit of giving the idea of one thing happening but then totally turning it on it’s head and a complete different thing would happen, which may be the reason why I couldn’t put it down as it really intrigued me as I didn’t have a clue what to expect whenever something would happen. Very exciting.
I also really enjoyed the references to well-known programmes, characters etc such as the X-Files and Wallace and Gromit (they were his dogs), Terry and June – from an old English tv programme in the 80s, making me connect with the book and character more, giving the fact we have common interests and likes.

One element I did very much like was the descriptive aspect of Jeremy’s writing. He’s a fantastic writer and always made me feel like I was in the story with the characters, as I was very easily transported into the world as it wasn’t hard to visualise. The plot itself was very fast-paced and always kept me on my toes, hence why I finished it in one sitting! I really loved the protagonist of Mal because of his love for his wife Mara and his children, which is always a good character trait to have, how could I not love such a devoted and caring man?

I would definitely recommend this book to any avid science fiction reader/lover, or just someone who wants an interesting and enticing read and adamant to escape this dreary and terrible world we live in.

I haven't read the author's previous book, and it's usually a less satisfying read in these situations -- This was true here, but still a good read.

I enjoyed the mix of colorful characters along with UFOs, time travel, and eccentric billionaires. The author is obviously a skilled writer, and there are some interesting things to contemplate (time travel, love) too, which is great. Enjoyed it.