Oct 26, 2015: | Midwest Book Review

When fifteen-year-old nerd and gamer Max Anderson thinks he's sneaking a preview of an unpublished video game, he doesn't realize that ee's been chosen as a beta, an experimental test player; that ee's playing the ultimate history game, transporting him into the actual past: anywhere and anytime; and that survival is optional: to return home he must decipher the game's rules and complete its missions -- if he lives long enough. To fail means to stay in the past forever. Now Max is trapped in medieval Germany, unprepared and clueless. It is 1471 and he quickly learns that being an outcast may cost him his head. Especially after rescuing a beautiful peasant girl from a deadly infection and thus provoking sinister wannabe Duke Ott. Overnight he is dragged into a hornets' nest of feuding lords who will stop at nothing to bring down the conjuring stranger in their midst. "Escape from the Past: The Duke's Wrath" is a science fiction time travel action/adventure novel that will grip the reader's total attention from beginning to end. Very highly recommended for school and community library YA fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Escape from the Past: The Duke's Wrath" is also available in a Kindle edition ($0.99).
Nov 2, 2015: Historical Novel Society | https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/escape-from-the-past-the-dukes-wrath/

When 15-year-old nerd and gamer Max Anderson decides to try his hand at the master level of an unpublished video game, he isn’t prepared for the ultimate gaming experience: being transported into the actual past. This turns out to be medieval Germany, 1471, and Castle Hanstein, near the village of Rimbach, and the Klausenhof Inn, which still exists today in present-day Germany. Without any clues about the game’s rules, missions or even how to return to his time, Max uses his ingenuity, whatever he remembers from history lessons about the places and time, and friendships with a peasant boy, a healer, a beautiful servant girl, a lady in distress, knights, squires, and the lord of the castle to help him survive and pick his way through ordeals and hardships.

The historical details in the novel are on the mark and describe just enough to reveal the conditions of medieval life as a peasant, servant, craftsman, lord, lady, squire, and knight. Max stumbles through in time and masters the game, but matures and comes out a changed young man. Geared to a young adult audience, Escape from the Past is an entertaining and fast-paced read that guarantees to thrill any young reader’s/gamer’s wish to be a hero in a faraway time.

Book 1 and 2 in this trilogy will be on offer on Amazon Nov/Dec, in preparation for the 3rd and final book: Escape From The Past 3: At Witch's End, out November 25 2016!

Email ben@jhpbooks for review copies of Book 2 and Book 3 (links to the books below)