Title: A New Birth of Freedom: The Visitor
Author: Robert G. Pielke
Publisher: Altered Dimensions
ISBN: 9781936021239
Pages: 207, Paperback
Genre: Fiction, Sci-Fi, Alternate History
Reviewed by: Gary Sorkin, Pacific Book Review
Book Review
To have met Abraham Lincoln would have been, no doubt, a memorable experience for anyone. But if someone was to say to you, “I’ll be meeting Lincoln in 14 years from now,” it would be absurd, right? What if that person convinces you of the meeting, scheduled in the future yet involving a person of the past, is a reality and every word true? You would come to the conclusion the person must possess some form of time traveling capability. Hence “time traveling” becomes your conclusion, your belief, and of your own free will in choosing this only possible logical explanation. (That person never said he is a time traveler, did he?) This is the skillful bases of an unforgettable story, A New Birth of Freedom: The Visitor, by the exquisitely talented author Robert G. Pielke.Dr. Pielke loves history as revealed by his credentials studying the past. Furthermore, residing in the heart of Civil War battlegrounds, he accumulated a wealth of minutia about the history of the Union and Confederacy. His “Systematic” studies in Christianity can be superimposed onto other systems, such as war, plus his Ph.D. in Social Ethics states volumes of his understanding of people’s values and behavior. Add his love of science fiction, and you have a brilliant, out-of-the-box thinker, an author of immense capability to write penetrating thoughts, original and novel by all accounts.
The story begins with a train ride, when a passenger engages a conversation with a back-woods country lawyer, a politician a bit in debt, a humble man with a mind sharp and discerning. The man is Abe Lincoln. I have found this “lead” as one of the finest works of literary foreshadowing into a storyline of a creative journey of epic proportions. His writing is a flavorful mix of Rod Serling with Frank Herbert, a bit of H. G. Wells and a touch of Gene Roddenberry, plus some Carl Sagan, yet all uniquely Robert G. Pielke. The Visitor creates a showcase in which Pielke ostentatiously demonstrates his knowledge of the events and history circa 1863 and creates a “period piece of many eras” all at once. Meaning the past, the present and the future; combining the “three time frames’” into what can be described as a “Present situation of past events that occur in the future.”
All of this food for thought is topped with “Save the Earth” desperation – and I don’t mean anything Al Gore might preach to audiences, but wish to avoid telling in this review as not to distract from the surprise foundation of the multi-dimensional sub-plot. A book for historians, sci-fi enthusiasts, adventure story fans and people of all ages, A New Birth of Freedom: The Visitor will resonate in your thoughts long after the book is finished and you think to yourself, “Wow.”
