Ross is the son of one of my favourite authors of fiction Stephen R. Lawhead. This book is the first in a series called "The Ancient Earth Trilogy" of which the second book will come out in January 2013. What that means is that I will now have to wait to find out how the story will progress, in many ways this book felt like a prelude - a way of introducing the characters and plot line, but not much was resolved by the conclusion of the book. This is the danger of reading such series - one gets hooked into storyline only to be forced to wait for resolution for months or even years. It is for this reason that usually I don't start a series until all the books have been published, however I made an exception in this case because this book is set in Oxford, and we were visiting there this summer.
As for the book itself, it was certainly entertaining and incorporated some novel elements, but I do not think Ross write quite as skillfully as his father Stephen. I did find it entertaining, but at times I felt the mixture of contemporary attitudes and ancient setting (in a fantasy world) a little to jarring, or simply unbelievable. I will read the rest of the series when it comes out, but Ross will not replace Stephen as my favourite Lawhead author.
