PRIMEVAL Novel Synopsis (Illustrated)

I’ve come to realize that the synopsis on Amazon and on the back cover of the book doesn’t convey much about the novel—particularly the various interconnected storylines within the overarching narrative—so I thought I’d offer a more in-depth description here, along with some visual aids:

Preface Summary:

Around 66 million years ago, an asteroid estimated at 6.2 miles in diameter and traveling around 45,000 MPH, struck the earth near the Yucatán Peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico, creating a crater 110 miles wide and 12 miles deep (now known as the Chicxulub Crater). The initial blast wave and tsunami flooded the Americas, and the impact blast—estimated at 10,000 times the explosive energy of the entire global arsenal of nuclear weapons—filled the atmosphere with smoke, dust, and debris, while flames engulfed the entire planet within 2 weeks. Fueled by 600 MPH winds, and with land temperatures reaching 750ºF, all the vegetation around the world burned.

Rendering of the 110-mile-wide and 12-mile deep Chicxulub Crater, long elusive because it is concealed half under water and half under heavy rain forest

This cataclysm not only wiped out the dinosaurs, but nearly all life on the planet—even oceanic life, as the sun was blotted out for months, killing off the plankton and causing the entire oceanic food chain to collapse. And river-dwelling life was also killed off by acid rain runoff. It is believe that the only animals that could have survived this extinction-level impact event were those that lived underground.

It took an estimated 500,000 to 1.5 million years for the earth’s ecology to recover, and for life to begin again. But interestingly, though paleontologists have identified five such extinction-level events in the past 500 million years, the Chicxulub impact event was the first one after which any evidence of humans emerging and evolving has been found: the genus Homo appearing about 2.5 to 3 million years ago, but Homo Sapiens not until around 200,000 to 300,000 years ago.

So, if the human species is as advanced as we are after only a few hundred thousand years—or at best a couple of million years—of evolution, then how much more advanced would a species be after 500 million years of evolution? A species that managed to survive all those extinction-level impact events, because it lived underground?

What would a primeval creature that lived underground and survived for hundreds of millions of years evolve into?

PRIMEVAL on Amazon
PRIMEVAL at Compass Bookstore

Four-Part Prologue:

Four historical true but unexplained events that might just be linked to the mysterious creature currently rumored to be lurking in Black Woods and/or Blackwater Swamp out on the edge of the small town of Hope, up in Silver Hills on the other side of Hope Creek, and only accessible via Old Rope—an old, rickety rope bridge that spans the cliffs high above Hope Creek…

Four actual historic events, all mysteries to this day, may be linked to the beast rumored to be lurking in Black Woods and/or Blackwater Swamp on the outskirts of the small town of Hope

PRIMEVAL on Amazon
PRIMEVAL at Compass Bookstore

Part I: The Crossing (Summer 1975)
12-year-old best friends Tommy & Winnie are spending their last summer together, as Tommy is about to turn 13—a teenager—at which time he will be forced to work full time on his abusive & alcoholic father’s failed farm, greatly restricting the time the boys will be able to spend together. So they’re trying to make the best of this final summer, spending as much time as they can hunting with their wrist-wrocket slingshots up in the field on the other side of Old Rope, which also skirts the rumored-to-be-haunted Black Woods and Blackwater Swamp. Winnie fears there’s a monster living in there, but Tommy doesn’t believe it, so they venture dangerously close…

Best friends Tommy & Winnie cross Hope Creek on Old Rope to hunt in the field on the other side near Black Woods with their wrist-wrocket slingshots

But as his birthday approaches, and Tommy begins to dread his future life on the farm under the harsh thumb of his dad, and under a full moon he begins to consider that maybe Old Rope can enable his escape to an alternate future…

PRIMEVAL on Amazon
PRIMEVAL at Compass Bookstore

Part II: The Blackjack Club (Summer 1985)
Four friends, ranging from 11 to 13 years old—Jackie the intelligent charismatic leader, Chaz the nerdy brain, Ryan the quiet religious boy, and Nick, the oldest and biggest of the group, kind-hearted but also harboring a bullying tendency—meet each week at an old barn on an abandoned farm to play their own special version of blackjack, and then tell spooky stories by candlelight after dark.

But when they discover some empty barrels on the property, they decide to rope them together and make a raft using scrap wood swiped from a local lumber yard, and spend the last weekend of summer before school starts rafting down Hope Creek and camping in the woods along the way—during which they stumble upon tomboyish Casey, an abused runaway, who eagerly joins them on their adventure.

Casey joins Jackie, Ryan, Chaz, & Nick in building the raft Chaz designed, using 4 empty barrels they found near the old barn where the Blackjack Club meets, and scrap lumber they swiped from the Allied Construction lumber yard the night before

But a rafting accident lands them in a hidden lake deep within Blackwater Swamp, where they come face-to-face with the beast, which ceaselessly stalks and randomly attacks them as they attempt to escape with their lives on a damaged and quickly sinking raft…

PRIMEVAL on Amazon
PRIMEVAL at Compass Bookstore

Part III: The Hunt (Also Summer 1985)
Winnie is at college out of town when he sees the newscast about the kids in Hope clashing with the beast in Blackwater Swamp, and decides to return home and hunt the thing down once and for all. Hank—the seasoned outdoorsman who runs the local sporting goods store—joins him, and, heavily armed, they boat down Hope Creek and deep into Blackwater Swamp to track down and hopefully finally kill the creature that has been terrorizing the town for decades.

Hank & Winnie take Hank’s boat down Hope Creek to finally hunt down the creature in Blackwater Swamp that’s been haunting the town for decades

But what they find along the way is strange and baffling, things don’t go as planned, and their hunt ultimately becomes a desperate struggle for their very survival. But what they do manage discover—as stated on the back cover of the book—is much bigger, deeper, and more ancient than anyone in Hope had ever imagined…

What would a primeval creature that lived underground and survived for hundreds of millions of years evolve into?

PRIMEVAL on Amazon
PRIMEVAL at Compass Bookstore

Epilogue:
Sorry, I can’t reveal any more…no way around around all the spoilers…guess you’ll just have to read it and find out!

Spanning several centuries and nearly 800 pages, PRIMEVAL is not just an epic novel, it’s an adventure you won’t soon forget!

PRIMEVAL on Amazon
PRIMEVAL at Compass Bookstore

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