MichaelBoca
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2017
There is new novel called Thrill Ride by Bruce Kimmel that was recently published. I thought that people here my be interested in reading it. It is involves Disneyland, Walt Disney, the Burbank Studios in 1957 and in 2017. A short synopsis (from the jacket blurb) followed by a review that I wrote.
1957. What if Walt Disney wanted a time-travel ride for his recently opened Disneyland, a peek into a city of the future and what it might hold – a thrilling ride. What if he had an Imagineer he felt could come up with what that future might hold and how the ride might work? What if that Imagineer, not wanting to merely posit what the future might hold, figures out a way to travel to the future to see exactly what it might hold? Thrill Ride takes the reader on exactly that journey, from the Los Angeles of 1957 sixty years into the far-off future of 2017. What our time traveler finds there, who he meets, and whether he can actually get back to his own time, well, that’s the tale.
And here is my review of it
“Thrill Ride”, is Bruce Kimmel’s newest opus and his first foray into science fiction writing with its focus on time traveling. The story begins in 1957 and the hero, a Disney Imagineer, has invented a time traveling device. He travels to the present time, of 2017, hoping to gather enough information so he can create a plausible future as part of a new time traveling ride he is creating for Walt Disney and his Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California. Surprised by 2017’s technology (like cell phones, computers and Uber), world history and how Los Angeles and its environs has changed and evolved since 1957; he discovers he has a wealth of material and photographs to take back with him to 1957. Just like the novel “The Day of the Jackal” by Frederick Forsyth, it is evident by our present-day knowledge of past events, that the protagonist fails in his mission because we know Disneyland never had a time traveling ride. It is the skill, however, of the author, Bruce Kimmel, that keeps our interest in reading until end of the novel hoping that somehow he will succeed in his quest. There is a satisfying and favorable conclusion to his time traveling adventure in which Walt Disney utilizes the hero’s concepts for another Disney success story. Kimmel has created two endearing lead characters with their own unique “voices” and he has ably researched the famous landmarks of L.A., Hollywood, Burbank and other well-known areas of 1957 to vividly describe what they looked like back then and what now stands in their places in 2017. In my opinion there are three seminal time traveler novels: H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine”, David Gerrold’s “The Man Who Folded Himself” and now Bruce Kimmel’s “Thrill Ride”. Highly recommended and enjoyable read for Disney lovers, science fiction lovers and anyone who wants to read a well-crafted nostalgic look back at what Los Angeles once was.
1957. What if Walt Disney wanted a time-travel ride for his recently opened Disneyland, a peek into a city of the future and what it might hold – a thrilling ride. What if he had an Imagineer he felt could come up with what that future might hold and how the ride might work? What if that Imagineer, not wanting to merely posit what the future might hold, figures out a way to travel to the future to see exactly what it might hold? Thrill Ride takes the reader on exactly that journey, from the Los Angeles of 1957 sixty years into the far-off future of 2017. What our time traveler finds there, who he meets, and whether he can actually get back to his own time, well, that’s the tale.
And here is my review of it
“Thrill Ride”, is Bruce Kimmel’s newest opus and his first foray into science fiction writing with its focus on time traveling. The story begins in 1957 and the hero, a Disney Imagineer, has invented a time traveling device. He travels to the present time, of 2017, hoping to gather enough information so he can create a plausible future as part of a new time traveling ride he is creating for Walt Disney and his Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California. Surprised by 2017’s technology (like cell phones, computers and Uber), world history and how Los Angeles and its environs has changed and evolved since 1957; he discovers he has a wealth of material and photographs to take back with him to 1957. Just like the novel “The Day of the Jackal” by Frederick Forsyth, it is evident by our present-day knowledge of past events, that the protagonist fails in his mission because we know Disneyland never had a time traveling ride. It is the skill, however, of the author, Bruce Kimmel, that keeps our interest in reading until end of the novel hoping that somehow he will succeed in his quest. There is a satisfying and favorable conclusion to his time traveling adventure in which Walt Disney utilizes the hero’s concepts for another Disney success story. Kimmel has created two endearing lead characters with their own unique “voices” and he has ably researched the famous landmarks of L.A., Hollywood, Burbank and other well-known areas of 1957 to vividly describe what they looked like back then and what now stands in their places in 2017. In my opinion there are three seminal time traveler novels: H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine”, David Gerrold’s “The Man Who Folded Himself” and now Bruce Kimmel’s “Thrill Ride”. Highly recommended and enjoyable read for Disney lovers, science fiction lovers and anyone who wants to read a well-crafted nostalgic look back at what Los Angeles once was.
