By Robert Asprin and Linda Evans
Skeeter Jackson is a young scammer with a checkered past.
Living with two parents too self-involved to care for their child, Skeeter turned to petty theft in rebellion.
He then became the victim of a random time gate that landed him in the camp of
Genghis Khan’s father. Skeeter had to learn to survive the harsh conditions of
the Mongol steppes. Five years with the
Mongols taught Skeeter survival skills but when he was rescued and returned to
his parents in modern times he still could not cope with his parents’
indifference. He ran away and eventually ended up on Shangri-La Station where
he earned his living stealing from and scamming the tourists on their way to visit the past through the time gates.
Skeeter joined a group going back to Roman times. He had a
plan: he would go to the Coliseum and pose as a bookie and take peoples’ bets
on the outcome of contests and then go back through the time gate with his
takings before the gamblers can collect on their bets. An ill-advised scheme that backfired when one
of the bettors turned out to be a ferocious gladiator who, upon discovering
Skeeter’s scam, pursued him through the time gate and into Shangri-La Station,
determined to get back his gold and kill Skeeter for making a fool of him.
And that’s how the story begins, with Skeeter in hot water
with an enraged Roman gladiator. It adds in several other story lines, too many
to mention here. Most of the related story lines are fairly interesting, but
the best is the story of Skeeter. The only story line that was not as
interesting was that of Margo which was quite boring and could have been left
out of the novel to good effect.
This is the second book in the Time Scout series and
probably would make for better reading if the reader is familiar with the first
book, Time Scout, which I was not.
