The Waydowns (The Cool Thing Sci-Fi Series) by Robert Rife – Review by Naomi McDonald

THE WAYDOWNS by Robert Rife
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my first book by this author, so I had no expectations going in. I enjoy science fiction books, so I thought I would give it a shot. I discovered in the first few chapters that it was not the book for me.

I’ll leave these quotes from the book here as to what set the tone and gave me a difficult reading experience:
– …an exceedingly unlucky tribe of Gitchiegoomba Injuns, discovered part of the intact ship protruding from some faintly glowing rocks. Informed by their medicine man that it was a God, they immediately fell to worshipping it, making sacrifices… and consuming copious amounts of peyote. As was their custom.
– Perchance the medicine man was a drooling idiot…
– Descendants of these… Injuns later became known as Indians, and later, American Indians, and still later, Native Americans. Evolution at work… how progressive.
– This esteemed scientist thinks racism is in all peoples. He’s right; it is. It’s as natural as thought; it’s the instinct of self-preservation. Neanderthals weren’t racist. Perhaps they were an early form of… Woke.

There are also several other slurs used in other parts of the story.

I understand that this story, in part, was meant to have an undertone of humor. I suppose this sense of humor just doesn’t vibe with mine.

I gave the book four stars because the overall story line and concept is creative and the actual story telling is good. I just wasn’t a fan of the general tone.

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