The Shamans at the End of Time

by Florian Armas

First came the days of the Virus Plague. Then came the war. Then worse. Losing their grip on power, a group of powerful corporations started a nuclear war, and seven thousand nuclear heads killed most of Earth's life in a single day. The survivors were dying slowly.

A modern shaman is sent back in time to create a new future. Because of a portal malfunction, everything goes wrong. Vlad, a young soldier, takes his place and finds himself in the middle of a Stone Age tribe, and a new reality filled with quantum magic: The Rivers of Thought. There is a centuries old war between the shamans, and an old evil threatens to rule and destroy the world again. Vlad must discard everything he knows and forge a new ... future.

Part history, part romance, and all kinds of magic, The Shamans at the End of Time will draw you in and never let you go, even long after you've ended the last page.

Genres: Time Travel, Fantasy

368 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 1, 2019

Reviews

[Morten Simonsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Shamans at the End of Time is a lost world story. Our protagonist is a soldier on a future battlefield, and just as the battle is about to end badly for him and his comrades, he is magically transported to a new world. The modern weapons and types of warfare he is familiar with are replaced with bands of savages and their somewhat primitive ways. He has to adapt quickly to the order of the new world, or the consequences will be severe.

The world-building in this book is wonderfully detailed and it makes this new world the author has created come to life on the page. It feels real. I saw another review that mentioned that the plot was somehow bogged down by too many world-building details but I disagree with that. In my mind, this is where The Shamans at the End of Time really shines.

Where I subtract a star here is in the character development of Vlad. He comes out strong, but never develops much past the initial version of himself imo. The story is too much about what happens to Vlad, and not enough about how Vlad reacts to these things. Things happen to Vlad, he does not make them happen.

Plot and pace-wise I think this was fine. It is a very original story, at least to me, and that is what I like the most about these indie reads. They are not tampered with and are not squeezed into the boxes of the industry.

[Andrea Mircheska · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Even my presence here may just be a dream. A strange, long dream, the result of a traumatic coma.”

This science fiction, time traveling book opens on a usual battelfield, with a soldier named Vlad who is not particularly ready to fight. After getting injured, Vlad wakes up in a strange land, hundred years back in time. He must adapt to a hunter- gatherer way of life that is miles away of what he’s used to.

I particularly enjoyed this book. This is one of the first books in this genre I read, and I am not disappointed. “The Shamans at the End of Time” transported me into a different world and kept me turning the pages, wondering what happens next. The timeline is very enchanting, taking you back to a different, parhaps “simpler” time.

The only thing I didn’t quite connect to was the romance, but maybe that’s my own personal preference. However, that didn’t stop me from enjoying the book and giving it 5 stars. I would definetely read more from this author.

[Cathleen Townsend · Rating 4 out of 5]

When this story opens, Vlad and his fellow soldiers are trapped on a hill, in the middle of a battle that isn’t going well at all. An explosion causes Vlad to briefly lose consciousness, and when he comes to, nothing makes sense. The enemy is no longer armed with modern weapons but rather appears to be a band of savages. Vlad and his childhood friend flee, but only Vlad survives their flight down the river. Vlad is left alone in a land where nothing seems to make sense.

Still in a state of disbelief, Vlad rescues several teenagers from a bear before collapsing. The kids in turn save Vlad from their elders, who believe him to be from an enemy tribe. Vlad has to learn a new language, a new culture, and an entire new way of life. In some ways this is a useful distraction since he’s grieving over never seeing his family again. But there are many pitfalls, and primitive people play politics for keeps every bit as much as their modern counterparts. Vlad will need all his wits and a fair bit of help if he is to survive long enough to find out how and why he’s been transported, and if it’s ever possible to return home again.

The Shamans at the End of Time is an unusual book, and as such has its own unique mix of strengths and weaknesses. The writing is vivid, and the action sequences are well-paced. It’s immersive, with a highly developed alternate world. However, the author spent more time than I would have liked on world-building, and it would benefit from another editing pass. Still, it has strong female characters and an honorable protagonist, and I’m willing to overlook much for those things.

[Lynn Helton · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a war in the future, Vlad and his fellow soldiers face an overwhelming enemy force. Something extraordinary happens and Vlad finds himself somewhere else: a world new to him with cultures strange to him, in which he must learn to survive.

Elements I liked:
The compelling story quickly drew me in and for the most part, the pace flowed well to keep me interested in finding out what happened next. I liked how the story incorporated the idea of quantum consciousness and some of our current understandings around the influence of certain foods on the body. Vivid descriptions painted wonderful pictures of the settings, such as '...the hill resembles a half-bald man's head...'. The story's unique mystical elements were intriguing, and the ancient cultures that Vlad encountered were well-developed, believable, and peopled with credible characters with their individual desires and agendas.

Elements I struggled with:
At times the dialog came across more formal and stilted than seemed to fit the situations in which the characters found themselves. Odd verb tense changes, some typos, and instances of missing and incorrect words popped up from time to time and hindered the story's flow. The story's conclusion didn't really provide much closure, and it ended with a bit of a cliffhanger.

Overall:
I enjoyed this mystical time-travel adventure. It's an original, engrossing story with an interesting twist near the end, but also a bit of a frustrating cliffhanger.

[Thomas Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shades of ERB!

The Shamans at the End of Time is a Lost World Tale in the grand tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The protagonist, Vlad, is an unwilling soldier in a future war who is somehow magically transported elsewhere at the end of a climactic battle. Finding himself in a strange new world, he must learn the rules all over again if he is to survive.
There is plenty of good world-building here and plenty of detail for lost world buffs. And like in Burrough’s tales, there is romance, which gives the protagonist much to lose if he is unsuccessful. Gradually Vlad develops shamanic powers and gains power and respect from the people of his new world. But he has no clue about the reality of the situation he has become embroiled in, and no real way of figuring it out until it is revealed to him.
The flaw in this novel for me is that sometimes I became bogged down in too much detail, which detracted from the flow of the plot. Also, while the author does a great job of showing rather than telling, sometimes a lack of clarity made it difficult to know what was actually transpiring. Perhaps the author’s intention was to place the reader in the same situation as the protagonist; in that, he was successful.

[Cam Lang · Rating 4 out of 5]

But then, there were so many things here that he hadn’t expected. His new life was nothing more than an uncertain chain of strange things.

Vlad is an unwilling soldier, conscripted into a war in which he’s ill-equipped. He might be Olympic caliber in judo and close-quarter combat, but he can’t shoot a rifle to save his life. Vlad and his small platoon are stuck on a hill, surrounded by the enemy. One of the men is Cosmin, who is mocked for his fascination with energy portals that might have the ability to connect unknown places and times. Following a series of explosions, Vlad suddenly wakes up in an unfamiliar meadow surrounded by forest and mountain, far from the “hell-hill” that had just taken some of his friends’ lives. Instead of enemy soldiers now on his heels, there is a band of “savages” shooting arrows at him and Cosmin. Vlad survives and after briefly escaping, and then saving three youngsters by killing a large bear, he is spared by the grown-up hunters and given refuge in the “Vlahin” village. But is Vlad the one who was supposed to be there?

He is now confronted with new challenges, as he adapts to learning a different language and way of life within the matriarchal society of the “Vlahins”. Gradually, he develops both romantic bonds and shamanic powers that he struggles to accept and understand, yet these powers make him both feared and respected. He also discovers that while he might have been displaced from one war, he has merely entered a new one. Not far away, the Kalachs, who pride themselves on being a conquering, male-dominated society, covet certain things that may upset the Vlahin way of life. Only to be expected, there are males within the Vlahin tribe who respect the Kalach culture and would prefer a shift to a more patriarchal regime. Obviously, societies require both sexes to survive, so this dynamic enabled the author to create some complex relationships that helped carry the tension and conflict. There was an important message here about what societies might look like if led entirely by either sex and while this may or may not have been the author's intention, I could see this giving some readers pause for thought.

There are numerous characters in the novel and it took quite a while to introduce and develop them. Vlad is a moral and honorable protagonist, if not a confused one, which makes it easy to root for him and empathize with his situation. His interactions with strong female characters rule the day but there are sprinkles of immorality amongst both males and females in both tribes. I enjoyed the descriptive world-building and easily found myself imagining the various settings from the riverbanks to the villages to the rocky cliffs. I would have preferred more action and conflict because the book seemed to be on a trajectory toward an epic climax, but it ended on a whimper for me. Admittedly, I’m not an avid reader of science-fiction, magic, or fantasy, however, readers who enjoy these genres (with some romance sprinkled in), might appreciate the slow-build and conclusion more. Overall, an enjoyable read.

[Jeremy Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

After being injured on a deadly modern battlefield, Vlad wakes up in a strange land. Civilization has reverted to a hunter-gatherer culture. The people practice mind-expanding religious rites. And, what’s more, he finds himself inexplicably bonded to two girls in the village. But this world is at a turning point, and an aggressive male-dominated village nearby threatens the peaceful place Vlad now calls home. Now he must rely on his military training and his newly-formed shaman powers to protect the people he has come to care for and the women he loves.

For me, the whole ‘modern person suddenly and magically transported into the past’ trope is way overused in my opinion. Keeping that in mind, I thought Shamans At The End of Time was okay. There were enough interesting ideas regarding gender and sexuality and hunter-gatherer cultures to keep me turning pages. And, aside from getting a little bogged down in the middle, the story moved along well.

Something I particularly liked—and this is a little serendipitous—I recently came across a theory that hunter-gatherer cultures tend to select for a certain kind of intelligence that is largely missing in modern society. That theory comes up in the story, and it was fun to see that kind of interesting idea put to good use in fiction. There was a lot of ideas like this peppered throughout, it appears the author did a good amount of research, and it shows.

Where I had particular trouble was the characters. The main character, Vlad, never evolved past the brooding male archetype. His own motivations and goals were not entirely clear. He didn’t seem to have any interest in why he suddenly found himself transported several hundred years in the past, nor did he express a lot of interest in going home. He was just kinda… there.

The other characters felt more or less interchangeable. I really don’t understand the attraction between Vlad and the women he’s ‘bonded’ with other then the bonding creates that attraction. Again, romance is not my genre, and fans might see something that I was missing, but it just wasn’t there for me.

Without spoiling the ending. It just kinda… ends. Vlad never seemed to achieve whatever he was trying to do. The situation between Vlad and the two women he was bonded with is never really resolved. It just kinda… ended.

Overall, it was an okay read. Interesting ideas that could spark discussions about ancient cultures the role of gender and sexuality in them and their effect on modern society. However, I think the story could be more compelling with some more direction.

[David Øybo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although Florian Armas’ ‘The Shamans at the End of Time’ starts out as a quite conventional time-travel science fiction story, it turns out that it is a lot more than that. The following three elements have been the most thought-provoking ones for me:

1. The ‘destination’ Vlad - the story’s protagonist - ends up in is not really a fictional one, but is the ‘real’ Iron Gate region of the Danube shared between present-day Romania and Serbia. This is a part of Europe I personally have not at all been familiar with until I read this story. It turns out that the place ‘The Shamans at the End of Time’ is set in contains the pre-historically quite important Lepenski Vir, which is presumed to be one of the oldest planned settlements in Europe and possibly one of the earliest places in Europe where the transition from the ‘Stone Age’ to the ‘Copper/Bronze Age’ occurred.

2. And it is exactly this ‘pre-historic transitional period’ Florian Armas explores in the story, where part of the characters are still living ‘in the past’, whereas others have ‘arrived in the future’ already - but of course all of them share the ’same present’. Given that the world nowadays might be at a similar inflection point (in our present case not between stone and bronze but between the ‘real world’ and the ‘virtual’ one…) it is indeed an interesting exploration - and I assume that this is how the story’s title might have originated form.

3. But perhaps most surprising was the weaving in of another interesting theme, which is the one exploring the differences (and similarities) of a matriarchal versus a patriarchal social system. [A little spoiler here: Turns out neither of them is the ideal one in the story and it seems like that ‘Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ is one of the few things which is truly ‘gender-neutral’.]

Personally, I particularly enjoyed the author’s first-person stream-of-consciousness prose when the story is told from Vlad’s perspective. The staccato style works very well for the depiction of a stressed-out modern-day individual who finds himself cast from a dooms-day battlefield into a completely alien ‘savage’ neolithic society (among many things lacking hot showers….). The ‘fluid’ third-person point-of-view Florian Armas uses for the remaining chapters of the book does take some time to get used to, but it does - quite surprisingly - work well as the story progresses, especially given the ‘shaman(e) / mind-linking theme’. For me, the exploration of the shaman(e) themes felt at times a bit ‘too much’ - but given their central importance in the belief/social system of the depicted place and time it definitely is necessary for greater immersion of the reader.

Compared to the author’s prior work, I have read, ‘The Shamans at the End of Time’ is definitely much more philosophical/literary than ’pure genre fiction’. I think I can claim now that the author definitely has a certain infatuation with decapitating characters in his stories. But if you do not mind a recurring ‘Yorickian’ element ‘The Shamans at the End of Time’ might very well BE the next book for you.

[Harv Griffin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Shamans at the End of Time by Florian Armas

On the plus side, the grammar is very clean; better than mine. I make mistakes. Sometimes intentionally.

Confess I was only able to tolerate reading 10 pages of this. I am a difficult reader to please. I skipped ahead to Chapter 3, page 43, and read to page 45 and gave up. It just wasn’t fun. Reading it was a chore. If fiction isn’t fun, why bother?

I did like the blurb on the back cover: “How to go back in time and reset a world destroyed by a nuclear war?” And a bit later on the back: “The sentient entity overseeing our solar system must find a way to repair its own errors.”

If I were the most disagreeable person in publishing—your editor—I would have some suggestions:
1) Bring more of the “back cover” to the first few pages. Don’t bury the lead: if the fate of the solar system is at stake, at least hint at it up front, otherwise it’s just some special forces guys lost in a field.
2) If actual magic is involved, show a dramatic and unexpected magic spell early.
3) Shorter paragraphs; more dialogue, more action.
4) There is zero dialogue on the first page, zero action. The first page is one huge paragraph of a soldier thinking, and half another long paragraph about a sunrise and some blips on a display. Sunrise and some blips don’t qualify as action; it did not involve me or make me want to read more. (Ray Bradbury could have written a single opening thought-paragraph 3 pages long that made me cry {and perhaps he did—something like 200 of his short stories have never been released to the public—somebody should get on this!}. Tom Robbins could do 5 opening pages of a soldier thinking while dancing the prose backwards in high-heels with a scimitar in his teeth, making me smile or even laugh as I flipped the pages. I wouldn’t even try. Florian’s opening made me turn every page reluctantly.)
5) The best way to differentiate and describe the essence of characters in a novel is to show them in action and dialogue, not through the main character thinking about them.
6) [Suggestion deleted for legal reasons]

[Seth Hobbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one kind of reminds me of the idea of John Carter-- but better than the Disney movie version, and based in more historically-grounded roots, rather than outer space. The protagonist wakes up in the middle of an ancient land/time in Europe, but the present/past/future events that are going on can be a little bit confusing. Overall, there are some interesting characters and themes, and I have enjoyed other works from this author in the past. His other books are usually more to my liking, as this one is a little bit strange and doesn't feel like everything is flushed out completely. Overall, though, I think most fantasy readers would enjoy it, and I look forward to further entries from this writer.

[Vera · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a difficult novel to review.
It begins with an intense scene wherein a sympathetic protagonist is introduced and placed in a perilous situation. The fantastic event soon follows, transporting us to a completely different, though equally intense scene, and the story line changes radically.
It has two intriguing concepts at the center. It is populated with a cast of characters who each have personalities, histories, understandable motivations and distinct voices. It is set in a vividly described pastoral landscape. It contains credible conflicts and convoluted human schemes. The initial pace is brisk but not hectic; neither the action nor the suspense overwhelms.
It has all the earmarks of a very good story - yet somehow misses those marks.
The hero doesn’t live up to his intellectual or moral potential; doesn't follow through his most significant contributions to the time-line. There is too much explanation of the mystical element and the characters’ internal ruminations are often redundant. From the sudden introduction of the Ring onward, all the interactions and relationships are fraught and confused; the main actors flounder, disappoint and rush to... what fates?
The somewhat abrupt ending does suggest a rationale for the title, if no closure for the reader.
I believe this novel would benefit from rigorous editing to streamline the narrative, improve some of the text and reinforce the plot threads.