Dear reader Michael Shayne wrote a lovely review of Thrill Ride:
“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 coda 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. My favorite Kimmel book since “Writer’s Block” and “Rewind”.
