Forum: Lost Stories

Forgotten title and author... never on sol and written before 1980

mtr1go 🚫
Updated:

MC was sent back in time several thousand years. Ends up in the Mediterranean region that is mostly dry as an ice age has bound most water in huge icecaps. He befriends a large cougar type cat (horse size) that I believe he names "Pard". The two may have even be able to understand each other by a type of telepathy. I know this isn't the normal request on the site, but I'm going crazy trying to remember who wrote the book.

I made a huge mistake! I went to look up both suggestions made below and got the mixed up on my iPad. I thought I was reading the Turtledove book and was actually reading "The Steel of Raithskar"
(Gandalara Cycle #1) by Randall Garrett, Vicki Ann Heydron

Sorry for the confusion. I didn't know what tab I was on when I started actually reading.

Replies: reader459 limab mtr1go

reader459 🚫

@mtr1go

I also remember a similar (may be the same) story which I
read in paperback many years ago, which is strange because I read 100's of stories back then and remember very few.
In mine the MC was dropped into a just dead body which was bonded to the giant cat. IIRC the cat was also dying because of the bond but recovered when the MC arrived.
The action took place in a valley where the Mediterranean Sea is today. The Straits of Gibraltar blocked of the Atlantic.
It was very hot but the people were adapted. When the MC urinated the liquid evaporated before it hit the ground leaving crystals behind. Rivers flowing into the eastern end of the valley over waterfalls all evaporated.
The MC teamed up with a girl from his time who had been dropped into the body of a prostitute.
The story ended IIRC with them climbing out of the valley as the Atlantic rushed in to fill it. There may have been some magic involved also.
After all that, I can't remember the Author or Title either, but the story has stuck with me for forty years
T

Replies: Mushroom

Mushroom 🚫
Updated:

@reader459

In mine the MC was dropped into a just dead body which was bonded to the giant cat. IIRC the cat was also dying because of the bond but recovered when the MC arrived.

The action took place in a valley where the Mediterranean Sea is today. The Straits of Gibraltar blocked of the Atlantic.

It was very hot but the people were adapted. When the MC urinated the liquid evaporated before it hit the ground leaving crystals behind. Rivers flowing into the eastern end of the valley over waterfalls all evaporated.

The MC teamed up with a girl from his time who had been dropped into the body of a prostitute.

The story ended IIRC with them climbing out of the valley as the Atlantic rushed in to fill it. There may have been some magic involved also.

Down In the Bottomlands, by Harry Turtledove.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_in_the_Bottomlands

I did not even need to look it up, one of my favorite stories from the Master of Alternate History.

Replies: Radagast Dinsdale mtr1go mtr1go

Radagast 🚫
Updated:

@Mushroom

Yep. A brilliant bit of world building there. He did the science and the society well with no handwavium involved IIRC. One I pull out and reread every few years.

Replies: Radagast

Radagast 🚫
Updated:

@Radagast

BTW, there was no far past travel in that one. Its local hominids vs local hominids.
Perhaps Julian May's Saga of Pleiocene Exile.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saga_of_Pliocene_Exile

It has time travel and a dry med, but not transmigration of souls.

Dinsdale 🚫
Updated:

@Mushroom

Excellent story, I'd never heard of it or him before.

As Radagast says in his BTW post, it is definitely not what the OP was searching for - the only things which match reader459's description are the location and the Straits of Gibraltar being blocked. Even less than that match the OP's query.

mtr1go 🚫

@Mushroom

That's the one. And it's not available on Baen.

mtr1go 🚫

@Mushroom

I made a huge mistake! I went to look up both suggestions made below and got the mixed up on my iPad. I thought I was reading the Turtledove book and was actually reading "The Steel of Raithskar"
(Gandalara Cycle #1) by Randall Garrett, Vicki Ann Heydron

Sorry for the confusion. I didn't know what tab I was on when I started actually reading.

limab 🚫
Updated:

@mtr1go

There is another answer. This could be the Gandalara Cycle by Randall Garrett and Vicki Ann Heydron. Goodreads listings here. Almost all of the details are correct including the riding cats.

Replies: mtr1go

mtr1go 🚫

@limab

mtr1go 🚫

@mtr1go

It's the Harry Turtledove book. Can't find it on amizon an no longer available on Baen.com

Replies: Dinsdale limab mauidreamer

Dinsdale 🚫

@mtr1go

Weird - I sent a PM saying how you can find that story.

limab 🚫

@mtr1go

Really? I just read the Turtledove story. No time travel, no cat, no telepathy. I am not being snarky, just honestly surprised.

Good Hunting, limab

Replies: Dinsdale

Dinsdale 🚫

@limab

There turned out to be another explanation, and it was the Gandalara Cycle.

mauidreamer 🚫
Updated:

@mtr1go

It's the Harry Turtledove book. Can't find it on amizon an no longer available on Baen.com

Bottomlands is available on Baen under Authors/Turtledove IF you'd previously purchased it as part of a monthly bundle or individually - actually bundled with other novellas - another Turtledove (Pugnacious Peacemaker) and de Camp's Wheel of If. It is NOT available for further sales, probably at author request due to Amazon policies.

Lastly, I've read all of the three options and IMHO the OP query was best answered by limab with the Gandalara Cycle books referral.

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Forum: Lost Stories

Forgotten title and author... never on sol and written before 1980

WARNING! ADULT CONTENT...