Review of In The Beginning
Posted: 24 Jun 2025, 13:34
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "In The Beginning" by Pejay Bradley.]
In the Beginning: The Origins of Koreans by Pejay Bradley is a unique work of historical fiction that follows Peonia, a woman of Korean descent, as she endeavors to learn more about her heritage than anyone has before. With the help of Professor Bill McGordon and his time machine, she travels back to the year 2372 BC in hopes of seeing the legendary birth of a nation firsthand.
Overall, this book was well written and flowed nicely. The historical aspects, in particular, were concise and interesting while presenting new information to me. I was intrigued by the legends of an elite group of people walking down from the heavens and starting a society, a bear lady’s transformation, and the birth of the first king of the land. There were a number of errors in this book, but they were mostly minor punctuation errors that didn’t affect the reading experience overly. I did also appreciate that the book touches briefly on the moral and ethical dilemmas that come with the invention of time travel. The professor struggles with the fact that it could be used for fixing outcomes of wars or financial deals and knowing the time and manner of our own deaths. This brought an element of personal growth and depth to the book.
The main issue that brought my rating down was the unnatural characters. Their actions and thought processes were often odd, or they weren’t given enough emotional depth to make their decisions make sense. The emotional connection isn’t made for the reader to truly understand Peonia’s conviction to undertake an experimental time machine journey. It seems overly drastic and an unneccesarily dangerous risk to take just because you have the urge to see such a historical event. As the time machine takes off and flies into space before commencing their journey, most humans would be in awe of being in space and having the experience of traveling through time. No mention of any emotional response is made—it simply goes straight into their conversations flowing with ease as they found common ground.
The other criticism I had was that I wish there was more realism and detail, given the topics of time travel and the historic settings. While I realize this book is fictional and not in the sci-fi genre, it does borrow from that genre with its themes. I would have liked to have seen more details regarding the logistics of time travel. The “facts” that were provided had holes in their explanations, and it might have been better to gloss over the scientific parts altogether instead of adding baseless tidbits. For example, there is little explanation as to how the lengthy journey through time is possible for the human body beyond “metabolism halts and holds.” There was also no mention of having to take care of normal human functions like bathing or bathroom breaks, yet a whole scene depicts them falling out of the time machine after landing because their legs have gone to sleep on the long journey. Again, the amount of detail that is given is noticeably inconsistent. Then, they somehow get cell service in 2372 BC. This was odd and given no explanation.
I wouldn’t rush out and tell my family and friends they need to read this book, but if someone asked me if it was worth reading, I would still say yes. The storyline is interesting, and the uncommon theme of the origin story of the Korean people made this a worthwhile read that held my attention. I just found it hard to get past the unrealistic characters and the inconsistent or missing explanations. All in all, this book earned a 3 out of 5 rating from me.
******
In The Beginning
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
In the Beginning: The Origins of Koreans by Pejay Bradley is a unique work of historical fiction that follows Peonia, a woman of Korean descent, as she endeavors to learn more about her heritage than anyone has before. With the help of Professor Bill McGordon and his time machine, she travels back to the year 2372 BC in hopes of seeing the legendary birth of a nation firsthand.
Overall, this book was well written and flowed nicely. The historical aspects, in particular, were concise and interesting while presenting new information to me. I was intrigued by the legends of an elite group of people walking down from the heavens and starting a society, a bear lady’s transformation, and the birth of the first king of the land. There were a number of errors in this book, but they were mostly minor punctuation errors that didn’t affect the reading experience overly. I did also appreciate that the book touches briefly on the moral and ethical dilemmas that come with the invention of time travel. The professor struggles with the fact that it could be used for fixing outcomes of wars or financial deals and knowing the time and manner of our own deaths. This brought an element of personal growth and depth to the book.
The main issue that brought my rating down was the unnatural characters. Their actions and thought processes were often odd, or they weren’t given enough emotional depth to make their decisions make sense. The emotional connection isn’t made for the reader to truly understand Peonia’s conviction to undertake an experimental time machine journey. It seems overly drastic and an unneccesarily dangerous risk to take just because you have the urge to see such a historical event. As the time machine takes off and flies into space before commencing their journey, most humans would be in awe of being in space and having the experience of traveling through time. No mention of any emotional response is made—it simply goes straight into their conversations flowing with ease as they found common ground.
The other criticism I had was that I wish there was more realism and detail, given the topics of time travel and the historic settings. While I realize this book is fictional and not in the sci-fi genre, it does borrow from that genre with its themes. I would have liked to have seen more details regarding the logistics of time travel. The “facts” that were provided had holes in their explanations, and it might have been better to gloss over the scientific parts altogether instead of adding baseless tidbits. For example, there is little explanation as to how the lengthy journey through time is possible for the human body beyond “metabolism halts and holds.” There was also no mention of having to take care of normal human functions like bathing or bathroom breaks, yet a whole scene depicts them falling out of the time machine after landing because their legs have gone to sleep on the long journey. Again, the amount of detail that is given is noticeably inconsistent. Then, they somehow get cell service in 2372 BC. This was odd and given no explanation.
I wouldn’t rush out and tell my family and friends they need to read this book, but if someone asked me if it was worth reading, I would still say yes. The storyline is interesting, and the uncommon theme of the origin story of the Korean people made this a worthwhile read that held my attention. I just found it hard to get past the unrealistic characters and the inconsistent or missing explanations. All in all, this book earned a 3 out of 5 rating from me.
******
In The Beginning
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon