One Million Centuries

There are two versions of "One Million Centuries" - the original which was published in 1967 and was the author's first commercial sale, and this revised version which came out in 1981. The original edition of the book began with a chapter set in the 20th century, in which Robert Parker, a helicopter pilot, is involved in a crash while on a recue mission in Antarctica. Parker's co-pilot is killed, Parker is frozen alive, to recover a hundred million years later in a very different world. In this later version, Richard Lupoff followed the advice of James Blish, and dropped the first chapter; this version begins with Parker waking up in the remote future. He also completely rewrote the final chapter and made a few minor changes in between. In both books Parker finds himself in a strange world of lush vegitation with exotic creatures such as the "Kissers," deadly giant butterflies which will give an acid kiss to anyone who touches their food. Humans still exist, but their cultures are completely different and their technology stretches to swords and javelins. Parker begins a quest to find his way back to the 20th century ... Not as good as most of Lupoff's later work, but a fun read nonetheless.