Rating: 
Summary: Save your money! Skip this dog!
Review: The slick cover tantalizes, the blurbs on the back glow and the premise is pretty cool. But as someone who's enjoyed science fiction for some 25 years, let me tell ya: this book is AWFUL! Clumsy prose, drab characters, wooden dialogue, a sloppy plot that goes nowhere (and takes forever to get there) -- and that's just for starters! How about a gooey nostalgia for a Leave It To Beaver 1950s cultural sensibility, a primary romance devoid of resonant emotions, a shrug over the near-extermination of native peoples, and a celebration of a neo-feudal political arrangement? Ugh. Thoughtless sexism, racism, cultural imperialism... all here. And if you want interesting science or technology or compelling ideas, forget it.
I've lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for a long time, so I at least related to the local references. But I suspect Stirling's endless descriptions will be of scant interest to those who have no familiarity with the area; I found them tiresome after a while. By the way, I like the Bay Area just fine, thanks -- it's a beautiful, diverse, stimulating place to live. The book's subtext that Northern California is somehow morally lost and overrun with unsavory people is plain offensive and bizarre.
Did I mention that I think this is an awful book?!
Rating: 
Summary: Solid Parallel Worlds Story
Review: This is solid entertainment from the prolific S.M. Stirling. As with several of his other books, this is an adventure story set in a parallel history. In this case, the parallel world is one in which Alexander the Great lived until he was elderly and neither Europe nor China developed technologically advanced civilizations. The Western Hemispheres remains untouched by invaders from the Eastern Hemisphere until an accident propels someone from our timeline (or one very similar to it) into the equivalent of California. This individual founds a semi-feudal society but based on low population density and modern technology. Knowledgeable readers will recognize echoes of other parallel worlds stories, particularly H. Beam Piper's Kalvan series, which is referred to several times in his story. The idea of a technologically advanced second chance at civilization on Earth which offers humans a high standard of living and preserves much of the natural worlk is a recurrent theme in Stirling's books. This is at least the third time he has used this idea. This is an enticing idea which he examines well. Unfortunately, Stirling's recycling of themes and plots is becoming repetitive. He is a very competent writer and an imaginative thinker, but is perhaps writing too many books.
Rating: 
Summary: Good...boring...ok
Review: Well,
That's how I viewed this book. Basically in 3 parts.The first part of the book is pretty darn good. The history of the discovery of the "Gate" into an alternative America. How it happened, and what was done when its potential was realized is pretty fascinating. Then, later...how a couple of pretty interesting game wardens who are fighting illegal trade in exotic animal species, happen onto the discovery. Very, suspensful and intriguing...just like advertised on the cover. Things are going good, I can't quit reading. They have just went through the "gate" and are now in this alternative world...and then, things...just...slow...down. I had read the first 276 pages in one or 2 days. I found myself on page 400 about a week and a half later (it's a 600 page book.) I know exactly when things started slowing down, because I looked back to try and figure out where I lost interest. Right around page 277, chapter 10. When they get into this new world, the next 200 pages involve..."Wow, look at that huge redwood"..."So, this is what things would look like with no cities"..."I could get used to this"..."beautiful hollyhocks, sycamores, live oaks"..."Would ya look at the size of that fish"..."I could really like it here"..."Man, the food is really good"..."Wouldya look at those marshes"..."I could get used to this"..."look at those wild grasses and flowers, they are pretty much extinct now"... 200 pages. Thats a whole book! I know, cuz I remember when I got interested in the book again...Chapter 19. Now, I understand Mr Stirling is trying to show what America woulda been like if there were no white men just mucking up everything. Ok...Make your point, and move on. 200 pages of "wow, wouldya just look at the size of that tree," gets a little old. Don't try and impress me with your horticulture knowledge...hell, I own a landscape business fer chrissakes! Get on with the story. The environmental sermon, or fantasizing...I can do without. Well, I coulda prolly done without 150 pages of it. Almost stopped reading the book altogether...but, I sucked it up and it finally got better...a little. The last section was ok. Not as good as the first 277 pages, but, much better than the middle 200 pages. Things started getting interesting with an internal power struggle going on with the "families" who now resided on this side of the "gate." Conflicts and alliances with several Indian tribes. A trek to an outpost training insurgents, a final battle for control of the gate, etc. Not the greatest action or drama I ever read. But, after the horticultural/zoological tour in the middle section...at least you didn't fall asleep, right away. Environmentalists might like this. Basically it's their dream come true. "If there just weren't so many humans around, what a much better world this would be." So, if you've ever thought that way...that the world would be much better off without those "other humans" around, you prolly would enjoy this. Personally, I think the world is better off, because of all the people in it. A sacreligious viewpoint with some of my environmentalist friends. I want to give this 2.5 stars, cuz it aint a horrible book. Just a little boring. I decided to round down cuz it really didn't keep me interested in the outcome. Anyway, I have read his "Island in the Sea of Time" series. Thought they were great. Much better than this.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting alternate history novel with a few twists
Review: When John Rolfe VI (descendant of the Virginia colonist and Pocahantas) returns from World War II, he is wounded and dissatisfied with life. But when an accident creates a gateway to another California on a North America white men have never settled, he is quick to take advantage of the situation to lead his army buddies to settle the brave new world, and later, dissatisfied types from Russia to Rhodesia. Set in 2009, the book switches back and forth from the present, as Rolfe's world of New Virginia faces discovery by a wildlife warden (who almost inevitably is shanghaied through the gateway) as well as incipient revolt by some New Virginians to the past, giving us episodes in New Virginian history. As we explore a world which seems a conservative's paradise--quiet towns with patriotic citizens doing National Service, kids in school uniforms, etc.--the best that we can conclude that Rolfe is probably better than those who seek to overthrow him. This despite disease-generated genocide caused (often unintentionally) by the New Virginians among the native people, and the threat of ecological disaster caused by their introduction of exotic plants. Stirling lays these before our eyes and lets us draw our own conclusions. Contains several jokes for the Science Fiction fan--for example, the Afrikaners we meet late in the book share their names with Afrikaner characters from Turtledove's "The Guns of the South" and the sign outside Ralph's restaurant is a play on the sign outside Hugh Farnham's establishment at the end of Heinlein's "Farnham's Freehold". The appendix is very useful, not only for laying out the basis of the alternate history, but also in telling us one fact about Rolfe's original world that the careful and knowledgeable reader might figure out--but might not. It is not necessary to the plot, but interesting to know--but I won't disclose it here, though there is a clue to it in this review. But you get the clue very early in the book, so I'm not giving away anything. Recommended.
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