Rating: 
Summary: An engrossing, enjoyable read, with many interesting ideas
Review: Although the "forward into the past" concept isn't new, Stirling has managed to make it seem that way. The problems are realistic, the characters interesting (a couple a bit *too* interesting...) and the plot development enjoyable and full of interesting surprises. There's a lot going on, but he never loses the narrative thread despite scene-jumps. Buy it! P.S. This would make a great movie. Anyone from Hollywood listening? Harrison Ford as Jared Cofflin! Angela Bassett as Marian Alston....
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book with some disturbing features.
Review: This is an extremely good story that manages to balance an extremely diverse range of characters and situations. However, when every other race in the book and group seems to have it's heroes, the only Asian that is even mentioned as a distinct character is a homicidal torturer? Balancing everyone's special interest is difficult in a book but I hope Mr. Stirling puts in a good word for some "good" Asians out there. Other than that though I must compliment Mr. Stirling on his attention to details and for writing such an interesting and thought provoking book. This will definitely be one I will read again and again.
Rating:
Summary: The best S.M. Stirling book outside the Draka series.
Review: I await all books by S.M Stirling with frenzied impatience, and buy them immediately, not because they're all flawless--Stirling often writes with other, much less talented authors, and participates in shared-worlds ventures--but because of the amazing acomplishment of his Draka books, which are for my money the most compelling and disturbing alternate history ever written. Island In the Sea of Time is better than anything Stirling has done outside his Draka series. It is in part a superior version of the SF classic Lest Darkness Fall, has wonderful celebrations of Homo Faber, and has a lovely homage to a great Poul Anderson scene--and being Stirling, surely the best military SF writer of all time, it has some splendid war scenes. There is a little possibly unwitting parody of the sort of people Stirling doesn't care for, and some grand celebration of the sort of people he does care for. This is a quietly and movingly patriotic book. It isn't his best work, but I read it at a sitting, when I had a lot of other urgent things to do.
Rating: 
Summary: Later books in the same series as Island In the Sea of Time.
Review: I'm glad to see such a positive response to "Island in the Sea of Time". It is, I think, my best book -- and certainly the most enjoyable to research and write. I've planned two more with the same background, although each is intended as a stand-alone story with its own conclusion. The next is AGAINST THE TIDE OF YEARS, and the last will be ON THE OCEANS OF ETERNITY.
Rating:
Summary: S.M. Stirling's branching out, and better than ever!
Review: In this book, S.M. Stirling takes on a new challenge...how would a fairly-randomly-selected group of modern people react to being plunked down in the Bronze Age? In this reviewer's opinion, he does a superlatively good job at it. The Bronze Age stuff is all based, as far as I can tell (not my period) on the latest and best data available on that period. Unlike some other authors, although Stirling does have his personal prejudices, he doesn't let them rule his work. He does allow some people who cling too devotedly to beliefs currently popular and fashionable to come to rather sticky ends, but he doesn't think that plunging head-on into the worst side of the Bronze Age is a better idea. Mr. Stirling has been kind enough to inform me that this is the first of several---the next is eagerly awaited.
Rating:
Summary: A book more about People than time travel
Review: Although this book contains the action and interesting background you expect from Stirling, Island in the Sea of Time has more, it is about People. The characters have great depth, you meet people of all kinds, from the brave and noble, to easily exploited fools, and powermongers. Overall it is a great story, highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book, but not enough closure
Review: I loved this book, and marveled at how it kept getting better and better. Some of the martial-arts detail got a little tiresome (and I'm a martialist as well...I guess he was doing his authorly duty, though). For fear of giving away the ending, I won't say *how* the story lacks closure, but I think it does. The book begs for a sequel, and if it comes my fears will quiet. On the other hand, if this is all there is, it's magnificent on its own but feels somehow incomplete.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic epic, worthy of your time!
Review: This is one of the best books I have read in a long, long, time. A fantastic epic, Island in the Sea of Time covers so much ground it's amazing. The research for the book is wonderful, and integrated carefully into the text for a great reading AND learning experience. This is one of S.M. Stirling's all-time best books. The characters are well-done, with a craftsman's touch. You actually _care_ about the characters, whether you hate them or love them. The scenery, the backgrounds, the tiny details-- all of these ring true in the novel. I literally couldn't put it down-- it's a "read-until-you're- done" one! Highly recommended, indeed.
Rating:
Summary: Frighteningly real
Review: I simply could not put this book down (sorry boss)! S. M. Stirling's ongoing series--of Nantucket Yankees ingeniously evolving the future while "cast away" into the Bronze Age three thousand years past--is a fascinating twist on the "alternate futures" genre of science fiction. Island in the Sea of Time is a wonderfully realized story of a modern peoples' struggle to adjust and survive in a time of great dislocation and desperate adversity. Transporting an entire group of modern Americans back in time means Stirling can legitimately give them modern politically correct personalities, and most effectively contrast these with Bronze Age mores. Thus understanding our heroes' modern motivations is "simpler" than in the "Byzantine" Videssos Cycle of Harry Turtledove, Stirling's model. The characters are very well drawn and differentiated, nor are we stuck only with laconic New Englanders as this colony in time expands. Only one person is a caricature, a New Age Environmentalist "Nazi" who is set up for a very bad end. I had real empathy for the desperate straits of the Nantucket Islanders isolated from everything familiar, and for the tension and anxiety regarding survival as the dire implications of their limited supplies unfolds. The tight focus on a small group of (once-fellow) Americans is highly involving: my god, what would I do if totally totally cut off from the 20th century? As an archaeologist I found Stirling's fleshing out of bare Beaker and Wessex Culture artifacts (like Stonehenge) to be marvelous, if incidental, fun.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent example of this genre
Review: Having become addicted to the alt-history, time travel, and "the whole world has suddenly changed" genres, I found this book particularly satisfying. I've read several of Stirling's other books, and I knew he definitely had a knack for this stuff, but this is one of his best.
There's wealth of fascinating detail, a whale of an adventure story, and effective presentation of battle scenes. Best of all, there is a degree of character development that goes well beyond the norm for this kind of story. (OK, so the good guys are WAY too perfect and the villains are all unalterably evil, but that's always a given.)
Some reviewers have problems with the lesbian relationship in the storyline. Frankly, it didn't bother me a bit... it got a little racy, but not over-the-top. (And Sterling's sex scenes are MUCH better than Turtledove's!)
Complaints? Really only one. I think the speed with so many characters, both modern and ancient, become fluent or conversant in each other's languages is totally improbable... but it certainly makes some plot elements move better.
This is a great read for anyone interested in the time travel and alt history genres.
|
