Rating: 
Summary: Premise ok; grammar and syntax very bad
Review: I first read S M Stirling's bio on the book cover and really wanted this book to knock my socks off. We both have a Newfie Dad and a British Mom and he seemed well traveled and exposed to many different cultures. I read "Islands in the Sea of Time" and although the premise for the "event" was plausible enough, I thought the story quite redundant in many areas. The grammar and syntax errors drove me crazy, but compulsive as I am to read a book through to the end, I did manage to finish it and checked out the sequel, "Against the Tide of Years" to see if it was edited any better. The errors still continued in the second book, which I was too disappointed to finish reading. As other reviewers have pointed out, maps would have been very handy. The characters were merely interesting, but not dynamic. There really wasn't one character in the book that stood out above the rest, one I could give my heart over to for the duration of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: A surprising pleasure read from a non-Sci-fi reader
Review: One of the best modern page turners I've recently encountered. My fiance has been encouraging me for ages to start reading Sci-fi, but I never cared for the fantasy aspects. Stirling's book is REAL science, yet deals with the "what if.." question that is a significant theme in Sci-fi. I've passed this book on to many of my friends, and all love it! Can't put it down! Can't wait to start the sequels!
Rating: 
Summary: Good research, good story
Review: I've read all three in this series and I agree with many of the comments below:1. Maps! Yes! Put some damn maps in this thing. I'm lucky that I have a good background in history, but I still found myself looking things up to get a sense of place and distance. Maps would definitely help. 2. Kurelo women -- the relationship drags on and on which is fine, but I don't want to hear about it anymore! 3. The Event, other implausibles and unexplained happenings -- who cares? This is SF (speculative fiction). Stirling did a good job not making it too much of a focus and just getting to the real story here -- survival in the past. It's not like this stuff is Hugo material -- it's just fun. If you can't handle it -- don't read it.
Rating:
Summary: Loved all 3 books in this series!
Review: I have read all three books in Stirling's Bronze Age trilogy and loved them! And I tend to agree with all the positive comments made by the other reviewers. However, I wanted to make a few suggestions to the publisher and author and felt that this might be the appropriate forum for my comments. 1. Maps, Maps, MAPS! These books literally beg for maps. I was able to use some of my Nat'l Geographic historical maps, as well as other maps that I have access too in order to follow the plot line. However, it would have been much more convenient to have the appropriate maps contained in the books themselves. 2. Place the chapter date and location headings directly before the portion of the chapter that they relate too (instead of listing them all at the beginning of the chapter). It became very confusing trying to figure out where I was at...and in what year. This was particularly true in the second book. 3. Get a new editor! Entirely too many dumb mistakes in spelling and/or grammar.
Rating:
Summary: Good escapist fun
Review: There have been a lot of comments about how the whole mechanism of time travel ("The Event") wasn't explained and how convenient it was that they just happened to have the people with the knowledge they needed, but you know, I don't care. I didn't even care that a lot of plot elements were heavily telegraphed, or how improbable a lot of events were. You know why? Because it was *fun*. The book was well-written and fast-paced and just pulled me along. Even when I snickered and said 'give me a break,' I was still enjoying it. The bad guys were bad and the good guys were good and good always wins in the end. I'm nearly finished book two and very much looking forward to book three.
Rating:
Summary: Great plot, flat characters
Review: I found this book to be very well written and with a terrific story. However all of the characters are two-dimensional. If the lack of character development doesn't bother you, then this is an excellent read. Although I enjoyed the story, I'm not interested in reading any of the sequels, fearing that they are just "more of the same."
Rating:
Summary: One of the best I have ever read.....
Review: Imagine a group of 20th century people suddenly transported to the bronze age, c.1250 B.C. That is the premise behind this book. The "moderns" are the inhabitants of the island of Nantucket, some 7000 of them and they are now forced to deal with the diffcultly of adapting to totally alien life style, not to mention avoiding starvation... Some of the other reviewers of this book have mentioned Stirling's liberal viewpoint, and I admit having as a main character a gay black woman was a bit of a jolt, and the concept of the island just "happening to have" people with nessary skills seems a bit far-fetched, but these are no more than ripples in a sea of smooth flowing narrative. I would have personally prefered to have seen more about the "Nantucketers" struggle to adapt to their new world rather than jumping into the actions of renagde William Walker, but I am aware that that would have slowed the book more...Now that all three books in the series are available I can say this is one of the masterpieces of the alternative history genre, from first to last....
Rating: 
Summary: Fun to read, yet strangely irritating.
Review: This is a very well written, but flawed, book. Several other reviewers have expressed entirely justifiable concerns about the author's heavy-handed sexual politics. This does in fact detract from the book, but of greater concern to me is how little credit people of the bronze age are given. The training of a Spartan hoplite ( admittedly several centuries later than this novel) took fourteen years. The people of the era written about in this book were tough, strong, and well trained warriors unlikely to be routinely embarrassed in hand to hand combat by a twentieth century woman who, as a hobby, spends some time in a strip-mall dojo. A modern American dropped in the middle of an ancient battlefield would be far more likely to end up a gutted corpse than a conquering hero. Also irritating is the premise that the world needs to be saved from William Walker. Any number of real civilizations, including the one that spawned the Republic of Nantucket, were founded and advanced by people just as ruthless and self serving. Still, the novel is well written and paced, and worth reading. Just be prepared for a certain amount of irritation.
Rating:
Summary: Island in the Sea of Time
Review: Alternate history fiction is not the easiest literature to create. Stirling does a great job in setting forth a multi "What-If" scenario. In a season of Y2K fears and unknowns, this is a great read.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but should have different P.O.V.
Review: I am almost finished this book, and the thing that strikes me is that the villains, William Walker and Isketerol, are far more interesting to read about than the heroes. I really became bored with the islanders at times, and found the lesbian super samurai women very tiresome and clichéd. Walker and Isketerol are true adventurers, though. Opportunistic, ruthless and lots of fun to read about! I found it interesting that Stirling seeks to hide his basic Politically Correct agenda by writing a few overtly stupid and laughable PC or liberal characters like Pamela Lisketter (I did love her comeuppance.) and the Woodstock burnout blacksmith. By doing this, he pretends to be 'anti-PC', but then bombards us with one of the most left-leaning sets of heroes I have ever seen in a Science Fiction novel. Stirling should sink the 'Eagle' with all hands on board and concentrate on the adventures of William Walker. By the way, the name William Walker comes from a man in the 1850's who tried to conquer Nicaragua with an army of filibusters.
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