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Summary: Enjoy ancient history & fantasy? This is THE book for you!!!
Review: I've read multitudes of sci-fi and fantasy books over the past 20 odd years and was turned to the author from his collaborations with Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. This is the best time travel alternate history series I have ever read (Nivens "A World out of Time" comes close}.
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Summary: Good book but concentrates to much on military operations
Review: I was waiting in eager anticipation for this sequel but I must confess I was disappointed. The real fascination in the first book was the people of Nantucket working to survive and adapt to the new world they found themselves. This was combined with the glimpse of new lands lost in time such as the Olmec and the British Isles. What I found in the second book was far to much concentration on military campaigns and warfare. I had hoped the military part started in the initial book would be continued as a sidebar to the continued work in surviving in the past and exploring the world. I was really hoping to see some real effort in showing the New World as it existed at that time, with incipient horticultual peoples of the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys, Formative Cultures of Mexico and some glimpses of the Old World gradually introduced. What we got was largely a military campaign. I really hope that the next book in the series can move more to a real look at the world of the past, reeinventing civiliation (not guns, machine guns, grenades, dive bombing), spreading knowledge etc.
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Summary: Fascinating, but suffers from "middle-of-trilogy" syndrome
Review: I thought the first book in this series, "Island in the Sea of Time," was superb, and looked forward to this sequel eagerly--I pre-ordered it about a month before the actual publication. And I enjoyed the book, as I expected. There are flaws. As a previous reviewer pointed out, there are severe editing snafus in the book. Also, the characterization seemed weaker than in the previous book. The best fleshed-out character in this book is the villain, Walker. But watching the sweep of events makes this an enjoyable book, even if the characters are not as deeply-drawn as we might wish for. I'd have liked a more detailed accounting of events, especially of the rationale for the one major action Tartessos takes in the book. For fear of spoilers, I won't say what it was, but I will say that the reasoning behind it has eluded me....Finally, the failure to resolve things is a bit frustrating, even though essential in the second of three books. Read it and enjoy it, but do read the first book in the trilogy before getting this one!
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Summary: Another Excellent Work From S.M. Stirling
Review: I really enjoyed the first book in this series, and I enjoyed this one just as much. Buy it. You won't be sorry.
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Summary: Tied-down with Battleship Chains !!!
Review: A great book. The Trojan War, Egypt, Babylonia, Dirigibles, Sailing Ships, Gatling Guns, Elephant Hunts, Patriotism, Treachery, Lesbians, Plagues, and Invasion USA. The heart of the story is the attempt to rewrite history by the castaways in time. The appeal of the story is its honest appraisal of just how hard it would be to get that second-draft out. Oh yeah, and there is enough action along the way to fill ten books...Like any 'middle book' this one is too short. Maybe someday publishers will learn that readers can handle books longer than 500 pages. Gee whiz, some of us even like 'em! There are places where it is obvious that Mr. Stirling's work had a run-in with the editorial knife that seeks not to cut itself. In spite of that, Against the Tide of Years is an impressive work. Obviously a labour of love for the author. This is not a book for stupid people. If you really really really loved Sword of Shannara or Dune, look elsewhere. If you ever wished Tolkien and Ellison had gotten good and drunk with Louis L'Amour and Sandra Bernhardt whilst vacationing in Nantucket and in the course of their revel come up with a crazy idea for a novel... Look no further. :)
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Summary: An excellent sequel
Review: _Island in the Sea of Time_ was such an exceptional book that subsequent books in the series (three are planned) will have a difficult time measuring up. Well, _Against the Tide of Years_ succeeds. It was a pleasure to see the story expand, old characters develop further, and new characters be introduced. The only dissapointing thing about this series is that we now have to wait for the next book! While this book can stand on its own, you will enjoy it more if you read _Island in the Sea of Time_ first.
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Summary: Excellent novel
Review: Stirling does it again. As with the Domination of the Draka series, he has created a wonderful alternate history tale in wich modern 20th century people find themselves in plunged in the ancient past and end up creating an alternate past where everything can happen. This book (and his prequel) are in the glorious tradition of "A Connecticut Yankee" and "Lest Darkness fall" but set themselves apart from other novels of the same kind for the richness of real historical details and the obvious technical knowledge and commitment of the author. I read both the first and the second book together and I am now hungrily waiting for the third one. If you want to get your dollar's worth of satisfaction from your buys any Stirling book is a clever buy.
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Summary: Great series, Mr. Stirlings best
Review: Mr. Stirling is one of my favorite authors, all of his books have ranged from good to great. Against the Tide of Years is one of his best, and I can't wait for the next in this series.jj
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Summary: So promising but why all the lesbian stuff?
Review: I had enjoyed Island in the Sea of Time so much, and was delighted to see a sequel had come out. I made it halfway through this book, but was so repulsed by the constant referral to lesbian activities that I put it down. What a shame that the writer for some reason had to shove lesbianism down the readers' throats.
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Summary: A great book, but nothing actually gets resolved
Review: Despite wanting to turn the editor over to a certain A. Hong, I really enjoyed this book. The focus shifted a bit to different characters to some extent from the first book, but as the book primarily focused on off-island military campaigns, it would not be suprising that the on-island civilian head of state did not have a central role. However the action was fast, furious and intelligent, the character were interesting and three dimensional. (Even if a lot of time and therefore character development happened off camera so to speak) and the villians a suitable threat to all we hold dear. My only real critism is that the book come across as the second book in a trilogy. :-) Plot lines are brought up and not resolved and it is largely setting the scene for the big war in the next book. In reply to some previous posts, I am aware that there are historical anachronisms in the book, such as female soldiers. These are a result of Islander interference you twit. The pace of technological development is fast, but that is because it is rediscovery, not new inventions, so all that the "inventors" have to do is get the bugs out. Finally, I'm not an authority on melee combat, but I do know that the Japanese had actually been using swords for serious fighting for longer and more recently than we have, and that Myamtoto Musashi did actually go around killing people, not writing best selling books so I think they know what they're talking about. Just remember that there is the sport version and the killing your oponent version and most places teach the sport version. A lot about the book is unlikely, but this is high adventure where mismatched heroes struggle against long odds. If you want a realistic version of the story, go read "Lord of the Flies". This is a tale of wonder, hope and the human spirit. The main characters from uptime may come across as overly competant, but they are the top half-dozen out of a population of 7,000 from the first book. They are literally one in a thousand. This is the kind of brilliant story with depth I have come to expect from Stirling. I just pity people who havn't read his books. (This includes one or two of the other reviewers.)
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