Rating: 
Summary: Once you find out what the theme of this book is...
Review: ...please tell me. "The Bones of Time" jumps back and forth between two plotlines. In one, a teen genius named Cen does brilliant mathematical work while carrying on a PG-13 relationship with a Hawaiian Princess who died a century before he was born (and they say tragic romance is dead!), while in the other a Japanese scientist and a clone flee from mysterious pursuit and try to acquire some of Chairman Mao's DNA. This book mentions a lot of scientific hypotheses. There's the idea that consciousness has a special metaphysical quality in our universe, which is somehow tied to a storyline about a gigantic spaceship being built in Hawaii. There's mention of potentially deadly nanotechnology, and efforts to analyze and duplicate the past's great leaders through their genes, and... But what is the meaning of all this? What consequences does it have for the human race? Goonan only touches lightly on those questions, with the big ramifications left unexplored.
Besides that, the book just plain lacks style. Particularly in the second storyline, where the characters flee all over southeast Asia while keeping one step sinister agents, it's all just way too boring. Been there, done that, let's move on please.
Rating: 
Summary: The book is great!
Review: Another incredibly wonderful book! This is one of the most creative and interesting long reads I have had in a while. Run, don't walk and buy this book!
Rating: 
Summary: A FASCINATING NOVEL
Review: GOONAN HAS WRITTEN A FASCINATING AND HAUNTING
NOVEL THAT DEALS WITH CLONING, TIME TRAVEL AND LOST LOVE. I ESPECIALLY LIKE THE CHARCTER CALLED CEN AND HIS STORY WAS MOVING. THE ONLY THING I DIDN'T LIKE ABOUT THE NOVEL WAS WHAT HAPPEN TO HIM? THE AUTHOR LEFT HIS FATE UP IN THE AIR.
Rating:
Summary: The Bones of Time - a very favorable impression
Review: I picked this book up because it was 20% off; I'd never heard of it or Ms. Goonan. It was a great find. Ms. Goonan is current on all of the cutting edge science - cloning, genetic manipulation, nanotech, and even the cutting edge super-string theory of physics, which implies the possibility of time travel. All of this could be incredibly boring, though, but Ms. Goonan hangs it all on a great plot populated by some memorable characters. The novel is set in Hawaii. Some of the characters are native Hawaiians, and members of the underground Homeland Movement; another is the Japanese daughter of the founder of Interspace, an organization with the lofty goal of settling the stars, but as corrupt and underhanded as any modern organization. The way all of these elements are tied together is really incredible. You'll have to read it to see for yourself
Rating: 
Summary: Bad science!
Review: I read the MISSISSIPPI and QUEEN novels by Goonan about a year ago, and rated those at five stars, so I gave this novel a try. THE BONES OF TIME I found to be flawed in one very major way. This book centers around the idea of our consciousness being influenced or generated by quantum effects, and in reality there is no evidence of that. This novel even quotes Roger Penrose and his theory, which as far as I know has little or no support in the scientific community, although Penrose sells a lot of books!As a scientist, I believe in the scientific principles, which I wiil not go into here. Therefore, I hold science fiction writers accountable for including bad science and fantasy in their novels. These writers, in my view, should be popularizing how future science will improve or influence our lives and situation, it is their social obligation in a sense. In regards to the pure literary value of this novel, I found the plot to be poor, and it was a chore just to finish the book. If you would like to read a novel about future science firmly grounded in reality, read the fine novel THE FIRST IMMORTAL, by James Halperin.
Rating:
Summary: Bad science!
Review: I read the MISSISSIPPI and QUEEN novels by Goonan about a year ago, and rated those at five stars, so I gave this novel a try. THE BONES OF TIME I found to be flawed in one very major way. This book centers around the idea of our consciousness being influenced or generated by quantum effects, and in reality there is no evidence of that. This novel even quotes Roger Penrose and his theory, which as far as I know has little or no support in the scientific community, although Penrose sells a lot of books! As a scientist, I believe in the scientific principles, which I wiil not go into here. Therefore, I hold science fiction writers accountable for including bad science and fantasy in their novels. These writers, in my view, should be popularizing how future science will improve or influence our lives and situation, it is their social obligation in a sense. In regards to the pure literary value of this novel, I found the plot to be poor, and it was a chore just to finish the book. If you would like to read a novel about future science firmly grounded in reality, read the fine novel THE FIRST IMMORTAL, by James Halperin.
Rating:
Summary: Barely kept my interest
Review: I thought Bones of Time would be either really good or really bad. It turned out to be less than mediocre. It took me weeks to read it, sometimes I read another book at the same time and switched between them. It wasn't a time travel book although it sounded like it could be from the back cover; it was flash backs to an earlier time. There was just enough to hold my interest, wondering how it would end, to finish it. The ending was strange. It made me feel bad to read how the United States finagled to get Hawaii from the Hawaiian rule. It reminded me of how the Indians were mistreated when their land was taken. However, although this subject was thrown in often throughout the book, it wasn't part of the plot. Although it was interesting to read about locations on Oahu or the Big Island where I've been and get the author's concept of what they could be like in the future, it wasn't enough to reprieve the book. I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone, and it's going into my stack for trade-in at the local used bookstore.
Rating:
Summary: Barely kept my interest
Review: I thought Bones of Time would be either really good or really bad. It turned out to be less than mediocre. It took me weeks to read it, sometimes I read another book at the same time and switched between them. It wasn't a time travel book although it sounded like it could be from the back cover; it was flash backs to an earlier time. There was just enough to hold my interest, wondering how it would end, to finish it. The ending was strange. It made me feel bad to read how the United States finagled to get Hawaii from the Hawaiian rule. It reminded me of how the Indians were mistreated when their land was taken. However, although this subject was thrown in often throughout the book, it wasn't part of the plot. Although it was interesting to read about locations on Oahu or the Big Island where I've been and get the author's concept of what they could be like in the future, it wasn't enough to reprieve the book. I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone, and it's going into my stack for trade-in at the local used bookstore.
Rating:
Summary: Where did the magic of Queen City Jazz go?
Review: I was disappointed in this novel, not because it isn't good, it is and quite spellbinding at that, with a very interesting set of intuitions about consciousness, quantum physics and cosmological theory, but rather because I was expecting the ineffable magic of Queeen City Jazz. In QCJ you never know what will apear at each turn, at least not until late in the novel, after the author has led us along paths of masterfull indirection, suggesting evocatively yet always leaving something yet to be said, building up to realizations that stun, leave one both awed and intrigued, sad and strangely joyful, never ever predicting the plot. And that is just what i found myself doing in TBoT. It is linear, despite a major curlicue in the time line. It is traditional rather than fantastic, and I miss that magic, although I enjoyed the read.
Rating:
Summary: Where did the magic of Queen City Jazz go?
Review: I was disappointed in this novel, not because it isn't good, it is and quite spellbinding at that, with a very interesting set of intuitions about consciousness, quantum physics and cosmological theory, but rather because I was expecting the ineffable magic of Queeen City Jazz. In QCJ you never know what will apear at each turn, at least not until late in the novel, after the author has led us along paths of masterfull indirection, suggesting evocatively yet always leaving something yet to be said, building up to realizations that stun, leave one both awed and intrigued, sad and strangely joyful, never ever predicting the plot. And that is just what i found myself doing in TBoT. It is linear, despite a major curlicue in the time line. It is traditional rather than fantastic, and I miss that magic, although I enjoyed the read.
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