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Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful Sci-fi tribute to Anthony Hope's Classic Novel.
Review: I have all of the books in Simon Hawke's Time Wars Series and this is one of my Favorites! He gave a new twist to Prisoner of Zenda's tale of doubles and mistaken identities. Finn Delany, one of the major characters in this series, turns out to look just like Rudolf Rassendyll, who in turn bares a strange ressemblance to his distant relative, the King of Ruritania. Of course, there are no coincidences in time travel. Finn finds himself playing a man playing a King and the results are highly entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: The 4th of the Time Wars novels, and one of the best
Review: If your previous experience with Hawke is drawn from the WIZARD OF 4TH STREET series, note that Hawke has addressed the issue of series continuity differently in the TimeWars books. Each is a largely self-contained scenario, with a core collection of characters carrying over from book to book, so that large blocks of exposition to bring new readers up to date are not needed even when dealing with continuing plot threads. However, if you start with this book, you'll spoil some of the surprises in store from the first 3 books since you'll know too much about some of the characters; if that matters to you, bail out of this review *now*.
Each TimeWars book opens with "A Chronological History of the Time Wars", a timeline beginning with Mensinger's invention of the chronoplate in 2425. His heirs lost legal control of the technology, and in 2492, a proposal for "an end to war in our time" led humanity down the path leading to the Time Wars, in which conflicts were settled by refereed "wars" in which the disputants' soldiers were infiltrated into opposing forces in a past war, and the referees keep score by how many of each side survive.
This, of course, means that history now needs human guardians, to prevent accidents - or sabotage - from altering the flow of history. Those guardians are the Time Commandos; their star adjustment team, rather than the Time Wars proper, is the focus of the series. By this point in the series, the adjustment team consists of Andre Cross, Finn Delaney, and Lucas Priest, with their commander, Moses Forrester, in the background.
As in the preceding 3 Time Wars stories, the temporal adjustment that the Time Commandos must make involves incidents that to them historical but to us (the readers) are drawn from a famous novel - in this case, Anthony Hope's THE PRISONER OF ZENDA. (Judging from the briefing received by the adjustment team, the sequel, RUPERT OF HENTZAU, is secret history in the TimeWars universe.) Incidentally, starting with the next book in the series, THE NAUTILUS SANCTION, Hawke began departing from the famous-novel-as-history pattern.
As in #3, THE PIMPERNEL PLOT, Finn Delaney must replace an obscure historical figure who has been murdered by a time traveller, but in this case the murderer was a fugitive from justice: one of the Timekeepers' organization from book #2. Worse, another Timekeeper, Sophia Falco, was a sleeper agent in the Temporal Intelligence Agency, and not only murdered one of their most dangerous agents, but was once romantically involved with Forrester. But the long-term problem turns out to be one of the more junior Timekeepers, Nikolai Drakov, whose relationship with Forrester is even more complicated than Falco's.
The Timekeepers are holed up in Zenda Castle, and have added many concealed high-tech defenses, in addition to its already formidable built-in defenses. (Andre, asked for a professional opinion on how she would have taken the castle if she'd had to, promptly replies, "I would lay siege." The Commandos have access to the book, which was based on Rassendyll's memoirs, but Rassendyll didn't record enough detail to be much help in dealing with the Castle.) In this case, Delaney doesn't need surgery to pass for the murdered Rudolf Rassendyll; he's already a double for him.
Unlike the situation in book #3, the Zenda adjustment is riddled with the Fate Factor - in lay terms, the natural temporal inertia that tries to keep history on track in the presence of time travellers. Consequently, the surface events track those of THE PRISONER OF ZENDA far more closely than #3 corresponded with its counterpart, so if you liked that book you should really get a kick out of this one. Delaney's *real* relationship with Flavia, unless considered in light of his personal situation in book #3, may surprise some readers, but it's realistically handled. As a professional soldier, he relates really well with Sapt and Fritz von Tarlenheim, although he can't confide in them the real reasons why an apparently young man should be such a seasoned veteran.
The one notable difference between the surface situation of this book - that is, what the non-time travellers in the story *think* is going on - and that of Hope's novel relates to the professional opinion of some of the temporal physicists in the story that something about "the 17th-century Paris adjustment" (THE TIMEKEEPER CONSPIRACY) caused a problem that's now manifesting itself. Though not stated in the story, what probably happened is that something interfered with Antoinette de Mauban; her character's position with the bad guys in the story is replaced by the *much* stronger Sophia Falco, who can give Rupert of Hentzau a run for his money in a duel.
Cool. :)
Rating:
Summary: The 4th of the Time Wars novels, and one of the best
Review: If your previous experience with Hawke is drawn from the _Wizard of 4th Street_ series, note that Hawke has addressed the issue of series continuity differently in the TimeWars books. Each is a largely self-contained scenario, with a core collection of characters carrying over from book to book, so that large blocks of exposition to bring new readers up to date are not needed even when dealing with continuing plot threads. However, if you start with this book, you'll spoil some of the surprises in store from the first 3 books since you'll know too much about some of the characters; if that matters to you, bail out of this review *now*. Each TimeWars book opens with "A Chronological History of the Time Wars", a timeline beginning with Mensinger's invention of the chronoplate in 2425. His heirs lost legal control of the technology, and in 2492, a proposal for "an end to war in our time" led humanity down the path leading to the Time Wars, in which conflicts were settled by refereed "wars" in which the disputants' soldiers were infiltrated into opposing forces in a past war, and the referees keep score by how many of each side survive. This, of course, means that history now needs human guardians, to prevent accidents - or sabotage - from altering the flow of history. Those guardians are the Time Commandos; their star adjustment team, rather than the Time Wars proper, is the focus of the series. By this point in the series, the adjustment team consists of Andre Cross, Finn Delaney, and Lucas Priest, with their commander, Moses Forrester, in the background. As in the preceding 3 Time Wars stories, the temporal adjustment that the Time Commandos must make involves incidents that to them historical but to us (the readers) are drawn from a famous novel - in this case, Anthony Hope's _The Prisoner of Zenda_. (Judging from the briefing received by the adjustment team, the sequel, _Rupert of Hentzau_, is secret history in the TimeWars universe.) Incidentally, starting with the next book in the series, _The Nautilus Sanction_, Hawke began departing from the famous-novel-as-history pattern. As in #3, _The Pimpernel Plot_, Finn Delaney must replace an obscure historical figure who has been murdered by a time traveller, but in this case the murderer was a fugitive from justice: one of the Timekeepers' organization from book #2. Worse, another Timekeeper, Sophia Falco, was a sleeper agent in the Temporal Intelligence Agency, and not only murdered one of their most dangerous agents, but was once romantically involved with Forrester. But the long-term problem turns out to be one of the more junior Timekeepers, Nikolai Drakov, whose relationship with Forrester is even more complicated than Falco's. The Timekeepers are holed up in Zenda Castle, and have added many concealed high-tech defenses, in addition to its already formidable built-in defenses. (Andre, asked for a professional opinion on how she would have taken the castle if she'd had to, promptly replies, "I would lay siege." The Commandos have access to the book, which was based on Rassendyll's memoirs, but Rassendyll didn't record enough detail to be much help in dealing with the Castle.) In this case, Delaney doesn't need surgery to pass for the murdered Rudolf Rassendyll; he's already a double for him. Unlike the situation in book #3, the Zenda adjustment is riddled with the Fate Factor - in lay terms, the natural temporal inertia that tries to keep history on track in the presence of time travellers. Consequently, the surface events track those of _The Prisoner of Zenda_ far more closely than #3 corresponded with its counterpart, so if you liked that book you should really get a kick out of this one. Delaney's *real* relationship with Flavia, unless considered in light of his personal situation in book #3, may surprise some readers, but it's realistically handled. As a professional soldier, he relates really well with Sapt and Fritz von Tarlenheim, although he can't confide in them the real reasons why an apparently young man should be such a seasoned veteran. The one notable difference between the surface situation of this book - that is, what the non-time travellers in the story *think* is going on - and that of Hope's novel relates to the professional opinion of some of the temporal physicists in the story that something about "the 17th-century Paris adjustment" (_The Timekeeper Conspiracy_) caused a problem that's now manifesting itself. Though not stated in the story, what probably happened is that something interfered with Antoinette de Mauban; her character's position with the bad guys in the story is replaced by the *much* stronger Sophia Falco, who can give Rupert of Hentzau a run for his money in a duel. Cool. :)
Rating: 
Summary: A MASTER WRITER AT THE HEIGHT OF HIS CAREER!
Review: The Timewars series was some of the best sci-fi/action series that I have ever read. I read them years ago and kept them all and plan on re-reading them. A must read.
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