Customer Reviews

Against the Tide of Years [With Earbuds] (Playaway Adult Fiction)

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is one of the better "Americans lost in the past" books, and certainly more realistic than Eric Flint's =1632=.

I'm puzzled, however, by the number of reviewers who seem to believe that a strong female character, like Marian Alston, automatically means that the male author hates his own gender. I'm also puzzled by the references to Alston being "a psychotic lesbian." If being career oriented, strong minded, and loving toward her family is "psychotic," well, I'm a psychotic heterosexual and have been for forty years. It's too bad that a decent female military lead is still intolerable to so many.

I also do not understand this "Stirling is left wing" business. The only way I could see any "leftist influence" is that the female characters were portrayed as equal to the men rather than being stereotypes. Compared to the average military SF book, this *is* liberal, but ultimately this is much more damning of the right wing/libertarian strain in science fiction than of S.M. Stirling. Or maybe the idea of one person, one vote at a New England town meeting is a bit much for some people?

Finally, the "reviewer" who brings up the subject of Bronze Age combat being reliant on brute strength is forgetting a few things (just a few). First, this book is about Americans changing the paradigm by introducing less strength oriented tactics and weapons. Second, modern Americans are larger, stronger and healthier than Bronze Age Mediterraneans. That includes women, believe it or not. Third, Bronze Age warfare depended on brute strength because the tactics and weapons were extremely primitive. The Nantucketers may be *in* the Bronze Age, but they are not *of* the Bronze Age. Their weapons are steel, not Bronze (and thus stronger and lighter), they eat a better diet and are in better shape, and they have the benefit of several thousand years' worth of later military tactics and battle accounts. Of course they would cream the Bronze Agers in battle.

Stirling has done a nice job with what is rapidly becoming a cliche in science fiction. Definitely worth reading.

AGAINST THE TIDE OF YEARS, the second book in S.M. Stirling's Nantucket trilogy, is a riveting, delightful, novel of war on a global scale, of people in love, and of great deeds and high adventure. It is also an exploration of the nature of sacrifice, the concepts of duty and honor, and each person's responsibility for each other. It's not an overstatement to say that along with its predecessor, it sets a new standard in the alternate history genre of SF. It is one hell of a read. In the first novel, ISLAND IN THE SEA OF TIME, the island of Nantucket off the Massachusetts coast is inexplicably thrown three thousand years back in time. The Coast Guard cutter EAGLE, near Nantucket at the time, goes with it.

The people of the island deal with this miraculous event and start to build a community. Jared Cofflin, the town Sheriff, is made Chief Executive of the small nation. Marian Alston, Captain of the Eagle, heads its armed forces, which everyone thought were not going to be necessary for a while. Then William Walker, a junior Coast Guard officer, steals a ship, weapons, and technology, and takes off for Bronze Age England to make himself king of the world. Nantucket raises an army, travels to England, and defeats him in battle, though he escapes to the mainland with his small group of evil rebels.

In AGAINST THE TIDE OF YEARS, it is eight years later. The fledgling Republic of Nantucket(RON) has achieved economic stability and is pushing into the American continent, while maintaining close relations with the Fiernan and the Sun People of the British Isles. Walker has traveled to Greece, where he's become a favorite noble of King Agamemnon. As Walker's political and military power grows, it becomes clear he's preparing for a war of conquest. The Republic of Nantucket decides it's time to stop their wayward sociopath, even if it means war.

Thus a series of global conflicts begins, in which RON establishes a treaty with Babylon takes part in the siege of Troy, in which Nantucket defends itself on the ground and on the high seas in a pitched naval battle.

The brother-sister team of Kathryn and Kenneth Hollard, career soldiers both, are dispatched to Babylon to offer military aid and instruction. They find themselves quickly mired in a full-scale war as well as the political intrigue of Babylon itself.

While the fighting and the strategy is interesting, the best parts of the book are the living characters who inhabit its heart. Marian Alston and her Fiernan lover Swindapa are complex people. Loving parents, excellent soldiers, deeply committed, and just plain fun. William Walker is a depraved portrait of evil. The truly chilling thing about him is his humanity--he loves his children, he takes care of his people. If he weren't a mass-murdering sociopath, he'd almost be likeable.

As you can tell, AGAINST THE TIDE OF YEARS is a bit complex; it is also a delight for anyone who has ever studied history, for anyone who enjoys a good love story, for anyone who enjoys military strategy, and for anyone who likes a good book. I can't recommend it enough.

--Marshall Moseley

I loved this series. I've lost track of my initial purchases, since I've lent them out to so many people. This is a series I love to read and reread. There's so much depth to the characters and so many different plot threads I notice something new each time.

Stirling has done a masterful job at engaging the reader in the "time & place." Those reviewers here who balk at the "PC" correctness they see as prevalent must have a personal agenda. I find it fairly realistic that in this situation of being suddenly thrust into the past, the islanders bring their 20th century values with them. Would they really ignore the contribution the women in their midst are able to make? I don't think so.

I'm not a big fan of military fiction, but his descriptions of the battles grip my imagination as much as do his sailing scenes and there I do have a personal reference. He makes better use of the power of smells to evoke memory than any other writer I know. You can smell the woodsmoke, the tang of iron, the dank mud, the clean sweep of the sea. His characters are engaging and believable.

I heartily recommend all three books in this series. You'll get hooked! I just hope Steve Stirling continues to add to the three books. He left plenty of loose ends to be picked up and woven into another 3 books.

I really enjoyed reading this book - read it on the beach in a couple of days.

Unlike some of the other reviewers, i am not particularly bothered by the lesbianism, or the lack of explanation of the "event".

The biggest problem i had was that the author makes no distinction between what omniscient, infallible gods would do, and what the nantucketers do. Draka revisited, except benign this time. The RON never makes an ethical, technological, economic, or political misstep, in the author's view. Especially in the case of technical decisions related to warfare, many of the choices that the RON make are odd, or arbitrary, but they are protrayed as unassailable strokes of brilliance. If the author adopts this sort of stance, i think he assumes the responsibility of discussing all the eliminated alternatives. since this is ridiculous for a novel, the stance of the narrator should be more neutral toward the actions of the fallible, imperfect, incompletely knowledgeable nantucketers. This book reads more like a utopian polemic favoring Nantucket, rather than an attempt at a speculative technical history.

The brawling ninja females, unlikely as they are, are such a staple of this genre that they probably can be forgiven. They are laid on a little thick, however.

Don't _not_ read or buy this book because of my review, please. Just my opinion. The idea and setting is so imaginative that its entertainment value is high, despite my nerdy technical criticisms.

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.)

***SPOILER FREE REVIEW***

If you were a fan of Eric FLint's 1632 series (before it turned to crap w/ 1634+) then you will enjoy this series.

The author does a decent enough job of transporting us back in time and answering the age old fantasy of how it would be to go back in time and kick some arse.

I enjoy the development of the characters both good and bad along with the interesting situations they find themselves in.

Overall, I was pleased with this BOok #2 and will probably continue with the series.

Eight years after the Event, the Nantucketers finally decide that William Walker must be brought to justice. (What took them so long?) This is the first (not quite) half of that story, and I found it even more enjoyable than the first book, Island in the Sea of Time (Island), which you should read first because it provides the background.

Most of the action in ATTOY takes place in the (then) fertile crescent where Western civilization began, and some history of which is known, which I think is part of why I enjoyed it more than ISLAND, much of which took place in the British Isles before any recorded history thereof. (Stonehenge was already there, but all we know about it is what was learned from the artifact itself.) ATTOY has to (and does) accord with the known history of the region, except for the changes caused by the Nantucketers.

One jarring note: near the bottom of page 294 (paperback) is the sentence

"That was where the Chamberlain was under repair in the spanking-new dry dock, and a second being was constructed." We never learn the nature of the being that was constructed, and it doesn't figure in the plot, so why even mention it?

Three things I wish were included in these books: (1) maps of the region(s), (2) Cast of characters, both such as are provided in Eric Flint's 1632 (The Assiti Shards) and 1633; and (3) historical notes, such as Miriam Grace Monfredo includes in Seneca Falls Inheritance and its sequels.

Even without those, I greatly enjoyed IITSOT and ATTOY, and am currently enjoying the third book, On the Oceans of Eternity, and I heartily recommend them. Enjoy!

watziznaym@gmail.com

This second installment of the Nantucket trilogy provides readers with breathtaking battles, surprising plot twists, phenomenal characterization, and irresistable historical insight. In my opinion, the Nantucket trilogy is turning out to be the most fascinating time travel/alternate history series of all time! I am already very anxious for the third installment -- entitled ON THE OCEANS OF ETERNITY -- to be released next year.

An excellent sequel to Island in the Sea of Time, which is a great book by itself. The Nantucket trilogy so far is surely among the best books I had the occasion to read. I enjoyed the depiction of the Bronze Age peoples and cultures, dead for millenia, but now living again due to the precise research and admirable depiction skills of the author.

There are some points I would have liked detailed in the book, such as a more detailed account of the Girenas expedition and the peoples it encountered. More Tartessian POVs could also have been added, leading to a deeper understanding of this people and their goals. Maybe the third book will present such things. Some nitpicks, the dates presented in some chapter headings aren't always in the good order, or refers to parts that have been deleted, which led to some confusion. A more thorough editing work would have been nesessary, I believe.

All in all, a book you'll probably read more than once, or twice!

Jugding from previous reviews, the people who read it either loved it or hated it.

The book wasn't really that bad at all. The charecters are believable, the descriptions are vivid, and the locations are very invocative. Also, look for clever tributes to everything from Monty Python to MacGyuver.

A previous reviewer made a comparison between Mr. Stirling and Marion Zimmer Bradley. It would be quite difficult to find writers in the same genre who would be more unlike. Not to slight Ms. Bradley, but her approach to the realities of all series is so unreal as to be whimsical. She often violates her own chronologies, and contradicts herself quite often when dealing with the parasciences she herself creates. Mr Stirling's timekeeping is so rigid, it makes a book authored by him so distinctive, it is often the only way one could tell it was written by him, if one dosent bother to read the cover or the title page.

That is not to say that this volume doesn't have ANY faults. The emphasis on the Japanese sword arts of Kenjutsu, Kendo, and Iaido is excessive, (Indeed, Iaido is only useful in duels)and the Katanna has all the drawbacks of being a curved and single edged weapon. But the reviewer before me overstates his case. Against armored opponents, the Franco-Spanish rapier and the techniques that have grown up around it would be much more useless. It is true, though, that it is beter to be focused on the battle and on your opponent than being at one with one's sword. But on the bright side, we don't see any Zen target shooting.

Finally, Fiernan society as depicted in the book(s) is realitively pluasible given the archeological evidence of the period. There are similar societies that come to mind. The one that comes off hand the most quickly is the Tlingit Indians.

All in all, it is a verry good book. Not perfect, but far from the trash the previous reviewer made it out to be.