Conqueror: Time's Tapestry Book Two [Hardcover]

Stephen Baxter (Author)

Book Description

Series: Time's Tapestry | Publication Date: August 7, 2007

The second novel in a thrilling alternate-history series-from national bestselling author Stephen Baxter.

Three centuries have passed since Rome fell, as The Prophecy foretold. Now The Prophecy's scroll is in the hands of a young girl, the last surviving member of the family who received The Prophecy. She lives in tranquility, disguisd as a boy among the monks on the isle of Lindisfarne-until the Vikings come, deliberately destroying the final copies of the scroll. But it remains in her memory, and when William of Normandy, who history will call the Conqueror, rises to power, once more the fate of the land rests on actions inspired by those age-old words.

But as time passes, memory of The Prophecy dims--and the veiled girl struggles to understand her heritage before all knowledge of the future will be lost to the past.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stephen Baxter is a trained engineer with a degree in mathematics from Cambridge and a doctorate in aeroengineering research from Southampton University. After teaching for a number of years and working in the information technology management industry, he began writing full-time in 1995. He lives in Great Britian.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Ace Hardcover (August 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441014968
• ISBN-13: 978-0441014965
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,380,202 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sideline seat at the Battle of Hastings, November 7, 2008

By 

D. S. Bornus (St. Paul, MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Conqueror: Time's Tapestry Book Two (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this book, filled with historical detail about the time period of the Viking age leading up to the Norman Conquest. The book is a collection of novelettes with different generations of characters, all fulfilling an obscure prophecy foretelling events that are heralded by each appearance of what will be known as Halley's Comet.

The book concludes with one of the most famous appearances of Halley's Comet, during the time when William the Conqueror defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings, establishing the Norman dominance of Britain. The author deftly weaves characters through interactions with Harold and William, allowing us a ringside seat during this epic battle. The book also weaves the characters into another actual historic occurrence, a Viking chieftan's funeral and ship burial as recorded by a contemporary Arab observer. (This burial did occur and was also adapted into a scene in the movie "The 13th Warrior" with Antonio Banderas.)

The only downside to this book is that each of the novelettes is a separate story, so that the reader becomes engaged with the characters only to come to the end of their particular saga, moving on to the next century's descendants and their life and times. In the process, however, one gains a consciousness of how time unceasingly marches forward in one's own ancestry, as we each have our brief time upon the stage of history.

(I believe this is the best book of the four-part series. In fact, it could be read/appreciated alone.)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, August 9, 2009

By 

SJ "Sherri" (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Conqueror: Time's Tapestry Book Two (Hardcover)

I bought the first book in this series expecting to read an alternative history. The history is interesting but through book #2, nothing out of the ordinary happens & I've been very disappointed. I enjoy reading historical fiction but was looking for a twist which these aren't delivering. If you want to read historical fiction for the time period covered by books #1 & 2, pick up Bernard Cornwell instead. I'm going to read book #3 with the hope that finally something historically different happens but if you picked the series hoping for some sci-fi element, you will be sorely disappointed.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really very good!, August 22, 2007

By 

robert johnston (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Conqueror: Time's Tapestry Book Two (Hardcover)

This installment is really very good ... excellent fun. Baxter's well researched narrative of the 2nd half of the first millennium is as good as any author (ScFi or otherwise) writing about this lost time. He uses the historical `dark age' society to weave the mysterious tale of time's apparent, subtle manipulation from the future.

The mixing of accurate history with the ScFi expectation is an addictive read. I look forward to the final installment of the Tapestry series.