Customer Reviews

Conqueror: Time's Tapestry Book Two

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.)

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.

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.

As predicted by the the Menologium of the Blessed Isolde Prophecy, invincible Rome is no more especially in the remote areas like Britannia (see EMPEROR); gone by AD 409. These nine stanzas, written on parchment in the Old English, predict the rise and fall of the powerful when the comet comes as treachery, avarice and wars are the norm.

Although they know the Roman legions left their island two centuries ago, in AD 607 young Saxon Wuffa and the Norse warrior Ulf travel together seeking the last Roman who they believe possesses the parchment. They believe possession of the parchment will bring them power even if it means death to the current guardian.

Late in the eighth century, a girl disguised as a boy holds the parchment while residing at Lindisfarne Monastery until the Vikings attack in AD 793 seeking to destroy all known copies of the parchment, but they failed to destroy her memory of the words. Almost a century later, Alfred the Great retakes London. Finally in AD 1066 William the Conqueror defeats Saxon King Harold at Hastings. All predicted by the Prophesy in its stanzas.

The second book in the Time's Tapestry, CONQUEROR is a fabulous fictionalized account of four bloody pivotal periods in English history (spanning just less than five centuries). The current saga is broken into four segments, which makes for easier reading over a few days. Each entry enables the audience to see deeply how people lived and tried to survive during tumultuous violent periods while the enigmatic Weaver lurks in an apparent futuristic background. Fans will appreciate Stephen Baxter's fine epic tale that can stand alone, but enhanced by reading EMPEROR first and look forward to the next cycle NAVIGATOR that will take us to 1492.

Harriet Klausner

Granted, I haven't read book 1, but -

1. decent historical fiction, but nothing out of the ordinary

2. slight suspense as to what is to happen, but no payoff (i.e. historical twist)

3. occasional mention of the Weaver, and Sihtric's final revelation, but no sustained sci-fi element - this is an extremely minimal "framework"

4. um, "Northern (Aryan) blood is purest?" ...despite evidence presented in the book itself of other "non-Aryan" societies being more advanced at that time. But that's beside the point. Doesn't this "pure, Aryan" stuff make anybody other than me squirm?

In this book, "Conqueror", author Stephen Baxter continues the "Time's Tapestry" series he began with "Emperor". Like the first book, it is a book with interesting historical detail, some strong and weak characters, all written into a series of different story arcs taking place in sequential sections of time. This makes for an interesting novel, and one that is stronger than "Emperor".

"Conqueror" begins in the same way that "Emperor did", with a new prophecy (although uttered at the end of "Emperor") that shapes the actions of the characters who try to divine and use it for their own ends. Like "Emperor", it is set in Great Britain, although this is a Britain shaped by waves of post-Roman invaders such as the Danes and Angles, as well as the full advent of Christianity. Baxter reveals his story through separate story arcs that take place in sequential periods of time (such as 793 AD, 1064 AD, and so forth), although the characters in the arcs are usually connected by either family or contact.

The historical detail in this novel is rich and, to the best of my knowledge, reasonably accurate. Baxter uses this to create some very good imagery, both mundane and terrible (one scene describes a particularly gruesome and savage act of brutality by one of his characters). Although the characters are still mixed in quality, virtually all of them are fleshed out well, and even the weakest of them is stronger than the weakest-constructed characters in "Emperor".

Like its predecessor, this novel is still largely historical fiction; rather than showing a changed past and changing future, it mostly shows the key events where changes might have occurred due to the effect of the prophecy, even if they do not end up doing so. The mysterious force called "The Weaver" remains as shrouded in mystery as he/she/it was at the beginning of the series, and the nature of the intervention in time's tapestry remains largely an attempt to shift what would otherwise be a real historical time-line.

This is probably the best novel in the "Time's Tapestry series". While I would not recommend it to anyone who has not read "Emperor", it is overall a solid book.

The book came as advertised. Quick delivery and response.

Joe in Mobile

Good stoeymade me go and look up history of that time Hope for a new books by author