The Malwa and their evil have been driven back to their Indian heartland, but there they coil to strike again. Ruled by a monster from the future which is part computer and part demon, they prepare a fresh attack whose success will leave them rulers of the world—and the monster that guides the Malwa will rule the whole future! Belisarius, the greatest general of his age, has arrayed the forces of Mankind against the Malwa evil. On his breast is the jewel sent to his support from a future of hope and freedom, willing to guide him but never to direct his actions. Behind him are allies from across Europe, Asia and Africa--mutually distrustful but aware that neither they nor Mankind have any hope if the Malwa prevail. Belisarius faces armies and assassins, ruthless brutality and inhuman cruelty. There is no hope for Mankind if he fails—so he must not fail!
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"Drake and Flint have devised an intriguing premise and developed it intelligently...a winner" Publisher's Weekly"
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About the Author
David Drake was attending Duke University Law School when he was drafted. He served the next two years in the Army, spending 1970 as an enlisted interrogator with the 11th armored Cavalry in Viet Nam and Cambodia. Upon return he completed his law degree at Duke and was for eight years Assistant Town Attorney for Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He has been a full-time freelance writer since 1981. Besides the bestselling Hammer's Slammers series, his books for Baen include the Lt. Leary series, the latest being The Way to Glory, and the Belisarius series, written in collaboration with Eric Flint, of which The Dance of Time is the sixth and concluding novel.
Eric Flint is the New York Times best-selling author of the Ring of Fire alternate history series, the first of which is 1632. His impressive first novel, Mother of Demons (Baen), was selected by SF Chronicle as one of the best novels of 1997. With David Drake he has written six popular novels in the Belisarius series, including the concluding novel The Dance of Time, and with David Weber collaborated on 1633, a novel in the Ring of Fire series, and on Crown of Slaves, a best of the year pick by Publishers Weekly. Flint received his masters degree in history from UCLA and was for many years a labor union activist. He lives in East Chicago, IL, with his wife and is working on more books in the best-selling Ring of Fire series.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A grand conclusion.,
By
This review is from: The Dance of Time (Belisarius) (Hardcover)
Unfortunately it had to happen at some point, the conculsion of the Belisaruis series...I found it to be a great read all in all. There where places in this the last book I could have wished for more detail, more pages or just that the series wasn't ending. But I must say that Eric Flint and David Drake have pulled off a conclusion to a series that in my mind is right up there at the top of the stack in science fiction! In case you don't recall, the series contains these books: An Oblique Approach, In the Heart of Darkness, Destiny's Shield, Fortune's Stroke, The Tide of Victory, The Dance of Time. In many tales of Science Fiction AI spells the downfall of humanity. We see it in film and print and it is becoming a phobia of the technology set even today. But here is a tale that says "No". A machine, no matter how smart, possessing no matter how much information of science and the history of war is no match for a human. Oh this is unmistakeably a human who is one in millions. But a being of flesh, bone and of breath none-the-less. It is in this tale that the authors show us what loyality and belief in a cause can do. What one man, one person can summon up to destroy evil. Oh it is a fictional series we say... But our history is full of men and woman who in greater or lesser measure have step in to the breach and for an measure of time, some longer than others have, have held the forcess of darkness at bay.
21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
series runs out of momentum,
By
This review is from: The Dance of Time (Belisarius) (Hardcover)
This is the final book in a six book series, so it cannot really be reviewed as a stand-alone item. I will assume the reader has read the other books before starting on this one.But if you have, then what should you expect from the finale? Not much, really. Unfortunately this is a case of a series that started out very strong and eventually drifted into mediocrity. The long gap between the release of the fifth book and publication of this final one made it even worse for people reading the books in "real time"; the momentum of the story was strongly disrupted. But even if you start with the first book (An Oblique Approach) right now and read all six without any delays, you will likely find the last few books to be disappointing. Unlike the first books, there is none of the fun derived from "inventing" industrialized warfare in the middle of the sixth century AD. And there are no real surprises left in the story. It is sort of like watching a videotaped ballgame when you already know the outcome. The most interest that the book develops does not even have to do with the main story -- it involves a side plot about the creation of something along the lines of the International Red Cross. But the biggest problem is that the characters have stopped being people and have become caricatures of themselves. This was a problem that the first few books struggled with, but in this one the struggle is over and the authors have lost. The accumulated in-jokes and references to established character traits have completely overwhelmed the characters themselves. Which is a shame, because some of them were quite interesting once upon a time. I suspect the authors took so long to come out with this book because even they realized that they probably should have wrapped things up more quickly. I'm not at all suggesting that a fan of the series will not want to read this conclusion. But the truth is, it doesn't really live up to the promise of the first few books. Alas.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well written conclusion to exciting series,
By
This review is from: The Dance of Time (Belisarius) (Hardcover)
Belisarius, the Roman/Byzantine General has ended the perpetual Roman wars with the Persian Empire and created a rebellion among the nomadic tribes which formed the shock troops of the Malwa armies. Now Roman and Persian troops stand at the banks of the Indus river. But the Malwa are not without resources. The entire wealth and population of India are at their service, and the mathmatical mind of Link, a computer sent from the future, is calculating the optimal strategy for reversing the Roman advances and turning the tide once more. After all, India has eternity on its side.Belisarius, with his futuristic crystal-computer-friend, Aide, suspects that the Malwa will eventually self-destruct, but eventually is too long. He's always looking for a shorter path, a route which, while possibly violent, can convert tens of millions of casualties into tens of thousands. Even if millions are needed, though, Belisarius is willing to pay the price. He's seen the future where Link wins--a future where all of mankind is brought under Link's heel and where progress is stamped out. Fortunately, Link has access to all of the world's great battles, but lacks much imagination--and Belisarius is counting on that to doom the Malwa plans. Authors Eric Flint and David Drake zoom from protagonist to protagonist as they take the reader from the siege warfare at the Indus river across the deserts of western India, into the Hindu Kush mountains and the Khyber Pass, and into Kausambi, the very capital of the Malwa Empire. THE DANCE OF TIME is the sixth and final novel in the Belisarius series. By this time, the basic military innovations created by Link and Aide are fully in place. Rather than relying on sword and spear, Roman Cataphracts carried muskets and the army had developed siege cannons, mines, telegraphs, and ironclads as well. Rather than concentrate on these, Flint and Drake put the focus on the rebel Damodara, and his attempt to save his family before Link and the Emperor Skandagupta are able to hunt them down. Fans of this series (like me) will enjoy seeing the conclusion as the military genius of Belisarius is pitted against the sheer computational abilities of Link. Although many of the modern innovations have already taken place, a charming sub-plot involving the creation of a sort of Red Cross shows the diffusion of knowledge and creativity beyond the circle immediately influenced by Aide and Belisarius. Flint and Drake are polished writers and THE DANCE OF TIME shows it. Still, I think the book, and indeed the whole series, would have been more enjoyable if Belisarius's plans didn't always go right, if he had to extemporize more often. After all, detailed long-term planning is where Link should be strongest, not Belisarius. This book probably won't make much sense, and certainly won't be enjoyable, to readers who haven't already read the earlier books in the series. If you have read them, though, you won't want to miss this exciting conclusion.
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