Customer Reviews

Emperor: Time's Tapestry #1

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It's the first new hard cover novel I've bought from a physical bookstore in about 8 years! But for some reason, I was overcome by the need to read this book now and it's been worth every penny and then some!

If you are in to Celtic and/or Roman history and how these peoples survived one another, and enjoy grand fiction and historical-based epics... this is a book on a grand scheme for sure!!

It's a page turner, and the author is absolutely brilliant in creating many unforgettable scenes and fictional characters who operate within a realm of historical facts and interact with real historical figures - as if rewriting history. You will love one or more of his characters - if not, at least be moved by them.

I think that the plot of the prophecy was a good way to move the two families of characters through time, bringing them back together generation after generation, rewriting history again and again, as if they were cursed.

There are some parts of the book where Baxter tends to go on and on with description, but I can't see the book moving forward without some of those passages, and without them, we couldn't see what the characters saw. There was a couple times within the last 70 pages where I thought he might lose me, but I held on. The book is fast-paced, moves very quickly. I can't believe how adequately he moved through several generations of Romans and Brigantians (& British) in just 300 pages, without losing a step.

The second book is supposed to be coming out in July, 2007. I'll be looking forward to that.

Happy Reading to you all!

this would be a good read for a history class, bringing alive a milieu little known to most. Saying this is better than a history textbook is faint praise. Love the premise but I had to push through to the end, rather than be drawn effortlessly. I felt virtuous having read the whole thing, but not pleased.

Baxter has obviously read the non-SciFi author Edward Rutherford's books Sarum and London. The similarities on nearly all levels are too coincidental. Injecting a Sci-Fi dimension into a Rutherford model could actually be a lot of entertainment, but that remains to be seen as there's not much of a SciFi component developed in this first installment. I like the story approach well enough to try the next Baxter episode.

I'll buy book #2

As a fan of alternate history novels such as "1632" and "Island in the Sea of Time," I eagerly purchased "Emperor" with expectations of something similar. Instead, I got a "historical novel" not unlike any other historical novel ever written. "Emperor" is very similar to Rosemary Sutcliff's juvenile historical novel "The Capricorn Bracelet." Instead of following a bracelet through important historic eras, it instead follows a family as they are guided through time by a prophesy that leads them to make astute business decisions and become players in the larger background of history.

If you like historical novels, and especially stories of the Roman Empire, "Emperor" is a decent read. The characters are compelling and the storytelling good, if sometimes bogged down by description. My college class in Ancient Rome was helpful in understanding the political machinations we see in the story, but I wanted more explanation of the modern equivalent of some of the location

The biggest drawback is that "Emperor" is NOT what the cover claims it to be. It is not in any way, shape or form "alternate history." Because of that label, I kept expecting something to change, for history to be altered. I waited for the assassination attempt on Claudius to be successful, or for the Britons to be victorious against the Romans. But it never happened, history never changed.

I purchased this book as alternate history, and once I realized it was not going to "change history," I gave up. Since I am not a fan of historical fiction, the story is not compelling enough to keep my attention, but it probably would be an excellent read for those who simply enjoy multi-generation family historical fiction.

From 4 BC to 418 AD, Baxter follows the legacy of two families from ancient Britannia led by a prophecy that proclaims from a "God-as-babe" birth to the dneath of an emperor. The brilliant interweaving of the lives of the characters and the relvance of the prophecy. As a history buff and a fellow writer of Roman Empire historical fiction, I recommend this book. Enjoy!

I have read all four books in the series, and I must say that it is not up to Baxter's previous high standard. I am an ENORMOUS fan of his work, and have read almost everything that he has written. Most of his previous fiction is very hard and set on epic timescales.

This is not.

*** SPOILER ***

Well, I guess you can argue that it is set on an epic timescale, but certainly not one as epic as "Ring."

I have to rate this series as an about average time travel story- though only information travels through time. Of course, as with all journeyman time travel novels, the Nazis are somehow involved. The series is interesting in its examination of how prophesy can influence history, but it is by no means as impressive as his other works. The historic times in which it is set are interesting, and the work is actually very informative about them, but it isn't inspired storytelling. Don't get me wrong, it is decent light reading, perhaps beach reading, but it isn't going to end up in any "Years Greatest Science Fiction" anthologies. I am a voracious reader, and have read works of similar length in under a week (no kidding), but it took me several months of walking away to read something else for a while and then returning over and over again to finish this series.

What I like about this novel is the opportunity to experience a slice of history as the Romans conquer Britain and consolidate their presence, building Hadrian's wall, before the Empire recedes. The "prophecy" is simply a fictional device that threads together various generations of characters through the various novelletes of the book.

Which brings me to what I dislike about the book, it is a collection of shorter stories, with a new cast of characters in each. We become engaged with the characters, only to be with them a short while before their scenes end and we move to another century. And there are few happy endings for most of the characters, some of whom simply have their short hour upon the stage before slipping into the past tense of the next character's genealogy.

However, the book is a fast-paced read and I enjoy the tour through history. I will follow the series with interest.

I don't understand all the negative reviews, I have read the first two books and will read the third. Sure it's not alternative history and yes the Latin is not so great but so what. Both books were page turners that kept me wanting to read on and I didn't find the endings disappointing.

For originality, Baxter's novel strikes well. A nice twist suggesting time travel and the possibility of multiple universes. With a very poetic prophecy as the core of the plot. The poem makes for compelling and repeated reading, harnessing a cadence echoing Shakespeare or Homer. I never knew that Baxter could write poetry, and here he does it well. While Steven Stirling's recommendation on the back cover certainly adds to the allure, as Stirling has made his name with alternate history, whereas this book seems to be Baxter's first try in this field.

Sadly, the actual implementation in the plot falls somewhat short of expectations. The centuries-long duration necessitates characters truncated to a few chapters each. An awkwardness also seen in the historical novels by Michener and Rutherfurd. You start getting interested in a character, and then it is a century later and that person is long dead.

Another problem is related to the Stirling endorsement. Stirling is also renowned for his skill in writing character dialog and military science fiction. People who pick up the book and see his endorsement might assume that this book also contains action scenes. Plus, the plot outline in the dustjacket also suggests this. But the action descriptions are very rudimentary, compared to Stirling's novels, or those of Pournelle, Drake or Weber. If you have read Baxter's earlier novels, this is also consistent. Baxter's forte [at this time] does not extend to action scenes.

Who gave the prophecy is unresolved. For example, is there something akin to the scenarios in Anderson's Time Patrol series, that is sitting uptime in the multiverse, attempting these changes? There will be a sequel to the book, which promises, maybe, to resolve this dangling thread. Or perhaps the intent is for this never to clarified? The latter is certainly fair enough, if done properly. As in Stirling's Nantucket series.

"Time's Tapestry" is a four-part series by sci-fi author Stephen Baxter in the "alternate history" genre, beginning in the year 4 B.C. and ending in the 1940s (or their equivalent years). "Emperor" is the first book in the series, and while it trends more towards historical fiction than alternate history, it remains an interesting book.

"Emperor" begins in 4 B.C. in what is now central Britain, when a prophecy concerning the future is uttered in pure Latin - by a woman dying in childbirth who does not speak it. The novel then follows the story of this prophecy as its possessors divine its mysteries (as well as the mystery of its creator, whom they call "The Weaver") and attempt to use it to their own ends. Along the way, we see the progression of Great Britain through the characters' eyes from mere decades after Julius Caesar's conquest to the near-end of Britain's provincial status in the Roman Empire.

This is not the first time that Baxter has written a novel that took place in Roman-era Britain, and it shows. The work is rich in historical detail, which creates some excellent imagery. The characterization is more mixed in value; Baxter "jumps" different spans of time, so each story arc is effectively self-contained (although he does try to show some familial or other connection between an arc and the one preceding it). Some arcs are done very well (Severa comes to mind), while others are little more than plot conveniences to move the prophecy forward.

Much of the criticism of this novel has centered around the fact that it is, with the exception of the prophecy, virtually historical fiction. This is technically true; while it becomes clear, particularly near the end of the series, that this is alternate history, Emperor itself is almost an inverse of the typical historical fiction story. Rather than showing a past changed and moving outwards from there, it shows how the prophecy and attempts to follow it create the possibility for changing the future, whether or not that actually occurs..

Overall, it is a fairly solid work, although not one of Baxter's greatest books. I would recommend it for anyone interested in reading alternate history, as well as anyone interested in a reasonably short historical fiction novel set in the Roman-era Great Britain.