Empire of Time [Mass Market Paperback]

Crawford Kilian (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 12, 1987

Jerry Pierce's new assignment...preventing Earth's destruction...will be a challenge even for this most experienced of Intertemporal Agents. Especially since he's now programmed to kill.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Crawford Kilian has been around. He's explored Western Canada and even lived in China, but when it comes to writing, he does his homework the new-fashioned way.online. A professional writer and educator, Kilian spends much of his "writing time" in research. For Icequake alone, he put in thousands of hours learning everything he could from a variety of resources about Antarctica and its denizens. The author estimates that he spent six to eight months "getting it right." However, Kilian is quick to assure you that the research is part of the pleasure of writing. It brings believability to the work and a real relationship with the subject matter. From his snowy enclave in Vancouver, Kilian does his research from the comfort of his cozy home using the Web. But, it hasn't always been that way. In the early '80s, this full-time college English professor realized that the Internet was the wave of the future...for writers, teachers, and students. So, he took up his department's challenge to develop writing courses that integrated technology. What started with some phone conferencing is now an expertise in distance education that takes him to numerous speaking engagements each year. Like many educators, Kilian feels that the Web is a good supplement to the classroom, not a replacement for it. He says, "It's not just a valuable tool for research. It also forces us as educators to examine what works and doesn't work in our teaching...in both areas, the real and the virtual classroom." Kilian is also sold on the latest technologies in publishing and has republished most of his out-of-print classics with toExcel. He says, "I thought the books could find a new audience in a new generation, and toExcel offered that opportunity." toExcel is pleased to add this terrific writer/educator to it's stable of republished authors! ************************** Crawford Kilian's writing career has included a decade as regular weekly columnist for the Vancouver Province, eleven novels, two ch --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey (August 12, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345347595
• ISBN-13: 978-0345347596
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,092,426 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good read, if a little dated, February 14, 2000

By 

Mr. P. Crowe (Kent, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Empire of Time (Chronoplane Wars Trilogy) (Paperback)

The book is set at the tail end of the 20th century and the first couple of decades of the 21st. Kilian presents us with a bleak dystopian vision of a decaying society on the brink of collapse. At the last moment a technique for absorbing and processing huge amounts of information was discovered and human computers called `trainables' were born. Trainables were used to prop up the tottering fabric of society, but even they couldn't stave off the inevitable collapse. The world was saved by a freak lab accident which led to the discovery of alternative earths occupying different positions in time, both past and future. The idea of accessing these separate earths is a good one (if a bit clichéd) and the idea is well implemented in the story.

The books main character is Jerry Pierce, a highly trained special agent for the Intertemporal Agency. He specialises in the `Black Ops' projects such as assassination and `punitive' expeditions. At first sight he seem to be as ruthless and soulless as a cyborg. Later on in the book you learn the reason why this appears to be so and he is revealed to be a (marginally) more sympathetic character.

One of the core premises of the book is slightly suspect. Being a `trainable' will surely allow a person to absorb a great deal of information quickly, but this doesn't mean that the information can be used intelligently. At least two additional skills are required to do this, the ability to cross reference the information and the ability to form opinions based on this collated information, without these skills all you have is a huge mound of undigested data. Kilian glosses over this in the book and as a result the trainable are seen as near genius figures.

This book was originally published in 1978 well before the first PCs were created. As a result some of the technology used (microfiche) is a little dated. The plot flows well and does manage to hold the readers interest and would probably make a great action film ( along the lines of 12 Monkeys and Terminator 2). I enjoyed this story and look forward to reading more chronoplane adventures from the same author.