The Ivanhoe Gambit (Time Wars, 1) [Mass Market Paperback]

Simon Hawke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1984

PAPERBACK

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Ace; 1st edition (January 1, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441377629
• ISBN-13: 978-0441377626
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #550,318 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars First in the Time Wars series, June 3, 2007

By 

Marshall Lord (Whitehaven, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Ivanhoe Gambit (Paperback)

This is the first of Simon Hawke's "Time Wars" 12 books about a crack team from the "Temporal Intelligence Agency".

Kicks off a funny and well written series about a group of operatives who have to travel through time to prevent other time travellers causing damage to history.

Sometimes their opponents are rogue individual time terrorists: sometimes they come up against operatives from rival versions of history.

All 12 books in this series pay humorous homage to a great work of literature or set of historical events, or both. Most of these books go back to the time and events of a classic novel, in this case obviously, "Ivanhoe" by Sir Walter Scott, and retell the events of that novel, usually with a humorous slant.

The books are best read in the correct sequence, as follows (I have put the name of the literary work and/or historical events associated with each book in brackets afterwards)

1) The Ivanhoe Gambit (Ivanhoe)
2) The Timekeeper Conspiracy (The Three Musketeers)
3) The Pimpernel Plot (French Revolution & terror/Scarlet Pimpernel)
4) The Zenda Vendetta (The Prisoner of Zenda)
5) The Nautilus Sanction (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea)
6) The Kyber Connection (works of Rudyard Kipling/early life of Churchill)
7) The Argonaut Affair (Jason and the Argonauts)
8) The Dracula Caper (Sherlock Holmes meets Bram Stoker's Count Dracula)
9) The Lilliput Legion (Gulliver's travels)
10) The Hellfire Rebellion (American War of Independence/Hellfire Club)
11) The Cleopatra Crisis (Caesar and Cleopatra)
12) The Six-gun solution (Gunfight at the OK Corral.)

Not terribly serious but very good fun: I can recommend this series, and if you want to read it, start with this one.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Time Commandos Series in General, April 16, 2000

By 

Phil Foggs - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ivanhoe Gambit (Paperback)

I have had the pleasure of reading this entire series of books, and truly enjoyed them all. What I enjoy the most about the books is the blending of history and scifi in such a seamless storyline, or the blending of two different stories into one storyline. The reserch and skill that this requires is wonderful. I would recommend these books to anyone. Hawke fans should also check out his Wizard series as well. Titles to look for are The Wizard of Whitechaple or The Wizard of Sunset Strip. These stories combine the Pendragon legend of King Arthur and Merlin set in the future. Merlin brings a new source of power to the world MAGIC. Try them, they are very entertaining.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent adventure and handling of time-travel concepts, August 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Ivanhoe Gambit (Paperback)

The Ivanhoe Gambit is an enjoyable, fast-paced adventure series based on the premise that governments, to avoid unplesantness in the present, choose to wage war in the past (which, having 'already happened' is as sure to a safe thing as they can get). Whoops. Turns out they're wrong, and the series unfolds as a team of commandos is called forth to deal with temporal paradoxes and time-hopping terrorists.

Hawke throws some curveballs at the reader, but his love of history and the research he has done provide an engaging 'what if' for the rich fabric of time.

Not recommended for younger children. Contains some strong language.

(While Hawke concluded the series with #12: The Six-Gun Solution, if he were to pick up the series with a future novel, perhaps bringing the team out of retirement ... I'd grab it in a hot second.)