The Lord of the Sands of Time (Novel) [Paperback]

Issui Ogawa (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 21, 2009

L to R (Western Style). Sixty-two years after human life on Earth was annihilated by rampaging alien invaders, the enigmatic Messenger O is sent back in time with a mission to unite humanity of past eras—during the Second World War and ancient Japan, and even back to the dawn of the species itself—to defeat the invasion before it begins. However, in a future shredded by war and genocide, love waits for O. Will O save humanity only to doom himself?

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born in 1975 in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, Issui Ogawa is rapidly becoming known as one of Japan's premier SF writers. His 1996 debut, First a Letter from Popular Palace, won the Shueisha JUMP Novel Grand Prix. The Sixth Continent (2003; forthcoming from Haikasoru in 2010), a two-part novel about settlement on the moon, garnered the 35th Seiun Prize. A collection of his short stories won the 2005 Best SF Poll, and "The Drifting Man," included in that collection, was awarded the 37th Seiun Prize for domestic short stories. Other works include Land of Resurrection, Free Lunch Era, Fortress in a Strange Land, and Guiding Star. Ogawa is a principal member of the Space Authors Club.

Product Details

• Paperback: 260 pages
• Publisher: VIZ Media LLC; Original edition (July 21, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1421527626
• ISBN-13: 978-1421527628
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #862,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Add a star for alternate timelines fans, August 12, 2009

By 

Argenteus (Long Island, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lord of the Sands of Time (Novel) (Paperback)

I enjoyed this novel, the underlying premise involves time-travelling soldiers of the future attempting to thwart an alien invasion by going to earlier eras and readying the people to fight the aliens. Ogawa handles the premise deftly, weaving in AI and alternate realities ideas into a multiple-timestreams fabric without bogging down in the details. In fact, for a book so full of heady concepts, it's a surprisingly quick and straightforward read. Whereas most alternate realities novels tend towards epic length and breadth, Ogawa keeps a tight focus on characters and plotline, and doesn't lose track of things as he tells the back story in flashback while progressing the current timeline story. Despite the tight focus, and naturally being based in Japanese history, his canvas is indeed world- and epoch-wide. There's plenty of sci-fi action propelling the thought-provoking concepts, I think this one would satisfy most action fans, "hard" sci-fi fans and "deep" sci-fi fans. I'm kinda all three and I enjoyed it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Something different and amazing, August 19, 2009

By 

J. W. Mattern (Wyomissing, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Lord of the Sands of Time (Novel) (Paperback)

I picked up this book while traveling for work, and I was astounded at how good a story it was. I read the majority of it in one sitting. While it is truly a sci-fi story, it is rounded out very well with philosophy and a bit of romance. The writing itself is also quite excellent considering it is a translation. The writing style is very direct and yet elegant at the same time.
The main focus of the plot is on ancient Japan, however it isn't an overwhelming cultural tsunami. A great deal of the story also takes place in the future and focuses much more on humanity as a whole for its thought-provoking sub-story.
It would definitely be worth a read by anyone interested in the sci-fi genre.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars charming story, but not for hard SF fans, September 7, 2009

By 

M. Mix (US East Coast) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Lord of the Sands of Time (Novel) (Paperback)

Artificially intelligent semi-organic beings were created to battle aliens bent on annihilating humans. The story follows one of them as he learns who he is and what his purpose is. He falls in love even though he knows he's going to be sent away and will never return.

The story is much better than the cover blurb and the title led me to anticipate. Overall I enjoyed the story. Most of the time the author allowed the reader to discover the world, but occasionally had expository dialog where one character tells another something he should have known. The characters were appealing and the dialog was fun. There were a lot of battle scenes that were interesting to a point. Ancient Japanese weapons and tactics versus space aliens. Over all I saw it as a love story. The ending was quite satisfying.

Some of the story didn't make sense, particularly the timestream travel limitations didn't seem consistent, and the aliens' motivation for the total destruction of humanity. The author also really didn't seem to understand what anti-matter really is.

I read this story because our book group was interested in reading Japanese science fiction. I offered to read it first since I had some experience reading translated Japanese fiction (Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the Word, and an anthology Speculative Japan ), I have children who are into manga and anime, and I spent two weeks in the country while attending the Worldcon. I would not have chosen to read this book based on the blurb. This story is consistent with the other translated japanese stories I've read. There is more interest and authenticity in what the characters think and feel than there is in the external world. From my limited experience: for a taste of Japanese SF try the anthology first.