Customer Reviews

On the Oceans of Eternity

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is an entertaining book but not as good as its two predecessors. Overall, these books are a very successful continuation of the popular subgenre pioneered in De Camp's Lest Darkness Fall in which a contemporary American is transported to the past and changes history for the better. There are two major defects in construction of the present book. In the second book in this series, Stirling expanded considerably the geographic scope of the plot. This is understandable; who could resist the opportunity to play around with history in the Bronze Age Fertile Crescent or Myceanean Greece. Unfortunately, this meant introducing a number of subsidiary plot lines and by this volume, the parallel plot lines have become unwieldy and the book loses narrative coherence. Good editing would have been very helpful. Stirling also sacrifices some interesting lost opportunities; this book contains the historical equivalent of Ulysses and some other heroes of the Trojan War. More could have been done with these interesting characters without introducing new plot lines. The second major defect is the ending of the book. It appears that Stirling simply couldn't figure out a good ending and the conclusion is a transparent and largely unsatisfying effort to tie up loose ends. Several reviewers (see below) have commented on the schematic, pure good versus evil, nature of the principal characters. This is a fair but incomplete criticism. I suspect Stirling wished to avoid what might be termed western triumphalism. He wished to show that introduction of modern western technology is not by itself beneficial but only when driven by the right ideals. Consequently, the temporal transposition of Nantucket produces two offspring, the democratic and pragmatically idealistic Republic of Nantucket itself, and William Walker's Greek empire, a Stalinist state with the addition of chattel slavery. The latter is located, not coincidentally, in what would later become known as Sparta, the original totalitarian state. This is an attempt to be more intellectually honest than most books in this subgenre. Despite flaws, this is a superior and well researched entertainment with considerably more real intellectual content than most popular fiction. Stirling also has left open the door to sequels. These would be welcome but should be written more carefully than this book.

I've been waiting for this book for two years. Let me tell you, brother... It was worth the wait!

"On the Oceans of Eternity" is for anyone who likes action, adventure, women in chainmail, or boys with guns or vice versa. :) Unlike most action books, this one has plenty of food for thought and literally tons of research behind it. You will come away from this read having learned something as well as having had lots of fun.

If you are new to the series, start with "Island in the Sea of Time" then read "Against the Tide of Years". This volume brings that series to a close, in a most satisfying manner.

Unlike the middle book, this title was edited quite well, the pacing was almost perfect and the execution flawless. The ending comes all too sudden and swift for the reader's taste.

Odikweos' meeting with Arnstein was everything it should have been, the ends (and beginnings) that well-loved/hated characters met were plausible and intriguing. To be less vague would spoil the surprises in store, so read and enjoy!

//Fritz!

"Island in the Sea of Time" and "Against the Tide of Years" had set up a heck of a situation, and Stirling had to resolve it - somehow - here in "Oceans". I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books of the series; enough so that I bought this latest one on the day it came out. [I felt like someone sleeping out for Dead tickets. An interesting experience.]

The resolution is a bit of a disappointment.

I don't want to give you any spoilers - not when the book was only released 5 days ago. So I'll have to make an analogy:

Anyone who reads Stephen King books has probably encountered what you could call the "Stephen King" ending. This type of ending occurs when SK has built up an impossibly powerful and secure villain or situation, but still feels the need to have good triumph, so he contrives something ridiculous to serve as his resolution. For example, in "The Stand", the "Hand of God" comes down and destroys the villain [if that was all it took, why is the rest of the book there?], or in "Needful Things" people make shadow puppets that destroy the villain. You know - cheapo endings.

By analogy, this is the way the series ends. You read it, you perceive it, and you say to yourself, "You have GOT to be kidding me."

Other than that, there is plenty of entertainment value in the book, as in the first two. History, historical geography, military science, naval science, engineering history, botany, political science - Stirling doesn't think there is a university department out there he can't turn into a plot point. He pulls it off well. And there is, pleasantly, less overt political content to this installment of the series - if you discount the cheesy resolution.

...Read the book for pure entertainment value - just skip Chapter 30.

Really enjoyed this one. Mr. Stirling creates a really rich alternate time line. I do have my doubts about a) how well Nantucket itself would fare if it really experienced the "Event" (I don't think modern folk are quite as resilient as those in the novels); and b) like other reviewers, I think the influence of Nantucket and its foes spreads far faster than would occur in reality.

But still, this series is a real achievement. Stirling displays his mastery of sea, air and land battle scenes (hey, a SEAL author!). I've read all Stirling's books, and he definitely has preferences for the same characters in different clothes (e.g. Alston and Swindapa compared to the female warrior couple in previous Stirling works), but I really enjoy his stuff.

He avoids the graphic qualities of his Draka series, which is both good and bad. On the one hand, some of the Draka stuff really disturbed me; on the other hand, it was being disturbed in a good way -- believable and logical in context, and you don't get disturbed by a book that hasn't successfully drawn you in. On the gripping hand (heh) I think Stirling really missed an opportunity to make Walker MORE evil -- I mean, Walker takes a main character prisoner and . . . doesn't do a whole lot with or to this person?

But all in all, a very good read. Would have been satisfied even had I paid a hardcover price for it.

Being a military historian I enjoyed the book, and the series. It shows well the Bronze Age. There were no "nice people" at that time. Civilizations were chewing each other up for land and resources. It is for that reason I did NOT find the ending rushed or contrived. Poisoning one's enemies was common during that time. I would have liked to have seen the "villains" to be defeated honorably (especially Hong), but sometimes reality doesn't end that way (ex Hitler, Mao, Ho). Nor did I mind women as infantry. When you have a small population, you use everybody available. Not PC, just simple survival in a harsh world. Looking for the next installment.

Island in the Sea of Time and Against the Tide of Years were fascinating stuff. Historical speculation, moral dilemmas, plausible heroes and villains (although Stirling's obsession with lesbians who are good at martial arts is something he might like to take up with his therapist) but even though I was gagging for the final resolution to the tale, I got the feeling the author was a bit bored with it all. Somehow this final volume doesn't quite hang together. The narrative jitters uneasily between several plotlines and I had the impression that we were seeing the result of several drafts, or several seperate short stories being dropped into the blender. I always thought that the point of having sub-plots was that they influenced each other, but there were at least two strands of narrative that resolved themself without seeming to influence anything else in the story, and I found myself muttering "get on with it" every time they came up. Perhaps they will feed into some future volume, but otherwise they seemed like padding.

I'm conscious that all this seems a bit peevish, and I don't mean to give the impression that this is a poor book. It's not. There are some wonderful moments, the best coming when Sterling concocts some really bizarre blends of ancient and modern - female ninjas at the fall of Troy, the villain appearing in a costume straight out of Star Wars, lines from Tolkein recycled for a tailor-made greek cult. There are times when Sterling is almost offensively clever, but I would still have liked to have seen a little bit more of the villainous Walker and a little less obsessive military detail. This book stil had something for everyone and I will still go out and buy Sterling's next ten books, but it was a dip from a previously very high standard.

In the book _On the Oceans of Eternity_, S.M. Stirling wraps uphis trilogy set circa 1250 B.C. when the modern day island ofNantucket is mysteriously transported back in time. Readers will find more of Stirling's complex and well developed characterization, meticulousy researched historical information, and exciting battle scenes.

I thought the further development of characters such as Isketerol of Tartessos and George McAndrews was well done and added flavor to the series.

And while some have said that the ending is rushed or anticlimatic, I found it to be a refreshing change from the standard speculative fiction wrap-up.

All in all, an excellent piece of work.

Oceans, like Island and Tide, have shown that Sterling researches well and combines Bronze and modern age equipment, battle scenes, tactics and peoples resonably well. You will enjoy it again, but the feeling of frustration comes with this read.

While the first two books gave reasonable character development, the antagonists (especially Walker) turned into virtual idiots in sharp contrast to the "wise" politically correct dynamic duo super-heroines of Marian and 'dapa. (I thought they were going to pull out a magic lariot like Wonder Woman sometimes). Sure, having evil characters are great but they need a brain to satisfy and make you believe the author just didn't "stack the cards" to let the good guys win, which this book gave. Letting Arnstein live with the king at his leisure instead of interogation? Trying to start banks in an slave based economic system? Chasing an enemy through scortched ground and horrible weather away from your home base (a la Napoleon in Russia)? Sterling has tried to picture Walker as so despicable that he forgot that he is intelligent and adaptable to the lessons of history, which would have made him a more believable and realistic character, instead of a fool.

And the death of Walker and Alice looked like he was approaching his deadline. As a prior reviewer said, very Stephen King-like (Tommyknockers comes to mind).

But the story theme is a powerful and engaging one. You will probably enjoy it, but not as much as the prequels.

S.M Stirling's Nantucket trilogy consists of the following books:

1. Island in the Sea of Time (1998, 609 pages)
2. Against the Tide of Years (1999, 459 pages)
3. On the Oceans of Eternity (2000, 633 pages)

I reviewed Islands and Tide of Years already. I just finished the third book now.

My comments pretty much follow the comments I made in my review of Book Two. The trilogy encompasses 1701 pages in total. Book One was pretty steady. Book Two was too long, and it would be difficult to make sense of it without having read Book One first. Book Three was way too long for what actually happened, and it would be unthinkable that you could read it without the other two first.

I was lost at times. For example, I thought the Emancipator, a giant dirigible, had crashed after the bombing run on Walkeropolis in the middle of the book, only to appear mentioned briefly at the end again, damaged, but its crew well and alive. The book jumped around way too much between many different subplots without connecting them even temporally. The California subplot, with its hero Pete Giernas, took place mostly in April of the year 11, when most of the other threads took place in the summer and fall of year 10. Why?

After more than a thousand pages of the first two books, I knew that Marian Alston was as black as charcoal, she was a super ninja and a lesbian. There were too many fight scenes with Marian always doing her ninja stuff with her katana, fighting to the death. There were too many tender scenes between Swindapa, her life partner, and her, lusting after each other. Alright, already.

Obviously, Stirling likes female warriors. The majority of the officers in the ships and in the marines seemed to be women, always tough women you'd not want to mess with. Ok, but tiring after a while.

One of the things that bothered me most was the fact that Marian, the supreme commander, the commodore, of the Islander forces, would always be the one leading the raids into the most dangerous and impossible enemy positions. That would be like Winston Churchill leading a group of marines into Hitler's bunker to put a bullet through his head. Please, a supreme commander is too important to the military institution to risk his own life over and over again to stray bullets or knifes into her back. It just makes no sense.

Yes, there needs to be drama and suspense, and the author needs to put his key characters into dangerous situations, but frankly, this compromised the believability of the character. Marian is a character so well defined and described, she simply would not do stupid stuff like that, but she always did and it got in the way.

This work should not have been 1700 pages in three books. It should have been one book of about 800 pages. The third book just fizzled out. Toward the end, it felt to me like the author was just getting tired of the story and needed to finish it up, like he ran out of steam.

But I did read all three books in a row, as quickly as I could suck them in. I wanted to know what happened next, how it all ended, how the Republic dealt with Walker, and what would happen to world history. I wanted to know if we'd ever find out what the Event was all about in the first place. It kept me reading, and reading, and reading.

The long story of the temporally exiled island of Nantucket finally ends with the villains dispatched or humbled and the forces of Political Correctness free to rewrite history forward of the bronze age.

Well, that's not quite fair. The author leaves quite a few potential enemies standing for another series of books. As I figure it, more than half the population of the world that survived the diseases spread by the Nantucket Diaspora will soon be armed with Civil War era weaponry, global mobility, and a grudge against Nantucket. Interesting times!

I wonder how the plucky citizens of Nantucket will deal with a Dragon fleet? Will their extremely rapid population explosion allow their republic to survive a change of administration? Or does (new president = civil war) every 4 years?

There is plenty of room for more adventures in this universe and a huge cast of characters. "On the Oceans of Eternity", however, shows a disturbing trend in this series toward too much research and too little storytelling.

You could cut every single song and poem out of the first half of the book and do nothing but improve it, IMO. The fascinating ideas Mr. Stirling played with in "Island in the Sea of Time" when he exposed Isketerol and Swindapa to 3000 years of human thinking are now totally ignored. Instead we are asked to believe 12000 Americans could build a global empire and field an army of thousands from nothing in 10 years.

This is all fantasy, of course, but I really cared about the story of the Nantucketer's struggle to survive the first few years and found their global empire in this book totally unbelievable. The battles went to the good guys a little too easily and were a little too recognizable from history or Stirling's previous work. The characterization of the bad guys really suffers in this book too. Only Isketerol, Ohotolarix, and MacAndrews have any depth.

I was particularly amused by the ease with which a UC History professor and an Astronomer were able to outmatch an ex-Stasi agent on his home turf. I pity their TA's!

To sum up, this book finishes the series. Barely. Certainly it does not maintain the level of ideas in the first book, nor it's storytelling.