Customer Reviews

A Rebel in Time (Tor Science Fiction)

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

 

 

Not many have much to say about time travel - and those that do can get bogged down with 'flux capacitors' and other such techno-babble. Harry Harrison is always a good read, and when it comes to time travel stories he has you constantly thinking about the possibilities and the accompanying paradoxes (what if you kill your grandfather, will you cease to exist ?). Rebel in time is a simple story about a white racist army officer, who, when he realises the possibilities of the time machine project he's assigned to, decides to go back in time (complete with gun blueprints and modern army expertise) to reverse the result of the American Civil War in favour of the South. The man sent to find him has a few problems. Hes black, and is also sent back in time. A modern day black man in the deep south at the onset of the civil war, has more than the normal set of problems to deal with - but he handles them well. A good read indeed and the idea of a paradox is always there. The ends are tied up fairly well in the last chapter, but theres just enough loose ends to leave you thinking.

Harrison usually has intelligent characters making reasonable decisions, but this book is premised on a decision that is so ridiculous, that I couldn't get past the first few chapters. The situation: A modern-day bad guy has taken the plans for a simple machine gun back in time to change the outcome of the Civial War. The obvious solution: Take a year to train a Seal Team for the mission (You can send anyone from anywhen to anywhen, so it doesn't matter how much time you take to prepare.) Send them back to a month before the bad guy arrived, so that they are ready and waiting for him when he gets there. Harrison's solution: Send a lone black man with no training and no weapons to pre-Civil War Virginia to arrive several months after the bad guy. That's silly.

I found this book to be a pretty good read. I don't think Harry Harrison is quite the master of alternative history that Harry Turtledove is but he is a good writer. Most of the book deals with the present and is a detective novel. The last third of the book takes place juste before and during the civil war. I thought the first half of the book was very well paced and written and if the entire book had maintained the same tempo it would have deserved 5 stars. I felt the last part of the book, although satisfactory, was a little rushed and trite.

Definitely worth a read.

I read Harry Turtledove's 'Guns for the South' when it was released and loved it. When I discovered that this was written a few years earlier, I decided to read it. Did he plagerize it? I think not!!! Harrison is no match for Turtledove. I found the book poorly written and developed; especially the contrived end. The concept is fine--I enjoy alternate history when there is a ring of truth to it, but I found that completely missing in this book. It was difficult to accept that the hero, African American Sergeant Harmon, goes back to 1859 to prevent Colonel McCulloch from giving the South the Sten gun, the weapon to ensure victory in the soon-to-be war. An African American would have had a very hard time traveling with his equipment that he had, let alone by himself in the South of 1859. This concept was done much better by Turtledove, whom, I believe, is a much better author. I would encourage everyone to read 'Guns of the South' and not 'Rebel in Time'. At least his descriptions and development are better. I was very disappointed.

A rebel in time Five Stars.

I personally found the novel thought provoking and entertaining. I disagree with some negative comments that I have read from other reviews for the following reasons;

One, at the beginning of the book it tells you this is a work of fiction (this is not a history book).

Two, the book was written to stimulate your mind, to start you thinking about all of the "what ifs".

What if the South had won the civil war? What things might this have an impact on?

Would there be a 50 state USA, or would there be two or more nations in its place?

Would the South have fought on the side of Germany in World War II? Would there have been a world war?

Yes people - rationally thinking and with all the time in the world to analyze the situation I probably would not have spent a modern day black man to the pre-Civil War South. I probably would not have sent anyone. I would simply have gone back in time one or two days and disable the Time machine. Of course this would not have given us much of a story.

A rebel in time is a very well written very entertaining and very thought provoking science fiction novel. Harrison did well in choosing the characters and their backgrounds mixed with decisions and circumstances to come up with a good storyline.

Winnie the Pooh would love it; Eeyore would want to dissect it so as to examine the accuracy of the facts in this work of fiction. It may not have been probable but all things are possible -- just think of the possibilities.

I first read the book in 1985 and should have left well enough alone. Instead, my family bought me a copy of the book to read. They choose poorly.

In the positive side, I really enjoyed the idea itself. Time travel and the "what ifs" are always fun to contemplate. In addition, when Troy Harmon (the hero) amazingly describes the Gnomen experiment as a time machine, the amazed scientist demurely answers that she guesses that is probably right. There were a few minute details that were creative and appreciated (as a History major), such as when Troy is buying coinage for his mission and the owner of the firm laughs at Troy's apparent "joke" over one of the denomination (it did not exist during the Civil War). The use of parallel timelines and the crossing of them was definitely a good thinking point as well. The logical use of the power utilization curve to determine "time length traveled" was excellent.

On the negative side, as noted by other readers is the concept of Troy being African-American. Given the nature of the mission, he would be severly handicapped, especially traveling to the Deep antebellum South. Another is the apparent use of "Robbie Shaw" (I found it amusing that Robert Gould Shaw, of course was a young Union officer, made famous in Glory) as Scottish writer and man about town. Another negative was the use of J.E.B Stuart as a disgruntled cavalry officer looking for a break with the Union prior to the Civil War. That was not necessarily true (including R.E. Lee) and many officers simply resigned their posts to serve their individual states.

Taken as a whole, the novel could definitely use revision and work to bring it up to Harrison's normal level of writing.

Excellent time travel adventure by Harry Harrison.

An undercover US Army investigator, Troy Harmon, is posted to keep an eye on a southern colonel, Wes McCulloch, who is in charge of security at a top secret research establishment and is suspected of various nefarious deeds. The colonel's activities turn out to be even worse than anyone had suspected and Troy has to follow him back in time to stop him changing history.

Some points of similarity to Harry Turtledove's brilliant book, "The Guns of the South." If you like "Rebel in Time" you will probably love "The Guns of the South." If you liked that book there is a good chance that you will enjoy this one. However, "Rebel in Time" is more of a detective and time travel book, where "The Guns of the South starts that way and then becomes alternative history.

"Rebel in Time" also has some points of similarity with "For King and Country" by Robert Asprin and Linda Evans, in which an extremist from one of the communities in Ireland tries to prevent the other from coming into existence. Again, if you like that book you will probably like this one and vice versa.

Certain aspects of the story stretch credibility a little - as other reviewers have pointed out, an African American might not have been the operative with the best chance of foiling Colonel McCulloch. However, Harrison was alive to the issues Troy Harmon would have faced and his account of how Harmon rises to the challenge is part of what makes it an entertaining story.

This is an interesting concept, and was run to read. I'm glad to see it back in print. I had a hard time finding it.