Roger Zelazny and Jane Lindskold's Chronomaster: A Novel [Paperback]

Jane Lindskold (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 24, 1996

The laws of physics have been repealed in the countless custom-made "pocket universes" of a strange new cosmos. Reality is variable and bottled time is as essential as oxygen.

But a mysterious stasis enshrouds two of these universes, threatening to spread to others. Inside, time has stopped. Who—or what—could be altering the pocket dimensions? And why?

Only Rene Korda, the retired planet sculptor and terraformer, understands artificial universes well enough to untangle the mystery. To find answers, Korda and his ship?s meddlesome computer, Jester, must embark on a journey that will hurl them headlong into bizarre and dangerous dimensions unlike anything known before.

About the Author
Jane Lindskold is the author of Marks of Our Brothers, The Pipes of Orpheus, and Brother of Dragons, Companion to Owls. She lives in New Mexico.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Time Is Merely One Component of a Universe.
Like Any Other, It Can Be Altered!

From the Inside Flap

The laws of physics have been repealed in the countless custom-made "pocket universes" of a strange new cosmos. Reality is variable and bottled time is as essential as oxygen.

But a mysterious stasis enshrouds two of these universes, threatening to spread to others. Inside, time has stopped. Who—or what—could be altering the pocket dimensions? And why?

Only Rene Korda, the retired planet sculptor and terraformer, understands artificial universes well enough to untangle the mystery. To find answers, Korda and his ship?s meddlesome computer, Jester, must embark on a journey that will hurl them headlong into bizarre and dangerous dimensions unlike anything known before.

About the Author
Jane Lindskold is the author of Marks of Our Brothers, The Pipes of Orpheus, and Brother of Dragons, Companion to Owls. She lives in New Mexico.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Prima Lifestyles (April 24, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761504222
• ISBN-13: 978-0761504221
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 1.2 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,277,752 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chronomaster: about the book and the game, January 28, 1998

By 

Xoandre (IL, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roger Zelazny and Jane Lindskold's Chronomaster: A Novel (Paperback)

Rene Korda is a renowned and retired designer of pocket universes. One day he gets a call from the regional representative that two pocket universes (not of his own design) have been put into stasis (their time has been turned off) and they want him to investigate. He reluctantly agrees to do it just because he's curious.

The pocket universes are very different, one a desert world based on the tales of the Arabian Knights, the other a total war zone. There is only one thing these worlds have in common and Korda has to find out why someone would put them into stasis.

With his nearly limitless supply of "bottled time" and the help of "Jester," his ship's artificial intelligence (usually in the form of a remote hover-bot called a PDA or her on-ship hologram), he must avoid the hazards of a universe in stasis: giant spiders, ever-hungry ketter beasts, a giant brain that can kill, and much more!

The mystery unravels slowly as he works toward returning the two pocket universes to normal time. In the process, he finds a deeper evil that has been cleverly hidden for decades.

The novel is adapted from the hit CD-ROM game of the same name. The game is fun and challenging while showing the true style and personality of the late Roger Zelazny, the greatest science-fiction novelist of the twentieth century.
There are numerous differences between the novel and the game, but the plot is essentially the same and both are refreshing and fun.

If you don't have either the book or the game, get them both now!

2.0 out of 5 stars Pale Imitation, February 5, 2009

By 

Robert W. Bly (Rivervale, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Roger Zelazny and Jane Lindskold's Chronomaster: A Novel (Paperback)

I interviewed Zelazny once and am a huge fan of his work. But I could not force myself to finish this deadly dull novel after getting half way through it. Korda (a universe builder) is a pale imitation of Zelazny's much more interesting Francis Sandow (a terraformer who reforms planets). Korda's overly cute banter with his robot assistant Jester makes the book childish instead of (like To Die in Italbar and other Zelazny novels) engaging and compelling.