Customer Reviews

The Shores of Tomorrow

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

 

 

The Shores of Tomorrow is the third novel in the Chronicles of Solace series, following The Ocean of Years. In the previous novel, the Dom Pedro IV's crew have followed clues left by Oskar DeSilvo to Glister. There they fly the Cruzeiro do Sul down into a launch dome within a huge bullseye designed to attract their attention and find DeSilvo awaiting their arrival.

In the complex on Glister, DeSilvo explains his actions and shows the simulations that he has developed to test the contraction theories of Ulan Baskaw. He is mortified that the information discovered by Admiral Koffield seems to be confirmed by these simulations and subsequent events. He has realized that he needs external verification of his thinking and thus has lured them there. At this point, Yuri Sparten attacks DeSilvo and both are injured.

In this novel, Koffield and the crew of the Dom Pedro IV have verified DeSilvo's simulations using their own data. Now they are waiting for DeSilvo to explain his scheme for avoiding the contraction, but first he is waiting for his FTL data taps to relay the results of the Ignition of the NovaSpot over Greenhouse in the Lodestar system. Back in that system, Planetary Executive Neshobe Kalzant of Solace is also waiting for these results, watching the countdown to Ignition from the control room in the Lodestar VII.

On Mars, Kalani Temblar of the Chronologic Patrol is surveying the damage done to the Dark Museum, following the footsteps of Oskar DeSilvo and Admiral Koffield. When she is through recording the evidence, she wires explosives to the armored door of the tunnel and sets the timer. Then she returns to her lander and, despite the damage done by the omnipresent mold, takes off for orbit. In Mariner City, the explosives detonate, causing sympathetic detonation of the booby-trap demolition charges, resulting in the collapse of the entire length of DeSilvo's tunnel into the Dark Museum.

In this story, the rationale behind DeSilvo's later behavior becomes exceedingly and frighteningly clear. Koffield and his associates agree to help DeSilvo, but first Sparten has to sneak off to check out a diehard settlement about 700 kilometers to the south. During his flyby, the aircar comes under fire from the diehards.

The importance of the NovaSpot to make Greenhouse a waystation for the evacuation of Solace becomes clear to Elber Malloon and he becomes a player in system politics, first as an agent of Captain Sotales of the SCO Station Security Force and later as a liaison between the lowdowners and the uppers. His actions facilitate the evacuation of the lowdowners to Greenhouse, which in turn relieves pressures on Solace planetary resources and also provides essential manpower for DeSilvo's new plan.

Meanwhile, the Chronologic Patrol has learned the basics of DeSilvo's activities in the Solar System and has correctly interpreted the clues left for Koffield. Lieutenant Command Burl Chambers and Lieutenant Temblar are dispatched in a heavily armed and sensored CP intelligence ship to Glister to track down both DeSilvo and Koffield.

This is the final volume of the series. It interjects additional technology from the Dark Museum that expands upon the various fields and drives previously mentioned. It proposes another method of terraforming without the imbalances of the previously failed methods and suggests yet another approach. Furthermore, it introduces another model of timetravel within a multiverse of complex diverging and converging timelines.

Highly recommended for Allen fans and for anyone else who enjoys high tech suspense stories with political intrigue and interesting characters.

I have enjoyed the entire series. Since this is the third book in the series I got a little tired of all the backtracking done to bring people up to speed on the previous story. I would have liked to see a note telling people to read the other books and then have this book get on with the story. The entire concept was great. I wish there had been a little more detail in the final Teraforming chapters. Overall, a good read.

I'm not sure what to say about this trilogy. Ok. wait. I'm sure now. lol

I would like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the first book although it seemed to focus on the demise of Sayad. I kept envisioning him giving up all he'd done to go back in time violating the laws of the Chronologic Patrol just to save her from undeserved death! To bad that didn't happen :-)

What I enjoyed was the first book, it had the era of creativity and excitement to it, mystery. The problem came with the second novel. It felt abit to short for my tastes and as if it skipped over alot of potential character developments which could've helped a fourth book along. What we're left with is a seemingly short book without much going on IMO followed by this one. I did enjoy his solution but then he adapted it to future planets and I felt abit cheated, as if DeSilvo or Kofield wouldn't have considered such an obvious idea?!

I can't exactly suspend my belief long enough to buy into the idea of a ring around a planet. And suddenly the Patrol has sensors that will detect FTL because why? They explained how? I'm not buying it...... they barely understood FTL the machines built the damn drives from schematics!

Wow the Dark Museum, brilliant idea surely and I have to tell you the stupid fungus that invaded everything on Mars made me laugh and then gasp, how the hell was it GROWING so fast anyway :?

Also I can't believe those idiots that were following Kofield would knowingly destroy their one chance to save humanity, it made no sense, damn duty or whatever. And sadly their change of minds later was to quick for my tastes.

You know what? I felt like this was meant to be a much longer and drawn out series that compromised around ten novels instead of three. It would've been far more entertaining to see more character development instead of just having it suddenly end with Norla and him having a child! LOL

Also I think the DeSilvo is EVIL angle was played to much, exactly what was so bad? Sure he was terrible but it got out of hand IMO and they did things too that although not spanning a world weren't so great either.

It needed more novels and character development then it would've been truly amazing. As it stands the first is GOLDEN, the second is BORING and the third is FUN BUT BORING later near it's end.

I'd suggest you read them though because it's interesting to see the decisions he makes in these books and what he might've been thinking at the time.

Having finally tracked down the supposedly-deceased terraformer Oskar DeSilvo, Anton Koffield and those aboard the Dom Pedro IV are now tasked with the effort of figuring out what the man has planned and why he has led them to his secret base on the dead world of Glister.

Meanwhile, DeSilvo's simultaneously greatest achievement and worst blunder, the terraformed world of Solace, is on the edge of ecological collapse, and despite heroic attempts by its inhabitants to stave off the coming environmental implosion, the world continues to slide further and further into the abyss.

The Shores of Tomorrow rounds out the MacBride Allen's Chronicles of Solace. On the whole, the Shores of Tomorrow isn't half bad (despite atrocious editing in only the second half of the book...what happened?) DeSilvo's grand plan that we have been wondering about for much of the trilogy is finally revealed...and it is suitably grandiose. The only real complaint I have with the overall story is that the author focuses so much attention on the story that he seems to forget about character development...most of the the time anyway. For example, one of the more minor characters, an apparently semi-autistic scientist, is drawn quite well for the two or three scenes she has, but the development of the major characters seemed to be, generally, if not always, lacking. I kept wanting to know more of what was going on inside Koffield's and DeSilvo's heads.....

Nonetheless, The Shores of Tomorrow kept me guessing with its outcome and wound down generally well. Not to mention the future technology and science that is fundamental to this story is pretty amazing. I would actually like to see at least one more book that picks up the story of the characters after the end of this tale. I would like to see how things work out, both within the Solacian System and the within the Settled Worlds at large. The Shores of Tomorrow is certainly recommended to anyone who has read the previous two stories...it's definitely worth finishing this trilogy.

Certainly the weakest of the three books. For starters, by now the continued repetitiveness of the storytelling becomes too much, especially at 450 pages that could have been wrapped up in about 150. Secondly, the series really revolves around Koffield and the somewhat kafkaesque like journey he goes through. Yet in the final book, the character is relegated to third tier status, and Allen ends up focusing on minor characters. After all the chaos and lives destroyed by DeSilvo, he basically gets off easy.

Within the framework of the story, the final solution to solving the problem of terraforming a planet long enough so it won't fail was interesting, but without giving away the solution, is too much a happy ending, "humanity wouldn't screw it up" answer.

Finally, any story with time travel requires a certain amount of suspension of belief, it is inevitable because no matter what path the author chooses there are bound to be contradictions. For two books Koffield comes across as a duty bound Admiral, I envisioned him like Captain Ramius in "The Hunt For Red October." To assume that Koffield would join forces and almost become friends with DeSilvo is pushing the limits of credibility.

Overall, a promising trilogy that fizzled out and would have been tighter and more enjoyable to read in two books.

This series set up a seemingly insoluble problem, and this book came up with a very clever solution. Then used a different solution. The basic idea of the series seems somewhat silly. (A terraformed planet sufers ecological catastrophe after a number of years equal to the number of years spent solving it? Why? Why not just terraform planet after planet, than move to new ones with FTL?) The mystery aspects of the series, the clever FTL method, and the way this series for once does NOT ignore the fact FTL means time travel make it unique. The ending was a slight disappointment, skipping clever solutions they proposed in favor of an overly complex one. It was also a little to "cosmic" in scale for me to really identify with what was going on.

After endless pages of detail, the story finishes with an impossible, unimaginative, conclusion with visuals stolen from a popular TV series. The conclusion does not do justice to the groundwork laid down in the previous two books of the trilogy. Its as though, after laying the groundwork, the author ran out of ideas for a finish.

In the far distant future, mankind has learned, thanks to Oskar DeSilvo, how to terraform planets. Once that operation was complete, humanity would colonize that world but what few people know is that DeSilvo took credit for another person's concept. That individual had concluded that eventually terraforming would fail. The prediction proved true on the planet Blister just as it is now happening on Solace.

Eventually all the terraformed worlds will collapse and the refugees will return to their home world, bringing with them spores and microbes that that will result in plagues and the death of humanity. The chronological patrol knows this and is trying to buy time by suppressing technologies. DeSilvo has found a way to prevent the eventual extinction of humanity but he must convince his most powerful enemy Anton Koffied that they must work together on his plan that will pit them against the chronological patrol and DeSilvo's many other enemies.

Oskar DeSilvo is both the protagonist and the antagonist of THE SHORES OF TOMORROW. He lied and falsified information that could lead to the death of humanity but he acknowledges his guilt and is doing everything in his power to make restitution. There is much action in the several sub-plots that seamlessly flow into the main story line. Roger MacBride Allen has the talent to rival the brightest suns in the science fiction galaxy.

Harriet Klausner

While he is one of my favorite authors, I must admit that certain things were quite confusing to me. Just some details of the story. Some inconsistancies too, but maybe in my own mind. Anyway, the story is basically good but it echoes from a previously unfinish trilogy (hint, hint) that involves, well, things moving. In any case, the series was enjoyable.