Customer Reviews

The Tides of Time

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This book doesn't really have a plot. In fact, it is difficult to tell what is going on while you are reading it. The same two characters live the same life over and over at different times in history, and it is more of a series of vignettes than a normal plotted book.

However, the author John Brunner explores some very interesting ideas, and this is what saves it. This quote summarizes the
book fairly well "Why, that on this world which matched his heart's desire nothing was stable, nothing remained the same. Had he only stayed where he found himself at first, he could have enjoyed all the benefits of change without the shock of coming home to a city where he and his mission were doomed to be forgotten..."

The characters are not aware that they are living in different
time periods simultaneously- they have the same physical traits
but no memrories shared between times. This makes for a book with little character development- but some of the time periods are well sketched.

So in summary, this book is wierd. It is glorifying in a strange perception of the world. Do you like to experience bizarre frameworks? If so, you will enjoy it, if not you will have a hard time getting past the second chapter. To conclude, here is another quote from the book:

"'Tell the rest! [of the story]

'There wasn't any rest', she said. 'That was the beginning and the end, endlessly repeated.'"

I read this book fifteen years ago. The reason I am reviewing it now, after all this time, is that I still remember parts of it and it haunts my dreams. This is such an unusual book. You can tell that Brunner was influenced by the 1960's and psychadellic drugs here. The story really has no plot or ending or start. Its just a story of a place without time.

It might be wrong for me to review this book after so long. But if, like myself, you pick this book up and give it a try, I think that you will be rewarded by years of reflection. Not too many books do that.

from the back cover of the of the Del Rey Dec 1984 paperback edition
Cover art by Don Dixon
First there was the end. After weeks of running from pursuers, Gene and Stacy finally found refuge on an isolated island. But around them the island changed-and so did they.
Each time they awoke from sleep, they lived a different life in a different time. And the farther back in time they went, the more they lost their anchor to their own world. When at last they were found, the people they had become no longer recognized their pursuers. And that was the beginning.