Time's Eye (A Time Odyssey, Book 1) [Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Arthur C. Clarke (Author), Stephen Baxter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2010

For eons, Earth has been under observation by the Firstborn, beings almost as old as the universe itself. The Firstborn are unknown to humankind--until they act. In an instant, Earth's timeline is carved up and reassembled into a patchwork of different eras, from prehistory to the year 2037, each with its own indigenous inhabitants.

The only clue to the origin of this astonishing transformation lies in the ancient city of Babylon, where two groups of refugees from 2037--three cosmonauts and three U.N. peacekeepers--have detected strange radio signals. As the peacekeepers ally with nineteenth-century British troops and the armies of Alexander the Great, the cosmonauts join forces with the Mongol horde led by Genghis Khan. Both sides set out for Babylon, determined to win the race for knowledge--and the power that lies within.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Sir Arthur C. Clarke may be the greatest science fiction writer in the world; certainly, he's the best-known, not least because he wrote the novel and coauthored the screenplay of 2001: A Space Odyssey. He's also the only SF writer to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize or to be knighted by Her Majesty Elizabeth II. This god of SF has twice collaborated with one of the best SF writers to emerge in the 1990s, Stephen Baxter, winner of the British SF Award, the Locus Award, and the Philip K. Dick Award. Their first collaboration is the novel The Light of Other Days. Their second is the novel Time's Eye: Book One of a Time Odyssey.

As the subtitle indicates, Time's Eye is the first book of a series intended to do for time what 2001 did for space. Does Time's Eye succeed in this goal? No. In 2001, humanity discovers a mysterious monolith on the moon, triggering a signal that astronauts pursue to one of the moons of Jupiter. In Time's Eye, mysterious satellites appear all around the Earth and scramble time, bringing together an ape-woman; twenty- first-century soldiers and astronauts; nineteenth-century British and Indian soldiers; and the armies of Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great. The characters march around in search of other survivors, then clash in epic battle. It's not until the end that the novel returns to the mystery of the tiny, eye-like satellites (and doesn't solve it). In other words, the plot of Time's Eye is a nearly 300-page digression, and 2001 fans expecting exploration of the scientific enigma and examination of the meaning of existence will be disappointed. However, fans of rousing and well-written transtemporal adventure in the tradition of S.M. Stirling's novel Island in the Sea of Time will enjoy Time's Eye. --Cynthia Ward --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Clarke, with Baxter (Coalescent), probably the most talented of the former's several collaborators, have cooked up an exciting tale full of high-tech physics, military tactics and larger-than-life characters in the first of two novels related to the bestselling senior author's Space Odyssey series. In an awesome and unexplained catastrophe, the earth has been literally diced and put back together again. Each of the segments of terrain (and you can actually see the dividing lines between them) comes from a different era, some of them millions of years apart. As the novel opens, a 19th-century British army company, stationed on the Afghan-Pakistani border, captures an Australopithecine mother and child, just as a team of 21st-century U.N. peacekeepers crash their helicopter nearby. Later they join forces with Alexander the Great. Simultaneously, a Soyuz descent vehicle, having just left the International Space Station, crash-lands in the middle of Genghis Khan's army. Eventually, the armies of Alexander and the Khan converge on Babylon, the last remaining large city in Eurasia and a titanic battle seems imminent. Fans of 2001: A Space Odyssey will have fun with the many references to that earlier novel. Although not flawless, this is probably the best book to appear with Clarke's name on it in a decade.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.; Unabridged library edition (January 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 143324604X
• ISBN-13: 978-1433246043
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,247,037 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars What If?, April 17, 2004

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 110,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Time's Eye (A Time Odyssey, Book 1) (Hardcover)

Because of the many similarities of the premise of this book to 2001, many readers will pick the book up expecting something quite similar and stimulating in the same ways. That expectation would be wrong. Although on the surface the books have similar elements, Time's Eye uses a story-telling technique that focuses much more on bringing incongruities from different periods of history together to imaginatively describe "what if?" You have famous authors (Rudyard Kipling), famous conquerors (Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan), and famous places (Babylon in its prime) brought together in unexpected collisions. It's like running a particle accelerator to collide with something to see what might happen.

The book lives or dies by how compelling you find the historical juxtapositions. I personally found them to be mildly interesting . . . but not compelling. The story itself was a little clunky in its plot elements, and I found myself disbelieving the ending.

The 2001-like element in the book mostly recedes into the background. Had it been more in the foreground, the book could have been a four-star effort.

I loved the idea of including the CD with bonus book and other material. Nice!

Perhaps the series will improve in the rest of the book . . . I hope so. The potential for a good story is certainly there.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unusual and exceptional collaboration, February 12, 2004

By 

WTDK "If at first the idea is not absurd, the... (My Little Blue Window, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Time's Eye (A Time Odyssey, Book 1) (Hardcover)

The Earth has been carved up into a giant temporal jig-saw puzzle and put back together randomly by aliens called the Firstborns. These aliens were unknown to humanity until their watchdogs (or are they?) in the form of little silver orbs floating quietly above humanity.

This forms the fascinating and promising premise of Arthur Clarke and Stephen Baxter's Time's Eye which is subtitled A Time Odyssey. While only time (pardon the pun) will tell if this is as important or thought provoking as Clarke's other Odyssey novels, this makes for a fascinating start. Clarke has finally found another collaborator up to the task of working with him. The only other novelist that would have been capable and could flesh out Clarke's characters was the late Mike McQuay.

Baxter's a well known sf novelist and award winner in his own write (all these nasty puns just keep wanting to pop in for time). His novels Manifold: Time is an essential modern science fiction classic (and included in CD-ROM form with the book). The characters are pretty well developed (a problem for even Clarke's best novels)and the writing is about as sound from a science point of view as a tale like this could be. We'll have to wait for the other two novels in this series to be published before finding out what the real motives are behind the Firstborn.

With Clarke and Baxter's well developed idea along with the deft characterizations make Time's Eye an important sf book from two of the best writers around.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great idea, so-so execution, January 27, 2004

By 

Alex Tolley (Los Gatos, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Time's Eye (A Time Odyssey, Book 1) (Hardcover)

This novel mixes themes from both Clarke's and Baxter's prior work - ancient intelligences, harvesting mind, pre-humans. The device in this novel is the creation of an earth composed of a patchwork of different timelines spanning 2 million years of history, culminating in 2037.

This sets up a world that allows exploration of the novelty of intersecting pieces from different timelines. The main plot centers around the events that lead to a battle between the armies Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan, aided by a small group of 21st century people and a contingent of a 19th century British army.

The main characters were well drawn, and I was felt that this world was real and interesting, mainly from the little details that are Baxter's trademark, especially the sense of smell.

Despite my being a huge Clarke and Baxter fan, I came away feeling this was not the best collaboration, certainly weaker than the "light of other days", and the ending had a definite Deux ex Machina problem. Baxter seems to be writing so much these days that maybe he is being stretched a little thin.

Overall this is an interesting read, but not up to the best that either author has written, with regards to theme and content.

(I used to be a little cynical that Baxter collaborated with Clarke to get a career boost from such a distinguished author. But his talent as an author is now so obvious that I have to wonder whether it isn't Clarke who is getting most of the benefit now.)