Customer Reviews

The Winds of Time (SF Rediscovery Series, No. 10)

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

 

 

Despite having been written in 1957, The Winds of Time remains an interesting twist on the usual time travel novel because these time travelers don't use any sort of time machine to project themselves more than 15,000 years into the future. Rather, they use a potent drug to place themselves into suspended animation and let time itself travel at its normal pace. When they awaken, they are in the future. But all is not well.

Doctor Wes Chase, on a fishing vacation with his wife in Colorado, has his life forever changed when he is taken prisoner near a remote mountain lake by one of a group of aliens who crash landed on Earth some 15.000 years before his fateful encounter with them. When they crashed, these explorers, who closely resembled Earthlings, had been on a mission to find another race of men with whom they could partner up for the good of both groups. They quickly realized that Earth humans were in such a primitive stage of development that their only chance to ever see their home planet again required them to travel approximately 15,000 years into the future. Unfortunately for them, they awoke to find themselves still 200 years too early to expect any help from the people of Earth.

That's where Wes Chase's life changing adventure begins.

Chad Oliver, who died in 1993, was an anthropologist and his science fiction focused primarily on the kind of culture clash that results from the sudden contact of different cultural systems. Such a culture clash, and the way that both sides adapt and change each other in the process, is the most fascinating part of The Winds of Time. Oliver's style and his vision of what alien contact would be like influenced countless writers who followed him and he is regarded by many to be the equal of Robert A. Heinlein, Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke.

I have a fondness for time travel novels that goes back all the way to my teen years and that's why I picked up The Winds of Time. I was disappointed when I first realized that the novel did not employ the use of some kind of time travel hardware and relied instead on medicine to get the job done. But the longer that I read, and the more that I considered this twist, the more I realized that if time travel is ever to occur, Oliver's idea is one of the more likely ways that it could actually happen. This isn't a complicated novel, nor one filled with exotic battles and weaponry, but it is definitely one that fans of the genre will enjoy. It deserves to be remembered as one Science Fiction's early classic volumes.

Let's get a few things out of the way. Yes, this is a book from the 50's. Yes, the author doesn't go overboard in sci-fi. Yes, this book seems to have gotten 2 3-star ratings and 2-four star ratings, as well as 1 5-star rating (mine being the second 5-star rating).

Getting those out of the way, I will start off. I really don't like to read. I, most of the times, have to force myself to read. There have only been a few books that I have ever sat down and actually read because I WANTED to read them. When I was a kid it was the Harry Potter series, when I was a teenager it was the Last Vampire series, and now I read but I hardly ever find that book that I WANT to pick up and read. Chad Oliver's "The Winds of Time" was one of those rare books I WANT to read, and I did.

I won't spoil the story for you as many of the reviewers have already given you a summary, but there are some great points I want to touch on:

1) The book has likable characters

2) The book actually gets you to care about the characters

3) there is suspense and disrepair but also life and joy.

Usually this never happens, but at the end of the book my eyes swelled up with a tear or two. I am one of those people who usually won't cry unless there is something to cry about but this book honestly drew me in so closely that I shed a tear for the characters at the end. Was it a tear that the characters were successful or that they had failed? I can't say.

Just do me one favor as you read this review. I beg you. Gather up the $0.50 they are asking for, pay the $3.99 shipping, and please buy this book. Not for me as I gain nothing from you buying the book (I am not even Chad Oliver. He died in 1993). Buy this book for you. For you.

5/5

John McAdam:

Were Ancient Gods From Other Planets?

Am I Mad Or Coherent?

This older Sci-Fi novel is a gem. It is fun to read it and see what the authors of that day thought of space travel and the enjoy the words they used and the concepts they had. Heck, the ship landed vertically. It didn't send a space shuttle down or beam them up. It is just plain old fun to read it. But the story is good too. With all their advanced technology the travelers still miss their mark for waking up. And it takes some good 'ole Earth medical knowledge to utimately save them. The handling of the language issue is very good and some fancy and unbelievable translation device is not used. Enjoy this old classic, it is a great read.

The aliens arrive on Earth a real long time ago ... Urg and Oog the Neanterthals don't really appreciate them. Their space ship crashes and they are stuck. But wait! They have this injectable medication that puts them into sleep deeper than a Bear in the Woods. Hey Guys! Let's Make a Secret Cave With a Big Steel Door! Yeaaaaaaa! Time for one last meal of cold alien space gruel and then: "Quick! The Needle! -- Perchance to Sleep, To Dream, To Awake?". Along comes the wilderness fishing MD who happens to break his leg and find the cave. Aliens awake, nurse him back to health, teach him their language, help him get back to a laboratory, and finally allow him to join them in their next Little-Big Sleep to wait out the development of spaceships. The story is a mite bit shallow but the moral teaching is the point. Do the Right Thing and you will be rewarded. I have liked this story since it was first published and if you like medium-hard SF you will too.

A group of aliens land on Earth hoping to be able to use Earth technology to help their own planet. Since they have landed in prehistoric times, they go into hibernation and wake up in the 1950s, where a doctor on a fishing trip finds them and tries to help. Kind of dated, run of the mill SF, but not bad.