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Island in the Sea of Time

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Island in the Sea of Time

By: S. M. Stirling
Narrated by: Todd McLaren
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During a perfect spring evening on Nantucket, a violent storm erupts and a dome of crawling, colored fire blankets the island. When the howling winds subside and the night skies clear, the stars appear to have shifted. The mainland has become a wilderness of unbroken forest, where tools of bronze and stone litter the beaches, and primitive natives scatter in terror.

A startling phenomenon has occurred: The island of Nantucket has been swept into the long-ago past. With its inhabitants adrift in the year 1250 BC, there is only one question to be answered: Can they survive?

©1998 S. M. Stirling (P)2008 Tantor Adventure Genre Fiction Science Fiction War & Military
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A good story well told (not a great story excellently read) with an interesting central idea and interesting characters. People have said that it lacks the depth of greys between the good and bad and yes, I think that is fair comment. Others have said it is very feminist and I can't honestly agree personally though others obviously do and yes, the female characters are strong.

Whilst it was well read, it was sometimes hard to discern a new paragraph or section in the story though otherwise it was solidly done.

Overall, this was an enjoyable story, my first alternate history book (if you don't count 1984) and it will be a genre and author I will return to.

A good story well told

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A black lesbian military commander. Great why not. But the aggregate of characters becomes ludicrous and unbelievable. The book states 30% of US coastguard is female. In fact it’s 15%. In the book the commander, second in command, aide, chief trainer are all women and this in a profession that is male dominated for obvious reasons. The only notable male military character deserts and is the chief baddie. There is a daring commando raid - 60% women. Other aspects of the book follow the same pattern. It all gets a bit tedious.

Lack of balance of characters.

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If you could sum up Island in the Sea of Time in three words, what would they be?

Informative, interesting,

What did you like best about this story?

Was a good back story to the other books

Which character – as performed by Todd McLaren – was your favourite?

All of them very well characterised

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Made me laugh

Any additional comments?

Enjoyed listening to the book

Island in the sea of time

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I loved this series - and the much longer one that followed it.



I listen to my audio-books whilst driving and this series had me looking forward to long car journeys. The initial plot mechanism is interesting and, apart from the initial series of coincidences necessary to get the ball rolling, the story develops well and the author generally adheres well to the rules of his universe.



Reccomended.

Gripping

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The narration is excellent, particularly so considering it is only occasionally marred by mispronunciations. How hard is it to look up a word in a dictionary and check its pronunciation? Not at all. To fail to do so is poor but that's on the producer not the narrator.

The various narrative strands are expertly interwoven but I was left feeling too much was crammed in. There is just too much story. It would have been better as two volumes, allowing characters to breathe and plot lines to develop. Instead, we chop from one storyline to another with constant Harry Turtledove-style updates that never quite satisfy. Stirling also falls for the trap of doing a huge amount of research and being determined to get it all on the page. It can be somewhat dull and repetitive.

Entertaining but overly complex alternate history

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