Island in the Sea of Time

Could do without the transparently manipulative gratuitous sex and violence. Also - the layouts in chapters between the protagonists and antagonists were awkward and distracting. Good research was done here.

Having read the Dies the Fire series, I was somewhat skeptical of the nature of this story being different and enthralling. I was pleasantly surprised by both the interesting characters, and the massively different setting. If you enjoy alternative history stories, or survival stories, or stories about frontier living... this is a book for you! Oh, there is also so some conflict.

An interesting premise, but the author seemed bent on proving he/she knew lots of details about every little thing (forging, machinery, war-making) - the book could have been substantially slimmed if only the pertinent details were included. Somewhat disappointing end.

"It was amazing what a combination of strong emotion, faulty assumptions, and inexperience could do. Make a high-IQ type act like an utter natural-born darned fool, for instance."
This quote was made by one of the main characters in describing some of the antagonists, but I found it ironic that it was the perfect quote to describe the "heroes" of the book. While I take it out of context to describe my criticism of this book, feel free to apply it to this review if you disagree.
I was very disappointed with this book. After reading so many positive reviews and testimonials, I was expecting an amazing fast-paced book that had a very fascinating plot. After struggling to get through 300 pages of this book, I had to put it back, banishing it behind a copy of 1632 and other science fiction (ironic since 1632 and this book have the same premise).
Overall, the book had a very slow pace, after starting off extremely quickly. That is, the Nantucketers go back in time in the first four pages, yet 296 pages later are still muddling about. This would be forgiveable if these pages were spent on plot or character development, but little of that seems to occur across the chapters.
The slow pace would have been so bad if the book had been fun to read in the interim. What was most bothersome, was that I found the book offensive from an author/character point of view for three primary reasons:
1) Women good. Men bad. With the exception of one abnormal representative from each gender, every main female character is portrayed as "good" or someone the author wants you to like. Likewise, every major male character (with one exception) is portrayed as "evil". Men committ suicide, murder helpless women, kill their wives, rape the helpless, and wage war. Women are the last bastions of peace, love their neighbor, etc.
2) The main hero is a bigot. Captain Alston is a minority to the nth degree in any reality, as she is a black, gay, divorced, woman captain in the coast guard. A combination that would be difficult to find in the Coast Guard today, let alone within a three-mile radius of a Rhode Island island. Yet, this character is not at all tolerant of others beliefs, even though she perceives herself as a minority. She is constantly judging other characters on brief meetings, and yet is rewarded for her behavior throughout the book.
3) The author sides with his characters. Now all authors create characters and then want them to win. But Stirling defends every decision made by the "good" characters through twists in the plot, and punishes any decisions by "evil" characters through the same mechanism. The "good" characters can never be outwitted by their evil counterparts, even when there is no reason to suspect subtrefuge. An excellent example is Capt. Alston's instinct that the main "evil" character will become "evil", with no evidence whatsoever. In her own words, it is something "less than a hunch", yet the author is constantly twisting the plot to make the "good" characters right.
When you combine the slow pace with the above points, it just made the book not at all fun to read. I was hoping for a nice series to sink m teeth into, but I went ahead and pulled the other two books in the series out of my shopping cart after only getting half way through this book.

This is an enjoyable book due to the interactions between the various cultures in the story. It starts with an interesting concept, send a slice of our own world into the far past, and explores the outcome. The people involved are well drawn and the story is allowed to unfold at a good pace. A good read, not quite the equal of Stirling's Draka stories but able to stand on its own.

One of the greatest 'alternative history' novels. The point of disbelief is the start, where some people get thrown back in time. Once you're over that, well, what would happen with a small community without the resources of the rest of the present world, but with all the riches existing in an ancient time? No animal extinction, they get to see dodo's if they want to. And of course, the greatest threat are people...

This first part of a trilogy is fast-paced, action packed and entertaining. Such a difference from the two subsequent installments though! I burned through this first novel but ultimately gave up, googled the plot and gave all three books away.

WARNING KINDLE VERSION REVIEW! STAND BACK:

First things first, I loved the story when I originally read it several years ago.
My ONLY gripe is that Mr. Stirling likes to kill off the natives via the common cold or measles, I cite Conquistadors as another example.

My main wish is that I would like to apply for the job of transcribing his stories into electronic format. Whoever was hired to do this job needs to check their spell checker. For instance who ever was "editing" this seemed to ignore several instances of "Homed Man" rather than "Horned Man". Stupid. There were egregious punctuation errors. I found many MANY instances of periods right in the middle of the sentence. Was ESL a job requirement!? Mr. Stirlings editor did not do a very good job of outsourcing this project. I was tempted to demand my 6.99 back but I became fascinated with how AWFUL the formatting was. I also started jotting down words to check myself. I ALSO ordered the paper version to see if the errors held true there as well. That little project will wait because the print is VERY VERY SMALL, this will take much patience on my part and bright lights!

I listened to this book while doing a road trip. I was still completing it when I got home. Have to do some short trip so I could finish. Great story line, will definitely read more of this series.

S. M. Stirling has done several atl history series and this is one of the very best. Real people in unbelievable difficulty and not much of the everyone is a great upstanding citizen. Real people in real situations, if you buy the concept.
Great story.
john

Very implausible storyline. Language acquisition way too quick. Acculturation at an impossible rate. Stereotypical characters and enough lesbian sex already. It could have been exciting and captivating with more thought, etc.

Entertaining, both as an intellectual exercise and in terms of the characters.

But for a book about people problem-solving, it's remarkable that almost everything they come up with works without much of a hitch. It's like watching someone else play a game in the Civilization franchise: "now I'm going to develop animal husbandry so I can domesticate those horses and build chariots..." In real life, projects often take a lot of iteration and trial and error, as makers know well. But it doesn't seem to work this way for these people; when they set their mind to building something, as long as they have the raw materials and the manpower, they can get it built. In that sense, I could also say it's like watching the Martian if everything Matt Damon's character tried worked with no setbacks.

The dramatic tension in the book, therefore, is given by the interactions between the characters. The characters are diverse, entertaining, and fairly well drawn, so this works well enough for four stars.

Another problem with the book is that it starts out claiming it's going to play against tropes: one of the characters is a science fiction fan, and thinks about how different reality is from the way it works in SF books. But then the rest of the book follows most of the cliches of the stranded-in-time sub-genre. It would have been better for the book to just own up to its campy geekiness.

The book is well-researched, and it's made me think some about the time period depicted, so in that sense it's a success.

Overall, a good enough yarn for me to buy the next one in the series...

I was recommended this novel by a used book clerk in Lexington KY while visiting my wife's family nearby this past summer. The relatives live far (and I mean far) out on a farm in the KY Appalachian hills with no Wi-Fi, computer, cell reception (hard line only) or even neighbors…seriously, I actually saw (well, mostly heard) more coyotes than I did humans in the first week there).

No problem, you say...just go out and enjoy the sights, smells and experience of rural country living, right? WRONG! It was like living in the northern India monsoon season with non-stop rain for almost three straight weeks! I was bored out of my freaking gourd, to say the least. So much so, that I actually accompanied the women folk (posing as their chauffeur) on a ladies shopping excursion two hour away in the teaming metropolis of Lexington. After three hours of non-stop country/blue grass music on the radio (both on the road and while sitting outside department stores) I noticed what looked like a book store in one of the shopping areas I found myself abandoned.

Wanting to be pretty much anywhere (or anytime) else, I went in and asked if they had any alternative history/time travel combination type novels to recommend and the clerk immediately brought out Island in the Sea of Time. The cover and the first 20 pages were a little wrinkled, so I got an extra 20% off an already used paperback book for a total cost of about $1.20. That alone put me in a better mood (after all, why should everyone else in the car be able to brag on their good shopping deals and not me?). Thankfully, that mood never soured.

This is the first book in a VERY long time (make that years) that I've actually looked forward to reading and hated putting down. I actually resented having to go eat and take showers. I did manage to make my bathroom breaks more productive until banging knocks from desperate relations called them to halts...the toilet seat induced epidural numbness of my lower extremities didn't speed the room turn-over any faster, but hey...the book was worth it. I was actually a bit down when I finished the last page, which is a rare thing for me to be saying.

Sincere kudos to Mr. Sterling (and the geeky clerk at Half Price Books in the Hampton Shopping Center) for saving my sanity. Daniel Boone can bite me!

Now if I can only figure out how to get the next two books in the series for less than $2 each...

Audiobook

Can I book about a modern day island on the American east coast (Nantucket) going back in time be boring? Yes. And for an isolated island with minimal supplies there is a lot of traveling going on - to Europe, to the Caribbean, South America. I know the author didn't want to bog down the book with descriptions of days and days of travel, but sometimes it seemed they were one day in Nantucket and then after waiting a week (no real sense of urgency - just we're going as fast as we can?!), it would take them about a day or so to get to the baddies.

And I'm sick of reading that every battle between native and more civilized forces being compared to the Anglo-Zulu War. Catherine Asaro did a much better job with a comparison of this conflict. The "final" battle was confusing because I kept thinking, "Are they with the Eagle people or the Wolf people?"

Anyway, I didn't enjoy this book much at all.

Island in the Sea of Time starts with a ridiculous alien-space-bat premise, but what time-travel/alternate history novel doesn't. The plot absolutely requires the Coast Guard training ship just off Nantucket at the time of the Event, plus the numerous old-time pre-electricity artifacts that are lying around the former tourist destination, now center of the First World. You know perfectly well what is going to happen when there's a large sailing ship and a trained crew on one side of the Atlantic, and the story about what's on the other side is terrific, especially when you consider that the Nantucketers go back to pretty much the same part of England that the island's original English colonizer came from. The Yankees are a bit more ingenious than is realistic, but hey, we colonized this part of the world once, we can figure out how to survive in it again. Marion Alston is a fine character; it's important to the book that she is who she is - a big part of the book (and the series) has to do with identity, belonging to a group, and the mingling between groups, and a black lesbian is really no more or less unique, or no more or less part of her group, than the other main characters.
I highly recommend it.

This book was the first - but not the last - that I ever read by S.M. Stirling. After the first twenty or so pages, I was hooked. Forever.

The premise of the novel is simple: an unexplained electrical storm, of some unknown nature, sends the island of Nantucket back in time more than 3,000 years - to 1,250 B.C., the late Bronze Age. This strands seven thousand or so late 20th-century Americans alone in an ancient world. As the book's jacket blurb asks - "How will they survive?"

Stirling's answers to that question are not only brilliant - they are rich in detail, and they create AN ENTIRE, REALIZED WORLD. Many time-travel or alternative history stories interweave interesting ideas, but don't create a sense of actual, living, breathing reality; as a professional archaeologist, that's frustrating, because such stories are an imaginative way to see what might have been happening.

Not so with Stirling's book. The details about the lives of former Nantucket police chief Jared Cofflin, Coast Guard Captain Marian Alston, professor Ian Arnstein, astronomer Doreen Rosenthal, librarian Martha Stoddard, and renegade William Walker, are set in a complete world - with scenes ranging from Archaic period New England tribesmen, to the ancient Olmec city of San Lorenzo, to Bronze Age England - the "White Isle". And his characters from the past - Swindapa, Earth Folk Spear Chosen; Hardcase, clan leader and Native American entrepeneur; Daurthunnicar, lord of the Iraiina clan of warriors; and Isketerol, merchant lord of Tartessos - are believable, real, and FEEL like real characters with attitudes radically different than modern Americans.

This book is fantastic, fun to read, and very well written. I highly recommend it as a great read!!

I simply could not put this book down (sorry boss)! S. M. Stirling's ongoing series--of Nantucket Yankees ingeniously evolving the future while "cast away" into the Bronze Age three thousand years past--is a fascinating twist on the "alternate futures" genre of science fiction. Island in the Sea of Time is a wonderfully realized story of a modern peoples' struggle to adjust and survive in a time of great dislocation and desperate adversity. Transporting an entire group of modern Americans back in time means Stirling can legitimately give them modern politically correct personalities, and most effectively contrast these with Bronze Age mores. Thus understanding our heroes' modern motivations is "simpler" than in the "Byzantine" Videssos Cycle of Harry Turtledove, Stirling's model. The characters are very well drawn and differentiated, nor are we stuck only with laconic New Englanders as this colony in time expands. Only one person is a caricature, a New Age Environmentalist "Nazi" who is set up for a very bad end. I had real empathy for the desperate straits of the Nantucket Islanders isolated from everything familiar, and for the tension and anxiety regarding survival as the dire implications of their limited supplies unfolds. The tight focus on a small group of (once-fellow) Americans is highly involving: my god, what would I do if totally totally cut off from the 20th century? As an archaeologist I found Stirling's fleshing out of bare Beaker and Wessex Culture artifacts (like Stonehenge) to be marvelous, if incidental, fun.

Stirling's "Island in the Sea of Time" was recommended to me by a professional writer and an avid reader of science fiction. She knows me as a lover of both nautical and science fiction, and I know her as someone of taste and talent. I had just finished another alternate history fantasy, "Land of Mist and Snow", which I had liked and told her about. As a result, it was a natural for her to suggest I get Stirling's story of a time storm that thrusts Nantucket and the U.S. Sailing Ship Eagle back to the year 1250 B.C. I admit the concept intrigued me to no end.

For the record I think "Island in the Sea of Time" is an impressive work of science fiction and fact. On the other hand, I found it tedious at times and, dare I say, boring and monotonous. I realize the jacket is rife with praise from renowned authors, and for good reason. However, I could not really get into it. I found the character of the black female captain of the Eagle forced and unrealistic and the juxtapositions of the protag/sidekick and antag/henchwoman a bit too staged and Hollywood-esque. Perhaps if I tell you why the book didn't thrill me you'll know just why it's the perfect book for you. Let's face it, when it's a matter of taste, nothing is certain.

Stirling doesn't waste any time getting his story off to the races, i.e. to 1250 B.C. We don't get a lot of character set-up or back story; in no time at all, there's a huge freakish storm, and the next thing the people of Nantucket and the crews of the boats nearby know -- they're not in Kansas anymore. That's great, and I love a book that doesn't make me wait for what I already know by the blurb on the back is coming. Unfortunately, for this reader's taste, Stirling spends huge amounts of time in the book detailing incredibly mundane aspects of the Nantucketers' attempts to survive and thrive as a time-displaced society, including pages of stuff that occurs at town meetings, weddings, in make-shift factories, mills, foundries, on the fields, etc. Details of the construction of armor and weapons, of agricultural equipment, generators, etc. I was hoping for a rousing piece of nautical fiction but what I got was a textbook primer in speculative nation building and pre-industrial engineering.

Except for a brief rescue mission in which the captain of the Eagle heads to the Yucatan peninsula, there's precious little time spent in the development of suspense and risk. I can count only three or four times in the story when I thought the stakes had risen enough for me to care. In fact, thinking back, Stirling did not generate enough interest in the characters for me to be invested in them. The tough as nails black lesbian captain of the Eagle did not have one single thought to which I could relate, and her 13th century lover quickly lost her sympathy factor within days after being rescued from slavery and certain death. (I'm not opposed to reading stories with female leads, not in the least, but this one had me at a loss.)

I also felt the action sequences and battles, of which there were plenty, were less guttural and more intellectual, in a sense, for me, as someone who holds various belts in different forms of martial arts, unconvincing. Similarly, I found all nautical references to be more of the book-learned type and less of the visceral type. I didn't read this book with the idea of scrutinizing the story for technical detail but early on I knew I would have to suspend disbelief in many areas of nautical know-how. For example, the use of radios during the roughly two or three years of the story's time line made me wonder how the characters were able to keep their batteries charged and in good working order, and/or how they managed HF Comms over transoceanic distances.

Last but not least, the end left me flat, a clear introduction to the sequel, "On the Oceans of Eternity."

So, who should read this book? I would say history AND science fiction buffs, students of civilization, culture and society, people interested in speculative, intellectual fiction.

(POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT*****)

I continued reading "Islands..." for the simple reason I wanted to have final resolution between good and evil. I didn't get that. Instead, I got a predictable battle and a "Star Wars Episode IV" escape.

-seabgb

When the entire island of Nantucket is thrown back into the bronze age, the islanders have a problem. Their technology depends too much on imports from the now-vanished mainland. And even feeding the island will be tough--with no grains closer than England. Fortunately, a coast guard training square rigger was caught up in the time event and so the island isn't helpless. But even contacting the bronze age civilizations of Europe, let alone the stone-age cultures of the new world, has its problems. Plague for one thing as the time travellers replicate the European accidental genocide of the Native American population. But the bronze age savages of Europe are tough--and are good enough sailers that they could reach the new world if they knew where to look--and learned what a treasure-trove an entire island of 20th century technology can offer.
The island has a chance if everyone pulls together and police chief-turned political leader Jared Cofflin and coast guard captain Marian Alston do their best to ensure that everyone does so. Unfortunately, human nature rarely allows pure altrusim. In the case of Nantucket, there are those who want to carve out their own kingdom and those who want to prevent the re-creation of western culture. Either could be dangerous. Together, the two forces might just scuttle any hopes for survival--let alone return to the days of the hot shower.
Author S. M. Stirling writes an exciting story. A small city like Nantucket has close to the critical mass needed for modern civilization, but lacks the raw materials that are essential to our lives. As the time travellers contact other people, their risk grows. Stirling personalizes Cofflin and Alston, making the reader care about these characters and their attempts to recreate order in the midst of madness. Fans of military SF will enjoy the battle scenes as the Nantucket residents create effective military technology without access to gunpowder or smokeless powder.
I especially enjoyed Stirling's descriptions of the celtic war bands. With echos of Homer and the Germanic invasions of the late Roman period, the war leaders were proud, generous to followers, and quick to adopt a new military technology. Stirling also hinted at some interesting philosophical questions by setting modern (mostly Christian) people in a world centuries before Jesus, Mohammed, or Plato would be born.

After a strange electrical storm, the residents of Nantucket discover that their entire island and its surrounding waters have been sent back to 1300 B.C. Now this society, which is mostly based on a tourist economy, must figure out how to establish a new identity in prehistory. This includes clearing and farming land, building ships, finding new sources of fuel, salt, and other necessities, and most difficult of all, developing a constitution and befriending native trading partners.

Fortunately, Nantucket has some citizens with valuable knowledge and skills who find themselves naturally rising to leadership positions: a brave and competent Baptist police chief, a widely-read and level-headed librarian, a black lesbian ship captain, a history professor, an astronomy student, the manager of the local grocery store, and a Catholic priest.

But of course there are also some citizens who cause problems: the church whose pastor teaches that sending Nantucket back in time was Satan's plan to prevent the birth of Christ, and the "flake-and-nut contingent" who want to arm the natives so they'll never be oppressed by future Americans. Then there's the biggest threat of all -- the ambitious Coast Guard Lieutenant William Walker who sees all this confusion as an opportunity to set up his very own kingdom.

I have a thing for time-travel novels -- especially the Survivor-style stories in which modern people are forced to live in more uncivilized and unsophisticated times. Island in the Sea of Time has the added fun of actually having modern conveniences but not having the power or fuel to run them. Thus, the people of Nantucket must disassemble their cars for sheet metal while raiding their museums for whaling and milling antiques.

There's more to this story than survival and industrial revolution, though. Island in the Sea of Time is full of characters who feel like real people -- people you might actually know. For the most part their relationships and romances are believable and understandable as former strangers work together to create a new society. The villains, however, are over-the-top. It's hard to believe in the doctor's sadism, William Walker's vast knowledge and foresight, and the granola crowds' naiveté (their leader is shocked that the natives are "sexist," "patriarchal," and "abusive of animals" and that they don't immediately trust the Americans).

At times, Island in the Sea of Time becomes a bit teachy as characters discuss token economies, division of labor, ship building, linguistics, farming techniques, iron casting, steam engines, canning, the production of gunpowder, the use and care of firearms, etc. And it gets a little preachy as they discuss the creation of a new constitution. But generally I thought S.M. Stirling did a good job with this aspect of the book.

I read the audio version of Island in the Sea of Time, narrated by Todd McLaren and produced by Tantor Audio. The best thing I can say about it is that I mostly forgot I was listening to an audiobook -- McLaren's voices and cadences were so natural that they never called attention to themselves. The only time I was brought out of the story was when McLaren used his "Boston" voice for the U. Mass astronomy intern. But that's not McLaren's fault...

Island in the Sea of Time comes to a satisfactory end, but most readers will be eager to continue the islanders' advances and adventures in the next book in S.M. Stirling's Nantucket series: Against the Tide of Years.

In 1998, the island of Nantucket, and a Coast Guard ship sailing nearby, experience a bizarre storm followed by strange colored lights in the sky. After the storm, they find the stars have changed, and they're probably in around 1250 BC. Those who don't kill themselves or go crazy must find ways to survive, and they do so by forming a new government and militia headed by a former police officer and the Coast Guard captain (who's a lesbian). Things seems to be going well until a Coast Guard officer named Walker seizes the weapons and heads toward what will be Britain to establish his own kingdom. Unwilling to let history be mangled by a megalomaniac, the Nantucket Islanders send their militia to stop his plans. But even if they win, what cost will be inflicted on history? Stirling's highly contagious story is thought-provoking and inventive, although the sheer mass of the story's scope weighs heavily on the reader, making some passages rather tedious. Unfortunately, the final battle of the book becomes a hearty cliché, but that certainly doesn't deter from any reader's enjoyment of this story. Provided, of course, that the reader doesn't mind reading about the starring lesbian couple. Even with my hesitations with this book, I am rather eager to find out what happens next, and that's due to Stirling's driving storytelling.

By this time, I suppose, the proper technique is to compare this book with Flint's "1632", as a story both intensely interesting and a useful first book in a series.
In each case, a contemporary American polity, potentially self-sufficient, is thrown back to an earlier era, dangerous and strange.
Stirling uses off-season Nantucket. Without the "coofs", the tourists, the island can support the residents until better arrangements can be made.
Flint puts his Grantville into the middle of the Thirty Years War, with all the political issues required of a small number of people surrounded by huge numbers of people and forces going in all directions.
Stirling has fewer stereotyped characters than does Flint. This, however, requires a substantial amount of backstory which can become boring.
Stirling's characters eventually become deeply and irretrievably involved with Celtic, tribal Europe. As a brilliant form of great ingenuity, Stirling has the Coast Guard's tall ship, the cadet training vessel propelled by sails, on hand to be sucked back with the island. The freedom of action this ship provides is a two-edged sword. By alerting Europe to the riches of Nantucket, that strange land across the sea, the contact provides the possibility that Celtic Britain, or some adventurers from the Med will decide to go a' raiding.
Hence, like Grantville, Nantucket is put into the position of several empires in our own history, Rome and Czarist Russia, to name two. At least some of their borders lacked impassable geography. Wherever the border was, the raiders or opposing empires were just beyond it and the only way to prevail was to keep moving outward. Static defense would be a catastrophe.
So Grantville and Nantucket beoome, perforce, involved in and attempting to be movers in the larger world in which they find themselves.
Such issues are endlessly fascinating in both books although there is a bit too much history in the sequels to 1632.
Stirling, putting his people into an era supplying us with fewer documents, can arrange matters to his own satisfaction without having to give us a fascinating history lesson, sometimes set just right, sometimes diverting attention.
An earlier commenter noted that Stirling's battle scenes go on far too long with far too much detail. I agree, even though an ex-grunt and a fan of military history. One longs for the kind of maps in, for example, the West Point Atlas of American Wars. At the end of the day, one side is victorious, right? And stuff flows from that, right? Right. So get on with it.
I have a serious problem with the Coast Guard executive officer, William Walker. He was a sadistic sociopath who delighted in cruelty at any opportunity. And he lucked out in finding and bringing to his side some folks even worse. Coasties do not serve long deployments overseas. Walker's nastiness was not going to be hidden in the stews of Subic or Hong Kong. He'd have been doing his thing in New London, or Miami, or Boston. I can't believe a hint of a smell wouldn't have been seen in his Officer Efficiency Report, allowing someone of equal competence and more conventional tastes to reach the position of executive officer on what counts as a first rate command in the Coast Guard. There are not many of them and competition is tough.
Flint's Mike Stearns is a more sympathetic character, by a good deal. The problem is that when things get tough, Stearns gives a speech and things get straightened out. Grantville's coal miners show solidarity in situations not envisioned in labor law. Flint is said to have been a trotskyist labor organizer and perhaps he has an idealized view of what the Workers will do as a team. His guys are pretty good at combat, at fixing things while the twentieth century's technical advantages gradually disappear, and voting for a new Constitution just like the the one in which they grew up. Might happen. Stirling's characters require more work to fall into line.
Finally, if you're interested in history, you've wondered what you'd do if.... Haven't you? Come on. Admit it.
If these books seem realistic to you, it's tougher than you thought.
Good stories and interesting as history.

Sterling has created a unique time travel story in this series. It combines the rush from an ingenious group of people surviving and thriving by their wits with those same people influencing the growth of a subsequent civilization. My only complaint is that are only 3 books. I want to know what happens next!

The idea of taking a nearly self sufficient island (Nantucket) and a steel hull sailing vessel back in time 3000 years is a fascinating literary tool... couple that with decent character development, well developed plot, and detailed, and accurate, historic settings and you have a better than average book! That, will get you 3 stars from me every time but this book goes several steps further with what I like to call the "clarity factor!" Which means the writing is clean and it has great pace... you are reluctant to stop at any point in the book! I've read this book several times as well as the other books in the trilogy, which are as good as this one! All in all a definite must for anyone who likes a good "WHAT IF" story!
(Author's Edit) After years of searching for a story that intrgiued me as much as Mr. Stirling's "Island in the Sea of Time" I've given up the quest. This book, and the others which make up the trilogy, is what I pick up when I can't find anything new to read.
Mr. Stirling if you are reading this please continue on with this story line. I am dying to find out what happens next!

There have been over 100 reviews for this book, so I won't waste time going over all the plot elements, etc, and just get to some essentials. I will, in doing so, address some of the criticisms I have seen of the series. This review focuses primarily on the first of the series, Island in the Sea of Time, which I by far liked the best, but also touches on the others where Stirling somewhat loses his way, but not too badly.

If you can go with the basic premise, which is that some sort of cosmic event sends back the island of Nantucket and a Coast Guard Sailing Ship from today to the Bronze Age, 3000 years ago, you are in for a fine read. What unfolds is a great mixture of historical fiction, science fiction, and almost low fantasy by the time the book reaches its climax.

This small group of Americans from the future have thousands of years of knowledge and technology at their disposal, but are greatly outnumbered in a world of barbarity where human rights are an alien concept. Most make the decision to try and create a better world than they left, learning from their past's mistakes, while a few decide to exploit their advantages over the natives and create a fascist empire. These two forces are thus set for a violent showdown as they literally fight for the future of the world.

This book would make a terrific film or mini-series, and I mean that in the best possible way. It is filled with action, dramatic scenes, and a real sense of drama.

However, if you:

Can't stand books where Americans, despite their normal human flaws, are basically the good guys, you will hate this.

Can't stand political incorrectness when it comes to dealing with the realities of life or history, you will hate it.

Can't stand the idea that western culture and values have offered far more for humankind than any damage or exploitation it caused, you will hate it.

Can't stomach the brutalities of life at its most savage, you will hate it.

Can't abide homosexuality, you will have a hard time here. Two of the lead characters have a lesbian relationship. They make for a great couple of characters, and a great team, and their sexuality is not portrayed very gratuitously, but as a true loving friendship.

More on some the above points, below.

The series works on many levels.

One, it is the kind of historical fiction (well, alt-history if you like) that really gives you an understanding of what life was like on the ground for people in ancient eras. I have always enjoyed this kind of work, because as a fan of history, what sometimes is missing is an idea of what the day to day existence meant. These realities of life shaped that history, so understanding them is vital in my opinion.

Two, and pursuant to One, it is an important lesson in basic civics and how far civilization and humanity has come since recorded history began. We too often are lectured about how horrible the modern world is in general, and to native peoples in particular, without knowing just how had things really were before the modern world dawned. Perspective is always a valuable asset.

Three, the characters are well-written and believable, even if some of them are grotesque. One or two some may say are caricatures, but an honest appraisal of people walking around today would dispute that contention. Some are just plain evil, and their actions show it, no holds barred, and there have been some criticisms here that Stirling was too focused on rape and torture. True, he does not hold back depicting some scenes of cruelty, but I don't accept that as prurient or gratuitous on Stirling's part.

First, he does not go into graphic and prolonged detail in these scenes. Yes, he makes very clear what is going on, or more likely, what is going to go on, before he turns away, but he does not dwell.

Second, these scenes do NOT fill the book or series, far from it. They are a minor part, although still striking.

Third, what he is trying to portray is the grim reality of people with no human compassion or moral compass. Two of the main villains are literally psychopaths and to have tip-toed around what that means would have been unrealistic. Ditto for some of the more barbaric cultures on the planet at the time. One of the most disturbing scenes probably involves an ancient South American culture, and I don't think any of it is not historically accurate, as gruesome as it written. He depicts the characters doing these things as enjoying it, but that's because as violent, amoral people, they WOULD enjoy it. It's a sign of how well Stirling handles this that there is grim desire on the part of the reader to see these people meet justice, and satisfaction when some of these people meet their end.

One of the basic premises of the book is that we have come a long way, baby, in respecting human life and individual rights, and what can be jarring for many is coming to grips with cultures and people for whom those concepts are jokes at best. It is unnerving, but we are meant to learn from it.

If there is any criticism of the book/series I have, there are two, which really tend to apply to the last two in the trilogy. As I mentioned, I think the first in the series is the best, and I still recommend the whole series, but with these caveats:

Stirling is apparently REALLY fond of sailing. On multiples occasions he goes into minute detail about the activities aboard various sailing ships and quite frankly it is extraneous and soon gets tedious. This gets really noticeable in books 2 and 3, but it may be that book 1 was as bad, and I did not notice the first time around. If anything was too graphic in these books, it was these descriptions of sails, ropes and sea jargon. It reminds of the ONLY complaint I have about George RR Martins Song of Ice and Fire series, which is he can go into pages long descriptions of food at a feast or clothing at a festival. Ugh.

Stirling uses an annoying chapter format for detailing the dates of various scenes. What he does is list at the top of the each chapter the various dates of the following scenes, and then the scenes in question. This gets particularly disorientating in the later books as the characters multiply, as do the locations and various plotlines. The fact that some of these scenes might appear months, maybe even a year, apart, make things very hard to follow. It would have been MUCH better for Stirling to have named all the chapters something encapsulating (although I would have been fine with numbers) and listed the date of each scene right before it.

Oh, and some MAPS of what was going on would have been a nice touch.

Again, overall, the series is recommended, but be forewarned that books 2 and 3 will sometimes feel like a bit of a slog to get through. I think some fat could have been trimmed from these to make them faster-paced like their predecessor. All in all, though, this series is an impressive piece of fiction with a whole LOT of historic research thrown into the mix.

****SPOILER FREE REVIEW****

I loved ERIC FLINT'S 1632 Series (Well, the first 2 books before the entire series turned into garbage) and saw this book which was in a similar vein.

Bought it and glad I did. Though the first two chapters didn't grab me, i'm glad I stuck through and read that third chapter. From there, I blazed through the rest of the book over the next two days.

Love the characters, world building, set up, and writing. Great story and definitely worth getting. I just hope it doesn't degrade like Eric Flint's series.

I'm ording the second book of the series now and can't wait to jump into that as well.

Overall, the research and plot are well thought out and plausible.

When an author pens a long series, the first volume is critical. Say, for example, the first volume was a very early work, a bit rough around the old edges. The author might become as good as Shakespeare in all other editions, but if the first one loses the reader - it's a bad thing. Alternately, the first instalment may be weak because the author is weak and subsequent volumes are equally mediocre. With Mr. Stirling's epic, I shall - sadly - never know if the writing improved. The IinSoT is not bad, it's just that the plot is incredibly predictable and the characters are distinctly one-dimensional. Some force ripes a modern island into the distant past. No effort is made to help us understand the curious force, it just went BAM like Emeril and everybody moves right along. The parallels to Camus' The Plague are obvious, but we get no tangible angst, not credibly distraught humanity, just, "okay, let's move on." There are strong brave leaders who work very hard, there are tough captain's who rescue same-sexed damsels-in-distress and bed them, there are sneaky villians who should not be villinous and sneaky villians who are - of course - villinous. The populus left behind quickly adapts and innovates, the discussion of trade arises, the defense of the island-state is basically ignored, and - generally - I zoned-out after 150 pages. Boring! Why it get so many glowing reviews is rather unsettling, I fear, saying something unflattering about the ability of many readers to discriminate prime cut from bulk quality product. Just sayin'

If you are interested in an entertaining, somewhat mindless "beach read, this book is perfect. I took it along on a vacation that required several long airplane rides and found it to be the right choice (I have trouble reading in a crowd or on a plane if the book requires too much concentration).

The year is 1998 and the island of Nantucket is inexplicably transported back in time to the 1250 BC (Stone Age America and Bronze Age Europe) and fortunately a US Coast Guard clipper ship (used to train sailors in old fashioned sailing) is fortuitously transported back as well so the main characters can sail off to Europe and other destinations as well.

The blurb at the end of the book states that the author is an "amateur historian" and it certainly shows. The main characters travel to and encounter a couple of different, interesting cultures including an evil jaguar cult associated with the Olmec people of ancient Mexico (why did they sail all the way to Mexico instead of interacting more with the indigenous people right across the water from them? Who knows?)

Anyway - I thought it was a bit odd that the characters were sailing off to Europe to help fight wars in Bronze Age Britain; but this is basically a fantastic adventure story meant to entertain. I may or may not read the follow up books in this series - maybe next year when we go on vacation again with long travel days - but I would recommend this novel to people interested in a fun adventure story.

Having become addicted to the alt-history, time travel, and "the whole world has suddenly changed" genres, I found this book particularly satisfying. I've read several of Stirling's other books, and I knew he definitely had a knack for this stuff, but this is one of his best.

There's wealth of fascinating detail, a whale of an adventure story, and effective presentation of battle scenes. Best of all, there is a degree of character development that goes well beyond the norm for this kind of story. (OK, so the good guys are WAY too perfect and the villains are all unalterably evil, but that's always a given.)

Some reviewers have problems with the lesbian relationship in the storyline. Frankly, it didn't bother me a bit... it got a little racy, but not over-the-top. (And Sterling's sex scenes are MUCH better than Turtledove's!)

Complaints? Really only one. I think the speed with so many characters, both modern and ancient, become fluent or conversant in each other's languages is totally improbable... but it certainly makes some plot elements move better.

This is a great read for anyone interested in the time travel and alt history genres.

I am a sucker for world building stories. Science Fiction is chalk full of them. While Stirling is readable, its not very good. For example, the characters do silly things. The conflicts are dumbed down. The riotousness of the main group is par none.

The gist of the story is Nantucket travels back in time around 3000 years. At first they need to figure out how to survive together. Splinter groups break off. One to Mexico where tree huggers want to give a leg up to native americans this time around. The other off to England where one of the more militaristic members decides to be the king of this time.

Stirling manages to throw a few good B grade sex scenes in. Also you will find military battles that are kind of dumb. You'll even find some new religions such as the Jaguar gods of Mexico or the moon gods of the Stonehenge British.

I'd skip this book. You can do better.

Imagine a group of 20th century people suddenly transported to the bronze age, c.1250 B.C. That is the premise behind this book. The "moderns" are the inhabitants of the island of Nantucket, some 7000 of them and they are now forced to deal with the diffcultly of adapting to totally alien life style, not to mention avoiding starvation... Some of the other reviewers of this book have mentioned Stirling's liberal viewpoint, and I admit having as a main character a gay black woman was a bit of a jolt, and the concept of the island just "happening to have" people with nessary skills seems a bit far-fetched, but these are no more than ripples in a sea of smooth flowing narrative. I would have personally prefered to have seen more about the "Nantucketers" struggle to adapt to their new world rather than jumping into the actions of renagde William Walker, but I am aware that that would have slowed the book more...Now that all three books in the series are available I can say this is one of the masterpieces of the alternative history genre, from first to last....

So much has been said by other reviewers, I hesitate to add my thoughts, but, here goes anyway! Mr Stirling has done an outstanding peice of work with this novel. I was hesitant to read it when it first arrived on the stands, but when I finally got around to it, I was blown away. Some reviewers have said that Striling should have left out the Gay characterizations, the sex, the violence, and the minute details that Stirling uses to spin this tale. I disagree with the whole heartedly. Indeed, Stirling should be applauded for having the courage to write about things that some may find upsetting or distasteful. I never got the sense that these parts of the story were gratuitous, so I wasn't offended.
Full marks Mr. Stirling! Well done!

I am almost finished this book, and the thing that strikes me is that the villains, William Walker and Isketerol, are far more interesting to read about than the heroes. I really became bored with the islanders at times, and found the lesbian super samurai women very tiresome and clichéd. Walker and Isketerol are true adventurers, though. Opportunistic, ruthless and lots of fun to read about!
I found it interesting that Stirling seeks to hide his basic Politically Correct agenda by writing a few overtly stupid and laughable PC or liberal characters like Pamela Lisketter (I did love her comeuppance.) and the Woodstock burnout blacksmith. By doing this, he pretends to be 'anti-PC', but then bombards us with one of the most left-leaning sets of heroes I have ever seen in a Science Fiction novel.
Stirling should sink the 'Eagle' with all hands on board and concentrate on the adventures of William Walker. By the way, the name William Walker comes from a man in the 1850's who tried to conquer Nicaragua with an army of filibusters.

Someone else said that this is, "An excellent book for people who don't like to nitpick." That is probably a perfect summary, but unfortunately, I'm the sort of reader who likes to pick nits.
The premise of Island is fantastic. Its back cover grabbed me right away. Who wouldn't want to go back in time with the Nantucketers and rewrite history? And so, the book starts off wonderfully: This guy is over here doing this, and this lady is over there doing that, and here comes a storm... BAM- Everyone is in 1250 B.C.! So, what do we do now?
Well, the characters react very believably to the crisis, and Stirling is very thorough in covering almost any type of concern that could have possibly come up. But then, it begins to feel like the Islanders were a bit *too* lucky. Turns out they have almost everything they could have wished for, including a professor of ancient cultures, and an expert sword-smith, both of whom just happened to be visiting the island. Then there's the Coast Guard sailing ship (rare), captained by a black, lesbian, master swordswoman... Followed by many more little things that make you wonder, "Now what are the odds of that?"
And this feeling grows worse... for me, it eventually became a case of, "Oh- Gimme a Break!" In fact, I think that their biggest dilemma with being thrown back 3250 years into the past- was that they ran out of coffee. Everything seems to work out overly perfect, and it gives you many little things to nitpick.
Even so, I found the book to be somewhat digestible until about it's midpoint. It was then that the islanders' main concern was no longer just survival. Now they have to react to a betrayal by some of their own. I found it kind of boring from this point on. The Islanders decide what they are going to do, and the next three hundred pages or so, play out exactly as they had planned, in a very predictable and insipid manner. Trudge. Trudge.
This book does have some terrific aspects and it can really get you thinking. But I found the characterizations to be flat, and the story was slow, predictable, and rather unrealistic at times. It wasn't horrible, but although I'd love to find out what happens next- I'm not compelled to trudge any further through this series.

JeezLoueeze, give the homophobia a rest, okay? The sex (of whatever kind) is mostly implied, and there's nothing graphic.

Anyway, if you like history, and always wondered what it would really be like to jump backwards in time, taking little along but your modern sensibilities, then this is the book for you. Stirling pretty much thinks of ALL the details: from the big (what to do about food) to the small (the town librarian prints all the CD-ROMs to hard copy before the power plant runs out of fuel). Amazingly, he really made me feel what it might be like, with all five senses, to actually be in another time period. That's pretty rare. The amount of research he must have had to do is pretty amazing.

The characters are REALLY believable. Nobody's superhuman, they all have strengths and weaknesses, and they all bring something to the plot. I'd happily invite quite a few of the characters over to dinner. The people from ancient times are all normal people - some bad, some good, VERY different viewpoints and perspectives, but they're still believable people. They're just from ancient times. Stirling is never patronizing about the "ancient" characters.

So if you like fiction that also engages your intellect, you're really going to enjoy this. And yes, I've just started the next book in the series.

I had just finished reading V. Gordon Child's book The Aryans. Imagine my surprise to find such a well thought out novelization of this pre-history.
I very much admire the author's scholarship and his plausible extrapolations. It is perhaps the finest example of a rip-roaring sci fi alternate history adventure ever written.
But...
The verisimilitude of the prehistory is compromised by all the martial art hokum. The author would have us believe that a mid-sized and mid-aged woman beats the tar out of a young and athletic 185 pound male adversary who has also had martial art training. This man (the chief villain)later beats to death a huge bronze age warrior bare handed in a fair fight without having so much as a hair being misplaced.
The author in a one of his many tributes to Political Correctness shows that the Bronze Age Englanders have advanced and modern views on sexual relations, the role of women in society, and mathematics and astronomy. He in effect, cautions us not to patronize the social and mental status of these early people.
However, he would have us believe that these warrior societies who have mental abilities we can now scarcely appreciate are helpless before the power of karate. How much more wonderful it would have been if the author assumed that these ancient warriors were able to handle themselves physically. Instead of the plot device of having history forget the imagined astronomical sophistication of Bronze Age, why not rather have written that history forgot some super effective hand to hand combat skill of the Indo-Europeans?
Herodotus tells us that the Greek hoplites were no match for Persians man-to-man. Caesar makes much the same point about Romans versus Gauls. Modern societies beat less modern societies because they fight in groups. Man to man combat historically has favored the less advanced peoples.
I expect that any large, strong, healthy male Bronze Age warrior would do just fine in hand to hand combat with any 20th Century martial artist.
The author is overly credulous of Oriental martial arts. Oriental fighting skills are not particularly modern. They are basically mideval and as such are infused with mysticicism and nonsense. Western boxers routinely whip those who practice Kung Fu and Karate. Similarly the two handed slicing Samurai swordsmanship is hardly as effective as the more modern one handed Western swordsmanship with its greater reach and speed. Remember, the semi-legendary Musashi only fought 80 opponents, Cyrano fought 100. Finally compare the spiritual Japanese archery with the more modern and practical Western archery. I remind you that Samurai archers pinched the arrow they did not pull the bowstring. Hence no power and little accuracy. There are fewer outlandish claims made about Japanese archery because unlike fists and swords, archery effectiveness is so easy to verify.
Consider how in Western boxing which emphasizes empirical results (actual bouts), no one questions that a heavyweight will whip a welterweight, nor that a man will beat a woman. Only in Oriental myths and movie making can a relatively small weak woman beat a large strong man in a fair fight. Mr. Sterling adds another category to that list: myths, movies, his otherwise plausible novels.

The author's grasp of history, politics, geography, martial arts, and technology generally is outstanding. As I said above, WOW!
I'm adding to previous commentary (most of which is very accurate, including the criticism) because I think _Island in the Sea of Time_ will stand the test of time and be a classic sci-fi work. I'm voting it a Hugo.
For those of us who can't wait for the author to write more -- Stirling wrote a short story in the same universe in _Armageddon_ (ed. David Drake). "Riding Shotgun to Armageddon." Only 20-odd pages more, but a treat!
More, please. More! But I'll wait patiently if the quality remains this high.

One thing I love in fantasy or science fiction which is rarely done is "something amazing happens, no reason is really given - and from there the plot takes off." It worked in Replay by Ken Grimwood, Jumper by Steven Gould, Inferno by Larry Niven and to some extent Rama by Arthur C. Clark. All these Novels take an idea that everyone would like to read about, something with a whole lot of "what if" involved, and immediately begin working on the plot without spending a bunch of time EXPLAINING why the "amazing" event happened - it just does. S.M. Stirling manages to capture this feeling very well in his book "Island in the Sea of Time". In this novel we're presented with a very simple question: what would happen if you took a 20th century community, with all their gadgets and cultural skills, and placed it in the middle of 1300 BC?".
Good points:
1) the historical research involved seemed utterly believable. I'm not a historian, and most folks aren't either, so I think most readers will feel the way I do.
2) All the characters are different. Its as if there was a different writer for each character.
3) There was an incredible "Okay folks, we're trapped in 1300 BC. We have work to do if we're going to survive!" feeling. Organizing a group of 5000 shocked-out-of-their minds Americans to live through the first year was probably the best part of the book.
Bad points:
1) As other reviewers have mentioned, Stirling has a fixation on rape, human waste and bloodshed. To be fair, Vikings raped, people dying do "void" occasionally during their last moments, and violence and humanity have always gone hand in hand. I wish the story had stuck with "brave new world - lets explore it!", and not with "Military, kill, rape, crucify, torture!"
2) Stirling likes to jump around between some of his characters a tad too much for my liking. Plenty of readers don't mind that, and more power to them, but its not my cup of tea.

Overall I'd say this book is fun, interesting and very readable. But a little....off.

Although the "forward into the past" concept isn't new, Stirling has managed to make it seem that way. The problems are realistic, the characters interesting (a couple a bit *too* interesting...) and the plot development enjoyable and full of interesting surprises. There's a lot going on, but he never loses the narrative thread despite scene-jumps. Buy it! P.S. This would make a great movie. Anyone from Hollywood listening? Harrison Ford as Jared Cofflin! Angela Bassett as Marian Alston....

Slow-moving. While there is definitely merit in pointing out the massive number of things we take for granted, there is an entire extra level of detail that detracts from the flow of the story.
Thought-provoking. I found myself often noticing things that I take for granted and imagining what I would have done if I were on of the Nantucketers.
Extraordinarily predictable. You knew from the outset that the two prime characters would have a one on one showdown.
Educational. I am assuming that the historical references of the period are reasonably well-researched.
One of my pet peeves is when people behave inconsistently with the character as it is painted. The main military commanders are alternately brilliant and extraordinarily stupid. The final showdown is contrived and not believable.
Moderately entertaining. Perhaps this is the fault of the scenario rather than the writing.

A strange storm catapults the island of Nantucket back in time to 1250 B.C. where they struggle to survive. Very well written. Also, the author has done meticulous research on how they could survive and primitive ways to jury-rig technology to make things work. Enormous detail and thought went into the book.

A MOST excellent series! The price for the kindle edition, like so many of them, is extortionate. I see absolutely no reason why a digital edition should cost in many cases more than a paper edition. Especially for a book that is nearly 20 years old. I was planning on buying the series in kindle but now I'll be waiting until I can find them in a used book store.