A Novel of the Change (Island Book 3) - On the Oceans of Eternity

This book is a pageturner. There's plot in abundance, and plenty of action.

Unfortunately, this book suffers from being overly simplistic and idealistic. Most of it is war and fighting, with the Nantucket islanders either being superhumanly competent "good people" vs. evil sociopaths, sadists and neo-nazis. The supreme military commander always ends up on the front lines or the behind the scenes elite missions. The guy out for a trek through America can organize raiding parties with the natives in a couple of days and appear silently behind scouts to snap their necks with his bare hands. The leadership is brilliant, and none of the main characters suffers any serious loss or makes critical errors of judgment.

The first book in this series started out with an interesting premise, but at this point it's about as realistic and surprising as a Tom Clancy novel.

Stirling seldom disappoints, and he hasn't done so this time. "On the Oceans of Eternity" is a fine book, every bit as enjoyable as its two predecessors -- though, frankly, there's enough going on that it could have been two slightly longer books. I'm not as sure as the other reviewers here that the series is over: Stirling has certainly been careful to give himself an opportunity for sequels if he wants them. Read it and you'll see what I mean.

Well, if you have read some Stirlings, there are very few surprises here. The heroes always win on the whole, and I certainly agree with other reviewers who thought that the protagonists are a bit shallow and haven't been getting much better from the previous books onward. Some more shadows on their immaculate souls could have helped make them more believable.
I also found it hard to care about some subplots, but as I said, it's a potboiler. Good enough to read if you like the general stuff.

Was hoping for a better ending to the trilogy than what happened. Didn't we keep reading because we wanted Walker and (at least for me) Hong to get theirs? It was way too much.. " and then the battle was over" As another reviewer mentioned, when I got down to 75 pages I realized that Stirling was going to cheat and rush the climax. Although it is blatently obvious that another book (or even trilogy) is potentially in the works, don't think I'll bother. (Could Marian really survive another war?)

The long story of the temporally exiled island of Nantucket finally ends with the villains dispatched or humbled and the forces of Political Correctness free to rewrite history forward of the bronze age.
Well, that's not quite fair. The author leaves quite a few potential enemies standing for another series of books. As I figure it, more than half the population of the world that survived the diseases spread by the Nantucket Diaspora will soon be armed with Civil War era weaponry, global mobility, and a grudge against Nantucket. Interesting times!
I wonder how the plucky citizens of Nantucket will deal with a Dragon fleet? Will their extremely rapid population explosion allow their republic to survive a change of administration? Or does (new president = civil war) every 4 years?
There is plenty of room for more adventures in this universe and a huge cast of characters. "On the Oceans of Eternity", however, shows a disturbing trend in this series toward too much research and too little storytelling.
You could cut every single song and poem out of the first half of the book and do nothing but improve it, IMO. The fascinating ideas Mr. Stirling played with in "Island in the Sea of Time" when he exposed Isketerol and Swindapa to 3000 years of human thinking are now totally ignored. Instead we are asked to believe 12000 Americans could build a global empire and field an army of thousands from nothing in 10 years.
This is all fantasy, of course, but I really cared about the story of the Nantucketer's struggle to survive the first few years and found their global empire in this book totally unbelievable. The battles went to the good guys a little too easily and were a little too recognizable from history or Stirling's previous work. The characterization of the bad guys really suffers in this book too. Only Isketerol, Ohotolarix, and MacAndrews have any depth.
I was particularly amused by the ease with which a UC History professor and an Astronomer were able to outmatch an ex-Stasi agent on his home turf. I pity their TA's!
To sum up, this book finishes the series. Barely. Certainly it does not maintain the level of ideas in the first book, nor it's storytelling.

I really enjoyed the first two books, but found the third a bit disappointing. Part of that is because much of the action seemed like slightly-changed versions of action in the earlier books -- and part of it is that the plot "twists" seemed more telegraphed and clumsy. In the earlier books the plot seemed to flow more naturally out of the situation, the characters, and events. This time there were several occasions where the hand of the author moving chess pieces around became overly obvious, and it interrupted my ability to get lost in the story. Still enjoyed it though.

The title of this review is a slightly modified quote from page 195 of my hardcover edition of this work. Mispocha is Yiddish for a family network, tribe, mafia, or clan, and in this case refers to the people of Nantucket. Miscegenation refers to relations of people of different races (the novel is worldwide), and syncretism refers to a melding of different or opposing practices (philosophy, cultures, or in this case, methods of war). This sentence made me look up more words than most other books, so I spotlighted it here. It gives a better picture of the editing than anything I could think to write.

I did not like this finishing volume for these reasons: Martin becomes very minor character (about 10 pages, everyone 'forgets' him). Chariots are overestimated and too effective given (lack of) roads. Good people are Rambo-ridiculous supra-soldiers, and bad people are nazi sexual sadists (with too much detail). Pincher attack planning fallacy. Zulu, the movie. Bad editing to the point of choppiness, and an especially inconclusive end, not worth the payoff of reading a trilogy of 1800 pages.

I enjoyed about 120 pages worth of various scenes, but the book disappointed. That aside, if you are an obsessive fan of alternate history time-travel combat, you will still like the book. Personally, I did not.

Possible SPOILER here: I was NOT satisfied by having Walker and Tong killed by poison- especially since there was no one in the narrative who took responsibility for it or who detailed how it was done; this looks to me like they may well REVIVE!!! for future novels, which would be a stupid, cheap trick, in my opinion... though possibly irresistible from the author's POV.

Apart from that, the resolution was pretty decent, assuming it's FINAL.

I did enjoy this trilogy. The characters and culture clashes were well-drawn. I liked the karmic aspect of the Bad Guys having a slave-based economy... and that backfiring; one can enforce a certain level of compliance; one cannot force enthusiasm. At one point someone said (paraphrased): "To a slave, his tools are his enemies. To an artisan, his tools are his allies." Better to hire artisans rather than coercing slaves, if you want any kind of intelligent work done.

As someone who is interested in military history and wargaming, I find the continuous fighting added a lot of excitement to the book. Especially since we have two roughly "balanced" groups fighting it out. I actually like the frequent manuevers on both side, as it resembles some war history with the red and blue arrows representing armies clashing across the map. However, I like many other reviewers do find the ending too neat. Sure, it rings true with the "victory through enlightenment" philosophy of the Islanders, but it is not truely exciting. After developing so many polar characters, I am surprised there is we don't have the various "legends" fight it out, while Leaton and Cuddy pumps out increasingly innovative war machines on both sides. However, there is a teaser at the end, and the story has not yet exhausted possiblities in Central/South Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe, so the hope is there will be more this than the trilogy.

I thought the first two books in this series were much more livelier and interesting. But then I did make the mistake of reading all three in as many weeks which, in hindsight, is probably not the best way to appreciate a work such as this. At times it seemed like an endless updating of previous plot lines interjected with new lines and the continual jumping back and forth grew more than a bit tedious. Overall I enjoyed the series but this seemed the weakest of the bunch and I found myself skimming through several parts.

Being a military historian I enjoyed the book, and the series. It shows well the Bronze Age. There were no "nice people" at that time. Civilizations were chewing each other up for land and resources. It is for that reason I did NOT find the ending rushed or contrived. Poisoning one's enemies was common during that time. I would have liked to have seen the "villains" to be defeated honorably (especially Hong), but sometimes reality doesn't end that way (ex Hitler, Mao, Ho). Nor did I mind women as infantry. When you have a small population, you use everybody available. Not PC, just simple survival in a harsh world. Looking for the next installment.

Alternate history tends to be idle speculations in a hackneyed series of the same 'might have beens' - the Persians beat the Greeks, Rome goes on forever, Napoleon wins at Waterloo, Hitler or Tojo win WWII in some absurd way. It takes a great writer to both do the research and bring it to life. Steve Stirling is that writer. The only complaint you can make at the end of the book is : WE WANT MORE. More on every story line, every character, every lose thread. It is a seldom a writer can make you think while writing characters whose fate you actually care about. A great ending to a great series.

I enjoyed Islands in the sea of Time, and Against the Tide of years better, but this was a good one, too. Stirling set up a continuation of the story, but it could end with this one, too. I hope he writes more in the series as it is one that I look forward to future installments of. I'm particularly curious about what happens to Vicki Cofflin and Company.

Stirling continues to surprise with intelligent twists to avoid any obvious resolutions. Fans of the first two books will be sorry to finish this one which has just enough plot threads that Stirling could easily do a 4th set either immedicately or a decade later. Unlike some series that seem to become overstretched in the middle like the "Left Behind" series now aiming at an absurd 14 volumes, Stirling keeps it taut, fast-moving, smart, and emotionally gripping. His resolutions in the book make it a fine finish as well.

The first two books of this trilogy were actually quite good. I was impressed with much of the detail for books 1 and 2. However, Book 3 was very choppy and inconsistent. It's unfortunate that instead of creating a credible battle at O'Rourke's Ford, Stirling had to copy the movie "Zulu". One thing I never understood about that is at the beginning of the battle, the Nantucket commanders were worried about the dead ground and how enemy mortars would play hell on their position, but there was no more mention after that. It seems inconceivable that as intelligent as Walker was (I liked the fact that there was a smart villain), he would not have supported a force of that size with some rudimentary artillery to reinforce the attack. Bear in mind that in the Bronze Age, a few thousand troops was actually a considerable force. The historic Battle of Kadesh, which Stirling mentions several times, is remembered primarily because it was a huge battle (about 20-25,000 men on each side, with lots of chariots). Relatively, this battle between the Hittites and the Egyptians would have been the equivalent to a modern day NATO-Warsaw Pact war.

Secondly, I was a bit perplexed concerning the Nantucket-Tartessos war. It seemed to me that Stirling ran into a problem of how the Alston "pincer plan" would work if Tartessos was not neutralized, and so created the surprise attack on Nantucket. But even this is somewhat farfetched. Isketerol is supposed to be some sort of genius, but launching a half-hearted attack (a few thousand second-class troops at that) on what would have been the technological superpower of the world at that time seems more ridiculous than brilliant, especially given the fact that it gave Nantucket the opportunity to put their pincer plan to work. No moral considerations are needed if you're attacked first.

I was also waiting for Isketerol to unveil some sort of strategy for fighting Nantucket after the war started and hinted several times about measures undertaken to ensure success. However, all that is shown is another half-hearted attack on Alston's naval force (of course the Farragut comes in the nick of time despite ridiculous damage caused by a storm). The gist of the Tartessian plan seemed to be to sit on the defensive and let the Nantucket military hammer away at them (a la Iraq). My point is that if Isketerol was as smart as Stirling attempted to portray him in the book (Alston thinks he's probably a genius), he would have either never went to war with Nantucket (thus forcing Nantucket to declare war for very dubious reasons) or would have thrown everything he had at Nantucket to start (which given how the invasion turned out in the book, probably would have been enough to conquer the island). All and all, the Tartessians, rather than being an interesting opponent, end up being a bunch of clowns who get smacked around at will (in Africa, Spain and yes even California). I'm not even going to comment on the California episode, other than it's highly unlikely that several Nantucketers with some Native Americans are going to annhilate a major Tartessian foothold in California.

Finally, I had a problem regarding combat involving chariots. It is true that chariots were huge in Bronze Age warfare, particularly in the Near East (they were essentially the elite troops of any army). However I question their usefulness in book 3. In Book 1, the Zarthani chariots are handled quite easily by the Nantucket troops. However, Mitanni chariots are just roaming the landscape at will in book 3 and causing all sorts of good ole fashioned havoc. This is patently absurd. The main reason why chariots were as effective as they were during the Bronze Age is because the weaponry was fairly crude. In an age were gunpowder was introduced, it would have been suicide to keep chariots as mainline combat units.

In fact, chariots lost their usefulness by the end of the Bronze Age. Alexander handled Darius' chariots quite easily at Gaugamela (which would have been roughly 1500 years later and 1200 years before the historical use of gunpowder) and he had just heavy pikemen and cavalry. Bottom line, Raupasha's Mitanni chariots would have been whittled down to nothing fairly quickly, I don't care how much small scale raiding they did.

Overall, I felt a bit let down. Given the first two books, I think Stirling could have written a better book, or even extended the trilogy to a fourth and/or fifth book.

I eagerly waited three months to receive the book from the pre-publication purchase date until arrival. Well worth the wait. Once again I was transported to a world that in my mind's eye I could see, smell, taste and feel. My adrenelin rushed during some scenes and I was surprised to realize how my heart was pounding and my muscles trembled when I discovered I was really in my bed reading. The visuals are real and it is as if the characters live. This book is one to keep and reread. Mr. Stirling, please accept my humble thanks for writing as you do and for allowing me to enter such a world.

The first of his books I've read. Fascinating because he has thought through the daily-life complications of a time-transplanted community living in ancient times--both in terms of technology and culture-clash. I will read everything he has written. Plenty of action buut way beyond old-fashioned space opera.

After reading other reviews, it became apparent that we all read the same book. I skipped some of the slower parts looking for the same action of the first two books. If this book were about a 100 pages shorter it could improve the overall book. BUT....
I do like the charactors, the story line, the battle scenes and the great historical research. I'm a history teacher and this sometimes reads like a history book, but thats not always a bad thing. I hope some of more negitive reviews won't discourage a 4th book, just give some room for improvements. There are more good things about this series than bad.

While not as fine as the two preceding novels, Oceans is the end of one of the greatest alternative history series ever written. It is long, consists of a cast of thousands, the lesser ones easily lost in the mix, and can get a little tedious. But, if you're hooked on the series and the author, (I readily admit to both), it's necessary reading.

GREAT BOOK FINISHED OFF THE SERIES NICELY (I FEEL THERE COULD BE MORE)I THINK THE AUTHOR OWES A GREAT DEAL TO THE FILM "ZULU" AS THE BATTLE OF O'ROUKES FORD IS STRANGLEY REMINSCENT OF THAT FILM ABOUT THE DEFENCE OF RORKES DRIFT IN 1879. STILL A HIGHLY ENJOYABLE BOOK AND ONE THAT I WILL READ AGAIN.

Steve Stirling has done it again. On the Ocean of Eternity is every bit as good as it's two predecessors.The editing of this volume is much better then that of Against the Tide of Years. William Walker finally gets what he deserves. There are enough battles to satisfy the military SF fan and enough detail to satisfy the history lovers. The ending is just a little rushed, but other than that a great book.

This book is about very serious matter and judging by the cover it says it all.
A good read for tough guys who may feel better reading something like this
than other war hero stuff and other heavy actions ect.

As this is part of one of my favourite trilogies, and I've already downloaded the other two to my Kindle, why can't I get this to complete my collection on Kindle? This has happeened to me with other books I want and I am very, very disappointed about it.

The eBook listings should warn rhe user that not all the books in the series are available! THAT'S THE TYPE OF HELP THE READER CAN REALLY USE.

I was really expecting an ending to this trilogy that befit the action of the first two volumes. I was upset at the way this book ended...I mean, the resolution was kind of weak...and did anyone else catch the Draka-like qualities in this book that Stirling has presented in his other novels?

This book is about very serious matter and judging by the cover it says it all.
A good read for tough guys who may feel better reading something like this
than other war hero stuff and other heavy actions ect.

As this is part of one of my favourite trilogies, and I've already downloaded the other two to my Kindle, why can't I get this to complete my collection on Kindle? This has happeened to me with other books I want and I am very, very disappointed about it.

The eBook listings should warn rhe user that not all the books in the series are available! THAT'S THE TYPE OF HELP THE READER CAN REALLY USE.

I was really expecting an ending to this trilogy that befit the action of the first two volumes. I was upset at the way this book ended...I mean, the resolution was kind of weak...and did anyone else catch the Draka-like qualities in this book that Stirling has presented in his other novels?

This series starts out with a bang, with a terrific idea. Although there are interesting scenes, and I have no doubt that the author knows what he's talking about when it comes to every military tactic and the design of every sword, ultimately, it is a complete let down. I was so disappointed by the last book, that I wanted to send it back to the publisher for a refund. Maybe the author will write a proper ending.

I'm just finishing the 3rd book, OtOoE. At times, they all were a bit hard to keep up with, but I spent many nights reading chapter after chapter, just to see what happens next. I'm hoping for a continuation in the series.

I'm very disappointed by the fact that Mr. Stirling plagiarized scenes from the movie Zulu for portions of this book. I was loving the series and reading it as fast as I could when I came across scenes virtually copies from the movie. I've enjoyed everything Mr. Stirling has written so far, but this was just very, very disappointing to me.

This series starts out with an interesting premise, but this third entry in the series really doesn't offer anything new. It's a competently enough written novel, but it just rehashes the same ground covered in the first to stories in the series.
If you are a die hard fan of the Republic of Nantucket, then it's a must buy. Otherwise, it's OK but no Hugo winner.